Working with newsletters

Prepare images

Image size

Width: Go to an existing newsletter and click "Details" (keyboard shortcut "i") and under "Page Info" check the number on the "width" field. That's the width your image should be (you may need to click "Show/hide additional metadata fields"). It's likely to be either "600" or "700".
Height: No set rule. We'd recommend a 2x1 look. A 600px width image would have the height of 300px. A 700px width image would have the height of 350px. But otherwise, we suggest keeping a standard height, if possible, throughout a newsletter, for uniformity.
File size: Below 100KB for 600px images, 120KB for 700KB images.

How to change the image size

Use options available on our Editing Images for Web page. For the Image Maker option, there are two options in the dropdown: "600w newsletter" and "700w newsletter" that will help create an image in the correct size.

Add image to Cascade

Click "(+) Add Content" and select the correct "Upload Image-..." asset factory.
Select the image file (or drag and drop it) from your computer.
If "File Name" has capital letter and/or spaces, consider changing.
For "Placement Folder" you can keep it as "misc" or select your newsletter's image folder (eg. /images/ceo)
For "Title" write what will appear as alt text (or potential caption) for the image. Should be a short description. What are you conveying to your audience? If an image contains words, add those words.
Select "Preview Draft"
Select "Submit" and "Start Workflow". This will both add the image to Cascade and publish the image to the web.

Edit the Newsletter

How to create a new newsletter?

Click "(+) Add Content" and select "New ... Newsletter"
Page Name: for organization we suggest adding the date to the name (eg if it's monthly "202x-04")
Placement Folder: do not change

Sections

These are the sections that make up your newsletter. Your newsletter may have multiple sections or just one. There's usually one story per section, an you can check/uncheck any of these options from your layout.

Headline 1: Use if you want a headline above an image.
Image: If you have an image to add to the section, add it here. There's also a "Show Caption" option.
Headline 2: Use if you want a headline below an image. If you do not have an image, you can choose "Headline 1" or "Headline 2"
Content: a WYSIWYG to add paragraph content. We advise do not add any formats apart from paragraphs and headings (as or normal classes do not work in newsletters)
Links: a section of links that can be styled in four different ways.
- Quicklinks: Appears as plain links
- Card Style: Appears with a large associated image (if it exists), title, and optional summary.
- Box Links: Appears as white text with a dark blue background
- Tiles Style: Appears with an aligned-left associated image (if it exists), title, and optional summary.
Horizontal Rule: A <hr> line appears below the section to denote the end of the section.

Publish the Newsletter

If you newsletter is not ready to go live

Select "Preview Draft". Make sure everything looks right.
Select "Submit".
Deselect "Use A Workflow" and "Submit" your changes. This will save your newsletter to cascade. You can then return to the newsletter and click "edit" to make more changes.

If you newsletter is ready to go live

Select "Preview Draft". Make sure everything looks right.
Select "Submit".
Select "Start Workflow" and follow the directions. This will publish the newsletter to the server and also have it show up in your newsletter feed.

Send as an email

Go to the published "www" version of your page (on www.upstate.edu/newsletters)
Select and copy the entire page (Edit -> Select All, Edit -> Copy)
Go to the Outlook Web client (owa.upstate.edu) and create a New Mail
Paste the page into your content section (Edit -> Paste, or Ctrl + V)
- If it's only appearing as plain text, change your mail view to HTML
- if certain styles aren't showing up, see if there's paste-options. If available, select: "Keep source formatting"
- Test the email by mailing it to yourself first