How to use Dada Mail > Send a List Message
Use this form to write a message to be sent. e

Please download the PDF guide
"How to send authorized emails to your Dada Mail e-lists"

Note: Rather than use this method, you can send emails to the list from your email program. This will require sending it from the same email address as the one listed in Dada Mail as the List Owner Address (located in "Change List Information").

When you log in to your list's control panel, the first screen you see is the basic, super-simple version of sending a list message from your website. There's also an advanced screen that does the same thing, but with more options. We'll explore both screens here.

The basic screen should do most of what you'll want, but the advanced screen will do most anything else:

Basic Screen

Subject
This is the subject (duh!) of your mailing list message and will appear in the Subject: header of the message your recipients receive.

Format (basic only)
Email messages can be formatted in basically one of two ways: Plain Text and/or HTML.

Plain Text
Plain Text is simple and is easy to author; what you type is what will be sent, basically the same way you write it. The downside is that you're somewhat limited on how you can format a message: No different font sizes or colors and no images.

Even though Plain Text messages have these limitations, Plain Text messages create very efficient, quick downloading email messages. It's best to write out the message in a text editor and paste it into this form field, and keep your original as a backup.

HTML
HTML formatting uses the same source code as webpages. This gives you quite a bit of flexibility on how you can format and design your mailing list message.

What you want to do is write the HTML source code of the message. Pasting from MS Word won't work as expected. First, create the message with an HTML Editor or even Word (if you're using Word, you'll first need to "Save as a Webpage"). Then, look at the source code. If you don't have web design software to view the code with, view it through your browser, and use the browser's "View" > "Source" option. Copy the HTML source code and paste it into the HTML Version input box.

Make sure that the images are using absolute paths to the server they reside on (http://yourdomain.org/image.jpg for example), or use the trick in "HTML Version uses attached images" described below.

However, you won't be able to create an email message that is quite as complicated as a normal HTML web page: the following are not allowed or supported by the vast majority of mail readers:

• Frames
• Javascript
• Complicated Cascading Style Sheets
• Complicated, layered table-based layouts

Advanced Screen

Headers
Headers are a very important part of an email message, although you usually never see them. Included in the header of a mailing list message is information on the origin of an email message, who it's from, where it's going to, how the message should be shown and information about the mailing list it originated from.

From
The From: header will tell your subscribers who sent the email message. By default, this is set to the Dada Mail List Owner. You can change this if you want, but it may be of value to always have mailing list messages go out from the owner email address only.

If you want to change the From: address, use this format:

"Your Name" <you@yourdomain.org>

Reply-To
This header tells the recipient's mail server which email address to use if your subscriber replies to the mailing list message. By default, this is set to the List Owner. Use the same format as the From: header above.

Errors-To and Return-Path
This is where bouncing emails are sent, for example when an address is no longer valid or the recipient's mailbox is too full to receive your message.

Type of Mailing
This is used to set the kind of email that you're sending. This includes: list, bulk and junk. I have no idea why you'd want to label your mail as junk. Unless you have a reason to do so, I would advise against using this header at all. Leave the value blank.

Priority
This header states how "important" a message is, in relation to every other email message in someone's mailbox. Usually, the message will be marked as important graphically in the mail reader, perhaps with an exclamation mark by it's listing. It's best to keep the Priority at "normal".

Attachments
Attachments are files that are sent along with a email message. They can be anything from pictures, sound files, Word documents, PDF files, spreadsheets, and the like.

Note on sending attachments:
Attachments can dramatically increase the size of your individual mailing list messages. Taken individually, this size increase does not look troublesome, but multiply the increase by the amount of subscribers that you have and you may realize that sending a large attachment to a large mailing list can seriously bog down the server. This affects your site and everyone else who has a site sharing the same server. If we see repeated slow-downs due to your mailings, you will be hearing from us about changing your email habits.

Options
Check this box if you're making an HTML-code message. This applies the list template to the HTML message. In "Manage Copy" > "Email Messages", you can design how every outgoing HTML message will look. You design the frame of the message, i.e., the header, a footer if you want, and even a sidebar menu with links that bring people to your website.

Write Plain Text or HTML or both?
If you send an HTML version of your mailing list message, it's best to also send a Plain Text version as well. Why? Because some recipients might forward your message to their friends, and they might have their email programs configured to send only Plain Text messages. If you send the message in Plain Text and HTML, these subscribers will see your message in HTML (the Plain Text version hides in the background), and when they hit the "forward" button, they will see and send the Plain Text version.

Note: HTML version can use attached images
Instead of having to call HTML images from your server to be fetched by a subscriber's mail reader, you can embed the images in the email message itself. Be warned that this will add considerable weight to your message, but your message will be readable even if your subscriber's mail reader isn't online.

For example, if you have the image "header.gif" on the top of your email message, attach this image and make sure to check "HTML Version uses attached images".

In the HTML version of your mailing list message, write the <img> tag like this:

<img src="cid:header.gif">

This will tell the mail reader to actually look for the image in the email message itself.

There are some shortcomings to this: Dada Mail's archives aren't very smart on how to handle embedded images, and you'll see a broken image icon where the image should be in the archives. You will have to edit the archive later if you want to relieve this problem.

Start this mailing at this address: / Start this mailing at email number:
These options are helpful if, for some reason, your mailing list message failed to be sent to completion. This can happen for a variety of reasons, although rarely.

Both of these options work best when Batch Sending is enabled in the "Manage List" > "Sending Options" screen. You can get a good idea of where a mailing list message stopped sending if you've activated the batch email confirmations on this same screen. Batch email confirmations can be sent after each batch is completed. They look like this:

Mailing Summary:
___________________________________________________

Batch number: 4 has been completed!
Your list mailing has reached: 400 e-mail address(es)

Mailing Started: 05/11/2008 00:12:07
Batch Completed: 05/11/2008 02:34:55

Last email of this batch was sent to: name@example.com

Waiting 180 second(s) until next batch

If this were the last batch confirmation that was received, you could restart the message from the email address, name@example.com, or from email #400. If you're worried about mailing to some subscribers twice, consider putting a "sorry, we had problems with our mailing" blurb at the top of the message you resend, or start from one batch later. If each batch is 100 email addresses, you should start from email #500.

Send Test Message
A test message will go only to the List Owner and will not be archived, but will be sent exactly as if it were a live mailing. This is your chance to make sure formatting, etc. are looking like you expect. Do it! Especially when learning how Dada Mail works and looks.

Send Mailing List Message
Pressing this button will send your mailing list message to all your subscribers.

I'm sure.
If unchecked, you'll be prompted by a small window that will ask you if you really want to send the mailing list message.

Open in a new window.
If checked, sending the message will open a new window for viewing the message you sent. Either way, you'll see it, but viewing it in a new window preserves all the options that you made in the first window, so it's easier to resend the message after testing or if the mailing list message did not go to completion.

Show/Hide Archive Options
Click this link to open the options before hitting the button to "Submit Mailing List Message".

Archive This message
When checked, the mailing list message sent will be archived. This can be made to always be the default setting; go to "Manage List Archive" > "Archive Options".