Mobile Stacking Order in Drag and Drop Email Template

[#1]

Hi community,

I am trying to create an email with multiple content sections. In a non-mobile view, the image and copy in each content section would alternate sides of the screen (i.e. Section 1: Image Left and Copy Right, Section 2: Image Right and Copy Left etc.).

tablet / desktop view - desired alignment

Using the drag and drop email template builder, I have created an email which does this (see above) - except in mobile view (see below).

mobile view - images not stacking first

I tried using this article to help me with code to create a mobile stacking order (https://designers.hubspot.com/docs/snippets/responsive/how-to-customize-your-mobile-stacking-order). As I couldn't see how to attach a css file, I added to code to the head markup in the email template:

adding code from HS article to head markup

and added the css classes to the modules:

css classes in modules

It's not working and as a marketer, not a developer, I'm out of my depth now. Can anyone help me resolve the issue please?

Many thanks,

N

[#2]

Hi Natalia, 

Unfortunately email template development's trickier than website development as it's more outdated. The drag and drop modules for webpages use one type of element (divs) whereas emails use nested tables so they behave differently.

The two methods on that link are intended for websites. The first method, Flexbox isn't supported on most email clients and the second method, float, isn't supported on Outlook and I'm not certain how it would work with the drag and drop templates in general as I haven't tested it out.

The most reliable way I've found to achieve this is to create a custom coded module and use the table's "dir" parameter as described here. I'm afraid this means that some HTML/CSS and email template development knowledge is needed.

If it's any consolation, most developers I know also find email templates highly frustrating 

---

Stephanie O'Gay Garcia

HubSpot Design / Development

Website | Contact

If this helped, please mark it as the solution to your question, thanks!

[#3]

Hey Stephanie, I'm creating an email template under Design Tools with the drag & drop email editor and I'm having this same problem (unable to change the way the blocks stack on mobile). I'm sure other users are having this issue as well. I looked at the article you linked to and the steps didn't work for me unfortunately. Going over the article with a HubSpot support rep we found that the steps don't apply when working with HubL modules because the "dir" variable is not supported. The only theoretical solution we came up with was to convert the email template to HTML, add the "dir='ltr'/dir='rtl'" style tag in-line for every single <table> and <td> element, and even then, after converting the email template to HTML there is still a mix of HTML and HubL code. It would be great if HubSpot updated the drag & drop email editor to give users the ability to easily change the stacking order of their modules on mobile.