Gmail for concern

How to save time with advanced Gmail templates

Finish typing the same stuff over and over and start letting smart technology practise the piece of work for you.

Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

Table of Contents
  • Gmail templates option #1: The basic, built-in system
  • Gmail templates option #ii: The supercharged in-site system
  • Gmail templates choice #three: The rich-formatting system
  • Gmail templates option #four: The browser-based keyboard shortcut system

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Hey, thanks for your e-mail. Let'due south discover a time to run across.

Great to hear from yous. We'd honey to chat. Please follow up with Pat (cc'd here) to set upwardly an interview.

Pitiful for the delay in getting dorsum to you. This isn't something we can pursue right at present, but I appreciate the interest. (Besides, I'd capeesh a sandwich.)

Exercise any of these responses band a bell? The specifics may vary (especially, uh, on that last one), simply we've all got our standard stock statements we send out time and time again via email — and if you lot were to add upwards all the fourth dimension spent typing those sentences out, well, you could probably add an extra calendar week of vacation onto your work year.

You may not be able to eliminate the need for email formalities entirely, simply you lot tin can save yourself the trouble of typing out the same stuff endlessly past tapping into Gmail's fourth dimension-saving template possibilities. From the service'south relatively simple built-in arrangement to some exceptional tertiary-political party supplements, you've got enough of options for cutting downward on wasted typing and making email management more than efficient.

All you've gotta exercise is decide which setup is correct for you and then have a few minutes to set it upward once — and from then on out, answering basic emails will require no more than a couple quick clicks or a single hotkey sequence and, if y'all're then inspired, a quick bit of customization to tailor your template as needed.

Nosotros'll first with the well-nigh basic possibility and work our way up to the more than advanced options.

(Annotation: All of the third-party tools recommended here have reasonable-seeming privacy policies that respect your data and avert asking for unnecessary permissions. It's always smart to glance over those policies for yourself earlier installing anything, though, just to make sure you're comfy with the level of admission required and that, assuming y'all're using a piece of work-connected account or figurer, the requirements won't violate any policies provided by your company.)

Gmail templates choice #1: The basic, built-in system

If all you want is a series of basic stock responses — and if y'all're okay with using your mouse to pull those up when you need 'em — Gmail's own native templates system could be more than than enough for your repetitive message needs. And it'south already in that location and available in Gmail, but waiting to be activated.

To start, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the Gmail website and then select the See All Settings push button. Click the Advanced tab at the tiptop of the screen, notice the "Templates" option on the folio that comes up, and click "Enable" adjacent to it. Click the Save Changes button at the lesser of the screen and wait for the site to reload.

At present you're ready to create your templates. But beginning a new electronic mail, as if you were most to send a message to someone, and type whatever you lot want to save as a template into the body of the e-mail. And so, click the three-dot menu icon in the message'south lower-correct corner and look for the new "Templates" option.

01 gmail templates built in JR Raphael/IDG

Saving a template directly within Gmail is quick and easy, if a flake express.

Hover over that, and you should see an choice to "Relieve draft equally template." Hover over that, then select "Save new template." Give the template an like shooting fish in a barrel-to-identify name, when the prompt comes upwardly, and click the Salve push button — and that's it: The adjacent fourth dimension you demand to send the message you saved, simply click that same three-dot icon and select "Templates," and you'll see your new entry every bit a gear up-to-insert option.

Simply be aware that if you oasis't already filled in the email's subject line when you lot add in the template, the template'south name volition automatically exist inserted into that field — so unless that's something you lot actually want to utilize equally your bulletin'due south subject field, exist prepared to change information technology earlier striking send.

02 gmail templates built in insert JR Raphael/IDG

Once you lot've created a Gmail template, you can insert information technology into whatsoever outgoing bulletin.

And if y'all ever desire to delete or edit existing templates, you'll find commands for doing so within that same area. (For editing, yous'll demand to first insert the template you want to change into the email torso, then make whatever modifications y'all want — and and so, in one case everything'southward ready, click that three-dot menu icon once more than and select "Save draft as template" followed by the template's original name.)

