Personalization Pane

Overview

The Personalization Pane is a tool found throughout Cheetah Messaging, that allows you to define personalized content based on values in a selected field (including fields in joined tables), and to select and insert reusable assets, such as Dynamic Blocks or Opt-Out Messages.

Access

The Personalization Pane is not a standalone screen, and therefore isn't directly accessible from the System Tray. Instead, the Personalization Pane is displayed along the right-hand side of the screen, only when you're working with an element that supports personalization, such as a form, field, or message content. For example, the Personalization Pane is displayed when you place your cursor in the "Subject Line" field in an email Campaign, or when you're working in the Advanced Editor.

Usage

The Personalization Pane is divided into two main sections. The top section contains all the different types of fields and assets that you can use, organized into groups, such as "System Fields" and "URLs." The bottom section is referred to as the "Clipboard," and is used to display all of the previously-selected Merge Symbols (a Merge Symbol is a textual representation of a field or asset). The Clipboard allows you to quickly find and reuse assets or fields.

Note: The updated version of the Advanced Editor uses a slightly redesigned Personalization Pane that eliminates the Clipboard section. Instead, the Content Editor organizes all of the personalization fields into the top portion of the Pane, and all of the other assets and items into the bottom section (called the "Library").

The steps for selecting a field or asset in the Personalization Pane are generally the same regardless of which specific asset type you're dealing with. The details may vary slightly as some asset types require you to enter additional options or parameters, but the basic steps are as follows:

Within the Personalization Pane, click on the desired group or category to expand it.
Locate the field or asset type that you want to use, then drag it from the Personalization Pane and drop it into the field or content where you're using it.
If you're inserting a Personalization Field, the system will prompt you for additional details, such as a default value and format mask. If you're inserting a reusable asset, the system will display a Browse dialog box so you can browse to and select the desired asset.
The system creates a new Merge Symbol and adds it to the Clipboard section of the Personalization Pane.
Position your cursor in the field or content where you want to insert the field or asset.
Click the Merge Symbol in the Clipboard. The system inserts the Merge Symbol for this field or asset at the current cursor location.

Customization

While you can't customize the categories or asset types that appear within the Personalization Pane, you can determine the order in which Personalization Fields and Joins are listed, so that the most commonly-used ones appear at the top of the list. This sequence is set on the Tables screen.