Debbie McNeill
CraftyPerson Production
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How to have a successful trial run

My newsletters import into most professional email publishing services. Please see the Newsletter Email Publishing Services list for details on tested systems. You should have a good working knowledge of how your email publishing services work. What you are looking for is where you can paste HTML.

Some of my customers claim they can copy the graphical newsletter into the home email service and it works great. But I don't recommend it. There are a wide range of email publishing services that offer free membership and are probably a better bet for you.

My friend, Heather of Blogs by Heather, offers a SUN assist program to help you with your implementation needs.

Still having trouble? Not sure how to get the HTML? click here for further suggestions and instructions.

Browsers

Different browsers respond in different ways when downloading. If you still encounter difficulties, you might have better results with a different browser. For instance, if you are using Internet Explorer, you might try Firefox or Netscape instead. We find that sometimes Internet Explorer is a little quirky and another browser will not have the same issues. Firefox and Netscape can be downloaded at no charge from their respective websites:

Firefox

Netscape

Microsoft Internet Explorer

If you have a dial-up connection my files are generally very small so it should not take very long to download these files.

If you are still having difficulty please feel free to contact me.  I will do whatever I can to make sure you have a successful and enjoyable experience with our resources.  Please include as much details as you can.   What does the screen look like? What step are you on? etc.

MAC Users

I get those funny crosses sometimes. It's easy to fix. When I get the error message from Constant Contact, I use my cursor to highlight the character it says I can't use (the cross). Then I hit 'open apple-C' to copy and then 'open apple-F' to bring up the "find" box at the bottom of the Firefox window. I put my cursor in the Find box and hit 'open apple-V' to paste in the symbol, then hit the 'next' button to have Firefox show me where the symbol appears. Then I manually delete the symbol from the html or the text. I usually don't see more than 2-3 of the symbol so it's not a big problem. Sometimes I don't get any, so I don't know what causes them.”

Newsletter Free Trial

This exercise will walk you through the process of importing a CraftyPerson Production newsletter into your Email Service Provider. I provide a working HTML and Text file that you will have a chance to review prior to importing into your Email Service Provider. 

I don't have instructions for every Email Publishing Service my newsletters work with yet.  Please see your Email Publishing Service help center.  You are looking for instructions on how to "Import HTML".  So far, I have importing instructions for Constant Contact, MailChimp, 1ShoppingCart, and Stampin' Up!'s DBWS.

For this newsletter campaign you will receive a TEXT file (craftyperson_trial.txt) and a HTML file (craftyperson_trial.htm).  Why both?

Open HTML File

Open TEXT File

See information below for how to retrieve the HTML code.

Paste HTML & Text file content into your Email Publishing Service

If you are getting errors that say "Your html must close the <HTML> tag" or you have no pictures in the HTML version, please see Still Having Trouble Downloading section.


RETRIEVING HTML CODE

To view the newsletter, simply click on the listed file. To copy the HTML/Text code to your Email Publishing Service, from the browser select VIEW SOURCE to get to the HTML code and not the pictures.  Below are some simple instructions for the most recent version of the most popular browsers.
In Microsoft Internet Explorer, select from the menu VIEW > SOURCE.

In Safari, select the little paper icon on the far right at the top. Select VIEW SOURCE.

In Chrome, select the little paper icon on the far right at the top. Select DEVELOPER > View Source (Ctrl+U).

In Firefox, choose tools > WEB DEVELOPER > PAGE SOURCE, or right click in any blank area in the Firefox screen and select VIEW PAGE SOURCE, or use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+U).
Internet Explorer 8 Example
Example of View Source

Google Chrome 4.1.249.1064
Chrome Sample

Firefox 6.0.2 Example
Firefox View

 

You should see something like this (garbly gook). 

This is called HTML.  Please select all the HTML and copy and paste it into Constant Contact - HTML tab.  Please note the very first thing you should see is <!doctype html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN". . . . and the very last thing should be </HTML>.