Design and spam test update: Staying above the fold line
Posted by David Greiner on October 12, 2007
Our new design and spam testing tool has proven a huge hit. We've had loads of great suggestions coming through, some of which we'll definitely be entertaining with future updates. One requests that we've heard quite a bit this week is to be able to see where the preview pane ends for those email clients we're not providing preview pane screenshots for.
As we've recommended many times before, it's important to make sure the key content of your email is viewable in the preview pane for each recipient. You want to make sure they see the good stuff without needing to scroll.
We've just pushed a nice update live that displays the "fold line" for every screenshot we produce. Just roll your mouse over any screenshot, and we'll display a big red line indicating where this visible area stops. This makes it a piece of cake to ensure your key content is accessible to all your recipients without the need to scroll. Here's a quick screenshot of the fold line in action.
This update is available in all design and spam tests, even the ones you ran in the first week. We've got some great ideas on how we can improve this even further, especially making it easy to show the screens and spam filter results to your clients.
2 comments so far
Search all posts
Dig into a category
- Articles/Tips (98)
- Email Newsletter Design (120)
- Happy Customers/Press (88)
- In the Forums (7)
- Interviews & Case Studies (9)
- New Features & Updates (106)
- Observations & Answers (84)
Stay in the loop
Prefer updates via email? Sign up below and we'll send you all the good bits each month.
Popular articles
Why we need standards support in email
Read why standards in HTML email are so important, and what we're doing about it.
Email design guidelines
Learn how to design for images being turned off, preview panes and other useful tips.
CSS support in email in 2007
The CSS support of every popular email environment with recommendations to boot.
Image blocking in email
A roundup of how each of the popular email clients suppress images in HTML email.
Can I use flash in email?
We test flash support in all the popular email clients. The verdict - don't do it.
Email design gallery
Our email design gallery showcases more than 150 amazing email designs sent by our talented customers.
Gavin
wrote on January 9, 2008 5:01 AM
I know far too many people that have massive vertical space stolen by huge toolbars - that throws off the fold line completely, no?
G
Dave Greiner
wrote on January 9, 2008 6:21 PM
That's a good point Gavin, the current fold lines are based on a standards installation, so if someone does add additional plugins, they viewable area will shrink. Of course, many of the email clients we test, including all web-based email clients, don't allow you to add additional plugins as part of the interface, so the provided fold lines will always be accurate.
Got anything to add?