Calendar Event Notification Email formatting.

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jjlviper
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Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:52 pm

Calendar Event Notification Email formatting.

#1

Post by jjlviper »

It would be nice to be able to format the email that is sent out when we add a new event and would like it to email those subscribed a reminder. Currently, there is no formatting options, and even though you try to do basic formatting in the description, when it is emailed out it appears as one big paragraph even if you put it in multiple paragraphs. The Leadership "Send a Message" option at least keeps the enters, but it would be nice for some basic formatting options there too. Be able to include clickable links to a church article for a lesson, for example.
jonesrk
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#2

Post by jonesrk »

jjlviper wrote: The Leadership "Send a Message" option at least keeps the enters, but it would be nice for some basic formatting options there too. Be able to include clickable links to a church article for a lesson, for example.
If you know basic html you can include some formatting in the Leadership "Send a Message". I have included links to our newsletter and included bold and underline for grouping sections.
kisaac
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#3

Post by kisaac »

Could you share with those of us that know basic copy and paste operations of "basic html" commands?
jonesrk
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#4

Post by jonesrk »

kisaac wrote:Could you share with those of us that know basic copy and paste operations of "basic html" commands?
A few examples that I use

<strong><u>Stake Conference Date Change</u></strong>
looks like Stake Conference Date Change

<hr/> makes a separator line

<h1>Headings of various sizes (use h1 thru h6)</h1>

<a href="https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.p ... 3588">Link to example post</a>
this makes a link. The text between the tags is what shows. The value in the href quotes is the url it goes to.

<ul>
<li>List item 1</li>
<li>List item 2</li>
</ul>

<span style="font-size: 75%; color: red;">new</span>
you can change a lot about the text by using the style attribute of a span (or div) tag. One good source for the options is here. I'm still testing how this looks on some of the phone's email.

When I use these I build the email and send it to myself first to make sure everything looks good and then I send it to the group I want.
kisaac
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#5

Post by kisaac »

Great JonesRK! I've coveted linkability in "send a message" for so long I may have to go send some spam just to try it out! I've told many members that you didn't have to be a programmer to use these tools...but it helps to know one!
jonesrk
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#6

Post by jonesrk »

kisaac wrote:Great JonesRK! I've coveted linkability in "send a message" for so long I may have to go send some spam just to try it out! I've told many members that you didn't have to be a programmer to use these tools...but it helps to know one!
That is how I fake adding attachments. I upload the attachment to a newsletter article and then link to the attachment.
kisaac
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#7

Post by kisaac »

JonesRK wrote:That is how I fake adding attachments.
It works to link a calendar event, sort of!
I pasted your link string as is into a lds.org calendar event description, like this. unreadable html!
link in gmail.jpg
(64.85 KiB) Downloaded 129 times
But when I saved it and Hoover over the event in month view..The link appears. I just can't select it on the hoover:
formatting.jpg
formatting.jpg (20.17 KiB) Viewed 1761 times
When I set it to send an email to my gmail, we saw ink success! Readable and the link worked! The formatting codes worked in gmail too.
lesson schedule.jpg
(47.62 KiB) Downloaded 129 times
hoover.jpg
hoover.jpg (12.69 KiB) Viewed 1760 times
So, I tried pasting the link code in Lesson Schedules in the hope that I could link to conference talks...but it failed.
event description.jpg
event description.jpg (37.12 KiB) Viewed 1759 times
So, if you don't care what it looks like if somebody pulls up the "view event" screen, because it's just the html, it works!
russellhltn
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Location: U.S.

#8

Post by russellhltn »

The question is what does this look like once it gets synced the LDS Tools, smart phones, Outlook, etc? Do all those devices support HTML in the description?
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
kisaac
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Location: Utah, united states

#9

Post by kisaac »

It's really not a viable workaround for linking anything in the calendar, but is good for the Leadership "send a message." We just need to wait as these tools mature a little more.
mprusse
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Location: Littleton, CO-USA

Re: Calendar Event Notification Email formatting.

#10

Post by mprusse »

It has been nearly two years since these posts. Have there been any updates to the Calendar app to allow formatting either in the event description or event emails? We really need these formatting features if we're going to use the event description to show information in a practical format other than one run-together long paragraph.

Thank you for the help.
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