You've hit on a couple of common frustrations when trying to maintain consistent email layouts in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys (formerly Real-time Marketing). Let's tackle each of your questions:
1. Preventing Hyphenation (Wrapping Text on the Same Line):
The behavior you're seeing, where long words are broken with a hyphen and continued on the next line, is controlled by CSS properties, specifically word-break and hyphens.
Unfortunately, there isn't a global default setting within the Customer Insights - Journeys email builder to completely disable hyphenation. The settings for these CSS properties are typically applied at the individual text block level within the email designer.
However, here's how you can manage this and potentially streamline the process:
- CSS Inlining (Best Practice for Email): While you can't set a global default within the builder, you can apply CSS styles directly to the HTML of your text blocks to prevent hyphenation.
- When editing a text block, switch to the HTML view (usually an icon that looks like
<>).
- Within the
<p> tag (or the relevant HTML tag for your text), add the following inline CSS styles:
<p style="word-break: keep-all; -webkit-hyphens: none; -moz-hyphens: none; hyphens: none;">
Your long text goes here...
</p>
word-break: keep-all; prevents line breaks within words for non-CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) text.
-webkit-hyphens: none; -moz-hyphens: none; hyphens: none; explicitly disables hyphenation across different browsers.
- Saving as a Content Block: If you frequently need text blocks with this styling, you can create one with the inline CSS applied and then save it as a reusable Content Block.
- Design a text block, add the inline CSS in the HTML view, and then save it as a new Content Block.
- When creating new emails, you can then drag and drop this Content Block into your email, and the no-hyphenation styling will already be applied. This isn't a true default, but it significantly reduces repetitive work.
- Templates (Partial Solution): If you consistently use the same email structure, you can modify the HTML of your email templates to include this inline CSS within the default text block elements.
- Create or edit an email template.
- Go into the HTML view of the text sections within the template and add the inline CSS to prevent hyphenation.
- Save this template. Any new emails created from this template will inherit this styling.
Why No Global Default?
The lack of a global default for hyphenation likely stems from the fact that hyphenation can be desirable in some scenarios to improve readability and layout in narrower containers. Different design preferences and content requirements might necessitate different hyphenation settings.
2. Setting a Default Maximum Width for Email Layout:
You're correct that you can change the maximum width of an email in the "Style" or "General" settings of the email editor. However, there is also no direct global default setting within the Customer Insights - Journeys interface to set a default maximum width for all new emails.
Similar to the hyphenation issue, you'll need to rely on templates to enforce a consistent default maximum width:
- Modify Email Templates: The most effective way to set a default maximum width is by configuring it within your email templates.
- Create or edit an email template.
- Navigate to the email's overall "Style" or "General" settings (this is usually a top-level setting for the entire email canvas).
- Locate the "Maximum width" or similar setting and set your desired default value (e.g., 600px, 640px).
- Save this template.
- Crucially, instruct your users to always create new emails based on this modified template.
- Content Block for Layout (Less Ideal for Max Width): While you can create a Content Block with a specific container and max-width styling, this would require users to always drag this container into their emails and build within it, which is less intuitive than a template-level setting.
Why No Global Default for Max Width?
The absence of a global default maximum width likely provides flexibility for different branding guidelines or specific campaign requirements where a different width might be preferred. Templates serve as the mechanism to enforce organizational standards.
In Summary:
- Preventing Hyphenation: You'll primarily need to use inline CSS (
word-break: keep-all; -webkit-hyphens: none; -moz-hyphens: none; hyphens: none;) applied to text blocks, and you can save these as Content Blocks for easier reuse.
- Default Maximum Width: The best approach is to configure your desired default maximum width within your email templates and ensure users create new emails from these templates.
While these aren't ideal global defaults, they provide workable solutions for maintaining consistency in your Customer Insights - Journeys emails. Remember to clearly communicate these best practices to your email creation team.
