Today I want to briefly talk about the My Template feature in Outlook. This great add-in makes it very easy to create simple templates for emails. I used the old way (see below) but this was not very user-friendly. With the new feature you can create and use simple templates with a very user-friendly interface. The major difference is that we cannot add images in these templates, perhaps this well be added in the future.
Create a template
- Create a new email.
- Click on View templates
- Click on + Template
- Type the information for the template and save the template
Use a Template
- Create a new email.
- Click on View templates and select the template
- If needed add more information and send the email
Old way: Create a Template
- Create a new email.
- Type the information for the template (e.g., all the standard information).
- Click File and choose Save as. Specify the template File name and Save as file type Outlook Template (.oft). Be sure to save it in the default location for Microsoft Templates.
- Close the email and do not save it when prompted.
Old way: Use a Template
- Choose New Items | More Items | Choose Form.
- In the Look In: box, select User Templates in File System
- Select the form you wish to use and click Open
- You can now type the needed information and click Send.
What happened to this? I use it regularly at work and it is just gone. I can’t add it back and can’t seem to follow the link above. Is this going to come back? Can I have the source code and remake it?
I don’t know what happend, perhaps an update. I looked in my outlook and cannot find it either.
Same here. Can’t find it under “Get Add-ins”. I was greated with a MS prompt when launching Outlook (that’s sporting a new icon) stating “Under your control: Your organization’s admin has given you the choice to use some optional connected experiences…”
I am really underwhelmed by this. Really screws up my routine.
Seeing this in the O365 events:
Id : EX179059
Status : Service restored
StartTime : 4/29/2019 11:00:00 PM
ServiceName : Exchange Online
Message : Title: My Templates add in missing
User Impact: Users may be unable to see the My Templates add in for Outlook on the web or the desktop client.
Current status: Our investigation shows that a recent service update inadvertently caused impact to the My Templates feature. We’ve disabled the recent service update and we’re working to refresh the data in your environment. Once completed, we’ll inform your organization and will require the following steps to propagate these changes more quickly in your environment: 1) Admins may need to force a server-side cache refresh by making a change to the organization-wide “My Templates” add-in configuration. Disabling and then re-enabling the add-in is a potential action to complete this process. 2) Affected users may need to refresh their web browser if using Outlook on the web or restart their Outlook client for the mitigation to take effect.
Scope of impact: Your organization is affected by this event, and any user using Outlook on the web or the desktop client may be impacted by this.
Start time: Monday, April 29, 2019, at 11:00 PM UTC
Root cause: A code issue introduced in a recent service update resulted in users being unable to access or use the “My Templates” add-in.
Next update by: Saturday, May 4, 2019, at 1:00 AM UTC
It’s still broken for us.
Is there a max number of templates and size of message using this feature? I have several saved but if i try adding more or editing saved ones I get a “could not be saved message” or “too large try making it smaller” message. BTW, mine disappeared for a few days as well but it’s back now! It so much easier than following the save-as route.
MS fixed the issue and ours came back as well.
Anyone see the issue where when you first select My Templates, its taking about 30secs to load them in each time before you can select one? Any fixes for this. Ive searched for awhile and not finding much about it.