The tutorial shows how to create reusable pieces of content for Outlook emails by using Quick Parts, AutoText and Shared Templates.
Like many Outlook users, you may often need to send the same text over and over again - new offers to your business partners, replies to prospective clients, reports to supervisors, and so on. Do you still do it the long and tedious keystroke way? In this case, you'll certainly find Quick Parts very useful. Not only will they save you a surprising amount of time, but also introduce consistency and accuracy in your emails.
Outlook Quick Parts is a gallery of reusable pieces of content that you can quickly insert into your email messages as well as appointments, meeting requests, contacts, and tasks. Microsoft defines this feature as "building blocks".
Quick Parts were introduced in Outlook 2007 as a more versatile replacement for AutoText from previous versions. These snippets of predefined content are not limited to text only - they can include images, tables, graphics, and formatting.
The Quick Parts feature works the same way in all versions of Outlook for Office 365, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007.
To begin with, type the desired text, format it the way you want, and include graphics if needed. Technically, it does not matter where you create a new building block - the steps are the same for emails, appointments, contacts and tasks.
When your new piece of content is ready, here's what you do to add it to the Quick Part Gallery:
Once a Quick Part is created, you can access and reuse it at any time from everywhere including emails, meeting requests, tasks, etc.
By specifying the following details, you can better organize Quick Parts for your specific needs:
Name - type a unique name for your new Quick Part. Because a building block can be inserted by name, short and meaningful names can save you a lot of time.
In the gallery, the names are listed in alphabetical order. So, if you want a specific entry to appear at the top of the list, you can prefix the name with a number or underscore, e.g. "1map" or "_map".
Gallery - select the gallery in which you want the new building block to appear. Outlook can save entries in many different galleries, but generally you'll use Quick Parts and AutoText.
Category - categories belong to galleries and you can regard them as kind of sub-folders for further grouping. The default category is General. If you have over 10 reusable pieces, it's a good idea to organize them in your own categories. For this, click the drop-down arrow and choose Create New Category.
Description - optionally, type some text that describes the entry. But you may not bother about this attribute, as you'll never see it or use it.
Save In - Save to the default NormalEmail.dotm template if you want the new Quick Part to be available in all emails and other Outlook items. If you use your own Outlook templates, you can isolate your building blocks by template. A template must be open to appear in the drop-down list.
Options - defines how the entry is inserted:
There are three ways to insert building blocks into Outlook items. The below instructions are for emails because we use them most often. The techniques for tasks, appointments, and contacts are exactly the same.
The fastest way to put a reusable piece of content into an email message is this:
For example, to insert the Quick Part named "Map", you type "map" and press F3. The image below shows the result:
In most cases, you do not need to enter the whole name. It is enough to type the part of the name until it becomes unique.
Let's say, you have two Quick Parts named "Thanks for support" and "Thank you":
In Outlook 2016 and Outlook 2019, Quick Parts can also be auto-completed by hitting the Enter key.
You just start typing the name and as soon as it becomes unique the "Press ENTER to Insert" suggestion appears. Press the Enter key and the content is inserted straight away.
If you have many building blocks and you cannot remember the name of the particular snippet that you want to use, find it in the Quick Parts Gallery:
To modify an existing Quick Part, here's what you need to do:
If you'd like to change several entries, this can be done faster via the Building Block Organizer:
The Modify Building Block dialog box only allows renaming Quick Parts and changing their attributes, but not the content.
To change the Quick Part's content, you need to replace it with a new one. Here's how:
If you want to permanently remove a certain building block from the gallery, this is what you need to do:
In Outlook 2003, AutoText was the only type of the available building blocks. In Outlook 2007, Quick Parts appeared, and AutoText became its part.
In the modern versions of Outlook, the only difference between Quick Parts and AutoText is that they are different galleries. In all other respects (creating, editing and inserting), they are absolutely the same.
