Error "This email template contains too much text" on Salesforce List Emails

This resolves the "too much text" error that appears when sending a Salesforce List Email with content pasted from an external source like MS Word or MS Outlook.

Cause

Pasting formatted text directly into the Salesforce email composer carries over hidden formatting from the source, which can push the email past the 32,000-character HTML Body limit for List Emails.

How to Fix It

Paste your content as plain text instead of directly from the source document, so no extra formatting is carried over. There are two ways to do this:

Option 1: Paste via Notepad

Copy the content from the external source and paste it into Notepad first. Then copy the plain text from Notepad and paste it into the Salesforce Email Composer.

Option 2: Paste as Plain Text

Use your operating system's "paste as plain text" shortcut directly in the Salesforce Email Composer:

• Windows: Press Ctrl + Shift + V instead of Ctrl + V.
• Mac: Press Option + Shift + Command + V instead of Command + V.

Both methods paste the content from the external source into the Salesforce Email Composer as plain text, removing the extra formatting that was causing the character limit to be exceeded.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why do I see "This email template contains too much text" when sending a List Email?

This happens because content pasted from an external source (like MS Word or MS Outlook) carries over hidden formatting, pushing your email past the 32,000-character HTML Body limit for List Emails. Paste the content as plain text using one of the methods above to resolve it.