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MORE HELP
This information provides help for users who wish to fully exploit the more advanced capabilities of messageREACH. It is organized by topic as follows:
Click-TO Links
- HTTP Links and messageREACH Click-TO Links
- How to Create a Click-TO
Link
- How to Submit a Click-TO Link
- What Click-TO Recipients See
- How to Determine Which Recipients Have Activated a Link
- Inserts in Click-To Links
Adding Images to an E-mail Message
- HTML Files Do Not Contain Images; They Link to Images
- Image Pull File Location
- How to Prepare Image Links
-- Creating the HTML Message using Microsoft Word
- How to Submit an E-Mail Message with Images
- How to Test the Message Before Sending
- What Reports Tell You about a Recipient's Image-Reading Capabilities
Multipart/Alternative
- Three Versions of My Message?
- How To Create a Plain Text Version
- How To Create an HTML Version
- How To Create an HTML-Lite Version
Three Types of Pulls
Pulls within Attachments
Pulls within Pulls
A Click-TO link in an e-mail message provides an active hypertext link. A recipient can click such a link, which launches the recipient's browser and displays the Web-page target of the link. Most modern e-mail programs correctly display these links. The links are usually indicated by colored, underlined text.
You can provide an e-mail link to a Web address (URL) in either of two ways: using an HTTP link or a messageREACH Click-TO link. An HTTP link is a kind of Click-TO link, but it does not provide the advantages of messageREACH Click-TO links. Consequently, other than the HTTP Links description that follows, the remainder of the Click-TO help information pertains only to messageREACH Click-TO links. These messageREACH links are frequently referred to as simply Click-TO links.
HTTP Links
To create an HTTP link, simply include a complete URL address in a plain text message body. Most modern e-mail programs correctly display the URL text as a clickable link. The drawback to providing a link in this way is that there is no way to know exactly who has activated the link as a result of your broadcast. The recipient's identity is not disclosed to the Web site. However, you can estimate the effect of the broadcast on the Web site's traffic. To do this, compare the average number of site visits before you send the broadcast with any change that occurs 24 hours after sending the broadcast.
messageREACH Click-TO Links
Another, more effective way to measure broadcast results is to use messageREACH Click-TO
links. When you use this feature, you send
a separate URL HTML file along with your message. Although the recipient's identity
is not disclosed to the Web site, a messageREACH report can tell you exactly
which recipient addresses actually clicked-to a URL link. The exact date and
time that they activated the link is also reported.
In addition, if you include an "image pull" for HTML recipients, the report
provides the exact time that the recipient first opened the message, automatically
pulling the image. See Adding Images to an E-mail
Message for information regarding image pulls.
NOTE: You can use any combination of up to 290 messageREACH Click-TO
links, attachments, and pull files in a single message.
NOTE: You do not need to follow these steps to create a Click-TO link using
the IntelliSEND wizard. The wizard performs the following steps in the
background on all three message body styles, so no additional work is
required.
Each Click-TO link requires the following components:
- A simple HTML "URL" file, which consists of one Click-TO address, that is, the URL (Internet address) of the desired Web site. (See the Note * below.) Create one file for each different Click-TO address.
- An e-mail message body that uses the syntax (described below) to position the link wherever you want it to appear in the message.
- For multipart/alternative, a text version of the message body as well as an HTML and/or an HTML-Lite version. The text, HTML, and the HTML-Lite message body files are different from and in addition to the URL HTML file that contains the Click-TO address.
| * NOTE:
You do not have to create the HTML URL file yourself ! Instead, the instructions
below describe how you can obtain an HTML file for this purpose and edit
it with the address of your own Click-TO URL. The steps for adding the
link to message body file(s) are also included below. |
To create the Click-TO components, follow these steps:
- First, to obtain a copy of the HTML file to which you will add your Click-TO
address, DO NOT CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK —> DO
NOT CLICK Instead, move your mouse pointer over the link.
- When the mouse pointer changes to a hand icon, click the right mouse button.
- Choose the "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" command.
- Save this file, named url.htm, to a convenient location.
