Adding Anchor Tags to Bulletins

Anchor Tags No Longer Best Practice

Best practices in email design and content are always changing. One important change that we’ve witnessed at Granicus is that some email clients and mobile devices no longer honor anchor tags when they are inserted into emails. 

Some email clients and mobiles devices will only display certain elements or features of the anchor tag code; others will not allow or display the anchor tag code at all. Because of this, using a table of contents in your organization’s newsletter with named anchors is simply no longer a best practice.

Our Recommendation

If you’re creating a bulletin that’s long enough to feel like it might need a table of contents, consider condensing your content. A better subscriber experience is sending shorter and more specific bulletins on a slightly more frequent basis, or sending a shortened version of your content and directing subscribers to a webpage with more information, like your organization’s website or a customizable govDelivery webpage using our Landing Pages feature.

If your organization still requires the use of a table of contents and anchor tags in your bulletins, instructions on how to insert them into your bulletin can be found below.

Creating a Table of Contents

The first step to creating anchor tags and a linking table of contents is to create the header structure at the top of your bulletin. You can use whatever structure you like, but simply enter the text for the order of your information in your bulletin. For example, your table of contents might look something like this:

I. Article Headline A
II. Article Headline B
III. Article Headline C
IV. Article Headline D

Inserting Content

The next step to creating proper anchor tags and a table of contents is to insert content and structure your information. After you have your information and images added in the format you want them, you can begin to connect different section of your email to each other using anchor tags.

Creating and Naming Anchors

1. In the bulletin editor, scroll to the headline or location in the bulletin that you would like to link to from somewhere else in the bulletin. Click on where you would like the anchor to be placed, and then select Anchor from the Insert menu.
2. Name your anchor in the dialog box that opens. You must name the anchor so that you can reference it when you add a hyperlink to your table of contents. You can name your anchor whatever you like; however, most people choose to name it something easy to remember, like a number or letter or even the title of the header you’re anchoring to.
   Note: Do not include spaces in your anchor name--if you do so, the anchor link will not work.
3. Enter the name of the anchor and click Ok.

You can now use hyperlinks to bring viewers of your bulletin to the specific location you have anchored.

Creating a Table of Contents

1. After you have inserted all of your heading content blocks, click on the anchor icon () for each heading block. After being clicked the anchor icon will turn dark gray ().
2. Drag and drop the Table of Contents block from the right side of the page into the bulletin. 

"Top of Page" Anchor

In the Advanced Bulletin Editor there is now a Top of Page anchor, you do not have to create it yourself. To insert a Top of Page anchor, follow these steps:

1. Click the Insert Link icon ()
2. Select the Web Link tab
3. Select Anchor from the Type dropdown menu
4. Select Top of Page from the Anchor dropdown menu
5. Click Insert