This article goes over the differences between Emma's legacy editor and the new drag and drop editor.

After years of collecting feedback and testing, Emma launched a new and improved drag and drop editor that became available in all accounts in April 2022. Since the release of the new drag and drop editor, the previous editor is now called the legacy editor and the new editor is called the drag and drop editor.

Any accounts created after April 2022 only have access to the new drag and drop editor. Accounts that were created prior to April 2022 can still access the legacy editor through their legacy templates and campaigns that existed prior to the release of the new editor. These legacy templates and campaigns are labeled as "LEGACY" in the user interface, in order to distinguish them from templates and campaigns created in the new editor, which are labeled "EDITOR".

You can still access, edit, and send legacy campaigns and templates, but you will no longer be able to create new legacy campaigns or templates from scratch. If you choose to build a new mailing from scratch, it will always open in the new drag and drop editor. For more information about your saved legacy templates and campaigns, check out this article.

Visual and functional changes of the new editor

The drag and drop editor panel is on the right

One of the first things you'll notice is that the editor panel has moved from the left side to the right side of the page. It takes up a bit more space, as it also houses the 3 main tabs for Content, Rows, and Settings.

Template controls are found under settings

The column and backdrop controls that you are used to seeing at the top of the legacy editor are now found in the editor panel on the right under Settings. The Settings tab controls the default settings for the campaign, which you can read more about here.

There are new content blocks

We've broken the Text block into three new blocks: Title, Paragraph, and List. These new blocks make it easier to customize your text and help make your campaigns more accessible for recipients. The other new blocks are Icons, Menu, and Table. You'll still find several content blocks that you are familiar with including, Image, Button, Divider, Events, Social (previously Follow), HTML, Video, and RSS.

All changes are continuously autosaved

The drag and drop editor is designed to autosave all changes every 60 seconds, so there is no need to click to save your work as you are creating it.

The drag and drop editor times out

When a user opens a campaign in the drag and drop editor, Emma starts an invisible 50 minute timer. When a user is idle for 50 minutes, a pop-up window will appear asking them if they are still editing. If they do not respond within 60 seconds, they will be automatically logged out.

The 50 minute timer is reset every time a user clicks outside of the editor. As a result, if a user is busy in the editor and does not click on anything in the top gray bar such as Rename, Preview, Send test, Save, or Review, then Emma will think the user is idle. Users can prevent this by periodically clicking on one of the buttons listed above in order to reset the timer.

Note: There are some other factors that can interfere with Emma's ability to track session length. We recommend that you have only one Emma tab open at a time, so the first step will be to close any additional open Emma tabs. Next, you may need to clear your browser's cache and cookies. If you have browser plugins, you may also need to turn those off. If the behavior persists, your organization may have some network settings that prevent Emma from tracking session length; try logging in to Emma with a personal device on a network that isn't connected to your organization. If that resolves the behavior, your IT team will be your best resource for preventing it on your organization's network.

Editor properties show depending on where you click

Anytime you click inside the body of your campaign, the editor panel will show the content properties that are specific to the block you are on. When you click outside the body of the campaign, the row properties will show in the editor panel.

When you are working in either the content or row properties, you can find the options to delete or duplicate the selected area at the top of the tab. Next to those options is a down arrow that, when clicked, will switch you to the parent view of that function where you can either add an entire row (in a variety of formats) or add a content block to your campaign.

The Review & send button changed to just Review

In the new editor, you will not see the usual Review & send option at the top of the page, instead it will just be Review.

There are no plaintext view or edit options for the campaigns

All new drag and drop campaigns will be created in the usual color-rich HTML format and you will not have the option to view or edit a plaintext version. You can, however, choose to send a plaintext version when you are on the Review page.

You cannot view or edit the HTML code of the campaign

You cannot switch to see the HTML code for the entire campaign the way you could in the legacy editor. As an alternative, there is an HTML content block option that you can use to add your own HTML code in certain areas of your campaign. The HTML block is also where you can add CSS types of customizations to your campaign.

Exciting new features

Mobile design mode

Adding to the ease of using Emma's mobile optimized templates, our new mobile design mode allows you to switch the view of the drag and drop editor while you are creating or editing a campaign to not only see how it will look on mobile but to continue to build or edit the campaign while in the mobile view. You can also easily select to hide content while in mobile design mode.

Undo, redo, and change history

The new editor tracks all changes made in a session so you can revert to a previous version at any time, allowing you to edit with confidence. When the editor detects changes, you'll see a widget in the bottom left-hand corner where you can undo and redo edits and scroll through all the changes in that session.

Please note: Changes are only stored for that specific session. If you leave the editor and reopen the campaign draft later, you will not be able to undo any of the changes made in the previous session.

And much more!

It's hard to fit all the great things about the new drag and drop editor in one article. Plus, we're always making improvements and adding new tools. You can stay up-to-date on Emma's product news by logging into your Emma account, clicking on your name in the upper right corner, and choosing What's new from the dropdown menu.

Additional resources

• Drag and drop editor: Resource hub
• Drag and drop editor: Overview
• Drag and drop editor: Content tab
• Drag and drop editor: Rows tab
• Drag and drop editor: Settings tab
• Drag and drop editor: Frequently asked questions
• Quick how-to videos on using the new drag and drop editor
• What will happen to my legacy templates?
• How to use mobile design mode