In Shared Email Templates for Outlook, you can create and send personalized emails to multiple recipients at once with the help of mail merge campaigns. In your campaigns, you can use built-in mail merge templates. On this page, find the detailed guide on working with such templates.
Here is the detailed How to use mail merge guide.
Before you start
Please consider the following information before getting started with mail merge templates.
- A mail merge template is a built-in html-based template that can be used for email messages in mail merge campaigns.
- All mail merge templates are laid out like a set of nested tables with different number of columns depending on the type of a layout. Rows and columns in mail merge templates can be added or deleted.
- All the built-in mail merge template layouts have been tested properly on multiple devices and in different Outlook versions to make sure the emails will be displayed correctly. You can freely change text, add your images and hyperlinks and the layout will stay consistent.
- However, as mail merge templates consist of nested tables, changing borders, colors, adding or removing rows or columns may influence the layout. If you make such changes, we can't guarantee that the messages will look good for all your recipients. We strongly recommend that you test the modified layouts on multiple devices and in different Outlook versions before starting a mail merge campaign.
Layouts of mail merge templates
When you create a mail merge template, you can choose from eight mail merge template layouts of different structures:
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1 Column
Four content blocks plus a header and footer. Designed as a one-column table. Left and right border backgrounds can be colored fully or partially. Includes two sample images. -
1:2 Column
Six content blocks plus a header and footer. Four of the content blocks are located in two columns and two rows. Left and right border backgrounds can be colored fully or partially. Includes four sample images. -
1:3 Column
Eight content blocks plus a header and footer. Six of the content blocks are located in three columns and two rows. Left and right border backgrounds can be colored fully or partially. Includes six sample images. -
Simple Text
One column, one content block. Left and right border backgrounds can be colored fully or partially. Does not include any sample images.
Elements of mail merge templates
All the mail merge template layouts consist of different content blocks, some of which include additional elements.
Header block and sample logo
Each layout has a header block that consists of three rows with a sample logo in the second row. When you click on any of the rows, the pop-up menu will appear:
- Click Table Properties to adjust the width and height, cell spacing and padding, border width, select to show/not show caption and choose alignment.
- Clicking Delete Table will remove the entire header block.
- Inside the header block, you can Insert Row Before, Insert Row After, Delete Row.
- Also, you can Insert Column Before, Insert Column After, Delete Column.
How to replace sample logo
- Make sure to locate the image on the network and save its Uniform Resource Locator—URL.
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Right-click a sample logo in a template and select Image:
Note. In the contextual menu, the Cell, Row, Column options work with the cell/row/column in which the sample logo is located. The Table Properties and Delete Table refer to the table in which the sample logo is located, i.e., the header block. -
Enter a URL source, alternative description (will be displayed if the logo is not loaded), and the logo dimensions. On the right of the Height box, you can click on the Constrain proportions icon to maintain the aspect ratio (the ratio of the width to the height), so your logo does not stretch or shrink when its size is changed:
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Click OK.
Sample image
Almost all layouts include sample images, but the number and sizes of them differ. By default, sample images do not contain hyperlinks, but you can add one if needed:
How to replace sample image
- Make sure to locate the image on the network and save its Uniform Resource Locator—URL.
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Right-click a sample image in a template and select Image:
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Enter a URL source, alternative description (will be displayed if the image is not loaded), and the image dimensions. On the right of the Height box, you can click on the Constrain proportions icon to maintain the aspect ratio (the ratio of the width to the height), so your image does not stretch or shrink when its size is changed:
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Click OK.
Content blocks
When you select a content block, a menu for working with blocks pops up:
- Click Duplicate Block to get the selected block copied and pasted.
- Delete Block removes the selected block.
- Click the Duplicate Row icon to copy all the blocks in the row and paste them after all the similar blocks.
This option is available only for the 1:2 Column and 1:3 Column layouts.
- Click Remove Row to delete all the blocks in the row.
This option is available only for the 1:2 Column and 1:3 Column layouts.
Action buttons
Each layout includes three action buttons that consist of nested tables with three columns. The text on the button is located in the second column:
Add hyperlink to action button
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Right-click the text in the button and select Link:
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Add a URL, text to display, and a title that will be displayed in some browsers upon a mouse hover:
- Click OK.
Change action button color
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Right-click an action button and select Table properties:
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Select Advanced and click Background color to choose it:
- Don't forget to click OK!
Footer block
In the footer block, as well as in the header, you can edit the table properties and add or remove rows and columns:
Besides, the footer includes social networks icons and several hyperlinks. To delete an icon, select it and press the Backspace or Delete button.
To change a hyperlink, right-click the linked text and select the Link option:
