Managing Designs

This quick start guide focuses on design management options. Are you looking for documentation on creating designs in Beefree? If so, see the Building Content in Beefree quick start guide.

If you're looking for something else, check out our other guides:

• Navigating Beefree
• Professional, Business & Enterprise
• Glossary

Beefree allows you to create three types of designs:

• Emails
• Landing Pages
• Templates (both Emails & Pages)

Templates are stored in your Library tab. Emails and landing pages are stored in your Projects tab.

Templates act as starting points for the emails and pages you design in Beefree. As a result, options are limited when working with templates. When you start working with emails and pages, you’ll see more options. Let’s take a look at the different features available. 

Details page

Each individual design created in Beefree includes a details page. Any time you exit the builder, you land on the details page for the associated design. You can also access it from the options icon in the upper-right-hand corner of your design preview.

Regardless of whether you’re working on an email or a page, you’ll always see the following options on this page:

• A design preview panel appears on the left side of the page. You can use this preview panel to access the hosted version of your design. You can also copy the URL or generate a QR code to easily open the design on a mobile device.*
• The Email or Page Details tab allows you to edit the name of your design. If you click the edit icon, you can change the design name*, assign tags*, write a description*, or set a status. You can find more information about the Email Details page in Using the Email details. For information on Page Details, see the View Details section of our Pages article.
• The Email Review tab where you can ask for a review to other users. More information about the design status on this article.
• The Email or Page History tab keeps a record of historical versions of your design. This allows you to recover a previous version or see who worked on the design most recently. This feature is limited on Starter plans. Full details can be found in View & restore a previous version of an email or page.

*These options are available on template details pages as well.

Depending on which type of design you're working with, you'll see different options. Let's start with the available options for emails, pages, and templates. 

Edit email/page/template

This option populates as a button above the details portion. This allows you to launch the design in the builder so you can continue making changes. 

Generate email/page

If you're working with templates, this option creates an email or a page in the projects tab. The option that populates depends on which type of template you're working with.

However, this option also shows up for Pages and Emails. If you are working with an Email, you'll see the option to Generate Page. Conversely, Pages will show the option to Generate email. This allows you to easily swap design types without needing to recreate your content.

Next, let's take a look at the options available for emails and pages only. 

Export

An Export option will populate to the right of the Edit button. Exporting transforms your design from a visual design into HTML so you can use it anywhere on the web. Beefree offers the following export options:

• Get HTML & Images, which generates a ZIP folder including the HTML and your images. This export option requires you to host your images elsewhere on the web. 
• Copy the HTML, which allows you to copy or download an HTML file. With this export option, your images remain hosted on Beefree. This can be convenient, but charges may apply. 
• Push to your sending system, which is the export option you can use with our connectors. This pushes the HTML for your design directly to the connected sending platform. Similar to the previous option, your images remain hosted on Beefree. This can be convenient, but charges may apply.
• Download a PDF, which generates a PDF version of your design. There are several PDF formats to choose from (now the mobile version is available!). This export option is only available on paid plans. 

Keep in mind that we use different coding methods for emails and pages. Export output is dependent on the type of design you create. For more information on export options, please see Testing and exporting your emails with Beefree. For more information on Beefree connectors, please see Using connectors in Beefree.

Emails and pages each offer unique options on the details page. Let’s take a quick look at these features. 

Emails

Send test email

If you’re working with an email, you have the option to send a test message to any email address. This is a great option to test how your email will appear in different email clients. 

Preheader & UTM

You can use Beefree to apply preheader text to your email. This is useful if your email sending platform doesn’t include a preheader feature.

You can also use Beefree to apply UTM parameters to the links within your email for tracking purposes. Our UTM feature was developed with Google Analytics in mind.

You can find full details on these features in Using Preheaders and UTMs.

Create a Template

Are you frequently using the same email to create copies as a starting point for your designs? If so, you can also use the Create a template option to create a copy of your design in your Library. 

Pages

Publishing

You can host your landing pages directly on Beefree! Use the Publish toggle on the details page to remove “preview” from the hosted URL from your page. For more information, see the Publish option section of our Pages documentation. 

This feature is compatible with custom domains in Enterprise accounts. We talk about this more in the Professional, Business & Enterprise Quick Start Guide. 

Settings and Analytics

Use this feature to apply metadata to your design without modifying the source code. We use your metadata in the hosted version of your design. It’s also included in the export output if you are self-hosting your landing page. For more information, see the Title & Meta description section of our Pages documentation.

Share

This option allows you to easily share your landing page on a social media platform. You must publish your page to use this option. For more information, see the Share section of our Pages documentation. 

Design list

Your design list includes all emails and pages stored within the current view. You'll find design lists in the following places:

• The projects tab (under "Designs")
• Project folders
• Library

Each design will populate with a preview thumbnail and a label to let you know whether it's an email or a page. Below the thumbnail, you can find the design title, the most recent person who worked on it, and the date of the last edit. However, templates do not store design history. As a result, you won't see the most recent editor on template thumbnails.

When you hover over the design thumbnail, you can find more options. An icon with three vertical dots will populate in the upper right-hand corner. If you click on this, you'll see many of the same options available on the details page. However, there are some options here that you won't find elsewhere:

• For emails and pages, you'll see the option to copy the design in question.
• For templates, you'll see the option to duplicate your template.
• You can delete your design.

When working in the project tabs, you'll also see an empty box populate in the upper left-hand corner. You can use this to bulk-select your emails and pages. The bulk selection also allows you to delete multiple designs simultaneously.

If you're using a paid account, you'll also see the options to Move your designs. We talk more about this in our Professional, Business & Enterprise Quick Start Guide. 

Next: Building Content in Beefree