Formatting Flexibility and Tools

[JamesH8805]

Please give us some more formatting capability.

 Let's start with the easiest: copy format... it would save so much time, not having to make manual changes to every part of the email that I want to change the formatting for.

Blank line formatting - to be able to make a blank line the font size I want so that I can manage the visual impact that line spacing allows you.  Having a different amount of line space after a section heading vs between paragraphs, etc.

There are more, but that's a good place to start.  Thanks

[William_A]

Hello @JamesH8805 ,

Can you please elaborate on what you're looking to do in regards to "copying formatting," that isn't already available via the Design tab formatting defaults you can set, the ability to duplicate entire rows of blocks, and the recent colors functions?

If you want to have different blank spacing between headers and body text, have you considered having them in separate blocks, and using spacer blocks between, which can have more precise amounts of space? Is there a specific functionality of having line-spacing formattable blank lines that spacer blocks don't accomplish?

[JamesH8805]

Hi and thank you for your thoughts.  Here's what I mean...

• Copying Formatting - I'm not talking about general formatting for an entire email.  I'm talking about having the quick option to copy the format of one element and changing the formatting to be the same for another area of the email.  For example, if I want to change the font color for several headings from black to blue, and the font size from 16 to 20 and regular to bold.  Instead of selecting each heading and manually changing the text color and font size, I simple select the example I want, hit a "copy style" button and then go to each heading, select it and it takes changes the formatting to what I want.  It's like the "copy formatting" button in MS Word, Powerpoint, etc.

• Line spacing - what you suggest as an option would certainly work.  Having said that, it takes a whole lot of effort to do something that should be very easy.  So, for example, I have a paragraph that completes a section of  my email.  I hit enter twice and it creates a an empty line space.  I type in a heading and hit enter twice again and produce another line space.  BUT, they're the same size space.  It's a very clunky way to design you email.  Good design would have a larger space between the end of the last section than between the new heading and the new text of the next paragraph.  It makes is so much easier to read and to understand the structure of the email.

• Bulleting - same thing here.  It's much easier to read bulleted text if there is a small space between the end of one bullet and the beginning of the next.  I can do that (as above), but it's way too big a space because I can't control the font size of the empty line.  I usually use a 3-5 pt space between bulleted content.  
  • Also, the space between one bullet and another should be less than the space between the last bullet and the next section of text, just as I mentioned above for the regular line spacing.

Maybe I'm naive and these basic MS Word-type capabilities are either not possible or way to hard to provide to us.  But it sure would make for a better design and a whole lot easier. 

[CPortanova]

Has their been any update to this request? I've been using Constant Contact for over a decade and I would love to see this feature enabled. So many times I've wanted to copy formatting in a block of text and having that ability with a paintbrush 🖌️ tool would be SO helpful!

[ACTIVATE]

@JamesH8805 @CPortanova the Copy formatting is indeed doable! If you go to the left side of the builder and look you'll see three tabs - one is the normal builder column, the second is a shortcut to drag and drop photo library, and the third is the money shot: the Design tab. You can make changes to font, size, color, style, buttons, all of it and it makes the changes to all in unison *without* having to go into each section and do it manually.

[CPortanova]

@JamesH8805, thank you for your reply. I'm well aware of the Design tab and use it regularly. What I'm referring to is having a "paintbrush" feature which allows you to copy the formatting of text within a section of your email campaign and pasting it to another section of text.

For example, when you copy and paste text from somewhere else (a PDF, a Word doc, a website) into your email campaign it does not default to the Design you've set up. You have to manually go in and change the text to the font style you want. And when you're pasting a lot of content, it can be cumbersome to have to constantly change it manually.

Microsoft Office products have this tool and it's INCREDIBLY useful. This is something Constant Contact has never had and it would be hugely beneficial it hey could implement this tool for their users.

[ACTIVATE]

@CPortanova @JamesH8805 The Clear Styles button in the editor toolbar can also be immensely helpful. Let's say you wanted two blocks or sections to have the same styling. You can copy the entire block and when you swap in the correct content to that second block you can use the clear styles option which snaps it to the style of the block. 

[CPortanova]

@JamesH8805  thank you for that suggestion. Yes, it is a very useful tool. I have to admit I'd never used it before. And it does reflect your design's style. I'll be using that tool A LOT going forward. Thanks again! 😊

[ACTIVATE]

@CPortanova You are welcome, I'm always happy to help - Aaron @ ACTIVATEbiz.com