- Then, use Microsoft Notepad to open and edit the file; do not open the file
with a word processor or browser. Once Notepad launches, follow these steps:
- Choose Open from the File menu.
- In the Files of Type field, choose All Files.
- Select the url.htm file, then click Open.
- Choose Find from the Search menu.
- Type www in the Find What field to search for the www.messagereach.com
address. Once found, click Cancel in the Find window.
- Change "messagereach.com" to the Web address of your Click-TO
link.
- Choose Save from the File menu, saving the file as url.htm, unless you
are going to create multiple Click-TO links. In that case, save the first
version of the file as URL1.htm. Then change the address and save the new
version as URL2.htm, etc., one file for each address link.
- Next, create your e-mail message body, specifying a location for each link.
Follow the appropriate instructions below, depending on whether you are specifying
a link in a plain text message or an HTML (or HTML-Lite) message body.
Plain Text Message Body
At the point where you wish to place a link, type the following:
[pull name=url.htm]
For example, you might insert the link inside a line of text as follows:
Click here: [pull name=url.htm] to
visit our web site. The green text is variable text; the red text is
the required link text.
The sample link is displayed to your recipients as it appears below, except
that the color of the link text depends on the recipient's browser settings:
Please click here: www.youraddress.com
to visit our web site.
The link address corresponds to the one in the url.htm file.
Note the following:
- Do not use spaces between the name and file name. That is, no spaces
before or after the equal sign, as in this example: "name=filename."
- Provide a link to the filename corresponding to each Click-TO URL file,
whether it is url.htm or URL1.htm, URL2.htm, url3.htm, etc. The following
are additional examples of valid links:
[pull name=url2.htm]
[pull name=URL3.htm]
HTML (or HTML-Lite) Message Body
HTML (and HTML-Lite) let you specify the link text to be displayed to your
HTML recipients in place of the Web address. For example, you can use link
text such as "click here," which is displayed instead of the actual URL.
At the point where you wish to place the link, type the following:
<A HREF="[pull name=url.htm]">Click
here</A> to visit our web
site.
The green text is variable text; the red text is the required link text. The
sample link is displayed to your recipients as it appears below, except that
the blue link text will be underlined:
Please click here to visit
our web site.
Note the following:
- Do not use spaces between the name and file name: "name=filename"; that
is, no spaces before or after the equal sign.
- Provide a link to the filename corresponding to each Click-TO URL file,
whether it is url.htm or URL1.htm, URL2.htm, URL3.htm, etc. The following
are additional examples of valid links:
[pull name=url2.htm]
[pull name=URL3.htm]
For more information on creating a message body and/or adding links, see the messageREACH Guide.
To submit a message with Click-TO links, follow these steps:
- Log-in to messageREACH.
- Click the Job Submission link.
- Fill-in the required fields and any other pertinent information. (For help,
see the Submitting a Job, Overview and/or Details section of the messageREACH
Guide).
- Click the Select button in the Select Message Body Files area of the form.
Click Browse, locate the message body file that contains the links you added,
then click Open.
- Click Upload to upload the file to messageREACH, then click OK. (For multipart/alternative,
choose and upload any additional versions of the message body before clicking
OK.)
- Click the Select button in the Pull Files area of the form. Click Browse,
locate the URL HTML file, then click Open.
- Click Add. If you created links to multiple URLs, click Browse to locate
and then Add each URL HTML file—a different version for each link. (For
help creating the Click-TO files and links, see the instructions above.)
- Click Submit to send the broadcast after making all your selections.
The way that a Click-TO link is displayed to a recipient depends on the following variables:
- Recipient's e-mail program (its ability to display text and/or HTML or HTML-Lite)
- Type of message body file or files that you send (plain text, HTML, and/or HTML-Lite)
- The way that you set up the link in an HTML or HTML-Lite file (if you send one of these types of files)
Details follow.
