Free online Invites and email Invitations, free eCards, Free 4th July eCards, Free Email Reminders, from ePXT.com

A new way for you to easily create high quality, visually interesting personalised emails incorporating images... all online!
You can create eCards, invites, greeting cards, postcards, reminders or use your imagination... selecting images from our Library or uploading your own.

How much does it cost?

It's free!
All core services are completely free of charge. Go on, take a look...

How do I join?

Just click on the Join Now here, or on the top of any main ePXT window.
Fill in your details and we'll send you an activation email to get started.

What if I forget my password?

We'll email you a new password.
Just click on the Password?? button on the ePXT Log In window and follow the instructions.
We recommend you create a new password that's easy to remember after logging in with our one. This is done in MyProfile.

How do I change my membership details?

Click on MyProfile in the left hand menu of the Home Page or along the top of the screen once you're logged in.
We'll show you your details for you to view or change.
Another way is to press the oval membership button at the top of the main windows.
You can change all your details including email address and password, even the unfathomable decision to cancel your free membership.

Useful Tips

Easy ways to create eCards:

Right click on a Contact in MyContacts, which will allow you to create an eCard with the person's email address already filled in.
Right click on a date in MyCalendar, which will allow you to create an eCard with the send date already filled in.
Click the New button on the main eCard window or on one of the categories displayed.
Click on an historic eCard on either the My eCards window or on the Contact Details window in MyContacts to use it as a template for another one.
Click on any library image you like the look of on the Home Page, Images window or main eCards window.

Easy ways to create Invites:

Right click on a Contact in MyContacts, which will allow you to create an Invite with the person's email address already filled in.
Right click on a date in MyCalendar, which will allow you to create an Invite with the event date already filled in.
Click the New button on the main Invite window or on one of the categories displayed.
Click on an existing Invite on either the MyInvites window or on the Contact Details window in MyContacts to use it as a template for another one.
Click on any library image you like the look of on the Images window.

Benefits of using the MyContacts:

When you create a new event using MyContacts, the Contact's relevant information is automatically filled in.
You can create Groups to easily set up events for multiple Contacts.
You can see which Contacts or Groups have pending events, on the MyContacts window.
You can see a list of historic and pending events for any Contact or Group in their Details window.
You can set up Reminders from the Contact and see at a glance who you have, eg Birthday Reminders set for.

Easy ways to create Reminders:

Right click on a Contact in MyContacts, which will allow you to create a Reminder with the person's birthday already filled in and a visual display in MyContacts to show you that you have a Reminder set up.
Right click on a date in MyCalendar, which will allow you to create a Reminder with the date already filled in.
Click the New button on the main Reminders window or one of the categories displayed.

Easy ways to see your Events:

MyCalendar shows you all your events sorted by date.
MyContacts shows you what active events are set up for each of your Contacts and Groups. Individual Contacts and Groups windows list their own historic and current events.
My eCards shows you all your historic and current eCards in date order.
My Invites shows you all your historic and current Invites in date order.
My Reminders window shows you all your Reminders in date order.

Easy ways to select Images:

Enter some words to search on in the Search box. Note that you can use multiple words at once, eg "red flower" (quote marks not required) and ePXT will automatically sort the best matches for you.
Click the Hot Tags button to see the most popular searches … and then click on any tag (word) that is displayed to search on it.
Note: right-click on any image in the display to see a full-size preview of it.

Benefits of filling in Dates:

The year on a Birthday Reminder lets us show you how old the person is each year.
The year on an Anniversary Reminder lets us show you what Anniversary you're up to and what present is associated with it.
The year of birth in your Profile details means we can say "are you really that old!" (just kidding)

Add to Safe Senders:

To avoid having ePXT emails ending up in junkmail don't forget to add epxt.com to your Safe Senders list (and tell your friends to do this too).
In Outlook you can either:
- Right click on an ePXT email in your Inbox, select Junk E-mail, then click on Add Sender's Domain to Safe Senders List
- Or select Tools, Options, Preferences, Junk E-mail, Safe Senders, Add, @epxt.com, Ok

MyContacts

What's MyContacts used for?

This allows you to store individual Contact details, as well as Group details (see below).
You can access email addresses automatically when creating a new event
We will fill in the Display Names where appropriate in the event. This is particularly useful where you want to contact a group of people and personalise each message.

How do I set up Contacts?

Refer to the next section to see how to Import your Contact Details from, eg Outlook
Click on the MyContacts option in the left hand column of the Home Page window or along the top of the top of the main window. This brings up an alphabetic list of existing Contacts.
Click on the New button and fill in their details on the Contact Details window that appears.
Note that it is useful to fill in the Display Name with how you would normally address them (Bob, Marge, You Old Slapper etc) , as this will then be used to personalise their email when you create it.

