Julie Bestry | | Back in July, I posted "Weighed
Down: Automate to Levitate". I really
believe that the more we can do to eliminate busywork and task clutter,
the more quickly we can achieve our goals. In that post, I
suggested we create templates to help us with "first contact"
situations (so we remember to ask
all the right questions) and policy checklists (so we remember to share
the right information).
Lately, I've been thinking about the different ways we can
create and maintain templates for emails, and I surprised
myself with an option I hadn't considered.
USE EMAIL SOFTWARE TO CREATE "OFFICIAL" TEMPLATES
Email templates
are pretty standard way of accomplishing creating emails that you can
use over and over again. Most people, when they encounter a
situation repeatedly, think "Hey, I had the same issue with
Jane Smith not that long ago. I'll search for that letter
from my "sent" folder and tweak it to send to Mr. Jones."
Quick-thinking solopreneurs might even have saved an incoming letter,
and their email programs (like Outlook and Entourage) let them
click on a link associated with that letter that says "show reply"--no
in-depth searching needed!
And the savviest users of all know even better secrets about templates.
First, they know that it's still a pain to have to remember
the prior situation and the appropriate correspondent's name.
Next, they know that it can be an annoyance to have to
search for the right incoming letter and/or response.
Finally, they know that using an old email as
the base of a new one can create problems--poor
proofreading might lead you to leave the former recipient's name or
details (rates, personal data) not applicable to the new recipient.
Yikes!
So, these smarties proactively create
templates whenever a situation arises where they've
written a great letter, either to begin a conversation or continue one.
Unfortunately, the "official" way to create a template varies by email
software program; I'd have to be proficient in every program to create
step-by-step instructions for all of you. For example, as a
Mac user with Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook), I can create an email as a draft
in order to make a template. To create and save a template,
I would:
- Write
a new email, leaving space for whatever added variables
might be needed later. If it's an HTML-encoded email, I could
color-code
the areas that would likely need updating to make them easier to edit.
- Label
it (such as as "FAQ for first appointments) to make it easy to
find in applicable circumstances.
- Save
it in my Draft
folder. (If desired, I could make a templates sub-folder
in the Draft folder, to keep templates separate from regular drafts)
To create a new
draft-based email while preserving the draft for future availability,
I could just copy-and-paste the text into a new email...but that
wouldn't be very automated.
Instead, I can:
- Click on the template email in the Draft folder (or
subfolder).
- Click Command(Apple)-D (or select "Duplicate Message" from
the Edit folder) to create a working
copy of the template, and
- Click to open the duplicate, address and edit it for the
specifics of that recipient, and send!
Thus, with a few keystrokes and no real searching, I've created a
template, kept it handy and made it easy to use it as a new email while
safely preserving the template.
Googling for "Create e-mail template Outlook" yielded a
similar process, though with older versions of Outlook, it appears that
you had to temporarily disable Microsoft Word as your email editor.
(I hope someone who uses Outlook for PCs can weigh in on
whether that's still necessary.) Those steps were:
- On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail
Format tab.
- Clear the Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail
messages check box (Note: this is temporary)
- Click Apply, and then click OK.
- Click New Mail Message.
- Create the new message with an appropriate subject and
compose your content.
- On the File menu, click Save As and click Outlook Template,
and then click Save.
- Restore Word as the message editor (That is, click Options
on the Tools menu, click the Mail Format tab, and then select the Use
Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages check box, reversing
what you did in step #2.)
- Click Apply, and then click OK.
Some cursory research indicates that Gmail doesn't have a template
function, but Gmail, Yahoo and other web-based email programs do allow
you to save drafts, from which you can copy and paste into new, blank
documents. I encourage you to explore
your email program's options for creating email templates.
CREATE DOCUMENT TEMPLATES
AND COPY/PASTE TO WORD
This next option isn't quite as automated as creating an official
template with your email software, but it does have some distinct
advantages, and it can be used IN ADDITION TO the official template
solution.
First, it's much easier
to save a Word (or Word-like) word processing document on
a flash drive and carry it with you when traveling. If your
office calls, or a cursory check of your email from a public computer
in your hotel lobby reveals a message that really requires a response
before your return, it's much easier to copy the text of a Word
template into an email than trying to figure out how to access your
far-away hard drive. While many solopreneurs travel with
laptops, some of us still hope that a vacation means minimal work and
we leave the hardware behind.
Second, modern web apps mean you
don't have to have Word to access a Word file.
Any computer linked to the web, even if it doesn't have Word
(or whatever word processing program you use) will still provide you
with access to free word processing applications like GoogleDocs or ZohoWriter.
Log into your account, upload the text from your flash drive,
edit as necessary and then copy the text into whatever web-based email
account you can access.
Third, document templates provide an excellent stop-gap solution
if you've had a computer
crash. Most of you know how difficult and
inconvenient it can be to save a specific email or group of emails to a
flash drive. Specific emails seem to live in a cocooned
little area of your hard drive, requiring you to go spelunking to
capture them. However, if you've got the text of your email
templates saved as Word documents (especially if you save them with signature
blocks included), you can always pop onto a friend's or
public computer to send a perfectly detailed template-based email.
SPEAKING OF SIGNATURE
BLOCKS--A
SUPER-SIMPLE TEMPLATE BUILDER
We all know the importance of using the signature function in
our email programs for marketing purposes. But why do we
rarely think of taking advantage of signature
blocks as templates?
Outlook and Entourage users, for example, can save multiple (sometimes
unlimited) versions of their "signatures". Signature blocks
can actually be used to deliver any variety of customized, formatted
data (depending the audience, your schedule, etc.):
- Contact information
- Directions
- Marketing/Sales messages
- Step-by-step instructions
- User tips
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Your schedule for the day/week (just like people have
specialized outgoing voicemail messages)
- Your public speaking schedule
- Motivational Quotes
- Your newsletter's editorial schedule (for prospective
advertisers)
- Complete letters based on standard inquiries
In lieu of using the official template formatting of your email
program, consider just
creating your templates as signature blocks.
They're easy to create--usually, you just click Signatures,
often under a Tools menu, to create a new one, and then label and save
it. To retrieve a signature block, you just open a new, blank
email, select the preferred signature block, and voila, you could have
a fully-rendered email template available in seconds.
Nifty, eh?
What about all of you? What are your favorite ways to create
and handle email templates? What works for you?
What causes you headaches? Let's work together to
save time and effort and organize our templates together.
Have a happy and organized September!
--
Julie Bestry, Certified Professional Organizer®
Best Results Organizing
"Don't apologize. Organize!"
organize@juliebestry.com
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