Plain Text
Plain text recipients will see Click-TO links that include the full Click-TO path, as in the following example:
For more information, please visit our Web site at:http://pull.messageREACH.com/1-6502/521153/url.htm
HTML and HTML-Lite
HTML and HTML-Lite recipients will see either the full Click-TO path or only the link text (with the full path hidden), depending on how you set up the link in the HTML and/or HTML-Lite message body. For example, HTML lets you display the link used in the plain text example above exactly as it appears above. Alternatively, it lets you hide the full path and only display link text that you specify, such as "click here" in the following example:
For more information, please click here to visit our Web site.
You can obtain either a Detail Report or a Pull Report to find out which of your recipients have activated which links. The File Summary section of each report indicates the total number of times each file was pulled (that is, the number of times each Click-TO link was activated). If a recipient activates a link more than once, only the date and time of the first activation is recorded; however, the count includes the total number of times the link was clicked.
The attached csv file that comes with each report names each pull file (Click-TO URL file) that was sent, for example, "url.htm", "URL2.htm", etc. Listed beneath each file name is the date and time that each address activated a Click-TO link.
The difference between the reports is that the detail .csv report lists all recipients to which the message was sent, even if they did not activate the Click-TO link. In contrast, the pull .csv report only lists those addresses that activated at least one pull file or Click-TO link. If a recipient did not activate a link, their e-mail address is not listed in the Pull report.
For more information, see the Reports section of the messageREACH Guide.
Click-TO links are actually HTML pull files that have a refresh statement with a web address. messageREACH provides a unique link for each pull file for each destination - enabling the reporting of which recipient has clicked on the link. However, the refresh link itself is not unique - it is the destination web address. When this link is activated, the host web server will see an anonymous request for the page.
However, it is possible for you to include additional tracking information in the actual web link by using insert fields inside the destination web address in the refresh statement.
For example, if the pull file for the click to link is [pull name=mywebaddress.htm] - messageREACH will replace the statement in brackets with a unique link to the mywebaddress.htm file. Inside this file is a refresh statement with the actual web address, such as http://www.mywebaddress.com
To make this link trackable assumes that the web server has the capability to process additional parameter data.
For example, the refresh statement can be expanded to: http://www.mywebaddress.com/id?name=(I1)
In this sample, (I1) is replaced with the insert 1 field from the destination list. The web server must be capable of handling the parameter name= and the information in the insert 1 field. Multiple parameters may be included in the link as long as no spaces are inserted. For example: http://www.mywebaddress.com/id?name=(I1)&city=(I2)
It is also necessary to insure that the insert field itself does not include embedded spaces.
You can include your company logo or other graphics in your e-mail messages. Recipients will see the images if their e-mail programs are HTML-enabled. If not, only send plain text, or send multipart/alternative so that the file type suitable for each recipient is available. To include images in the e-mail message body, send an HTML file for the message body along with the separate image files that appear in the HTML file.
Despite the fact that HTML pages look like they contain images, actually, they only contain links to separate image files. The links are automatically activated when an HTML-enabled mail program displays the message—if the recipient is connected to the Internet.
If the recipient is not connected to the Internet when the message is opened, a message is typically displayed asking if they wish to connect. When they do, the images appear in the e-mail message. Avoid using large image files, however, since they take longer to download and display.
The images may reside on the messageREACH server, or they can be located at another location, such as your own (usually a corporate-owned) server. The HTML message contains the path to the image, as well as the location of the image on the page.
Regardless of where the image is stored, when the message is opened, the recipient’s e-mail program pulls the image into the message.
Images Stored on Your Server
If the image file resides on your server, the server gets an anonymous request for the image, and there's no way to know who "requested" it.
Images Stored on messageREACH
If the image file resides on the messageREACH server, messageREACH can determine
which recipient address actually opened the HTML file that automatically triggered
the image pull. This information is available to you in your detail reports
and pull reports.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Images stored on the messageREACH server are essentially
pull files. Keep in mind that a combination of up to 290 pull files, attachments,
and messageREACH Click-TO links are permitted in a single message.
NOTE: You do not need to follow the steps shown if you are using
the IntelliSEND wizard. The wizard performs these steps in the
background.
