This is part 2 of a 3-part series about the ConvertKit email editor:

At the end of the day, text is the most fundamental building block of any email. Here's how to make your content shine!

NOTE: After you've got text formatting down pat, don't forget to check out our separate guide here on adding media like images, HTML, and more.

If you simply start typing into the email editor, your text will be converted to a paragraph text block by default:

From here, you can just keep typing, format the text further, or convert it to another paragraph style (like a heading or list).

To format text, highlight it using your cursor. You can then format the highlighted text using the toolbar options at the top of the email editor.

For example, this is how you'd bold your formatted text:

From left to right, the toolbar has the following formatting options:

To change your text to a link, highlight the text and click the Link symbol in the toolbar.

Key in your link URL, then click the Apply button (or hit the Enter button on your keyboard) to turn your text into a link.

To unlink text, delete its URL from the Link symbol and click the Apply button.

If you don't highlight your text before keying in your link URL, we will use the link URL as the text for your link. Like so:

NOTE: You can also turn your text into a link trigger via the link menu. More on how to do that here!

To add text formatted as a heading, list, or blockquote, you have two options:

To convert an existing text block (such as a paragraph) to another text format, first click in the block it's contained in, then click the ¶ symbol in the email editor toolbar. Select the heading type to which you'd like to convert the text.

Here's an example of changing paragraph text to Heading 1 format:

Alternatively, you can click a blank content block and simply select your desired text format in the toolbar. The editor will automatically convert the block to that format, and then you can just start typing from there!

Here's an example of turning an empty content block into a bulleted list:

Next, let's go over the remaining text-related content block menu items, and how to use them!

Buttons are a great way to add a CTA to your emails that's a little more eye-catching than linked text!

To add a button, click the part of your email where you want the button to go. Next, click the plus (+) button to the left to open the content block menu (more info on that menu and how to access it here).

To add a button, select 'Button' from the content block menu. It'll insert a default black button, but you can customize it! Click the button to reveal the editing menu in the right sidebar:

Make sure you add the URL you want your button to point to, and customize the visual styling to your liking from the options on the right.

To edit your button's CTA, simply type directly into it:

You can easily add personalization shortcodes to your email from the content block menu!

Click the part of your email where you want to add the personalization shortcode. Then, select the @ symbol from the email editor toolbar. A personalization dropdown menu will appear.

Select any one of those options, and the shortcode will be inserted into your email accordingly!

NOTE: For more info on personalizing emails to your subscribers, click here. For more info on conditional tag content, click here.

To complete your mastery of the ConvertKit email editor, check out our dedicated guide on adding media (like images and more!) below 👇