To add a new AutoText entry, select the text that you want to store and do one of the following:
Or you can create a Quick Part as usual, but choose to save it to the AutoText Gallery:
To view the existing AutoText entries, click Quick Parts > AutoText:
Below I will share a few little secrets can make a great difference in the way you use Quick Parts in Outlook.
To always have the building blocks at your fingertips, add them to the Outlook Quick Access Toolbar. For this, just right-click the Quick Parts button, and then click Add to Quick Access Toolbar:
That's it! The Quick Parts Gallery is now easily accessible from almost everywhere.
As you already know, Quick Parts reside on the Insert tab. If you plan to frequently use them in your work, it can be more convenient to have your building blocks on the default Message tab. To have it done, carry out these steps:
By default, Outlook Quick Parts are saved to the file called NormalEmail.dotm, which is stored here:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\NormalEmail.dotm
To back up your Quick Parts, close Outlook and copy this file to a save location.
To restore Quick Parts, copy the file from your backup location to the Templates folder, with Outlook closed.
Please note that aside from Quick Parts, the NormalEmail.dotm file also contains settings for all the styles that you have added or modified. So, when you back up and restore Quick Parts, your custom styles are also copied and restored.
Sorry, bad news first - there is no way to add an attachment to a Quick Part :(
The good news is that there are at least two other ways to automatically add attachments in Outlook:
The Quick Parts and AutoText galleries surely beat manual copying and pasting. But I personally do not use them in my work. Why? Because I have a better choice - Shared Email Templates for Outlook.
The Email Templates tool has a number of unique features that make it superior to Outlook Quick Parts:
As an example, let's create a template for sending a new price list to your partners. So, you compose the message, add the desired graphics and formatting, and then do the following:
And now, whenever you want to reply with template, simply double click its name.
Voilà, your response is ready to go - the text is inserted, the attachment is added, and the Subject line is filled, all with a mouse click!
This is only a quick and short introduction to our new Templates tool, but there is much more to it! If you are curious to discover other useful features, you are welcome to try:
16 responses to "Outlook Quick Parts and AutoText: how to create, edit and use"
Awesome guidance with detailed instructions ! Thank you...
Great article. Thank you!
Awesome guidance with detailed instructions ! Thanks a lot...
Well written, concise, easy to understand, follow, and navigate. Love the detailed instructions with pictures. You made my whole day so much better! Thank you!
Any idea if this can be done on the mac version? I am currently looking for this exact thing!
Many thanks in advance.
Marcus
Hi Marcus,
You can try our Shared Email Templates. This tool works for Windows, Mac, and Outlook Online.
Great article! Found what I was looking for! Respect you guys!
very well written, precise & to the point. thank you for your help.
Great article! Answered every question I had, and even the ones I didn't think of. Thanks for the help.
We had a training session and we were told to add a quick part as a practice. No matter what I do I cannot now find a way to remove it. I've tried all the above but cannot even see the short cut listed, but it comes up every time I type the key phrase. I'm on Office 365. Can you help please.
Hi Sue,
You can remove the quick parts even on the office 365. Click on new email and put your cursor on the message window then click on insert tab and select quick parts, right click on the ones you want to remove and select organize and delete. Hope that will be helpful.
If you create a quick part in Word and you want to use it in Outlook as well, is there a way of sharing it across apps or do you have to create it in each app you want to use it?
Just wanted to THANK YOU very much for putting this together. Been racking my brain to get Quick Parts on a New Mail Message.
Thanks Again
When I try and scroll through my quick parts items it says “fields are nested to deeply” and I have to scroll several times before I can click the one I want. Is there a way to fix this?
Regarding QUICK PARTS. When I go to NEW EMAIL > INSERT > TEXT, QUICK PARTS is greyed out. How can I enable it? I am using MICROSOFT OFFICE PROFESSIONAL PLUS 2019.
Is there a way to copy the Quick Parts "Custom Shapes" I created in Word 2016 and paste in Outlook 2016? Is there a way in Microsoft Programs that will automatically input any new custom text or shapes that I create in Word 2016 and have available in all the other programs I have like, Excel, Power Point, Access, Outlook?