Links to images in an HTML file must follow the messageREACH syntax for "pull" file images. To create an HTML file, you can use an HTML editor, or you can generate a file with a word processor and then save it as an HTML file. Use either the .html or .htm extension to identify the file format as HTML. See Creating the HTML Message using Microsoft Word 97/Word 2000 if you wish to use Word.
Do not use Microsoft Outlook to create the HTML because it handles images differently from the way other tools that generate HTML handle them.
If you create a Microsoft Word file and save it in HTML format, any images that you included in the file are actually saved as separate image files when the file is saved. The images are saved inside the same folder as the HTML file. The HTML file contains code that links to the location of the image files.
When you place images in an HTML file, the HTML code (or instructions) for the image uses the syntax in the following example to link the image file to the HTML document. (Of course, the image file name and extension varies, depending on how you name the file.)
<IMG SRC="imagename.ext"
messageREACH requires that you edit each image link as follows:
- Just inside of the opening quote marks and ahead of the image name, add a left bracket ( [ ) and pull name= as you see in the example below:
<IMG SRC="[pull name=imagename.ext"
- Following the image name, add a right (closing) bracket: ] and you are done editing this link. The completed sample link follows:
<IMG SRC="[pull name=imagename.ext]"
Note that this syntax was also added to each of the sample image links in the following chart:
| BEFORE |
AFTER |
| <IMG
SRC="image5.ext" |
<IMG
SRC="[pull name=image5.ext]" |
| <IMG
SRC="logo.gif" |
<IMG
SRC="[pull name=logo.gif]" |
| <img
src="mygraphic.jpg" |
<img
src="[pull name=mygraphic.jpg]" |
| <img
src="image1.gif" width="289" height="333" border="0"> |
<img
src="[pull name=image1.gif]"
width="289" height="333" border="0"> |
- Ignore any additional information that may follow the image name. For example, the image tag may include additional attributes after the file name such as in the following example:
<img src="image1.gif" width="289" height="333" border="0">
Simply edit the link as described above, making the changes around the image name as follows:
<img src="[pull name=image1.gif]" width="289" height="333" border="0">
- Be sure that quotes surround the brackets—and be sure to add both a right and left bracket!
- Do not use spaces on either side of the equal sign, i.e., between “name” and the equal sign or between the equal sign and your file name. The space between IMG and SRC and the space between pull and name must be included. If the lines are wrapped on your screen, you may be able to widen the view (expand this help window) and you will see that no other spaces are used.
Microsoft Word may be used to create the HTML message body and its image links.
| IMPORTANT:
When you create a Microsoft Word file and save it in HTML format, any images
that you included in the file are actually saved in separate files. The HTML
file only contains links to the images, not the images themselves. The image files are saved in the same
folder as the HTML file. When you submit a job to messageREACH, you must
send both the HTML message body file and the image files. |
The following instructions provide guidance on using Word to create the HTML file.
- Type the message. Position your cursor at the point where you want to place
the image.
- Choose Picture from the Insert menu, then select From File from the sub-menu.
- Locate the .gif or .jpeg image file, then click Insert. The smaller the
image file, the faster it is displayed to the recipient.
- To adjust the image parameters, size, exact location, and whether text wraps
around the image, select the image and choose Picture from the Format menu.
Click the appropriate tabs and make your selections; then click OK.
- It is a good idea to save the file as a Word document before saving as HTML.
You can easily return to the saved Word file to make changes.
- Save the message as an HTML file by choosing Save as HTML from the File
menu. Or, you may need to choose Save As and select HTML in the Save As (File)
Type box. Any adjustments you made to the image are saved, as well as its
positioning within the message.
| TIP! Save
the HTML message to a new folder (or save it to a blank floppy disk).
