Message Centre: Formatted Replies, Live Preview and Formatted Emails
Replies in the Message Centre can be formatted like a proper email: headings, bold text, lists, quotes, code and links. You can write in full screen with a live preview of the exact email the recipient gets, send that preview to yourself first, and read the emails your customers send you the way they formatted them. This article explains how each part works, what recipients see on every channel, and what the delivery status under a sent reply means.
Where to Find It
Open Settings > Message centre in PortalX and open a conversation. Everything below is in the reply box at the bottom of the conversation and in the messages above it. You need the Message Centre permissions described in "Message Centre: Order Conversations with Your Team, Partners and QrX".
Formatting a Reply
The toolbar under the reply box has bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, code, heading, subheading, bulleted list, numbered list, quote, code block and link, next to emoji, templates and text size. On a phone the extra tools sit behind More formatting. You can also format as you type, the way you may know from chat apps:
**bold** and a space makes the word bold, _italic_ makes it italic, ~~text~~ strikes it through and `code` shows it as code.
## at the start of a line starts a heading, ### a subheading, - a bulleted list, 1. a numbered list and > a quote.
Select text and click the link tool to add a web address. Links open in a new tab for the reader.
Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl/Cmd+B bold, Ctrl/Cmd+I italic, Ctrl/Cmd+U underline, Ctrl/Cmd+E code, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+X strikethrough.
Type @ to mention a colleague or a team and / to insert a template, exactly as before. Drag the handle under the reply box to make the typing area taller; the height is remembered on your device. Your draft, including its formatting, is kept on your device for seven days.
Full Screen with Live Preview
Click the expand icon in the toolbar, or press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F, to write on the whole screen. A preview beside the text updates as you type, with three views:
Email: the exact email the recipient gets, with your signature and the sales channel's email style, in desktop or phone width.
Consumer page: how the message looks on the secure reply page that external people open from their email.
Plain text: the text used for SMS, WhatsApp and the QrX app, where formatting is not possible.
Send test to me mails the email preview to your own address, so you can check it in your mail program before you send it to the customer. You can send up to five test emails per hour. A note has no email preview, because notes are never emailed. Press Escape or the collapse icon to return to the normal reply box; nothing is lost.
What Recipients See
Email: the formatted message, inside the branded or plain email style of the sales channel.
Secure reply page: the formatted message.
Colleagues and partners in PortalX: the formatted message in the conversation.
SMS, WhatsApp and the QrX app: the plain text of the message. Headings and bold text are not possible there, so write the important part in words, not only in formatting.
Pictures are sent as attachments, not inside the text. Tables and colours are not part of the toolbar; email programs show them inconsistently.
Emails as the Sender Formatted Them
A message that came in by email is shown with the sender's own layout: headings, lists, links, tables and inline pictures, in a protected frame in which nothing can run. A few things are handled for you:
Pictures from the internet stay hidden until you click Show images. Choose Always show from followed by the sender's address to show them automatically for that sender on this device. Hidden pictures also mean the sender cannot see that you opened the email. Pictures that were attached to the email itself show right away. Tracking pixels are removed.
Earlier messages the sender quoted are folded behind Show quoted text, so you read only what is new.
Long emails show a part in the conversation; Open full email opens the whole email.
View original email (the icon on an emailed message) opens the original with two tabs: Formatted and Plain text, next to the sender, recipient, subject, time, authentication result and attachments.
Links in the sender's email open in a new tab. Scripts, forms and styles that could change the page are never kept.
Delivery Status Under an Emailed Reply
Under every reply that went out by email a small strip shows what happened to it, per outcome, and it updates while you look at the conversation:
Sending: the email is being prepared.
Sent to email provider: the email left QrX and is on its way.
Delivered: the recipient's mail server accepted it.
Delayed: the recipient's mail server asked us to try again later; delivery usually follows within a few hours.
Bounced, Not delivered, Blocked, Marked as spam, Unsubscribed, Failed or Email cancelled: the email did not reach that person. Check the address under External contacts, or reach the customer another way (SMS, WhatsApp or a phone call).
Hover over a status to see how many recipients share it. When a reply goes to several people, a failure stays visible even when the others received it. Delivered means the mail server accepted the email, not that the person opened it; QrX does not track opens.
Translation Keeps the Formatting
Translate on a customer's message and Auto-translate consumer messages keep headings, lists and links in place and translate only the words; so does Translate to on your own draft.
Formatted Templates
On the Templates tab, switch on Rich formatting in a template to write it with a formatting toolbar: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, code, heading, lists and quote. Insert a variable with the picker under the editor; the preview shows the result with sample values or a real order. A formatted template is inserted formatted and sent as a formatted email; SMS, WhatsApp and the app get its plain text.
Formatting from the QrX App
In the QrX app (Work mode) the reply field has a format bar with Bold, Italic, Strikethrough and Code, and the same shortcuts work while you type: **bold**, _italic_, ~~strikethrough~~ and `code`. Tap Full screen to write a longer reply on the whole screen; your text, photos, mentions and templates come along and you send from there. Formatted replies written in the portal, with headings, lists and quotes, are shown formatted in the app too. The app itself does not write headings, lists or links and has no email preview. When you edit a message in the app that was formatted in the portal, the app keeps the text and only bold, italic, strikethrough and code; the headings and lists of that message are dropped.
Common Questions
My customer sees no formatting. Messages sent as SMS, WhatsApp or through the QrX app are plain text by design. Email and the secure reply page show the formatting.
The pictures in a customer's email are missing. Click Show images above the message. Pictures that were only linked from the internet stay hidden until you do.
Send test to me is greyed out. Write something first and wait for the preview to load. If you already sent five tests this hour, you see a message and can try again later. Notes have no test send.
The status says Delayed for a long time. The recipient's mail server keeps postponing. If it does not become Delivered within a day, treat it as not delivered and use another channel.
The message was Delivered but the customer says nothing arrived. Ask them to check the spam folder and to add your sender address to their contacts. Delivered means their mail server accepted the email.
Can I paste from Word or an email? Yes. The formatting is cleaned to the supported set (headings, lists, links, bold, italic and similar); fonts, colours and page layout are dropped.
When to Contact Our Support Team
Contact QrX support directly when a reply shows Bounced or Blocked for an address you know is correct, when a customer's email shows as plain text although it was sent formatted, when an email arrives in the conversation without its pictures although Show images was clicked, or when the delivery status under a reply does not update at all for several hours. Our team will check the email logs with you.