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.
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:
Hello ~%InsertRecipientFirstName,
I’m writing regarding your request.
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":
##hello1
Some text
As a result, your messages will look like this:
Hello Joe,
I’m writing regarding your request.
Some text
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:
##hello1
##followup
##askreply
Then click the Handle Shortcuts button to get something like this:
Hello Joe,
I’m writing regarding your request.
Is the issue you were having sorted out?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
You can add a shortcut to an existing template or a new one.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
To see all your shortcuts, click on the Shortcuts icon at the top of the pane:
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:
There are more ways to use shortcuts, you can find them on the Tips and tricks page and our blog.
Responses
Is it possible to create a keyboard shortcut for the Handle Shortcuts button? This would be much more efficient not having to physically select it.
Hi Tiffany,
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't provide us with a handling keyboard API. But we review all Office improvements via Office Insider and will definitely add keyboard shortcuts as soon as we get the required api changes.
In my opinion, it would be a better experience if shortcuts were replaced automatically instead of requiring a press of the Process Shortcuts button. Is this possible?
Ideally it would happen as soon as a shortcut tag has been completed (e.g. space/tab/enter pressed, or mouse clicked somewhere else?
The above would likely be the nicest option, negating the need for any of the interim options below...
A slightly less user-friendly option, but still an improvement, would be a shortcut combination for running the Process Shortcuts action?
Another improvement would be to detect shortcuts on pre-send and offer to substitute them at that point. It wouldn't be necessary if they were replaced as soon as they are complete, but in the interim it would help not to send an email without the shortcuts substituted. Ideally this option would allow viewing a preview of the email that would be sent rather than just substituting and then immediately sending (in case the substitution didn't work properly).
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your idea. However, it is impossible with the modern Office Extensibility technology. We could develop this feature if the add-in supports Outlook for Windows only. But for platform independent add-ins Microsoft guys have not supplied us with an event we need to trap keyboard input in the message body.
Another con is nested shortcuts, templates and macros. You can use shortcuts inside of messages, templates, profile and team properties. Behind a single shortcut, there may be a tree of other shortcuts, properties, templates, macros, etc. As the result, your final message can be built from various blocks, one of which can be a WTE macro dependent on the user’s input. Therefore, shortcuts are processed when the user inserts a template and/or clicks the Process shortcuts button.