Getting started with Shared Email Templates

Requirements

Check the system requirements for Shared Email Templates.

How to install

For step-by-step instructions, choose your Outlook:

• desktop Outlook for Windows
• the new Outlook for Windows
• Outlook Online
• Outlook for Mac

How to start

To learn where in the ribbon Shared Email Templates sits, choose your Outlook:

• desktop Outlook for Windows
• the new Outlook for Windows
• Outlook Online
• Outlook for Mac

How to create an account

Here's a detailed guide for you: Create and manage a company or team account.

Shared Email Templates pane in your Outlook

You can open Shared Email Templates in your Outlook:

• When reading an email.
• When replying to an email.
• When creating a new email, an appointment, or a meeting.

Note. If, because of issues with the deployment of add-ins at the side of Microsoft Office Store, you can't find the Shared Email Templates button when reading emails, please remove the add-in and add it anew in your Outlook Online.

If you open Shared Email Templates when you're reading an email, you can't insert a template—it's simply not possible. To enjoy the full functionality of the add-in, open its pane when replying to an email or when creating a new email, an appointment, or a meeting.

This is the Shared Email Templates pane:


1. Enter any text into the search box to look for that text in the names and contents of templates and folders. Click Aa to make the search case-sensitive. Also, you can select some text in the message body, click the magnifier icon, and get the list of items that contain this text. Don't forget to cancel the selection in the message body before inserting a template. A search for selected text doesn't work when you're reading an email.
2. Take advantage of the Selection mode to select several items and copy, move, or delete them at once.
3. Select a view: All Templates, Favorite Templates, My Templates, Team Templates, Shortcuts, Mail Merge (you can use Mail Merge only if this feature is included in your subscription plan), or Signatures. An admin of a company or team account can hide My Templates, Mail Merge, and Signatures.
4. You can add any template to Favorite Templates by right-clicking it and selecting Add to Favorites.
5. The default personal folders are Favorite Templates and My Templates. You can create new subfolders for your templates. An admin of a company or team account can hide My Templates.
6. Shared templates are stored in teams. You can invite your colleagues to your teams and share templates with them.
7. You can link an Outlook folder with your drafts to Shared Email Templates and use drafts as templates. Linked folders are marked with a blue letter 'O'. The Linked Outlook folders feature is deprecated.
8. You can create or import datasets and insert values from them into templates. Datasets are marked with a corresponding icon.
9. You can use template shortcuts to construct your emails and templates.
10. To insert a template into the message body, select the template and click the Insert button. It's not possible to insert a template when you're reading an email.
11. When you delete a template, it gets to the Deleted Items folder marked with a recycle bin icon. Deleted personal templates get to the Deleted Items folder in My Templates. Deleted team templates get to the Deleted Items folder in the corresponding team.
12. To secure privacy, you can encrypt a team when creating it. Encrypted teams have a key icon.
13. These are template action buttons: Insert (it's not possible to insert a template when you're reading an email), Edit in browser, Edit, Add to favorites, Copy to, Move to, Delete, and Help.
14. Select a template to see its content in the preview pane.

    Tip. To change the height of the preview pane, hold down its upper border with the left mouse button and drag up or down:
    

15. Click this button to create a new template.
16. Here is the Handle shortcuts button. You'll need to click it if you use shortcuts to create your emails.
17. By clicking the three dots, you open the More menu. From this menu, you can go to your profile, sign out, open the Shared Email Templates app in your default browser, view logs, ask us a question, get online help, access cheat sheets, or see the version of the product you use. If you are an admin of a company or team account, there is also the Manage Account option available to you here.
18. This icon shows that there are unread notifications waiting for you. Click it to see everything you missed.

Shared Email Templates app in your browser

You can open the Shared Email Templates app in your default browser right from the add-in pane in your Outlook by clicking Open in Browser.

The Shared Email Templates app looks like in the screenshot below.

1. Here you can find All Templates, Favorite Templates, My Templates, Team Templates, Shortcuts, Mail Merge (you can use Mail Merge only if this feature is included in your subscription plan), and Signatures. If you're an admin of a company or team account, Manage Account is also available to you here. An admin of a company or team account can hide My Templates, Mail Merge, and Signatures.
2. After selecting a template, you'll be able to see its content on the right. You can start editing the template if you want to.
3. By clicking the plus sign, you can create a new template, folder, mail merge campaign, or signature.
4. If there are unread notifications, you'll see this icon.
5. Click the three dots to open the More menu.