Email subscriptions

An email subscription sends a deck to inboxes as a PowerPoint file on a schedule. Use it when people need the latest version of a deck without opening DataMind.

Subscribe to a deck

1. Open the deck in the editor and click Subscribe in the top bar. In Slides, you can also open a deck's menu and choose Subscribe to email.
2. In the Schedule panel, choose Myself or Others. Others appears only if you can subscribe other people.
3. Choose a Frequency. For Weekly, choose a Day of week; for Monthly, choose a Day of month.
4. Set Time, and click Add time for each extra send in the day. Check Time zone, which starts on your own time zone.
5. For Others, add recipients under Add an internal user or role, or type an address under Or an email address. Each recipient row carries its own schedule, times and time zone included.
6. Choose Recipient visibility.
7. Click Subscribe. With Others, the button shows the number of recipients, for example Subscribe 3. It stays off while any schedule has two send times less than 1 hour apart or the same.

The dialog is titled Email subscriptions; its subtitle reads Get "<deck title>" as a PowerPoint file on a schedule. It opens on Existing when the deck already has subscriptions you can read, and on New otherwise. A newly created row is highlighted in the list. The dialog cannot close while a subscribe is in progress. The footer offers Cancel and Subscribe (or Subscribing...) on New, and Close and New subscription on Existing.

• The editor button's tooltip reads Email this presentation on a schedule. When your roles give you no subscribe permission at all, Subscribe to email is left out of the deck menu, and the editor button is disabled with You do not have permission to subscribe to this presentation on hover.
• A Subscribed message confirms a new subscription. For yourself it reads You'll get "<deck title>" by email. With Others, it names how many people are now subscribed.

Schedule and delivery options

• The schedule runs in its Time zone, not by the server's clock or your browser's. A new subscription starts on your browser's time zone; editing one shows the zone it was saved with. Subscriptions created before Time zone existed carry the time zone they already ran on, so their send times did not move.
• A live summary under the fields reads what you have set, for example Sends daily at 09:00, 13:00 (Asia/Almaty).
• With Monthly on day 29, 30 or 31, the note Shorter months send on their last day. appears, and the send lands on the last day of a shorter month.

Send several times a day

• Add time adds a send time one hour after the latest one; change it if you need. It disappears at 24 times, and the X beside a time removes it while more than one is left.
• Frequency and the day settings apply to every time: Weekdays at 09:00 and 17:00 sends twice on each weekday.
• Times must be at least 1 hour apart. For Daily and Weekdays, the gap from the last time to the next day's first time counts too, so 23:30 and 00:15 cannot be combined.
• A clash marks both times and says why, for example Send times must be at least 1 hour apart (13:00 and 13:30). or Send times must be different (09:00 is listed twice).
• The schedule lists the times in order, whatever order you add them in.
• When clocks go forward, a time that does not exist that day is sent later by the size of the jump. When clocks go back, a time that happens twice is sent once, the first time.
• A new or changed subscription sends at the first matching time still ahead, today included: a Weekly subscription for Friday created on Thursday sends the next day.

Add recipients

• In Others mode, each recipient gets their own delivery schedule. The panel notes it: Each recipient gets their own delivery schedule in the list on the right. Each added row carries its own compact schedule fields and a Remove control labelled with the recipient's name.
• In Myself mode, the recipients panel is blurred and disabled, with the hint Switch to Others to add people, roles, or email addresses.
• Under Add an internal user or role (search placeholder Search users and roles), click a user or role to add it. Roles are listed before users. If nothing matches, the message reads No user or role matches "<query>".; when everything possible is already added, Everyone is already added.
• Under Or an email address (the placeholder reads someone@example.com), press Enter or click Add. An address already on the list is not added again.
• If some of the new subscriptions fail, the message reads Some subscriptions failed and counts them, for example 2 of 3 could not be created. Your recipients stay in the form so you can fix and retry.
• To edit a subscription later, use its Edit subscription control. The row expands into the same fields with Cancel, Save changes and a Saving... state.

What the email contains

• The email carries the deck as a PowerPoint file, named after the deck, built from its saved version the same way as a manual export.
• The send does not run the deck's live queries again, so the numbers are the ones saved with the deck.

Manage subscriptions

Open Slides and switch the view toggle to Subscriptions (its tooltip reads Email subscriptions). Subscriptions are grouped by deck: pick a deck on the left to see its subscribers on the right. The search box reads Search subscriptions, and each deck card counts its subscriptions and how many are paused.

Each row shows:

• A status: Active, Paused or Failing.
• A schedule summary with every send time and the time zone, such as Daily at 09:00, 13:00 (Asia/Almaty), Every weekday at 09:00 (Europe/London), Every Monday at 09:00 (Europe/London) or Monthly on the 15th at 09:00 (Europe/London), and Next run for an active subscription, in the subscription's time zone. A missing time reads --:--, and a paused subscription reads Paused even if an earlier error is recorded.
• Last sent with the time since, or Not sent yet.

On each row you can use these controls:

• Edit subscription opens the schedule (times and Time zone included) and Recipient visibility for that row. Click Save changes; a Subscription updated message confirms it.
• Send a test email opens Send test email to me and Send test email to all recipients. See Send a test email.
• The toggle pauses and resumes the subscription; its tooltip reads Pause subscription or Resume subscription.
• Unsubscribe asks you to confirm, then removes the subscription. The confirmation warns that this cannot be undone, and Unsubscribed confirms it.

Mine (tooltip Only subscriptions you set up) shows every subscription you created, including those you set up for others. Everyone's (tooltip Every subscription on the platform) appears only if you can view everyone's subscriptions. You can always manage the subscriptions you created; a row you cannot act on renders read-only instead of controls that would be refused.

