Templates

#Template list

Where to find it: Emails › Templates. Address: app.postal.so/templates.

Header

Templates tab

Templates have no expiration date: they stay until you delete them. When the list is empty, the empty state explains the flow and offers Create template.

#Layouts and families

Two tabs help you avoid starting from scratch. They live on the Templates screen itself (the chosen tab goes in the page address).

Layouts tab

It has two views, Gallery and My layouts, and the Search layouts search.

Families tab

A family is a complete set of 15 emails that a product usually sends (welcome, email confirmation, login code, magic link, password reset, security alert, team invite, subscription confirmed, plan changed, payment failed, trial ending, receipt, feature announcement, product update and plain text), all in the same style. There are ten families, from Essential to Pulse.

At the end, the success screen lists the templates created and shows the code to send each one. When the family was published on create, you can already send through the API with each template's alias.

#Visual editor

Where to find it: Emails › Templates, by clicking a template. Address: app.postal.so/templates.

The editor opens in Visual mode when the template was made with it. On the left is the email canvas, drawn with the same HTML the recipient will get, and you edit the text right on it. On the right is the properties panel.

Header and template fields

Blocks

The email is made of blocks, stacked from top to bottom. To insert one, hover between two blocks and click the + (Insert a block here), or type / on an empty text line (see the / menu). On an empty canvas, the Start by inserting a block button does the same. The side panel shows the blocks in five groups:

Click a block to select it: its name appears in the corner along with a bar with Move up, Move down, Duplicate block and Remove block. Inside a column there are also Move to the previous column and Move to the next column. The Columns block can't go inside other columns.

The right panel shows the properties of the selected block: the Content (texts, image, links, items), the Layout (alignment, size) and the section options (Section background, Text color, Inner spacing (px), Rounded corners (px), Hide on mobile and Hide on desktop). Link fields accept variables, like https://lojaexemplo.com.br/pedidos/{{{ORDER_ID}}}.

Page style

With no block selected, the panel shows the Page style, which applies to the whole email:

The "/" menu

In an empty Text block, type / (the field shows the hint Type / to insert a block). It opens the Insert block menu with the five groups above; pick one and it replaces the empty line. In a column, the menu shows Insert in column N. A / in the middle of written text is just a slash. To close without inserting, use the menu's X.

Variables in text: the "{" menu and chips

In any text of the email (heading, text, footer, hero), type { and a list of Variables appears next to the cursor, with a note of how many are available. Keep typing to filter (those starting with the letters come first, then those containing them), use the up and down arrows, Enter or Tab to choose and Esc to close. Clicking an option works too.

• The chosen variable becomes a chip: a "pill" with the name, like {{{NAME}}}. The chip can't be edited inside; the cursor moves past it, and a single Backspace or Delete keypress removes the whole variable. Cut and paste carries the variable along.
• What is saved in the email is just the text {{{NAME}}}: the chip exists only while you edit. Typing the full name ({{{NAME}}}) also becomes a chip on its own, if the variable exists. Names that don't exist (typos) and variables with a default value ({{{NAME|cliente}}}) stay as plain text.
• The list shows the template's own variables first and then the ones Postal already knows: FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, EMAIL, POSTAL_UNSUBSCRIBE_URL, NAME and COMPANY.
• To put a variable over text that already exists, select the text and use Insert variable in the floating bar (the { } brace).

The floating text bar

When you select a piece of text, a bar appears above it, without moving the cursor:

The floating image bar

When you select a block that has an image (Image, Hero with image, Product, Header with logo, Video and Testimonial with photo), a bar appears over the picture:

#Variables

A variable is a spot in the email that changes with each send. Write it between three curly braces, like {{{NOME}}}, in the subject, the text and the links. Variables are detected automatically and show up in the Variables card below the editor.

Whoever sends provides the values in the call: template: { id: \'pedido-confirmado\', variables: { ORDER_ID: \'10482\' } }. A new template already comes with the NAME variable (default value "customer"). If you delete every occurrence of a variable from the email, it disappears from the card; the type and default value settings of the variables still in use are kept.

See also: Templates (API) · Send email · Personalization in broadcasts.

#HTML editor

The HTML tab behaves in two ways, depending on the template:

See also: Create a template with the API.

#Preview

The Preview tab shows the email as it goes out, in an isolated frame. The Desktop and Mobile buttons switch the width (mobile simulates 375 px). Variables show up with the default value you set; the ones without a default value show up as the placeholder itself, for example {{{NOME}}}.

The preview shows what is in the editor right now, no need to save. To see the email actually arrive, use Test.

#Test and publish

Test

Test opens Send a test email. It sends the saved draft, with [Test] in the subject (with unsaved changes, the button reads Save before testing). Fill in:

Tests count toward the sending quota and show up in the Emails list.

Publish and versions

The draft is yours alone. Sends through the API use the published version; so after changing a template that is in use, click Publish. Each publish saves a version, and Restore goes back to an earlier one (copying it into the draft). To roll back to a live version, restore it and publish again.

See also: Publish (API) · Test (API) · Versions (API).