The Properties panel enables you to create professional, branded email designs with precise control over visual elements and layout structure. Understanding how to use the Content, Rows, and Settings subtabs helps you build engaging email experiences that maintain brand consistency while optimizing for different devices and email clients.
When properly configured, these design controls help ensure your emails display correctly across various email platforms while maintaining the visual appeal that drives subscriber engagement and campaign effectiveness.
The Properties panel, along with the Canvas, helps you design your content in the drag-and-drop builder. It is divided into three subtabs: Content, Rows, and Settings.
Content Subtab
The Content subtab contains text elements you can choose and add to your message. Just drag and drop a content element onto the canvas area. Available elements include Title, Paragraph, List, Image, Button, Divider, Spacer, Social, HTML, Video, Icons, Menu, and Text.
Content Properties
When you click a content element in the message, the Content panel switches to Properties mode, allowing you to change the element’s settings. The Content Properties area changes depending on the selected content element.
For example, if you click on a button, the panel displays Button Properties alongside a set of button options that let you style the button and link it to your desired action, such as opening a web page, sending an email, or making a phone call. Under the Action section, you can configure the Link type and enter a destination URL or use a Link file to point to a file instead.
Under Button Options, the Auto width toggle, when enabled, automatically sizes the button to fit its label. You can also set the content’s font family, font weight, font size, background color, text color, alignment, line height, letter spacing, and text direction.
The Border radius field controls how rounded the button corners appear. The Content padding setting, which supports More options for independent top, bottom, left, and right values, controls the spacing between the button label and its edges. The Border setting lets you define a border style, width, and color around the button.
Under Block Options, you can set the overall Padding around the button block and use the Hide on toggle to control whether the button is hidden on desktop or mobile devices.
With buttons and numerous other content items, the builder gives you complete control over your email messages’ design. Some controls, including content padding and borders, have both a simple editing mode, where only one setting is shown, and an advanced editing mode, where more granular control is provided, such as specifying padding for each of the four sides of an object independently.
Note: Clicking outside a content element selects the row it belongs to and displays its properties in the panel.
Rows Subtab
The Rows subtab contains various structural elements for your message, allowing you to create sections with different column layouts. Rows with different structures allow you to organize content in ways that differ from the preceding and following rows. For instance, you may need a single-column row with a hero image to introduce a promotion, followed by a two-column row to display products side by side. Whenever you need to switch to a different number of columns, introduce a new section using the Rows subtab.
The first time you click the Rows subtab, a drop-down selection list appears with two default row category options: Empty and Default.
The Empty category displays a selection of empty rows with the number of columns and their widths already preset. This is the default view when you first open the subtab.
The Default category displays a selection of rows with preformatted content, including icons, text blocks, and buttons, to enhance your user experience. A Search by keyword field is also available in this view to help you quickly locate specific row templates.
Once you have created and saved your own custom rows, the names of those custom categories also appear in the Rows subtab drop-down. To learn more, see Drag and Drop Builder: Custom Row Categories.
Selecting a row switches the Properties panel to Row Properties mode. The builder provides great flexibility and customization at both the row and column levels across the following sections.
- Under Backgrounds, you can set the row’s background color, its content area background color, and toggle the row background image ON or OFF.
- Under Borders, configure its content area border with regard to its style, width, and color. Select More options to apply these settings to each side independently. You can also toggle Content area rounded corners on and use More options to set a radius for each corner individually.
- Under Layout, use Vertical align to position content at the top, middle, or bottom of the row. Set Stack on mobile to ON to collapse columns into a vertical stack on smaller screens. Use Hide on to prevent the row from appearing on desktop, mobile, or both.
- Under Dynamic Content, use a display condition to control which recipients see the row. Click Add condition to create a new rule, or click Manage Display Condition to update any conditions already applied to the row.
- Under Columns Structure, you can view and modify the column layout of the selected row. Click + Add new to insert an additional column. Each column has its own set of properties. You can set the column background color, configure padding for each side independently using More options, and apply a border by defining its style, width, and color.
Settings Subtab
The Settings subtab allows you to configure general design settings applicable to the entire message.
- Content area width: Indicates the width of the content area. According to email marketing best practices, it should typically be set to 600 px or less. The width specified here is the maximum width used for devices with larger screens. When the device screen is smaller, the message is automatically adjusted to fit it.
- Content area alignment: Controls whether the content area is aligned to the Left or Center of the message.
- Background color: Indicates the background color of the overall email message. This setting applies to rows and columns in which a color has not been individually specified. Otherwise, the background color set for that specific content structure is used.
- Content area background color: Indicates the background color for the content area itself. This setting applies to rows and columns where no specific color has been defined.
- Background image: Enables you to set a background image for the entire message when toggled on.
- Default font: Indicates the default font being used when no other font family is specified. This setting affects all text that uses the global font.
- Link color: Indicates the color of linked text throughout the message. This setting affects all text links that use the default link color.
