Hi! I am glad to be here! Help with templates

[pengyou]

I have been using phplist for the past few months to help me manage my ezine list and am very happy with the results.

I am wondering...i would like my ezine to look more like a webpage with four parts. Each part will have a picture and a paragraph...if people want to read more, at the end of the paragraph there will be a link that says "read more".

Can I do this? What kind of software do I need? is there some place where I can download extensive help, i.e. a manual on how to work with templates?

[H2B2]

I suppose the easiest way to do this is just to have the "read more" link refer to a webpage.

You can find some basic info on templates in the docs: http://docs.phplist.com/TemplatesInfo

[pengyou]

Thanks! If I can ask one more - rather medial - question. Can I think of a template as a fill in the blank webpage? Can I use a program like FrontPage or Dreamweaver to make it? and if so...do I have to do something different than if I am just making a common webpage, i.e. save it as a different file format, etc?

Thanks!

[H2B2]

Yes, up to a certain point a template is more or less like a normal webpage:

In PHPlist a template is a re-usable HTML page with all the standard layout and text elements of your message. For a newsletter template this would typically comsist of the title heading, a logo, at the top part, and the preferences and unsubscription links at the bottom part. A template does not include the contents of the message, as this would change for each edition of the message. It should however include the 'placeholder' [CONTENT] which is used to insert the contents of the message later on.

Source: http://docs.phplist.com/TemplatesInfo

However:

Keep in mind that email clients are not web browsers. Most email clients will be able to display simple HTML and CSS styles, nothing fancy. So, when designing your production template, keep it simple, and do not use the most advanced CSS and HTML standards.

Source: http://docs.phplist.com/TemplatesInfo

[pengyou]

Thanks! I think I can do what I want..I will put a table and some links. The idea is to give people a summary of what is new on my website - if they like they can click on a link in the article and read more.