Unwrapping JungleMail 7.0
A major release for JungleMail today, and one that we’re very excited to share. This time, the changes are both visual and functional. In JungleMail 7.0, you’ll find updated tools to manage templates, redesigned Drag & Drop Builder, and a number of other features that are brand new.
Our previous major release was a big one – it brought you auto-scroll, support for site-relative URLs in Dynamic Blocks, and more control over user access, to mention a few – and we’re following up with yet another round of significant improvements to the tool.
Let’s take a look around.
Share and Personalize
Drag & Drop Builder – the heart of JungleMail – now has fresh look and feel, and is easier to navigate. You also have access to a number of new features to share your message faster.
Item Picker
When building a newsletter, you can use Item Picker to select items or documents across multiple SharePoint lists or libraries. Then, your content section will be automatically populated with the item data. With the right SharePoint data architecture in place, Item Picker is a powerful tool to quickly fill your email with newsworthy content.
How can you take advantage of this feature? Well, for example, a company may have three or more departments with corresponding SharePoint sites and separate News pages. You can use Item Picker to quickly select the posts you want to include in your newsletter and then specify the fields that you want to use (e.g., Title, Description). Once you’ve done that, JungleMail will fill in the newsletter with the corresponding item data for you.
Section Visibility
Also new in JungleMail is the ability to show or hide content sections depending on conditions related to recipients. For example, you can set section A to be visible only for recipients with specific email addresses. As a result, all the other recipients in the list will not be able to see this section in their newsletter. That’s a great tool to add another layer of personalization to your newsletters.
Start Conversations Faster
We rebuilt the template section from the ground up. Most of the built-in templates were updated, and several new ones we added to the mix. We also merged drag-and-drop templates and Rich Text ones into a single tab.
Templates are now divided into four main categories:
- Layouts. A couple of layout frameworks to get you started.
- Templates. Home for built-in templates in drag-and-drop or Rich text format (note: you will have to install them first via JungleMail settings). Your custom templates can also be saved here.
- Newsletters. Go here to load templates from previously sent newsletters.
- Drafts. If you save your newsletter template as a draft, you will be able to find it later in this tab. A good place to quickly save template ideas.
Template Folders
If you’re dealing with serious numbers of templates, you’ll love this: JungleMail now works with template folders. Unlike standard folders, template folders are actually SharePoint column values (or tags, if you will) that you can use to classify templates.
Take a look at this example:
Here, JungleMail displays templates filtered by the default All Items view and then by the General folder. Essentially, you have a double filter to really narrow down your search. You can easily select templates to move to another folder, too.
Save Content Sections
Templates are a staple in email-building tools. However, often you need to borrow pieces of content or layout from multiple templates to build that perfect newsletter. That’s why, in JungleMail 7.0, you can select and save individual content sections to be at hand when you need them.
Background Images
The long-awaited background image support is finally here. Please note that background images are only supported by some email clients (e.g., Outlook is not one of them), so make sure you have set appropriate fallback colors for your content just in case the background image is not displayed.
Image Folders
In the updated Image Gallery you can now create folders for images and easily move images from one folder to another. Not only that, but you can filter images by folders, too. Handy if you need to use the same images frequently or for recurrent company events such as birthdays.
But Wait, There’s More
In addition to new tools in the email building department, JungleMail 7.0 now has a lot more options to help with data security, newsletter storage, and accessibility.
Analytics Anonymizer
JungleMail is built to operate within your local network, so it’s inherently secure. However, if you’re looking to increase security even more, Analytics Anonymizer might be right up your alley. This feature modifies standard JungleMail reports into ones where recipient data (e.g., email address) is neither visible for users nor administrators. Instead, user pseudonyms are used. We originally built this option for our clients using JungleMail in accordance with German laws that put extra emphasis on data protection.
Newsletter Archive
In JungleMail settings, you can specify whether newsletter copies will be saved to a separate SharePoint page library. Once you have newsletter data saved as SharePoint items, you can do more things with them, such as grouping, filtering, connecting to a SharePoint workflow and so on.
Digital Signature
JungleMail now supports the use of digital certificates to prove newsletter authorship. Simply put, an email signature assures the recipient that the email came from you, not a bad actor, and that the content of the email has not been changed in transit. Again, this increases the security of your internal communications.
Custom UI texts
Last but not least, most of JungleMail user interface texts – navigation elements, commands, tabs etc. – can be modified to better suit your preferences. Of course, you can use this feature to translate the whole interface to your language, too.
Looking back on the feature list, you might think it’s a new product rather than an update. We certainly do! Also, we’re interested to know what you think of the newest improvements in the product. What should we work on next? Tweet us @enovapoint!
