Message Controls Help

[return to Christian eMail Service Help]

Message Controls

Topics:

Copy a Message to a List

Delete a Message

Introduction

With the Christian eMail Service, you can create, edit, save, and send email messages to your list's subscribers all on the web. Messages are saved as part of an individual list's information, and can be accessed from the List Controls page.

Create a New Message

To create a new message, choose a list from your list management table for which you'd like to create the message. On the List Controls page, click Create a New Message under Message Management. You will now be on the Create New Message page.

Enter the message's subject in the Subject form field. This is what will appear in the email message's subject. Enter the body of the message in the Message Content field. Even though you can edit the message later, you may wish to check the message and make any corrections you need to before you save it.

Tip: Type the body of your message in your favorite word processor first and run a spell check. Then copy the text and paste it into the Message Content field.

Once you have entered in all the information for your message, click the Save button to save your message. You may also wish to save a copy of your message on your own hard drive as a backup. To do this, view the message, and copy the content of a message into your favorite word processor, then save the file on your hard drive.

View Messages

Before sending a message out to your list, you may wish to view the message's contents. On your List Controls page, click on Edit or Send a Saved Message under Message Management (Note: if your list does not have any subscribers, this option will read Edit a Saved Message). You should now be viewing the Message Management page. A list of all your saved messages will be displayed in a table.

To view a message, simply click on the subject of the message you wish to view (each message subject is an individual hyperlink which will take you to the Edit Saved Message page). You should see the message's subject and contents displayed in the form fields. At this point, you can also Edit the message.

Send a Message

To send a message to a particular list, click on Edit or Send a Saved Message under Message Management on the List Controls page. Please note that you can not send a message to a list which has no subscribers. You can check the number of subscribers on your list under List Properties at the top of the List Controls page.

Once you have clicked on Edit or Send a Saved Message, you should be viewing the Message Management page. This page will display a table listing each of your saved messages. Choose the message you would like to send to your list, and click on the Send button to the left of the message subject.

The next page should be titled Are You Sure? Read through the message information displayed to confirm that it is the message you would like to send. Your list's alias will be displayed in the blue bar above your message information. Make sure it is the correct list to which you want to send a message. When you have checked all the information, click the Send button at the bottom of the page. Your message will now be queued to send to each of your list's subscribers.

Tip: If you would like to test the process of sending a message before you send a message out to a large list of subscribers, create a new list and subscribe yourself to it. Then create a new message and send it. You should receive the message in your email inbox shortly.

Edit a Message

On your List Controls page, click the Edit or Send a Saved Message option under Message Management. On the Message Management page, click the subject line of the message you'd like to edit (each message subject is an individual hyperlink which will take you to the Edit Saved Message page).

Once you reach the Edit Saved Message page, you will see the message's subject and content displayed in the form fields. To edit the message's subject, simply change the text in the Subject field. To make changes to the message body, edit the text in the Message Text field. Once you have completed all the changes you would like to make, click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save your changes. After you have saved your changes, you will automatically return to the Message Management page.

Copy a Message to a List

If you have more than one list under your ListOwner account, you may wish to send the same message out to multiple lists. Since messages are saved under lists and not under your ListOwner account, you can't directly send a message saved under one list to another list. In order to send a message to more than one list, you must copy the message to each list to which you want to send it.

On your List Controls page, click Copy a Message to Another List under Message Management (or, if you are on the Message Management page, you can click the link displayed on that page).

On the Copy a Message page, you will see two tables. The first table lists all the messages you have saved for your current list. The second table displays all of the other lists under your ListOwner account.

Choose the message you'd like to copy by click the radio button to the left of the message's subject. Select the list to which you'd like to copy it by clicking the radio button to the left of the list's name. Then click the Copy button at the bottom of the page.

Once you have clicked Copy, you should see a message at the top of the page notifying you that the copy was successful. There will also be a link to the List Controls page of the list to which you copied your message. At this point, you can copy a message again, or you can go to the List Controls of the other list and send or edit the copied message there.

Delete a Message

If you no longer wish to keep a message, or no longer need to send it to any lists, we encourage you to delete it. Deleting an old message makes message management easier for you and creates more room on our server.

To delete a message, click on Delete a Saved Message on your List Controls page under Message Management. This link takes you to the Delete a Message page which displays a list of your saved messages.

Tip: If you aren't sure which message you want to delete, click the subject of a message to view its contents (each message subject is an individual hyperlink which will take you to the Edit Saved Message page).

Click the Delete button to the left of the message's subject to select a message to delete. The next page should be titled Are You Sure? Read through the message information displayed to confirm that it is the message you would like to erase. Then click the Delete button at the bottom of the page to permanently delete the message. Once a message has been deleted, it can't be recovered through the Christian eMail Service, so take care not to accidentally delete a message you want to save. After you have clicked Delete, you will be returned to the Delete a Message page, where you can delete another message if you would like.