One of the great advantages of using LISTSERV Maestro is the ability to customize what you and your subscribers see. The customization available varies depending on the type of user you are (administrator, data administrator, template manager, end user) and the type of permissions you are granted in LISTSERV Maestro.
If you are an administrator, then you can perform limited customizations to the User Interface and the Administration Hub (see Section 3 User Interface Branding for more information) or you can translate the text in the User Interface to another language using the L-Soft Resource Translation Tool (see Section 4 Using the Resource Translation Tool for more information).
If you are a data administrator, or you have the permission to customize subscriber pages, then you can customize the Subscriber Interface, which means you can modify every page and email that a subscriber will see (see Section 2 Customizing the Subscriber Interface for more information).
If you are a template manager, or you have permission to create message templates, then you can create customized message templates in plain text or HTML using a variety of methods (see Section 5 Creating Customized Message Templates for more information).
Situation: You are fine with the default layout of the membership area pages, but you do not want to use the default style. Instead of the default blue bar at the top of each page and the default colors and fonts, you want to define a design style of your own, including a common frame for all pages and common styles, fonts, and colors.
Solution: Use the Customization Interface in LISTSERV Maestro to customize the Membership Area Header/Footer Template. This template is inherited by all pages of the membership area; therefore, by defining your own common frame (i.e. header/footer) in this template, and by providing your own HTML styles, you can easily give the pages your own unique design. For an overview of the Customization wizard, see Section 2
Customizing the Subscriber Interface. For information on customizing the Membership Area Header/Footer Template, see Section 2.4.1
The Membership Area Header/Footer Template.
Situation: In general, you are fine with the appearance of the pages, error messages, and email notifications, but you would like to change the wording of a few sentences or messages. You would like to only make these changes once, allowing your datasets to use the changes and preventing you from having to repeat these same changes for each new dataset.
Solution: Do not use the Customization Interface; instead, use the Resource Translation Tool. The Translation Tool allows you to change some of the default text that LISTSERV Maestro uses for the default layout. By directly modifying the default text, you will influence not only a single dataset but all of the datasets that are using these defaults. For this situation, you are not translating text; instead, you are supplying custom replacement values for parts of the text. Make sure to choose English as your target language when using the Translation Tool for this situation. For information on the Resource Translation Tool, see Section 4
Using the Resource Translation Tool.
Situation: In general, you are fine with how the pages, error messages, and email notifications look, but you would like them to appear in a different language. Plus, you would like all of your datasets to use this different language for the default pages.
Solution: Use the Resource Translation Tool to customize the default texts that LISTSERV Maestro uses for the default layout. By directly modifying the default text, you will influence not only a single dataset but all of the datasets that are using these defaults. For information on the Resource Translation Tool, see Section 4
Using the Resource Translation Tool.
Situation: In general, you are fine with how the pages, error messages, and email notifications look, but you would like to change the wording of a specific sentence or message for a specific dataset.
Situation: There are certain pages in a specific dataset that you are not satisfied with and you’d like to change how the pages look. For example, you’d like to have a different order of the various elements on the page.
Situation: There are certain email jobs that you create on a weekly basis for your newsletter. These email jobs can be very time consuming, and you wish they could look better, but you’re not very good at HTML coding. Or, you know some HTML coding, but you don’t have the time to create what you really want.
Solution: Using LISTSERV Maestro’s template designer will let you easily create professional looking HTML messages with or without the HTML coding. The template designer will save you time and will also give you the opportunity to save templates for future use. For more information, see Section 5
Creating Customized Message Templates.
Situation: The default texts of the membership area notification emails are fine, but you’d like a different default style. In other words, rather than a plain default style, a more unique design style is wanted, especially for the HTML versions of the notification emails, including a common header and footer for all emails and common styles, fonts, and colors.
Solution: Use the Customization Interface built into LISTSERV Maestro and customize the notification email header/footer template only. By default, this template is inherited by all notification emails of the membership area; therefore, by defining a common header and footer and by providing custom HTML styles in this template, all emails can be easily given the new design. For more information, see Section 2.5
Editing Subscriber Notification Emails.
Situation: For some notification emails of a given dataset (or even all of the available ones), the layout and/or text of the emails is not what you want. For example, various elements in the emails need to be reordered, reworded, or rewritten.
Solution: Use the Customization Interface built into LISTSERV Maestro and customize the email notifications in question to change the current layout by providing custom content for both the HTML and plain text versions. For more information, see Section 2.5 Editing Subscriber Notification Emails.
