We’ve all been there. You sit down to write an email, only to find yourself staring at a blank screen, crafting the same basic message you send all the time. What a waste of time, right?
Well, fret no more! Google Workspace for Gmail has a handy feature called templates that can be your secret weapon against email fatigue.
What are Templates?
Templates are essentially pre-written email drafts that you can store and reuse. Think of them as those handy fill-in-the-blank forms you used in school, but for emails. You can create a template for any situation, from responding to customer inquiries to following up on meetings.
Creating a Template is Easy
The process is simple. Just compose a new email with your standard content, including subject line, body text, and attachments. Then, with a few clicks, you can save it as a template for future use.
Using Templates in New Emails
Here’s the beauty part: When you need to send a new email that follows a similar format, you can simply insert the relevant template. This saves you the hassle of rewriting the entire email from scratch, allowing you to focus on personalizing the message for the recipient.
But Can I Use Templates in Replies?
Unfortunately, Gmail doesn’t currently allow direct insertion of templates into replies. Templates are designed for composing new emails. However, don’t despair! Here are a couple of tricks to get around this limitation:
- Copy and Paste: Keep your most frequently used templates handy as drafts. When replying to an email, you can open the draft, copy the relevant text, and paste it into your reply.
- Third-Party Add-Ons: Explore add-ons for Gmail that offer canned response functionality. These add-ons let you create snippets of text that can be quickly inserted into replies using a keyboard shortcut.
Templates: Your Key to Email Efficiency
Whether you’re a freelancer juggling multiple clients or a busy professional managing a team, templates can be a valuable tool to streamline your email workflow. So next time you find yourself composing a repetitive email, consider creating a template instead. It’ll save you time, keep your messages consistent, and allow you to focus on what truly matters: building relationships and getting things done.
Creating a Template:
- Compose a new email with the content you want to save as a template.expand_more This can include the subject line, body text, and even attachments.
- Click the More options button (three dots) located at the bottom right corner of the compose window.
- Select Templates from the menu.expand_more
- Choose Save draft as template and then Save as new template.expand_more
- Give your template a descriptive name and click Save.
Using a Template:
- Compose a new email.expand_more
- Click the More options button again.expand_more
- Under Insert, select Templates.
- You’ll see a list of your saved templates. Choose the one you want to insert.exclamation
The entire template content, including subject line and body, will be copied into your new email.exclamation
Can Templates be Used in Replies?
Unfortunately, Google Workspace currently doesn’t offer a direct way to insert templates into replies.exclamation Templates are designed for composing new emails.exclamation However, there are a couple of workarounds:
- Copy and Paste: Save your template as a draft and keep it readily available. When replying to an email, you can open the draft, copy the relevant content, and paste it into your reply.
- Third-party Add-ons: Consider using third-party add-ons for Gmail that offer canned response functionality. These add-ons allow you to create pre-written snippets that you can insert into replies with a shortcut.
While using templates in replies isn’t directly supported, these methods can help you achieve a similar outcome and save time when responding to emails with repetitive content.