How do I import Contacts?

You must firstly export your Contacts, as follows:
- Outlook: Select File, Import and Export, Export to a File, Comma Separated Values (Windows), Contacts, make up a filename
- Outlook Express: Select File, Export, Address Book, Text File, Export, make up a filename
- Gmail: Select Contacts, Export, Outlook CSV, Export Contacts, Save to Disk (the filename created is gmail-to-outlook.csv)
- Yahoo: Select Addresses, Import and Export, Microsoft Outlook-Export Now, Save to Disk (the filename created is yahoo_ab.csv)
- Hotmail: Sorry they don't have an option to export Contact details
Click the Import button at the bottom of the MyContacts window. (Note that Contacts must be displayed, not Groups.
This opens a window with a Browse button to find the file you want to import.
Once you've selected the file click the Import button
You might want to check the entries in your MyContacts to see that they have appropriate Display Names … these are handy for personalised emails.

What are Groups?

Groups are a collection of your Contacts that you decide to combine so that you can contact all of them with a single entry.
Examples could be club members, business associates, close family members etc.

How do I set up Groups?

Click on the MyContacts option in the left hand column of the Home Page window or along the top of the main window.
Now click on the Groups radio button on the side. This changes the display from Contacts to Groups, and shows an alphabetic list of existing Groups.
Click on the New button and follow instructions to add a new Group.
You will see there's a list of Contacts available that you can select from. Use the -> arrow key to move the appropriate ones into your Group list.
To remove someone from the Group, select them in the Group list and use the <- arrow key to take them out.

What information is displayed in the MyContacts list?

Summary details of each Contact or Group.
An icon for each event type (eCard, Invite, Reminder etc) with checkboxes against any Contact or Group that has a pending event of this type.
Note that only pending (unsent) eCards and Invites are flagged here; once sent they are not highlighted on this screen but are listed in the Contact Details window

eCards

What's the purpose of eCards?

These are high quality, visually interesting personalised emails with images.
They can be used as invites, greeting cards, postcards, or use your imagination...

How do I set up an eCard?

Click the New button on the main eCards window or one of the categories displayed.
Or ... right click on a Contact in MyContacts, which will allow you to create an eCard with the person's email address already filled in.
Or ... right click on a date in MyCalendar, which will allow you to create an eCard with the send date already filled in.
Or ... click on an historic eCard in either the My eCards window or the Contact Details to use it as a template for another one.
Or ... click on any library image that displays on the Home Page, Images window or main eCards window.
Now follow the instructions in the wizard to add a new eCard

What are the images I see when I create a new eCard?

When you start creating a new eCard the system picks 200 random images and displays them. This is done to give you ideas on what you might find in the image library.
You don't need to use any of these - you can instead enter your own words to search on, or click Hot Tags to see the most popular searches.

Invites

What's the purpose of ePXT Invites?

To create your own email Invite using your own images or images from our professional image library.
You can create a single email Invite and send a personalised version to everyone on your list.
You can use them for any type of Invitation – Birthdays, Business Events, Christening, Dinner Parties, Engagements, Party Invites, etc.

How do I set up an Invite

Click the New button on the main Invites window or one of the categories displayed.
Or ... right click on a Contact in MyContacts, which will allow you to create an Invite with the person's email address already filled in.
Or ... right click on a date in MyCalendar, which will allow you to create an Invite with the Event date already filled in.
Or ... click on an existing Invite in either the MyInvites window or the Contact Details to use it as a template for another one.
Now follow the instructions in the wizard to add a new Invite.

Reminders

What are Reminders?

These are automatic emails to remind yourself of important dates such as birthdays, anniversaries etc.
You can set them up to repeat on the same date each year, or they may be used as one-off memo's that delete themselves after they occur.

How do I set up a Reminder?

Click the New button on the main Reminders window or on one of the categories displayed.
Or … right click on a Contact in MyContacts, which will allow you to create a Reminder with the person's name and date of birth already filled in.
Or … right click on a date in MyCalendar, which will allow you to create a Reminder with the send date already filled in.
Now follow the instructions in the wizard to add a new Reminder

How do I speed up setting up Reminders?

If you're not interested in selecting a unique image with each Reminder you can click the Standard Image radio button on the Reminder Type window in the wizard.
This will automatically select the default image for the type of Reminder you are creating, and so skip the step that involves you browsing the image library.
Use MyContacts to go through people you want Birthday or Anniversary reminders set up for and right click from here to create the reminder with their birthday filled in.
This also has the benefit of showing you who has reminders set up for future reference.

How do I amend or delete a Reminder?

