The MailerPress editor is the drag-and-drop builder for your campaigns, automation emails and templates. You build the email with blocks (text, images, buttons and so on), see the result in a live preview, and MailerPress turns it into an email that adapts to desktop and mobile screens. The editor is included in the free MailerPress plugin.
The editor at a glance
| Area | What it does |
|---|---|
| Top bar | On the left: Block inserter (opens or closes the left sidebar), Undo, Redo and List view. On the right: revisions, the desktop/mobile preview switch, Save, the Settings menu (three dots) and Preview & Send. |
| Left sidebar | Three tabs: Blocks, Patterns and Media. List view replaces it with the tree of all the blocks in your email. |
| Canvas | The live preview of your email, where you select, edit and move blocks. |
| Right sidebar | Two tabs: Styles (colors, fonts, background and width of the whole email) and Block (settings of the selected block). |
In the Settings menu, you can also switch to Fullscreen mode or enable Top toolbar (the block toolbar then stays at the top of the screen instead of above the selected block).
Add blocks
- From the Blocks tab: drag a block from the left sidebar into the canvas. Blocks are grouped into Text, Media, Design and Email, and you can search them by name.
- With the slash command: an empty text block shows Type / to choose a block. Type
/to open the block chooser. - Between two blocks: hover the top or bottom edge of a block in the canvas, then click the + button that appears on the insertion line.
- From the Patterns tab: drag a ready-made group of blocks into the canvas. You can also save your own patterns (see Email templates and patterns).
- From the Media tab: search free images on Openverse (Search Openverse) and drag one into the canvas to create an Image block.
Some blocks only appear in the right context, for example automation or WooCommerce blocks. The email editor blocks reference lists every block and where it is available.
Edit content
Click a block in the canvas or in List view to select it. A toolbar appears above it, and its settings (typography, colors, padding, alignment, links, images…) open in the Block tab of the right sidebar.
- In text blocks, select text to format it: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, link, color, emoji, AI assistance and Personalization Tags (merge tags: placeholders such as the first name, replaced for each contact). Headings accept links too, so a title can act as a call to action.
- Use Transform to in the block toolbar to change a block into another type, for example a Text block into a Heading, a Button or List items.
- Buttons, sections, columns, hero blocks and images have a Border radius control. Unlink the values to round each corner differently.
- To resize an image, select it and drag a handle on its sides or bottom corners. The proportions are kept and the image cannot grow wider than its column. You can also set Image width in the block settings.
The Settings menu offers two editing modes: Edit mode (build the email with drag-and-drop blocks) and Live mode (edit content directly in the email preview).
Paste content from Word or Google Docs
Since MailerPress 2.1.0, a pasted document becomes editable email blocks instead of one big text block.
- Copy the content in Word, Google Docs or another rich text editor.
- In the MailerPress canvas, place the cursor in a Text or Heading block.
- Paste with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on Mac).
MailerPress creates Heading, Text, List items, Image, Table and Divider blocks and keeps compatible formatting. Images from the document are uploaded to your Media Library: PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP and AVIF up to 10 MB are accepted, SVG is not. A warning tells you if an image cannot be added. If the selected block has conditional display variants, or if you paste into another type of block (a button label, for example), the content goes into the current block only.
Work with columns
Since MailerPress 2.1.0, you can build and adjust multi-column layouts directly in the preview.
- Add a column next to a block: in the desktop preview, select a block inside a column, then click Add column on the left or Add column on the right in its toolbar.
- Move a block into a new column: in the block toolbar menu, choose Move block to a new column on the left or Move block to a new column on the right.
- Resize columns: in the desktop preview, hover between two columns and drag the handle.
- Change the layout: select a section. In Column layout, use Add left or Add right, or pick one of the Layout presets: 1 column, 2 equal columns, Narrow left, Narrow right, 3 equal columns, Wide center or 4 equal columns. When a column is selected, Choose a layout preset takes you to its section.
Changing the layout keeps your content: content from removed columns moves to the last remaining column. A section can hold up to 10 columns.
Organize blocks
Drag blocks in the canvas or in List view to reorder them. Every block sits inside a section or a wrapper (containers that group blocks).
The block toolbar menu offers Copy block, Paste block, Duplicate and Delete. In List view, each block’s options menu adds:
- Add before and Add after to insert a block at a precise position.
- Put in a wrapper, Add column and Add section for sections and wrappers.
- Rename to give the block a clearer name in the list.
- Hide and Show to keep a block in the structure without displaying it.
- Create pattern to save a section or wrapper as a reusable pattern.
Email footer
Campaigns include a default footer with the unsubscribe and subscription management links. Without MailerPress Pro, you cannot delete a campaign’s footer or the MailerPress mention. With MailerPress Pro, you can remove the footer once the email contains an unsubscribe or manage-subscription link elsewhere, for example in a Subscription links block. In automation emails, you can always remove the footer.
Settings menu and keyboard shortcuts
The Settings menu (three dots, top right) gathers the editor tools:
| Menu item | Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Code editor (MJML) | Ctrl+Shift+E | Edit or paste the email’s MJML code, a markup language made for emails (see How to Import an MJML Template). |
| Font manager | Ctrl+Shift+F | Install or remove Google Fonts (see How to Use Google Fonts). |
| Browse all templates | Ctrl+Shift+B | Replace the content with a template. |
| Save as template | Ctrl+Shift+S | Save the current email as a reusable template. |
| Export email as JSON / Import email from JSON | – | Download the email design as a file, or load a design exported from another email or site. |
| HTML code | – | Show the HTML of the email (MailerPress Pro, see How to Get the HTML Code of Your Email). |
On Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl. Other shortcuts: Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo, Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+Shift+D to duplicate the selected block, Esc to deselect, and Ctrl+K to open the command palette, a search box for editor commands (list view, code editor, font manager, patterns, save as template, new email, MJML import).
The editor saves your work automatically and keeps revisions (earlier versions) of each campaign. See Adjust autosave delay in the email editor and Increase the number of revisions per email campaign.
Preview and send
- Use the desktop/mobile switch in the top bar to check your email on both screen sizes.
- Click Preview & Send to send a test email, review the campaign settings, then send or schedule it.
For the full sending process, read Create an Email Campaign.