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Introduction to Shared Email Templates

Empower your Outlook experience

Shared Email Templates for Outlook was created to save your time. With this tool, you can use your templates in any Outlook, whether desktop or online, including Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and Outlook on the web. As all templates are stored in a sharing cloud-based service, you can easily share them with your colleagues united into one or several teams.

To start using your templates, simply install the add-in via the Microsoft Office Store, sign in, create a team and invite your mates. If you have security concerns, just encrypt your team templates with your own team password.

Here is the User Guide that covers information on setup, account, interface, and the basic functionality:

Download User Guide

How to start Shared Email Templates

To learn to start the add-in, click on the version of Outlook you use in the list below:

Supported versions

The add-in works for Outlook email accounts connected to Microsoft/Office 365, outlook.com, or on-premise Exchange 2016+.

Microsoft Outlook Supported browsers for Outlook online
  • Outlook on Windows connected to Microsoft/Office 365
  • Outlook on Mac connected to Microsoft/Office 365
  • Outlook on Windows 2019
  • Outlook on Windows 2016
  • Outlook on Mac 2019
  • Outlook on Mac 2016
  • Outlook on the web
  • Google Chrome 78 and higher
  • Microsoft Edge 44 and higher
  • Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) – beta support 79 and higher
  • Safari 12 and higher (limited support)
  • Firefox 69 and higher

Shared Email Templates in Outlook

You can download the detailed User interface overview cheat sheet:

Download cheat sheet

When you run Shared Email Templates in your Outlook, you will see the add-in pane:

Shared Email Templates in Outlook.

  1. Type any text into the Search field to search in the names and content of templates, folders, and teams. Click Aa to make the search case-sensitive.

    Also, you can select text in your message body, click the Magnifier icon and get the list of items that contain this text. Don't forget to deselect the selected text in the message body before pasting the template!

  2. Take advantage of the Selection mode to select several items and copy, move, or delete them at once.
  3. Select the view: All Templates, Favorite Templates, My Templates, Team Templates, Shortcuts, or Mail Merge (you can use Mail Merge only if this feature is included in your subscription plan).
  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 sub-folders for your templates.
  6. You can link an Outlook folder with your drafts to Shared Email Templates and use these drafts as templates. Linked folders are marked with a blue letter "O".
  7. You can create or import datasets and insert values from them into templates. Datasets are marked with a corresponding icon.
  8. You can create ready-made reply templates or use shortcuts to construct your emails and templates. Shortcuts have a hash symbol before the name.
  9. To insert a template into the message body, select it and click the Paste icon.
  10. Shared templates are stored in teams. You can invite members to your teams and share templates with them.
  11. To secure your privacy, you can encrypt your team. Encrypted teams have a small key sign on the label.
  12. These are the template actions: Paste, Edit in browser, Edit, Add to favorites, Copy, Move, Delete.
  13. When you stand on a template, you can see its contents in the preview pane.
  14. Click this button to create a new template.
  15. The Handle Shortcuts button, you'll need to click it if you use shortcuts to create your emails.
  16. By clicking the three dots, you can go to your profile, sign out, view logs, ask us a question, get online help, or see the version of the product you use.
  17. Here, you can see Notifications. If there are unread notifications, the icon is red, and you can click on it to see everything you missed.

Shared Email Templates in your browser

You can manage your templates and teams in a browser. Simply open the Shared Email Templates home page and log in:

Shared Email Templates in browser.

  1. Your templates are collected by folders: All Templates, Favorite Templates, My Templates, Team Templates, Shortcuts, or Mail Merge (you can use Mail Merge only if this feature is included in your subscription plan). This toolbar lets you filter all templates by the selected folder.
  2. When you stand on a template, you can see its contents on the right and edit it.
  3. Click Plus to create a new template, folder, or team.
  4. Here are the Notifications. If there are unread notifications, the icon is red, and you can click on it to see what you've missed.
  5. Click the three dots to open the More menu.

    Note. Under certain circumstances the More menu contains the Manage Keys option. For more details, visit the Manage subscription keys and activations page.

Documentation and how-to guides