Gmail templates are a perfect way to write your messages quickly. What they do is, enable you to do less typing or sometimes no typing at all and reply quickly to more emails in less time. Replying to tons of emails on a daily basis is surely a hectic job, but with Gmail templates, you are able to wind up otherwise hours of work in minutes. Sounds cool right?
What are Gmail Templates?
Gmail templates actually consist of a Google feature called “canned responses.” Canned responses are texts that you keep saved and can quickly add in a response to a mail. This allows you to avoid typing the same details over and over and hence saves your time and energy.
How to Enable Canned Responses?
To start, you will have to enable the templates in your Gmail. As this feature is not enabled by default, you will have to follow the steps given below to enable the templates.
Here are the steps:
Go to the settings menu by clicking on the gear icon.
Click on the Labs tab.
Enable the Canned Responses.
Save Changes by clicking on the Save Changes button.
Create Templates
Creating templates relates directly to the canned responses feature that we mentioned earlier. Before creating the email templates, make sure that your Gmail has active templates functionality.
Creating templates involves saving an email for future use. Here are the steps to create a template in Gmail.
1- First of all, you will go the Compose tab and create an email that you want to use as a template. As there are different sections in the email composer you will have to look at each section carefully. For example, if you want to use the signature in the template, you can leave the signature as it is; otherwise, you can remove the signature before saving the template. Similarly, there are From, and To sections to enter the sender’s and receiver’s email addresses; you can leave them empty.
2- Click on the More tab, which you will find in the small arrow pointing downwards right next to the Discard draft tab.
3- A new menu will appear containing the Canned responses tab; click on that and you will go to New canned response. Click on the Save button.
4- The next step will be to type the name of the newly saved template. This name will also appear as the subject of the template every time you use the Gmail templates. However, you can change the subject according to the situation and need.
5- Click on the OK button. This is how you will save your Gmail templates.
How to Send Canned Message as a Reply in Gmail?
Here are the steps to use your canned messages while responding to your emails.
1- Start by clicking on the Reply button.
2- Click on the More button which you will find on the bottom right of the toolbar. This button looks like a downward-pointing arrowhead.
3- Select the Canned Responses
4- You will find the Gmail templates that you saved using the steps provided in the previous section. Select the desired template that you want to use as a canned response.
5- Review the templates to make sure that there are no redundant or unrelated words in the content of the template.
6- Fill the To and From fields in the respective sections.
An important point to mention here is that if you want to insert additional text which is other than the templates to be inserted, you will have to type that text before inserting the template. You won’t be able to overwrite the text after inserting the template.
How to Edit Gmail Templates?
Over time, if you want to change one of your Gmail templates, you will have to follow these steps:
1- Click on the Compose button to start a new message.
2- Click on the More button. (Downward-pointing arrowhead in the bottom right section next to the Discard draft button.)
3- Click on the Canned Responses tab.
4- You will find the saved templates there. Select the template that you want to change and make the changes.
5- Go to More options once again and then Canned responses section.
6- Click on the same template that you just edited, make sure that you are under Save so that the new edits will be saved in the new section.
7- A “confirm overwrite canned response” prompt window will appear saying ‘This will overwrite your saved canned response. Are you sure you want to proceed?‘Click OK to confirm the changes.
Sending Gmail templates in Auto Replies
Auto Reply is a feature that allows you to respond to emails when you are away. To enable the auto-reply in your Gmail, you will have to set up a filter and create some rules so that when these rules/conditions are met, a message that you selected for a certain situation is sent automatically. These automatic replies are canned responses which we discussed in the previous section in quite a detail.
To set up automatic replies, follow these steps:
1- Enable the canned responses by following the steps given in the previous sections.
2- Create the email templates by following the simple rules given in the previous sections.
3- Select the Show search options button right next to the Search field at the top section of the Gmail window.
4- Create the rules that should be met in order to execute the automatic reply. This involves the sender’s email, and the subject line that should appear as the automatic response is being sent.
5- Click on the Create filter with this search>> option that you will find at the bottom.
6- You will see a box next to the Send canned messages option. Click on that box.
7- From the drop-down menu, you will have the options to choose which canned message to send when the filtering rules are met.
8- Select any additional filtering options that you want to apply.
9- Click on the Create filter button.