Word saves the HTML and a separate copy of all associated image files
in the same folder. Word names the images "image1.gif" or "image2.jpg,"
depending on the number and format of the images. To avoid confusion—especially
if you create multiple HTML files, each with different images—create
a new folder in which to save each HTML and its associated images. Do
not move the folder or its contents after the HTML file is created. |
Edit the Link
The HTML file now contains a link to the image file. However, the link path leads
to your local PC or wherever you saved the HTML. Since the image file will be
located on the messageREACH server after you submit the job, you must change the
link so that the HTML can "find" it. Do this in Microsoft Notepad. Follow these
steps:
- Open the HTML file in Notepad. The HTML "code" is displayed. The code tells
the browser how to display the page to the user and where it can locate associated
image files. Find the code that begins with: <IMG SRC=". The complete code
for the image may be similar to the following:
<IMG SRC="image3.gif" WIDTH=271 HEIGHT=76 . . . . .>
- You must now edit the link. Follow the instructions under How to Prepare Image Links.
- When you are done, re-save the file as HTML.
Use messageREACH to upload the HTML message body AND the image file(s). Keep in
mind that only HTML-enabled users can pull the images. AOL recipients and destinations
capable of reading text-only will not receive the images. To send a similar message
to these recipients, you can send multipart/alternative by creating and uploading
other versions of the message body that do not reference the images.
Follow these steps to submit the message:
- First, be sure that the HTML message body file is located in the same directory
as the image file(s).
- Log-in to messageREACH.
- Click the Job Submission link.
- Provide all the appropriate address information and message options. (For
help filling-in the form, see the Submitting a Job, Overview and/or Details
section of the messageREACH
Guide.)
- Click the Select button in the Select Message Body Files area of the form.
Click Browse, locate the message body file that contains the image links you
added, then click Open.
- Click Upload to upload the file to messageREACH, then click OK. For multipart/alternative,
choose and upload any additional versions of the message body before clicking
OK.
- Click the Select button in the Pull Files area of the form. Click Browse,
locate the image file, then click Open.
- Click Add. If you created links to multiple images, click Browse to locate
and then Add each image file.
- Set Pull Password to NO.
- Set Pulls Expire After to an appropriate length of time. After this time
expires, pull images are no longer available.
- Skip this step unless you are sending multipart/alternative: If you are
sending both a Text AND an HTML version of the message body, set the Auto
Pull Reference to NO. Otherwise, a confusing reference to the pull image will
appear at the end of the text version. If you are including any regular pull
files with the message, messageREACH will also not display these pull links
when Auto Pull Reference is set to NO. Therefore, you must position the pull
links yourself within the text and HTML files using the [pull name=filename]
syntax. See Preparing
Links for Pull Files in the messageREACH Guide if you need help.
- Click Submit to send the broadcast after making all your selections.
Before sending your message to multiple recipients, you can send a test to yourself. The test ensures that you properly prepared and included all the files and that they will display as you intend. For accurate results, open the test message with an HTML-enabled e-mail program (not one that only reads HTML-Lite).
Send the Message to Yourself
Follow these steps to send the message to yourself:
- Follow the steps to submit the message, however, type your own e-mail address in the Additional Addresses box. See How to Submit an E-Mail Message with Images if you need help.
- In your e-mail program, retrieve the mail and open the message.
- The image should appear in the proper location within several seconds. If your system uses firewall security, you may be asked to first log on to the Internet. The image appears once the connection is made.
- Repeat the test until you are satisfied with the results.
Use "Resubmit" to Send the Message to Your Recipients
Once you are pleased with the test results, log on to messageREACH and resubmit
the message. This time, send it to the desired recipients. Follow these steps:
- Click the Status link, located on the left side of the main screen.
- On the Search Request form, locate your message by entering the job number, reference, or other search parameters; then click the Submit Query button.
- Find the job and click the "Resubmit" link. The resubmit form is displayed with the job details from the test message. Change the address as appropriate. Change the Auto Pull Reference to NO. Request a delivery report: the Detail Report and the Pull Report provide image-pull information. Make other delivery changes as you desire.
- Click the Submit button. A new job number is assigned to the broadcast.
