How to edit mail merge templates

In Shared Email Templates for Outlook

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.

Note. The mail merge feature is available only in the selected subscription plans.

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:

Select template layout.

  • 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:

Header with sample logo.

  1. Click Table Properties to adjust the width and height, cell spacing and padding, border width, select to show/not show caption and choose alignment.
  2. Clicking Delete Table will remove the entire header block.
  3. Inside the header block, you can Insert Row Before, Insert Row After, Delete Row.
  4. Also, you can Insert Column Before, Insert Column After, Delete Column.
Note. Only images from URLs can replace a sample logo in mail merge templates.
  1. Make sure to locate the image on the network and save its Uniform Resource Locator—URL.
  2. Right-click a sample logo in a template and select Image:
    Sample image contextual menu.

    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.
  3. 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:

    Add URL, description, dimensions.

  4. 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:

Add link to sample image.

Note. In the contextual menu, the Cell, Row, Column options work with the cell/row/column in which the sample image is located. The Table Properties and Delete Table refer to the table in which the sample image is located.

How to replace sample image

Note. Only images from URLs can replace sample images in mail merge templates.
  1. Make sure to locate the image on the network and save its Uniform Resource Locator—URL.
  2. Right-click a sample image in a template and select Image:
    Add image to mail merge template.

  3. 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:

    Add URL, description, dimensions.

  4. Click OK.

Content blocks

When you select a content block, a menu for working with blocks pops up:

Duplicate or delete content blocks.

  1. Click Duplicate Block to get the selected block copied and pasted.
  2. Delete Block removes the selected block.
  3. 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.

  4. 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.

Note. When you use the Duplicate Block and Duplicate Row options, the copied blocks and rows are pasted after all the similar blocks, not after the one you selected:

Duplicate a block: result.

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:
Select template layout.

  1. Right-click the text in the button and select Link:
    Add hyperlink.
  2. Add a URL, text to display, and a title that will be displayed in some browsers upon a mouse hover:
    Insert/edit hyperlink.
  3. Click OK.

Change action button color

  1. Right-click an action button and select Table properties:
    Change action button color.
  2. Select Advanced and click Background color to choose it:
    Change action button color.
  3. Don't forget to click OK!

In the footer block, as well as in the header, you can edit the table properties and add or remove rows and columns:

Footer block.

Besides, the footer includes social networks icons and several hyperlinks. To delete an icon, select it and press the Backspace or Delete button.

Tip. If you do not need any icons, left-click the row and select Row -> Delete row.

To change a hyperlink, right-click the linked text and select the Link option:

Add link.

Unsupported macros

Due to the technical limitations, the following macros are not supported in templates for mail merge campaigns:

  • ~%Fill
  • ~%Insert (except for mailbox, profile, team, and AAD properties)
  • ~%RegexMatch
  • ~%RegexExtract
  • ~%DisableIf
  • ~%Clear

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