How to create and use template shortcuts

In Shared Email Templates for Outlook

This feature is inspired by our customers' requests and feedback. Template shortcuts can be interpreted as templates for templates. You can create a number of template shortcuts and then construct your templates or email messages by using them in different combinations and order.

Here is a quick How to use template shortcuts cheat sheet, click on the button below to open or download it:

Download cheat sheet

• Template shortcuts: What's this
• How to create shortcuts
  • Add shortcuts to new template
  • Add shortcuts to existing template
• How to use shortcuts
  • Use shortcuts in email messages
  • Use shortcuts in templates
• How to find all your shortcuts
• How to change and remove shortcuts
• More about shortcuts

Template shortcuts: What's this

A template shortcut is a shortened name of a template that you can use to insert the template into a message, another template, a dataset, or a profile/team property.

To insert the template into your email, simply type two hash signs and a shortcut and click the Handle Shortcuts button. The shortened name will be replaced with the full text of your template and it does not matter how big this template is: a few lines or a few pages.

For example, here is a typical salutation you begin your emails with:

Instead of including this text in each template, just create a separate one and add a shortcut to it, say, "hello1". Then begin all the templates where this salutation should be used with "##hello1":

As a result, your messages will look like this:

Feel free to create as many templates of this kind as you need. The shortcuts may be as follows: "hello1", "hello2", "hello3".

You can also create a speedy reply with a few shortcuts combining them in a message. For example, if you have shortcuts for salutations, follow-ups and reply requests, you can insert the following:

Then click the Handle Shortcuts button to get something like this:

How to create shortcuts

You can add a shortcut to an existing template or a new one.

Add shortcuts to new template

To create a new template, select the folder and click the New button:

Enter the name of your template, text, and click the Edit Shortcut icon:

Type in a name for your template shortcut (you can use both upper and lower case) and click Save:

You'll see the name of your shortcut in blue:

Click the Save button to save your template.

Add shortcuts to existing template

Also, you can take an existing template and add a shortcut to it. In the template tree, stand on the template of interest and right in the preview pane click on the Edit Shortcut icon:

Type in a name for your template shortcut (you can use both upper and lower case) and click Save:

You'll see the shortcut name of your template in blue:

How to use shortcuts

You can create a number of template shortcuts and insert them right into your message body in Outlook. Also, you can use shortcuts to design ready-made reply templates.

Use shortcuts in email messages

To use template shortcuts in your email messages, type in the shortcuts' names directly into the message body in the order you want them to appear in your letter. To turn the shortcuts' names into text, click the Handle Shortcuts button in the bottom right corner of the add-in pane:

Voila, shortcuts are processed and your message is ready:

Use shortcuts in templates

Also, you can use template shortcuts as building blocks to construct email templates.

Create a new template and enter the names of your shortcuts in the order you want them to appear in the template text:

Save your template.

When you paste this template into your message, text of the shortcuts will appear:

How to find all your shortcuts

To see all your shortcuts, click on the Shortcuts icon at the top of the pane:

How to change and remove shortcuts

Select a template and click on its shortcut name in the preview pane:

In the Edit shortcut box, you can rename the shortcut or remove the text completely to delete it:

More about shortcuts

There are more ways to use shortcuts, you can find them on the Tips and tricks page and our blog.