> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orbit.devotel.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Build an email template visually: drag-and-drop blocks, variables, preview, and test sends

> Design an email template in the Email hub's visual Builder without writing HTML — add header, text, image, button, and footer blocks, personalize with merge tags, preview across clients, send a proof, and hand the saved template to a campaign.

# Build an email template visually

The Email hub carries a visual Builder: a drag-and-drop editor that renders
blocks into table-based, inline-styled HTML — the format that survives Gmail,
Outlook, and Apple Mail. You design the template on screen; the platform
handles compatibility markup. No HTML or MJML knowledge needed.

This guide covers the **dashboard editor**. If you prefer managing templates
over the API or pasting raw HTML, the
[email lifecycle guide](/guides/email-lifecycle-guide) covers that path —
this page covers the visual one.

**You will:**

1. [Open the Builder tab](#1-open-the-builder-tab)
2. [Add and arrange blocks](#2-add-and-arrange-blocks)
3. [Personalize with variables](#3-personalize-with-variables)
4. [Preview and send a test](#4-preview-and-send-a-test)
5. [Import or export MJML and HTML](#5-import-and-export-mjml-or-html)
6. [Attach the template to a campaign](#6-attach-the-template-to-a-campaign)

## 1. Open the Builder tab

1. Open the Email hub under **Messages → Email**.
2. Select the **Builder** tab. The screen is a three-panel editor: block
   palette on the left, canvas in the middle, and the selected block's
   properties on the right.

The palette holds eight block types: header, text, image, button, divider,
spacer, columns, and footer. The canvas renders them in near-final form,
and the toolbar carries the saved-templates picker, import, save, preview,
and test-send controls.

<Tip>Type the template name first. Save, preview, and test-send stay
disabled until the canvas has a name and at least one block, and the editor
says which of the two is still missing.</Tip>

## 2. Add and arrange blocks

1. Click or drag a block from the palette into the canvas. New blocks land
   with sensible defaults (a header with your company name, a button with a
   "Click here" label) that you replace with your own content.
2. Select a block on the canvas to open its properties panel, where you edit
   copy, image URLs, button links, and style fields such as background color
   and font size.
3. Reorder blocks by dragging them in the canvas, or with the move up/down
   controls; the properties panel also offers delete.
4. Start from an existing template instead of a blank canvas with
   **Load Template**, which opens your saved list (up to 50 entries, each
   shown with its block count and last edit time).

A live **spam-score badge** sits in the toolbar — from "Looks clean" to
"Likely to be flagged" — and updates as you edit. Use it as a pre-send
content heuristic; it checks things like image-to-text balance and wording
patterns. DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) still carries more weight
in real filters, as covered in the
[lifecycle guide](/guides/email-lifecycle-guide).

## 3. Personalize with variables

Type merge tags into text, header, or footer blocks; they render through to
send time and are substituted per recipient. When a campaign sends the
template, the tags resolve from the contact's record. The standard contact
fields are:

| Merge tag        | Resolves to           |
| ---------------- | --------------------- |
| `{{first_name}}` | Contact first name    |
| `{{last_name}}`  | Contact last name     |
| `{{phone}}`      | Contact phone number  |
| `{{email}}`      | Contact email address |
| `{{company}}`    | Contact company name  |

Campaigns can layer their own custom variables on top of these five. Two
rules to respect:

* **Resolve every tag before send** — an unresolved merge tag reaches the
  recipient as the literal `{{...}}` string.
* **Unsubscribe needs one tag** — the footer block's unsubscribe link
  expects exactly `{{unsubscribe_url}}`, which the personalization layer
  substitutes at send time. Keep the footer block (or its unsubscribe text)
  on every marketing template.

The substitution and URL-normalization rules that apply at render and send
time are documented under
[Personalization with merge tags](/channels/email#personalization-with-merge-tags).

## 4. Preview and send a test

1. Click **Preview** to render the blocks into the finished HTML document
   and inspect it in the canvas. Rename the template before previewing if
   you want a meaningful subject line in the rendered output.
2. Type a recipient address into the test-recipient field and click
   **Send Test**. The button activates once the canvas has blocks and the
   address is valid; the editor prompts for whichever is missing.
3. Check the proof inbox — click the links, load it on mobile, and confirm
   the personalization reads correctly against your own data.

A test send renders the current canvas content exactly as a real send
would, so it is the safest place to catch an unresolved merge tag or a
misplaced footer.

## 5. Import and export MJML or HTML

The Builder also speaks MJML, the responsive-email markup format:

* **Import MJML** opens a paste dialog. The source is transpiled into
  cross-client HTML and dropped into the same preview pane the **Preview**
  button uses. Non-fatal issues (unsupported components or structural gaps)
  list in the dialog while the best-effort render stays available, so you
  can fix the source and re-render.
* To export, click **Preview** and copy the fully rendered cross-client
  HTML from the preview pane, or call
  `POST /api/v1/messages/email-builder/render` from tooling to get the
  document programmatically.

The raw-MJML/raw-HTML path over the API (no dashboard editor) is documented
in the [email lifecycle guide](/guides/email-lifecycle-guide) — use the
visual Builder when you want on-screen design, and the API path when your
team manages templates as code.

## 6. Attach the template to a campaign

1. Click **Save Template**. Saved templates persist in your workspace and
   appear in the **Load Template** picker for anyone in the workspace to
   reuse.
2. When you build the campaign, copy the template's rendered HTML into the
   campaign content step — open **Preview** in the Builder and copy the
   finished document from the preview pane.
3. To drive template selection programmatically instead, a campaign can
   call `POST /api/v1/messages/email-builder/list` at send time, render the
   chosen blocks through `POST /api/v1/messages/email-builder/render`, and
   submit the resulting HTML as its message content.

Either way, the campaign's dry-run preview resolves the merge tags before
launch, so run it — the
[campaign end-to-end guide](/guides/campaign-end-to-end) walks the
audience, dry-run, and launch loop.

## Next steps

* [Email channel lifecycle](/guides/email-lifecycle-guide) — domain
  verification, warm-up, send patterns, suppression.
* [Using Templates](/channels/email#using-templates) — the render/save/list
  API contract behind the Builder.
* [Send a campaign end-to-end](/guides/campaign-end-to-end) — attach your
  template, dry-run, launch, and measure.
* [Email attachments](/guides/email-attachments) — size caps and MIME
  rules for file-bearing sends.