Chamaileon’s Drag & Drop Email Design Editor
The Chamaileon Email Builder is built to help teams create high-quality, responsive, and reusable email templates—quickly and consistently.
This guide gives you an overview of the editor interface itself, with a focus on how it supports design-system-driven workflows, flexible layout control, and seamless collaboration.
Whether you're a seasoned email designer or a marketer creating campaigns at scale, this article walks you through the essentials of working inside Chamaileon's drag & drop editor.
Design System-First Email Creation
Chamaileon is more than just a template builder—it’s a tool for building modular email design systems.
You can create templates and reusable components based on your brand’s style guidelines:
Style Presets: Define brand fonts, colors, and Components once—then apply them consistently.
Modules (Blocks): Build reusable sections (like headers, CTAs, footers) that can be dragged into any template.
Locked Design Tokens: Keep branding intact by locking certain styles while still allowing text/image edits.
This modular approach supports both:
Speed – drag in pre-approved blocks instead of building from scratch
Scale – reuse modules across brands, campaigns, and teams
💡 Want consistency across campaigns? Create a shared email design system in Chamaileon and enforce visual guidelines without limiting creativity.
Flexible Navigation & Interface Controls
Chamaileon’s email editor is structured to give both designers and content contributors the control they need—without stepping on each other’s work.
🔁 Undo/Redo Stack
Make edits freely and confidently with the ability to step back or forward through your changes—perfect for fast iteration and mistake recovery.
Breadcrumb Navigation
Quickly move through your email’s layout hierarchy with the breadcrumb menu above the canvas. This is especially useful when working with deeply nested elements or overlapping modules.
See the path from Section → Row → Column → Box → Content Block
Click on any level to select that component instantly
Great for understanding structure at a glance and jumping to the right layer for editing
🛠️ Right-Side Properties Panel (Design Layer)
Selecting any block unlocks detailed layout and styling controls in the right-hand panel:
Adjust padding, margins, alignment, borders
Apply background colors or images—even VML-safe backgrounds for Outlook
Set responsive behavior or visibility toggles
✳️ Designers and admins can use this panel to fine-tune the layout. For content contributors, access can be restricted to keep design integrity intact.
✏️ Inline Content Editing (Safe for Contributors)
Content contributors can edit copy, images, links, and buttons directly in the canvas—without touching the design.
No need to open the right-side panel
Text formatting, links, and image replacements happen via intuitive top-of-block toolbars
Prevents accidental changes to padding, colors, or layout
💡 This separation of concerns makes Chamaileon ideal for teams with strict brand guidelines: designers lock the structure, while marketers focus on the message.
Drag & Drop Precision
Rearrange blocks freely across rows and columns
Multi-column element with flexible column number, size, and spacing
Duplicate, delete, or nest elements with full visual control
Preview & Test
Responsive Preview Toggle: Instantly preview how your email will render on desktop and mobile views with support for both light and dark modes.
Test Sending & Share Options: Use built-in tools to send test emails or generate a shareable preview link for stakeholders—no ESP needed for review.
Real-Time Collaboration
Chamaileon’s editor supports live multi-user editing inside the same email template.
All users can edit simultaneously—no locked fields, no version conflicts
See each user's presence, cursor, and editing area in real-time
Each user is color-coded so you can easily track who’s working where
Benefits:
Fewer handovers, faster approvals
Fewer mistakes or overwrites
Eliminates long feedback loops over email or chat
This is ideal for fast-paced teams who need to build and review emails together—especially during launches or tight timelines.
📝 Pro tip: Once editing is done, you can use Chamaileon’s separate Review & Approval Interface to collect stakeholder feedback, comments, and final sign-off outside the live editing canvas.
Merge Tags Support
You can insert merge tags (e.g., *|FNAME|*) for personalization using your ESP’s syntax.
Organize tags into ESP-specific groups
Add them to any text block via a dropdown in the editor
Prebuilt tag sets available for popular ESPs (like Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, etc.)
Dynamic Content Blocks with Visual Logic Editor
For advanced email personalization, Chamaileon supports dynamic blocks and dynamic images—powered by visual logic conditions.
What’s possible:
Show or hide content blocks based on custom rules (e.g., subscriber type, language, product category)
Swap images dynamically based on audience segments
Use templating language (Handlebars) in the background, but edit visually—no code required
Key Features:
Logic Editor: A visual interface to set conditions like “if user language is French, show Block A”
Dynamic Image URLs: Personalize image paths with merge tags or variable logic
Preview Dynamic Versions: See how each variation of your email will look before exporting
🔧 Great for teams managing multilingual campaigns or sending personalized content at scale.
🤖 AI Assistant for Smarter Copywriting
Chamaileon’s built-in AI Assistant helps you write and refine email content faster—without leaving the editor.
What it can do:
Rewrite your existing text for clarity, tone, or structure
Summarize long text blocks into concise statements
Change tone of voice (e.g., friendly, professional, persuasive)
Translate your content into multiple languages
How it works:
Select a text block
Click the ✨ “AI Assistant” button in the editing toolbar
Choose an action (rewrite, summarize, change tone, etc.)
Apply and tweak the result as needed
💡 Ideal for speeding up email production or iterating on tone with zero context switching.
Responsive Design Controls
Most marketers are focused on mobile-first design. While Chamaileon auto-generates responsive emails, it's worth explicitly mentioning:
Mobile view preview
Mobile-specific styling overrides
Control over stacking behavior in columns
Fluid image support
Advanced Features for Professionals
Chamaileon’s editor isn’t just visually flexible—it also supports the real-world needs of email marketers, designers, and developers.
Clean, Customizable Code Output
Outlook-safe VML support for background images
Fully clickable buttons and table-based layouts
Lightweight, production-ready HTML
Exported code works in all major ESPs and inboxes
Tip: Custom output settings can be managed per template under the Email Settings menu.