How to Send a Plone Newsletter via Email (e-Newsletter)

Instructions on how to embed your Plone newsletter in the body of an email and send to a listserv.

Always first test your email (e.g., send to yourself) before sending to a large group or listserv.

Using an appropriate URL

When using this method for sending newsletters from Plone, it is important that you use the http:// (public view) not the https:// (logged in) URL. Using the "logged in" URL will prompt your users to log in rather than sending them to article.

The "logged in" newsletter template has a specific warning not to use that URL for emailing newsletters.

Outlook 2010 Steps

  1. Click in the body of the email.
  2. Click the Insert tab.
  3. Click Attach File.
  4. From All Files (*.*) drop down choose Text Files (*.txt).
  5. In the File name box, paste in the link for the newsletter web page.
  • example: http://agsci.psu.edu/students/news/newsletter
  • From the Insert drop-down choose, Insert as Text.
  • Your web page content will be inserted into the email.

    • Outlook Web App (web browser interface) Steps

    1. Log in to the full version of the Outlook Web App (i.e. "Use the light version of Outlook Web App" should not be checked.)
    2. Open the newsletter URL in a browser (e.g., http://extension.psu.edu/animals/equine/news/newsletter)
    3. Select All (Command/Ctrl-A, or right click and "Select All", or Edit->Select All) of the text within the content area
    4. Copy the text (Command/Ctrl-C, right click, or Edit->Copy)
    5. Create a new email message in Outlook. In the body, Paste (Command/Ctrl-V, right click, or Edit->Paste).
    6. Your e-newsletter should now appear in the body of your email. Add a Subject, insert the proper listserv address or recipients, and Send.

    Outlook for Mac 2011 Steps

    1. Open the newsletter URL in a browser (e.g., http://extension.psu.edu/animals/equine/news/newsletter)
    2. Select All (Command-A) of the text within the content area
    3. Copy the text (Command-C)
    4. Create a new email message in Outlook. In the body, Paste (Command-V).
    5. Your e-newsletter should now appear in the body of your email. Add a Subject, insert the proper listserv address or recipients, and Send.

    Outlook 2007 Steps

    Verify that Outlook is configured to send HTML email

    1. Go to: Tools -> Options
    2. Click on the Mail Format tab
    3. Under the Message format heading, verify that HTML is selected in the dropdown
    4. Click OK

    Enable the Web toolbar

    1. Go to: View -> Toolbars
    2. Make sure Web is enabled

    Sending the email

    1. Paste the URL of the page you want to send into the Web toolbar textbox. This textbox says "outlook:Inbox" by default, and is located to the right of the globe/magnifying glass icon.
    2. Hit Enter. This will pull up your web page in Outlook.
    3. Go to: Actions -> Send Web Page By Email
    4. Add the recipient list, modify the default subject, and make any necessary changes to the email body
    5. Click Send

    Firefox Add-on Conflicts

    The Pure URL add-on removes the Google Analytics tracking code in browsers, which breaks the tracking functionality of the newsletter template. If you use this add-on, disable it before copy/pasting the newsletter template. You can verify the tracking code is in place by hovering over the links and observing the "utm_*" variables in the URL.

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