From Add-ins Collection for Outlook (Template Phrases)
On this page, find out how to transfer templates from Template Phrases to the Shared Email Templates add-in. As there are some important notes and limitations, please pay special attention to the Before you start section.
Note. This manual is for the Template Phrases add-in for Outlook desktop included in Add-ins Collection for Outlook. For Template Phrases for Outlook Online, follow this migration guide.
Before you start
Please read the below remarks carefully before starting the migration.
The migration includes two simple actions: exporting templates to an XML file in Template Phrases and importing them to Shared Email Templates.
In Template Phrases, you can export either single templates or folders. The number of imported templates is limited only by the number of items your Shared Email Templates subscription plan allows.
Templates bigger that 65000 symbols are not supported in Shared Email Templates.
Images and attachments are saved to the "Ablebits - Imported Files" folder under the specified OneDrive account.
Attached files and inline images bigger than 4Mb are not transferred to OneDrive and are ignored.
The templates are exported to an XML file that is saved to C:\Users\username\Documents\Ablebits\Export to SET
All the issues occurred with macros or files are described in the log file that is saved to C:\Users\username\Documents\Ablebits\Export to SET
All unsupported by Outlook HTML tags, attributes and styles are removed when importing.
Supported macros
Some of the Template Phrases macros are not supported in Shared Email Templates, here is the full list of them. Such macros can be automatically removed from templates if you check the corresponding option or marked in red if you do not do this.
Attached files
The attached to templates files will be transferred to your OneDrive. To find them in OneDrive, go to My Files and open the Ablebits - Imported Files folder:
You local folder structure will be preserved. For example, if your file is located in C:\Users\username\Sales, the new path in OneDrive will be My Files\Ablebits - Imported Files\C\Users\username\Sales
Inline template pictures
All inline images will be saved to OneDrive to the following folder:
Documents\Ablebits - Imported Files\Inline Pictures\folder name\template name
Step 1. Export templates from Template Phrases
The Export to SET menu option is available only in a new email message window. Make sure that the message body is blank, run Template Phrases, right-click the folder or template you want to export and select Export to SET:
Check the additional options if needed and click Start:
Remove unsupported macros
If you check this option, all the macros that Shared Email Templates does not support will be deleted from the imported templates.
If the option is unchecked, but templates contain such macros, they will be marked in red in the imported template text:
Remove missing attachments
Your templates from Template Phrases may include attached with the help of the ~%ATTACHFILE= macro files. If you check this option and the add-in does not find files by the indicated directory, the macro will be removed from the template.
If the option is unchecked, but templates contain missing files, the macro will be preserved in the template and marked in red:
If you are doing this for the first time during the Outlook session, select your Microsoft account and enter your credentials:
Accept the permission requests (required only once):
Have full access to your files
Allows the add-in to create a folder in your OneDrive and save all the exported files to this folder.
View your basic profile
Allows the add-in to sign you in to OneDrive while exporting templates and files.
Maintain access to data you have given it access to
Allows the add-in to get the OneDrive identifiers of the transferred files.
When the export is complete, you'll see the window with the number of exported templates and issues if there are any:
To see the list of issues, click Open log file:
Step 2. Import templates to Shared Email Templates
Run Shared Email Templates, right-click My Templates or a folder/team and select Import in the contextual menu:
Go to C:\Users\username\Documents\Ablebits\Export to SET and select the XML file that is named the same way as the folder you exported:
Find the imported templates in the folder/team you selected initially:
Check macros (optionally)
After the import, you may want to check some of your templates that contained macros to make sure no important information has been lost.
Tip. Shared Email Templates offers more powerful macros for your templates. You can look through them on the Complete list of macros page.
Unsupported macros
Due to the technical limitations, the following macros are not supported in the imported from Template Phrases templates and are either deleted or marked in red:
~%FROM_ACCOUNT=[]
~%BEHALF_OF_NAME=[]
~%INSERT_TEMPLATE
~%ATTACHMENTS
~%SELECTED
~%INSERT_RECIPIENT1_FIRSTNAME
~%INSERT_RECIPIENT1_FULLNAME
~%INSERT_RECIPIENT1_LASTNAME
~%CLEAR_SIGNATURE
~%SWITCH_TO_HTML
~%CLIPBOARD
~%CURSOR
~%REQUEST_READ_RECEIPT
~%REQUEST_DELIVERY_RECEIPT
~%SET_HIGH_IMPORTANCE
~%SET_LOW_IMPORTANCE
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