Adding Tables to 3rd Generation

We had a thread about adding tables to third generation emails but a moderator closed it saying now that we can use 5 columns that should solve the problem.

 

Guess what, it does not come close to solving the problem. There is no way to line up text except tables. adding columns does not work because the columns will not always display side by side.

Top Answer
Chris__D
Employee

Hey @BONNIER52, thanks for your feedback. In our newest editor, we have a block that offers up to 5 side by side text or image blocks. This allows users to create a table-like block, however, we're looking to hear how we can make this block better. What content are you trying to add into your campaign that requires a table? 

 

The reason we don't have an actual table block is due to tables breaking the mobile responsive design of the template and with over 50% of users opening their emails on a mobile device, it's very important that we create solutions that work for both mobile and desktop viewers. Knowing how you use tables will allow us to look into ways we can make our editor even more useful. 

 

 


Top Answer
Caitlin_M
Administrator

With the introduction of our cross-device editor, tables can be added to a campaign.

 

When viewed on a mobile device, your table won’t resize to fit the screen. If your table is wider than the screen, contacts will need to scroll horizontally to see the full table. Testing is especially important when using a table so you can experience what your contacts will see.


64 Comments
nqmarketing
Rookie

Anyway I can go back to an older version so that I can get the table option?

Chris_L
Employee

@nqmarketing If you copy one of your older campaigns it will use the older editor. On your campaigns page look for one a campaign that says "Legacy Newsletter Email" under the campaign name and make a copy of it this will load the older editor and you can use that to build your new campaign.

nqmarketing
Rookie

 @Chris_L  the problem is I'm a new customer so I don't have an old campaign to work from. :frown: 

NancyS232
Rookie

Our monthly newsletter always uses the table function for our MONTHLY CALENDAR. Surprise! 

Tables are very useful for sorting data into organized groups, such as in a calendar.

 

Here is the link to our monthly newsletter. The table is near the bottom. 

https://conta.cc/2R9bqkE

 

Tables simply work. They have been a cornerstone of the WWW since the earliest days. I am disappointed that the ability to do tables as well as go into our HTML code for tweaking certain things like making a superscript ® mark doesn't exist in the new template. 

 

Either make tables and HTML editing available in the new editor or retain the 2nd generation editor that many of use like for the infinite duration. When something just simply works, it should not be broken. 

 

MEL for Assistance League of Hawaii / newsletter editor

 

RyanS6900
Rookie

New user from MailChimp. Table support IS A MUST! If it worked well in previous generations of the editor, why take it away? A lot of us don't have time to go through and manually build tables from a four- or five-column template. Major strike against CC.

KariM28
Rookie

So no tables - I get that. Has anyone figured out how to layout tabular data that needs to be displayed in an email? Any tricks or hits. The 5 column method doesn't work as when you switch to mobile view it stacks it and you can't follow tabular data. I prefer not to use a graphic because there are limitations with that method as well. 

VMC_Email-Manager
Brand Influencer

I've used a print screen utility to capture a table as a .jpg. Usually the table is a small area of a spreadsheet.   Then upload the .jpg and insert.  Works OK for a small table.  (GreenShot is a very useful screen shot tool, easy to save a screen shot as a jpg image file).  Lousy solution, agreed, but ..... it works.

SamuelM8
Marketing Legend

Karim28,

 

I have no tricks or hints. I tried creating tables, making a pdf and then inserting but found it way too time consuming every week. I just went back and am using my old templates.

 

Here is hoping Constant Contact will provide table support for the new year.

VMC_Email-Manager
Brand Influencer

SamuelMB, help us out here. It's my understanding you "can't go back."  That is, you can't revert to Gen-2 composition editor if you are already on Gen-3 (which doesn't support tables).   So not sure what you meant by using your old template.  Could you (or Constant Contact) please clarify?

 

On another note, I capture Excel tables as a .jpg, not a PDF.   JPGs files are easily created out of Excel using a variety of screen shot utilities and easily made to appear as an image within the email.  PDF's can be a hot-linked ocument, but not so good to appear within the body. 

Chris_L
Employee

@VMC_Email-Manager Thank you for the comment. I apologize for any confusion. You are correct, you can no longer select 2GE templates. If you had an older campaign (Legacy Newsletter) that originally used the 2GE editor you could make a copy of that campaign and it would still use the 2GE editor.  I believe that @SamuelM8 is continuing to copy an older campaign to use the 2GE editor.

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