How to Compose an Email or a Letter

Managing communication effectively is crucial for any church, and Elvanto provides powerful tools to help you stay connected with your congregation. Whether you're composing an email, sending a letter, or handling event communication, Elvanto makes it easy to reach your members. This guide will walk you through the steps to compose emails and letters, manage contact lists, and ensure your messages are formatted correctly. Additionally, we'll cover best practices for avoiding formatting issues when copying and pasting content. Follow these instructions to streamline your communication process and enhance your church's outreach efforts.

 

Composing an Email

  1. Select Recipients: Once you have selected your recipients, a window will appear.
  2. Start Composing: Click on the plus button next to ‘Send an Email’ to start composing your email.
  3. Use a Template: You can choose to use a template by selecting it from the drop-down menu. Learn more about creating email templates.
  4. Send Email: Click ‘Contact People’ to send the email.

Composing a Letter

  1. Start Composing: Click on the ‘Send a Letter’ tab to start composing your letter.
  2. Generate Address Labels: Use the ‘Generate Address Labels’ button to print labels, using the Label Size set in Settings > Account Settings.
  3. Filter Recipients: Choose the option to send a letter only to those who cannot be contacted via email or SMS from the dropdown on the right-hand side pane.

Why You Shouldn't Copy and Paste into Emails

The Email and Statement Compose windows don't handle copying/pasting from other email platforms or Word, as the underlying library (TinyMCE) doesn't support the formatting.

  1. Paste as Plain Text (Mac): Use COMMAND+SHIFT+V to paste without formatting.
  2. Paste as Plain Text (Windows): Use CTRL+SHIFT+V to paste without formatting.
  3. Use Notepad: Copy the email content, paste it into the free Notepad app, then copy and paste it from Notepad into Elvanto. This cleans all the formatting away, including hidden double spacing.

Example: Pasting with a particular font into a compose window in Elvanto will keep the source formatting rather than the destination formatting. Following the above steps will keep that from happening.