Formatting for "send a message"

Discussions about the Leader and Clerk Resources on lds.org.
zollinger
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#31

Post by zollinger »

I have had some success with formatting (bold, underline, text color, hyperlink, and limited tables) by cutting and pasting from the online version of MS Word (using onedrive.live.com). I have tried the same method using google docs (docs.google.com). I find that cutting from the online version of the word processor works to keep the formatting. I typically prepare the weekly ward newsletter/program in Word, then open the online version of word, cut and past into "Send a Message" and the formatting generally holds and comes through fine after being scrubbed by SaM. I have been able to use tables for the Sunday program information with 2 columns listing the agenda item on the left and name/hymn on the right. The table separates the text in columns but does not include borders or shading. I used a table to list Sunday school class information and zoom links for each class with student and teacher names with the online class link (one cell per class). That formatting came out with nice spacing (I added an extra space in each cell so the text from one class did not run into another because the SaM does not space). Again, the table did not have borders or shading. I submitted feedback on the SaM page recommending a more robust editor. We've tried attachments too, but as other have mentioned, those do not seem to be as effective as the text in the body of the email.
jedci
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#32

Post by jedci »

'back in the day' the SaM allowed for html tags to be included - and it honored font, weight/color, table formatting, etc. The move to the inline UI for formatting simplified basic formatting. But....

After many tries and various sending to myself using the table feature of the UI editor, I came here to see if there was something I was missing. Apparently not... thanks for validating my frustration/inability to send a decently formatted table.

As has been stated, tables are very useful to arrange information, but if the formatting options provided by the UI don't work then stop giving false hope and just remove the table format from the editor. Or fix it :)

(Yes, i submitted feedback on the site)
lajackson
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#33

Post by lajackson »

jedci wrote:I came here to see if there was something I was missing. Apparently not... thanks for validating my frustration/inability to send a decently formatted table.
I can repeatedly prepare messages the same way and have them send differently each time.
thattoe
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#34

Post by thattoe »

I haven't found any rhyme or reason with what formatting is accepted and what isn't. I compose my emails in a gmail compose box. I am looking for nothing more than consistency with bold, italics, underline. It would be a dream to have text that is different sizes or fonts, but I know I'm asking a lot there.

Riddle me this:
When I send out an email, I'll include a spiritual quote. I will copy the quote, state the individual who said it, and hyperlink to the talk. There was one that had some words italicized and bolded, but not all. I tried to clear the formatting it had and make it conducive to my email. In the "send a message" portion, after the email had been put together, I cleared the formatting, kept the hyperlink, and italicized the quote (since I can't seem to change the font size or style, all i wanted was some visual discrepancy between the quote and the rest of the email).
I sent the email, and when I saw it, it had the original formatting for the bold and italicized words, as well as a different font! Copying the quote gave me zero control over the end result in the email. I even cleared the formatting... HOW? just how?
Hilohi
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#35

Post by Hilohi »

Hard to believe this is still an issue. With as much communication that takes place via email, you'd think this issue would have been addressed by now. Yet on the other hand, the interface on the Church's website has changed a couple of times within the last few months (making the website a little confusing to use initially). In my opinion, this messaging formatting issue should be addressed before making any seemingly unnecessary aesthetic changes to the Church's website. I've provided my feedback multiple times on this messaging format issue via the Church's website. If there's any other channel through which I should provide my feedback on this issue, please let me know.
lajackson
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#36

Post by lajackson »

Hilohi wrote: I've provided my feedback multiple times on this messaging format issue via the Church's website. If there's any other channel through which I should provide my feedback on this issue, please let me know.
Should? No. The only other alternative would be to ask your bishop or stake president to take your request to the area coordinating council and let the Area Seventy take it up the line through his priesthood leader.
jakob.jarvis
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#37

Post by jakob.jarvis »

scgallafent wrote: Sun Mar 22, 2020 10:19 am
drewsky5 wrote:I just sent an email to all the members of the ward and just about all the special formatting was removed from the actual send. What's the point of having rich formatting for composing a message if it doesn't get used when sent?
The point was never to have a full-featured rich formatter. When we implemented the formatting in the editor, we made a specific, conscious decision to support some basic formatting but not to try to implement a full-featured editor.

All we’re asking for is that the production copy of the email that actually gets delivered, retains the basic formatting that we included when writing the email (e.g. line spacing between paragraphs, spaces after periods, bold, italic, etc.

We are not asking for a full suite of robust content creation tools.
lajackson
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Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#38

Post by lajackson »

jakob.jarvis wrote: All we’re asking for is that the production copy of the email that actually gets delivered, retains the basic formatting that we included when writing the email (e.g. line spacing between paragraphs, spaces after periods, bold, italic, etc.
But it cannot, unfortunately.

I write my messages in a plain text file and then copy and paste them into Send a Message. You are right. If I then make any changes to the spacing the message is kluged. So I never add even so much as an extra carriage return in SaM. If I proof it at the end and see the need for a change, I make the change in the original text file and paste it in again.

The only thing I do in SaM is highlight text and select the bold, italics, or underline commands.

SaM does not know how to handle line returns and spacing, or much of anything else for that matter, that is entered directly into the message space. I realize that this comes from the sad fact that there are a dozen different forms of line feed carriage return commands, and that every computer, laptop, browser, ISP, website, and application have a different definition of what to do when you hit the return button.

We make our simple world so complicated.
LEDS
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Joined: Sun May 01, 2022 5:13 pm

Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#39

Post by LEDS »

I'm having the same issue here. No matter what I do, all of the whitespace disappears, making the end result very hard on the eyes. I really wish they'd find a way to update this, as a lot of people are having this issue.
dolenslager
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Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:07 pm

Re: Formatting for "send a message"

#40

Post by dolenslager »

I've successfully sent formatted emails by using another email editor and pasting the formatted text directly into our editor. Here's the editor I used: https://products.aspose.app/email/editor
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