As you get started using templates, you might be wondering how to work with them in Iterable. In this guide, you'll learn how to create new templates, edit and delete them, make copies of them, and more. These high-level functions are universal to all template message mediums, so you can apply the information here to all of your templates.
In this article
Required permissions
To work with templates, you'll need the Create and Manage Templates permission. This permission lets you:
- Create a new template
- Edit an existing template
- Make a copy of a template
- Preview a template with data
- Delete a template
- Restore a previous version of a template
Creating a new template
To create a new template, follow these steps:
Navigate to Content > Templates.
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Click New template and select a template type from the drop-down menu.
Give your template a name using a structure that will make it easy to find when adding to a campaign/journey. The character limit is 150.
Click Create template.
For more information on how to create templates for specific template types, see the following support guides:
- Creating Email Templates
- Creating In-App Templates
- Creating Push Templates
- Creating SMS Templates
- Creating Web Push Templates
Creating templates via API
You can also create templates with Iterable's API. To learn more, read our API Overview.
Selecting a template
When you are creating a new campaign, whether as part of a journey or not, you'll select a template from the template picker.
To base your new campaign on one of your project's reusable templates, select the Templates tab and pick the template you'd like to use.
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To base your new campaign on a previous campaign, select the Campaign Content or Journey Content tab and choose the campaign you'd like to use.
TIP
To search for a campaign, enter its name or an ID in the search input.
Related articles
For more information on campaigns in general, and for more detail about how templates work in campaigns, check out these resources:
Creating a campaign template from scratch
As you set up a campaign or journey campaign and pick a template, you'll see the option to Start from scratch.
This option allows you to make a new template specifically for the campaign, with its own unique ID, which you can then reuse for other campaigns whenever you need to.
When you open a campaign (whether it's associated with a journey or not), the Edit Template screen appears. On this screen, you're editing the customized template associated specifically with that campaign—not the original template. Editing a template won't affect any of the campaigns you’ve sent that are based on it.
Some key things to note about creating a new template scratch:
- Templates you create from scratch while setting up a campaign won't appear on the Templates page (Content > Templates).
- A template created on the Campaigns page will not appear in the Journey content tab until you add it to a journey campaign.
- A template created from scratch can be used in other campaigns or journey campaigns.
IMPORTANT
- Iterable's various template APIs allow you to read and update all templates. These APIs are not restricted to original templates. They can also be used to read and update templates associated with blast campaigns, triggered campaigns, and journey campaigns (changing their content for future sends). For descriptions of these APIs, read our API Overview.
The Template API docs describe the endpoints and provide example requests.
Editing a template
On the Content > Templates page, you can edit any template by clicking on it. This will allow you to update the template's name, message type, content, and more. And don't worry, editing a template won't affect any campaigns that already use it (whether you've sent them yet, or not).
Previewing a template and sending test messages
After creating your message, it's important to test it out and make sure everything looks right.
Sending test messages and proofs
It's a good idea to send test messages to various recipients, with different user profiles, to make sure the message renders correctly for everyone.
To send a test message, click Send proof or Send test message in the template header.
Then, select one of the options, which are outlined in more detail in the Sending Test Messages article.
Important
If you are sending a test message from preview mode and you've loaded user data,
the test message will contain any relevant user data you're referencing with
Handlebars. For example, if you reference firstName in your template, and load
a user profile that contains the firstName field, your test message will
contain that user's first name.
Previewing a template
There are four ways to preview a template before sending it to your customers:
To preview your template while you are building it, click Preview in the header of the selected template.
To preview your template in a new tab of your browser (without downloading the template to your computer), click the overflow menu button and select Preview in new tab.
To see how your template will look on different devices, click the overflow menu and select Preview on device (email only).
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To see what your template will look like after it has been customized with user data, click the overflow menu and select Preview with data.
For more information about previewing templates, see the Previewing Templates with Data support guide.
Viewing a template's revision history
You can use revision history to keep track of changes made on a template, compare two of its versions, and restore it to the preferred version.
There are two ways to access a template's revision history:
On the template index page, click the overflow menu button and select View revisions.
On an individual template, scroll to the bottom of the page and click View revision history.
On the Template History page, you’ll see a list of every revision of your selected template (with the current version at the top).
To restore a previous version of your template, hover over the row of the version you’d like to revert to and click Restore.
Restoring a revision adjusts the template's content, but it does not change any settings (like the subject line or custom links).
Using locales in templates
If your project has locales enabled, you can edit a particular language version of a template and easily switch between the different language versions of the template you have created.
Saving the template after adjusting a locale will append a green "Exists" to the locale in the dropdown.
It should be noted that this is not a language translator. You’ll need to input the template content for each language. Also, remember to always save your work between editing versions.
Want to learn more?
For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out this Iterable Academy course. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!