Send a test email

A test sends the deck now, from the subscription's saved settings, either to you or to the subscription's recipient. It never moves Next run.

1. On the subscription's row, click Send a test email.
2. Choose Send test email to me or Send test email to all recipients. The button is off while the test runs.
3. When the test is done, the message reads Test email sent to you with Check your inbox. Recipients were not emailed., or, for all recipients, Test email sent with, for example, Test email sent to 3 recipients.

• The subject starts with [Test], and the email is labelled Test send.
• Send test email to me needs an email address on your account: without one, you see Your account has no email on file to send the test to.
• Send test email to all recipients sends to the row's recipient the way a scheduled delivery would: the user, the address, or every active user who holds the role now. Recipient visibility applies.
• With more than 10 people, it asks first, for example Send test to 12 people? with Everyone on this subscription will receive this test email. Choose Send test or Cancel.
• A role with no active members sends nothing, with Test email not sent and This subscription has no recipients to email.
• One test per subscription runs at a time; a second one shows Test send already running and A test send for this subscription is already running.
• A test to all recipients can run once every 5 minutes per subscription. Sooner, you see Test email not sent and, for example, A test was sent to the recipients less than 5 minutes ago. Try again in 3 min.
• A test to all recipients needs Subscribe Others to Slides, unless the subscription is for you.

Fix a failed delivery

• When a delivery fails, the row shows Failing and the notice Last delivery failed. Its View details popover, titled Delivery error, holds the error text.
• The notice says what happens next: Will retry once at the next check. or Next attempt at the scheduled run. A failed send is retried once at the next check; if the retry fails too, the subscription waits for its next scheduled run.
• The error clears after the next successful scheduled delivery. To test a fix sooner, use Send test to me in the notice, or Send a test email > Send test email to me on the row. Both send only to your address. The subject starts with [Test], and the toast reads Test email sent to you with the note Check your inbox. Recipients were not emailed. Your account needs an email address for this. To check delivery to the recipient too, use Send test email to all recipients.
• A delivery with no recipients is skipped, and the reason reads No recipients resolved (deleted user, empty role, or deactivated account).
• If an edit, a removal or a test fails, the message names the reason, such as The subscription could not be updated., Could not unsubscribe. or The test email could not be sent.
• For the full message list, see Slides troubleshooting. Every send attempt is also recorded in Audit, sign-in and notification logs.

Who can do what

• The Subscriptions half of the view toggle appears when you hold any of the first three permissions; without them it is left out entirely, never shown greyed out.
• Reading other people's rows needs View Others Slide Subscriptions. Manage Others Slide Subscriptions decides which controls appear on the rows you can read; on its own it does not add rows to read.
• Presets that bundle these permissions are listed in the Permission reference. For the rest of the Slides permissions, see Slides permissions.

Limits and edge cases

• Email channel. An administrator must set up an email channel first. Until then, saving a subscription fails with No default email integration is configured. Ask an administrator to set one up first. See Notifications.
• One subscription per recipient. A recipient can have one subscription per deck. Adding the same person, role or address again is refused, with a message such as This user is already subscribed to this presentation.
• Required roles. A recipient who does not hold the roles the deck's live queries are bound to still receives the email; the send records a warning that the SQL-bound elements would not resolve for them. See Fill slides from your data.
• The recipient cannot be changed. Edit subscription changes the schedule and Recipient visibility. To change who receives the deck, unsubscribe, then subscribe again.

Questions, answered

What time zone does a subscription schedule use?

The one in its Time zone field, shown in brackets in the schedule summary. A new subscription starts on your browser's time zone, and you can pick another. Subscriptions are checked every 5 minutes, so an email goes out at the first check after its scheduled time and can arrive a few minutes late.

Can a deck be sent more than once a day?

Yes. Click Add time for each extra send, up to 24 a day, at least 1 hour apart. Every time follows the same Frequency and day settings.

Will the emailed deck have fresh numbers?

It has the values saved in the deck's last saved version. The send does not run the live queries again, so save the deck before the send time. See Saving and version history.

Can I send a deck to someone outside my company?

Yes, if you hold Subscribe Others to Slides. Choose Others and enter their address under Or an email address.

What happens to a monthly subscription set for the 31st?

In months with fewer days, it is sent on the last day of the month. In February that is the 28th, or the 29th in a leap year.

Can recipients see each other's addresses?

Not with the default, Hidden (BCC). Choose Visible (To) to show every address to every recipient.

Why does a subscription show Failing?

Its last delivery failed. Open the Last delivery failed notice and View details to read the error, fix its cause, then send a test. The status returns to Active after the next successful scheduled delivery. A paused subscription reads Paused even if an earlier error is recorded.

Does a test email go to all recipients?

Only if you choose Send test email to all recipients. Send test email to me sends only to you, and recipients are not emailed. Either way the subject starts with [Test] and the schedule does not move. If your account has no email address, a test to you shows Your account has no email on file to send the test to.

Can I pause a subscription for a while?

Yes. Use the row's toggle: Pause subscription stops the sends and Resume subscription starts them again. Pausing does not remove the subscription.

Who gets a role subscription?

Every active user who holds the role when the email is sent. People who join the role later receive it, and people who leave it no longer do.

Can I change who receives a subscription?

No. Edit subscription changes only the schedule and Recipient visibility. To change the recipient, unsubscribe, then subscribe again.

Why don't I see a subscription a colleague set up on this deck?

You see the subscriptions you created, and everyone's only with View Others Slide Subscriptions. Without it, other people's rows are not shown to you.