Emails in V4 are handled like regular content, so they live in your site map and are edited and translated in the usual ways. Generally speaking, you should set their access to executive level users only, so they aren't viewable from the website front-end. However, you could make them public in cases like newsletters that you also wanted to publish on your site.
Emails get their recipient lists from their parent object. In cases like membership rosters or events, the recipient list will be generated automatically from those rosters.
The subject line of an email is the title of the email content object.
You can embed graphics and links into your emails like any other CMS content - but try to use only public content since they will be reading it from their email program, not while logged in to your website. You can also add any number of file attachments.
Emails can be sent or re-sent. A regular send goes to everyone on the recipient list. A re-send goes to everyone on the recipient list that hasn't been sent to already. So if your recipient list grows (for example, your event gets new registrations), you can re-send to hit up everyone new, without bothering the people who have already received it.
Some modules will have a communications tab that outlines the standard emails and notifications that are supported.
When you are composing emails with merge codes, you have more types of merge code at your disposal:
((foo)) - include the merge data named "foo" here
((?foo))special text for foo only((/?foo)) - include the special text only if "foo" is defined
((!foo))special text not for foo((/!foo)) - include the special text only if "foo" is not defined
Example:
((?days_to_expiry))Your membership expires in ((days_to_expiry)) days.((/?days_to_expiry)) ((!days_to_expiry))Your membership expired on ((expiry)).((/!days_to_expiry))
This will tell the recipient how many days until their membership expires, unless it has already expired, in which case it will show a different message.
Specify a filter rule in the email's recipient filter setting, like this:
foo=bar
The recipient list will include only those whose merge data for "foo" equals "bar". If you view the recipient list, non-matching recipients will be crossed out.
To set multiple filter rules, use a format like this:
foo=bar&cat=dog
Only recipients who match ALL of the settings will receive the email. Again, the recipient list will display your filter matches.
If you have a saved report that includes an email column, you can use that as a recipient list. In the email configuration, enter the report title into the field "Extract contact list from report". Other columns in the report will be used as merge data, if you want to use mail-merge codes in the email.