The detail report and the pull report both display the addresses of the recipients whose mail programs automatically pulled each image. If an address pulled an image, the address is listed in the report, along with the date and time of the pull. This tells you the following about each address that pulled an image:
- Recipient's e-mail program is fully HTML-enabled (it reads HTML, not HTML-Lite)
- Recipient opened your message
For addresses that did not pull an image, any of the following conditions may be true:
- Recipient's e-mail program is only capable of reading plain text
- Recipient's e-mail program is HTML-enabled but the recipient was offline when the message was opened and didn't allow the Internet connection that would have retrieved the pull
- Recipient may be an AOL 5.0 or under user; such users cannot currently retrieve these images
- Recipient may not have received the message; a detail report provides a delivery status indication if the message was rejected for any reason
Future mailings may provide more information about addresses that did not pull an image.
The help that follows assumes you have read the information on Multipart/Alternative in the messageREACH Guide, as well as the Multipart/Alternative section titled Questions about the Message Body in the messageREACH FAQ. These resources provide all the basics for a good understanding of multipart/alternative.
Create up to 3 versions of your message, one for each of the following:
- E-mail destinations that can only read plain text messages
- E-mail destinations that can read HTML messages
- Destinations that can read a subset of HTML code, that is, HTML-Lite
Depending on message content (style features) and format limitations, the displayed message may look very different for each destination type. For example, you might display information in a table for HTML-enabled destinations, but since tables cannot be viewed by plain text users or HTML-Lite recipients, alternate versions of the message are necessary if sending to these destinations.
If you use an "eformat" column in your csv list, you can request a specific delivered message format for each destination:
| Eformat value |
Delivered format |
| Text |
Plain text |
| HTML |
Full HTML |
| HTML-Lite |
HTML Lite version |
| Null or blank |
Multipart/alternative to all destinations except domains of AOL.com and CS.com which receive HTML-Lite |
Images can only be used in HTML messages. However, each message version can contain any or all of the following:
Type a plain text message using any text editor and save it using a .txt extension. Instructions follow for using Microsoft Word to create the text file, which makes it convenient to use the file as the starting place for the HTML and HTML-Lite message versions.
Follow these steps:
- Type the basic message.
- In the Word document, you may use text styling attributes such as alignment, bold, italics, or underlines (although underlining should be avoided anyway since it indicates clickable links). HOWEVER, these text enhancements disappear in the delivered plain text message. (The file, when first saved as text in Word, may still appear to be formatted. However, if you open it in Notepad you will see that all text styling is removed.)
- You can provide links to addresses as long as the addresses are complete; for example:
http://www.messagereach.com and
mailto:anyone@domain.com. (Note: No spaces allowed between the colon after mailto: and the e-mail address.)
If you use Word, you can use bulleted or numbered lists (but not outlined lists). Word converts bulleted and numbered lists into a plain text version when the file is saved as text. It replaces the bullets with asterisks and keeps the numbers in the numbered lists. The only difference is that when long lines of text wrap, in the plain text version, the wrapped lines are not indented.
Follow these additional steps:
- Save the file as a Word document. This way, you can return to this version to make future changes.
- Choose Save As from the File menu.
- Click the Save As Type box and choose "Text Only (*.txt)". Do not choose "Text Only with Line Breaks." The recipient's e-mail program will wrap the text as necessary.
Using Microsoft Word, open the plain text version of your message. Follow these
steps:
- Add the desired styling changes.
- Type alternative text (aliases), if desired, for clickable links. To do this, do the following:
- Highlight the entire link by selecting it with your mouse. Do not click the link; instead, hold down the shift key as you drag the mouse pointer over the link.
- Type the link text (for example, "Click here") over the highlighted link.
- Add any desired images by following these directions: How to Prepare Image Links.
- Add Click-TO links if desired. For help, see How To Create a messageREACH Click-TO Link.
- Now save the file. From the File menu, choose Save as HTML if this option is available. Otherwise, choose Save As (or Save As->File). Then in the Save As Type field, choose the HTML option (or .html, or .htm) from the drop-down list. You may need to scroll through the list to find it. Note that Word saves the text and images into the same directory, so it may be easier to identify these files later if you create a new directory for them, or save them to a floppy disk.
- Word saves the file and then re-displays it as an HTML message. Review the message, particularly to check link text and locations. Make any needed changes and save the file.