From MyReminders, click on the date of the Reminder you wish to amend or delete.
Or … right click on the date of the Reminder in MyCalendar and select Edit for that Reminder.
Now you can overwrite the existing Reminder details and Save or Delete

How do I set up a one-off Reminder?

Most Reminders (such as birthdays and anniversaries) automatically come up each year, however if you want them to delete after you receive your emails:
Select the Reminder Category as Memo on the first Reminder wizard screen
Fill in the Year of Event field on the last Reminder wizard screen with the year that you want the reminder (along with the day and month of course).
Note; if you leave the Year of Event field blank in a Memo it will automatically remind you each year rather than just once.

What's the purpose of the Year of Event field in a Reminder?

This is an optional piece of information you can fill in.
For Birthday Reminders enter the year of birth for that person. The Reminder will then tell you how old they are each year.
For Wedding Anniversary Reminders enter when the couple got married (or the year of the originating event for other Anniversary Reminders). The Reminder will then tell you what Anniversary year it is (along with its corresponding present, eg Golden Anniversary)
For Memo's leave the year blank unless you just want a one-off Reminder (refer previous question for an explanation).

MyCalendar

What's the purpose of MyCalendar?

This shows you all your events (Reminders, Invites, eCards etc) in a single, easy to use monthly format.
You can click on a date to see what events are loaded for that day and/or create new events from here.

Image Library

Where's the Image Library used?

Creating any event (Reminder, Invite, eCard etc) gives you access to the Image Library to select which image you want on the email.
These images have been professionally created to help enhance your email.

How do I find an Image to use?

Enter your own search criteria in the box on the left and click the Search button.
Note that you can enter multiple things to search for at once, eg "red flowers". (quote marks not required)
The images that are selected will be automatically sorted to the best match.
Or … in the Image Library click the Hot Tags button on the left.
This shows you the most popular searches to give you ideas on what you may want to look for.
Click on any tag to see the images associated with it
If you see an image you like on the Home Page or main ePXT window, just click on it to use it in an eCard.

Uploading Images

How do I use my own images in an eCard or Invite?

Click the Upload Image button on the Image Library window.
This brings up a window that lets you browse your computer for your own image and upload it

What happens to the size of my image?

ePXT will accept a maximum image size of 5mb (JPG, BMP, PNG or GIF format), but note that it takes a lot longer to upload if it's a big file (see next question)
ePXT will automatically scale your image (up or down) to either:
- Portrait: 336 pixels x 448 pixels (3:4)
- Landscape: 448 pixels x 336 pixels. (4:3)
If your image differs from the above ratios, ePXT will automatically pad the surrounds of the image with black fill to create the correct proportions.

How do I get the best results from my images?

NOT TOO BIG: If possible resize your image so its under 500k file size – this will make it much quicker to upload without losing any quality in the eCard
NOT TOO SMALL: Ensure your image is not smaller than 336 x 448 pixels for portrait, or 448 x 336 pixels for landscape, otherwise the image quality will suffer
CORRECT RATIO: To ensure your image displays without padding, the ratio should be 3:4 for portrait or 4:3 for landscape

What happens to my image?

The image on your computer is left untouched
We store a copy, resized if necessary, on our server
The image is never publicised in any way other than in your eCard or Invite

eCard emailing

Add us to Safe Senders

To avoid having ePXT emails ending up in junkmail don't forget to add epxt.com to your Safe Senders list (and tell your friends to do this too).
In Outlook you can either:
- Right click on an ePXT email in your Inbox, select Junk E-mail, then click on Add Sender's Domain to Safe Senders List
- Or select Tools, Options, Preferences, Junk E-mail, Safe Senders, Add, @epxt.com, Ok

How do I avoid my eCards ending up in Junk mail?

To be 100% safe tell your friends to add your ePXT address to their Safe Senders list – in Outlook they can do this by right-clicking on the email and following instructions.
Common things that spam filters look for in your email content (and thus to avoid) are:
- Repeating words
- Using all capitals
- Using !, $ or 100%
- Using "congratulations" or "special invitation" (or "viagra")
- Excessive punctuation

How does the recipient know who my eCard has come from?

The eCard is sent with your email address that you provided in MyProfile, eg services@epxt.com on behalf of Bob.Wiener@hotmail.com

What happens if the recipient replies to my eCard?

Their reply is automatically forwarded to your email address that you provided in MyProfile.

What happens if my eCard doesn't reach the intended recipient?

If we get notification of it, an email will be sent advising you, together with any information about why it happened.
The most common causes include an incorrectly formatted email address or the recipient having a full mailbox.

How large is an ePXT eCard?

Because a jpg image is embedded in the email it varies from one to the next but on average it's about 50k.