The newsletter designer

The Newsletter designer (under Community) builds a newsletter from blocks, the way you would lay out a parish magazine page: a masthead, headings and text, photos, articles, columns, buttons, a price list, a countdown, a sudoku and more. On the Standard plan, with the newsletter.

Start from one of the ready-made layouts (What’s on this month, a classic newsletter, an event, a fundraising appeal, an AGM notice, a hall closure) or from one of your own templates. Add blocks from the list on the left, drag them into order, and see the newsletter change on the right, on a computer or a phone.

The hall’s own blocks fill themselves in when you look at it and when it is sent: Hall events (your events on sale), Regular groups (the groups on What’s on and when they meet), Fundraising progress (a campaign’s progress bar and a button to give) and Committee. So a template saved once is up to date every month.

Personal touches. Type {{first_name}} in any text and each person sees their own name (“there” if they did not give one). {{hall_name}} and {{date}} work too.

Sending. Save, send a test to yourself, then Publish & send, now or at a time you choose. It goes to everyone who gets the newsletter (on the Newsletter screen), a few dozen at a time, each with their own link to stop it. Demo records are never sent. Save any block or group of blocks to reuse, save the whole design as a template, or print it for the notice board.

For example: The secretary starts from “What’s on this month”, adds a photo of the new kitchen and a line about the quiz night, and saves it as the template “Monthly”. With ModuleFest HallPro Pro, Send it by itself is set to use “Monthly” on the 1st, and each month the events, groups and roof fund are brought up to date without anyone touching it.

Les questions qu’on nous pose

Where do the pictures come from?
Your WordPress media library. Choose one or upload a new one from the block.

Why is a block empty in the preview?
Blocks that fill themselves in say what they need: an event on sale, a group listed on What’s on, an open campaign or committee members.

Can I use a template for the monthly newsletter?
Yes. Save it as a template, then choose it under Settings on the Newsletter screen. ModuleFest HallPro Pro sends it on the day you choose, brought up to date.

Can I send it as a PDF?
Yes. In Send, and in Send test, choose Send it as: in the email, as a PDF attachment, or both. With a PDF the email is a short note with the newsletter attached. To send a newsletter made somewhere else (Word, Publisher, Canva), save it as a PDF and use Or send a PDF you have already made on the list of newsletters.

Can I send it to people who are not on the list?
Yes: in Send, choose Email addresses I type in and type up to 500. Anyone on the list who asked to stop is left out. Others get it without an unsubscribe link, because they are not on the list, so only type addresses of people who expect it.

What does Opened mean?
How many people on the list had the newsletter’s pictures shown, each counted once. Many email programs hide pictures until asked, so the real number is usually higher. Typed addresses are not counted.