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Userlist allows you to create and edit messages extremely fast, thanks to our lightweight Dynamic Composer. You can create new messages, style them, and insert customer data without leaving your keyboard.

To edit a message inside a workflow, double-click your message node, and use the panel on the right. You'll see two tabs:

• Message — your workspace for editing the message. More on this below.
• Performance — a detailed performance report for this specific message. Learn more about performance reporting here.

In the message composer, you’re working with the “email body” — actual email content. Before sending, we’ll add the footer section, which you can customize in general company settings, and wrap the message into a design theme.

Message settings

In the top area of the message, you can edit the following settings:

• From — which sender profile will be used
• Theme — which design theme will be used
• Topic — what subscription topic this message belongs to
• Subject — email's subject line
• Preheader — email's preheader (the preview line you can see in email software)

Subject lines and preheaders can include Liquid expressions, e.g. customer data or conditions. You can even use autocomplete here: just start typing {{ for customer data and snippets, or {% for conditions.

Working with blocks

Unlike heavy template builders, our Dynamic Composer works with lightweight blocks. You can create an entire email without leaving your keyboard.

To add a new block, type / and select the desired block with up and down keys. Or simply keep typing to filter by block name.

Block types include:

• Regular text
• Headlines H1-H3
• Ordered and unordered lists
• Blockquotes
• Horizontal rule
• Image
• Variable
• Snippet
• Button

Uploading images. File size for images is limited to 2MB per file. You can use any of these popular image formats: PNG, GIF, JPEG, SVG, WebP.

Using keyboard shortcuts

Instead of using the dropdown block menu, you can type using Markdown shortcuts.

Here are some popular shortcuts:

• #, ##, ### for headlines H1-H3
• *italics*
• **bold**
• Asterisk or dash for an unordered list
• 1. for an ordered list
• > for a blockquote
• --- for a horizontal rule

Or you can paste your content directly from your Markdown editor or Google Docs. We'll preserve all the necessary styling.

Personalizing your emails with customer data

You can add customer data to your emails using Liquid tags. Our composer helps you do that using autofill.

To add a tag, start typing {{ and a dropdown menu will appear. First you'll select what object you're referring (user, company, snippets, etc) and then use keyboard keys to select the right property.

For Liquid conditions, such as if, else, case/when, start typing {%.

Here's how you add a user property:

Here's how you add Snippets — reusable bits of text:

Sending a test message

You can always test any message live in your inbox using the test feature. "Send a test" link is available in the top right corner of the screen.

Previewing your messages

This feature allows you to preview your messages using data from any individual user. This is particularly helpful if you need to test Liquid tags, snippets, and other variable parts of your message. To open the preview window, click "Preview" in the top right corner of the screen.

Custom themes

Userlist supports custom design themes. You can manage them in settings.

Among the themes, you'll find:

• Basic — our default "lighly styled" template. You can customize the accent color.
• Plain — super-basic, as if your emails were sent from Gmail.
• Branded — a heavier email template with customizable background colors and your logo in the headline.
• Custom — access to the theme's HTML for complete design control

After you're done with customization, you can then pick one of these themes for each individual message inside campaigns and broadcasts.