How to Set Up an Email Template

By Edward Zehtab

Using templates will save you time when sending similar emails to multiple recipients.
i Email Concept image by wayne ruston from Fotolia.com

Email templates can save you time and increase your productivity by allowing you to send personalized emails quickly to multiple recipients. With a template, you do not have to type the body of the email repeatedly when emailing multiple recipients; this can reduce errors. Outlook and Gmail have specific tools to create templates; Yahoo does not have template creation tools, however you can create drafts to function as templates.

Outlook

Open "Outlook," click "Tools" then click "Options," then "Mail Format." Uncheck "Use Microsoft Office Word to edit email messages." Click "Apply" and "OK."

Click "File" select "New" and then click "Mail Message." Create your template on this blank message, filling in parts you would normally have to repeat and leaving gaps where information may vary.

Click "File" then "Save As." Under "Type," click "Outlook Template" and click "Save." Click "Apply" and then "OK." You have created a template.

Gmail

Open Gmail. Click "Settings." Click "Labs" and check the "Canned Responses" box. Click "Save Changes."

Click "Compose" and write out the template you wish to save. Add a signature and it will be saved with the template, but leave "Subject" and "To" empty as Gmail does not save these entries in your template.

Under "Subject," click "Canned Response." Under "Save" click "New Canned Response..." Type the name of your template and click "OK."

Yahoo Mail

Open Yahoo Mail. Click "Create a Folder" and call it "Templates."

Write out your template and send it to your own email address. Open the email, click "Move," and select "Templates" as the destination folder.

Highlight and copy all the text in this email by pressing Ctrl+A to highlight, and then Ctrl+C to copy. Click "Compose" to open a new message and then paste the text into the message to use the text as a template by pressing Ctrl+V.

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