To simply add styling such as text color, font changes, bold, italics and text alignment, you can apply the changes to your plain text file, using Word, then save as an HTML file. However, doing anything more complicated to the file becomes tricky. Therefore, it's best to become an AOL subscriber yourself (AOL provides competitively-priced subscriptions). You can then use AOL software offline (no need to pay for connection time) to create the "HTML-Lite" file and display it as it will appear to your AOL recipients.
Due to unsupported HTML attributes, it is best not to edit the HTML version to create an HTML-Lite version since it would mean deleting numerous HTML tags from the original.
To create the "HTML-Lite" file using the AOL Version 5.0 software, follow these
steps:
- Open the AOL application, but do not sign on (there's no need to pay for connection time).
- Click "Write" to open a new mail message.
- Right-click in the message text area and select "Insert text file."
- Locate your plain text file and click OK.
- Add the desired styling changes.
- To position pull-file links in an HTML-Lite message body, do the following:
- Highlight the entire Web address by selecting it with your mouse. (Hold down the shift key as you drag the mouse pointer over the address.)
- Type the link text (for example, "Click here") over the highlighted link.
- Copy the address to the clipboard by right-clicking the selected text, and clicking Copy from the pop-up menu.
- Right-click on the link and this time choose Insert Hyperlink from the menu.
- Paste the address into the box (Shift + Insert, or choose Paste from the Edit menu). Click OK.
- With the link still highlighted, add alternative text, if desired, for the clickable link. Type over the existing text.
- Save the file, changing the file type to All Files, and assigning a filename and .htm or .html extension. (Otherwise, AOL saves the file as plain text.)
- To add mailto links, follow the preceding steps for pull-file links, although using alternative link text (step "f") does not apply. When you highlight the entire link, be sure to include the word "mailto:"
- Do not add images. HTML-Lite does not properly support images for broadcast at this time.
You can now submit the three message versions to messageREACH. If your HTML file includes images, be sure to see these instructions: How to Submit an E-Mail Message with Images.
- The standard pull file using the syntax of [pull name=filename.ext] The pull file can be of any type including image pulls, documents, pdf files, etc. MessageREACH replaces the above token with a unique URL per recipient. Recipients pulling such files are reported by messageREACH on the original recipient address the message was delivered to in the csv report file.
- A Click-TO pull file. The syntax is [pull name=filename.htm] and the htm file contains the refresh statement with the desired web address. MessageREACH replaces the above token with a unique URL per recipient. Recipients pulling such files are reported by messageREACH on the original recipient address the message was delivered to in the csv report file.
- A job level untrackable pull file. The syntax is [untrack-pull name=filename.ext] The pull file can be of any type including images pulls, documents, pdf files, etc. MessageREACH replaces the above token with a URL that is the same for each recipient. Thus messageREACH can only report the total number of such pulls in the summary section.
Why use the "untrackable" pull:
If you have more than one image file to pull into the HTML document, use the conventional pull for the first image, and untrackable pulls for all the others. This eliminates 2 columns for each image in the csv file, making is smaller and easier to download.
If you do not need to know which recipient pulled a file, use the untrackable pull syntax
You can have a pull file link in any plain text or HTML attachment.
- The attachment may contain additional information on items. Using an image pull, you can tell which recipient opened the attachment. You can also have Click-TO links in the attachment.
- If you are delivering messages to plain text recipients and/or AOL or CS domains that only read HTML-lite, you can create a full HTML version of your message in the attachment. When the attachment is opened, it will appear in the recipients browser, which displays the full HTML and pulls in any image files, etc.
Remember you must load all the relevant files referred to in the pull links with the main message body(ies). Also remember to turn AutoPull off so that messageREACH does not add these links to the bottom of the message body.
You can have secondary pull file links within any pull file that is plain text or HTML. These links can be the same or different links that exist in the message body or primary pull file. HOWEVER, the primary pull file links cannot be untrackable links, that is, they must be the fully trackable links. The secondary pull file links can be of trackable or untrackable, unless you want a third level pull in which case the second level must be fully trackable.
NOTE: You cannot put the [pull name=filename] syntax in the "header" section of a pull file - if you want a pull link within the next level down pull file, it must be in the message body section.