Gmail templates option #2: The supercharged in-site system

If you like the idea of the native Gmail template setup but need a little more oomph, an add together-on service called Gmelius might exist simply the affair for yous. Gmelius works via a browser extension (available for Chrome too as Safari, Edge, and even Opera) or a mobile app (for either Android or iOS).

Once you get the appropriate software and become yourself signed up, you'll be able to create and edit templates within the Gmelius dashboard. The templates are able to dynamically make full in advanced variables, including the recipient's name. They'll even let you specify a sending address, a list of cc or bcc recipients, and a Gmail label to be applied to the message.

03 gmail templates gmelius JR Raphael/IDG

Gmelius's templates support variables, auto-filled recipient fields, and lots of other advanced options the native Gmail templates don't offer. (Click image to enlarge it.)

All of your templates will be available direct within the Gmail website'southward standard compose tool, via a special new Gmelius-added icon (and they'll be available inside the standalone Gmelius apps on the phone front end as well). You tin organize them into categories for easy discovery, and you can share templates across an entire team, too.

Gmelius is free for individual utilize, with a limit of 10 saved templates at a time, or at rates starting at $9 per user per calendar month for unlimited and/or company-broad purposes.

Gmail templates choice #three: The rich-formatting organization

Perhaps fancy-looking newsletters, invites, and outcome announcements are what yous're subsequently. If so, the BEE Templates for Gmail add together-on is the tool you need.

BEE Templates adds an icon into the regular Gmail compose tool, on the desktop, with which you lot tin find tons of slick, ready-to-go templates for everything from product promotions to news announcements. Merely find the template that's right for your demand, select it, and nail: It'll be in your message and ready for you lot to edit and refine.

04 gmail templates bee JR Raphael/IDG

The BEE Templates add-on brings rich, professional-looking formatting into your Gmail templates.

BEE Templates is costless at its base of operations level. If you lot want the ability to save and share your custom creations for ongoing use along with access to fifty-fifty more starter templates and a host of advanced editing options, yous tin crash-land upwardly to a Pro subscription for $15 a month every bit an individual or $25 per user per calendar month for a team.

Gmail templates pick #four: The browser-based keyboard shortcut system

Wish you could accomplish this same bones stuff without all the clicks? I hear ya. I'm a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts myself, and I'd take a quick keyboard command over a serial of mouse deportment any day.

The surreptitious to setting yourself up with that power is a super-handy service called Text Blaze. I've written nearly it before, because it has the potential to save yous time all throughout your spider web browsing environs, simply it can exist incredibly handy for the specific purpose of Gmail templates, too (and that's actually how I utilise information technology most frequently).

Text Blaze works exclusively with Chrome, so you'll demand to exist using that in order to take advantage of it. One time you've installed the official extension and followed the steps to sign up for the service, you can head over to your Text Blaze dashboard to start configuring your templates.

But click the circular blue plus icon in the dashboard'south upper-right corner to create a new particular. You lot'll need to requite it a label — a basic description of what it'southward all almost, for your own hereafter reference — and then give it a shortcut, which is the actual key sequence you'll type to trigger it. Exist sure to think of something that's easy to recollect and yet unlikely to be entered in any other context, when yous aren't trying to pull upward your template. (I offset all of my shortcuts with a slash to help with this. You could as well use an asterisk, a tilde, or any other graphic symbol that'll be piece of cake for you to hit when needed only unlikely to come upwardly in your regular typing.)

05 gmail templates text blaze JR Raphael/IDG

Text Blaze isn't only for email templates, but information technology works quite well for that purpose. (Click image to overstate information technology.)

Text Bonfire can exercise some pretty interesting advanced stuff, too, such as inserting dynamic variables — the electric current appointment, the current time, and then on. And whatever templates you create can be used in more or less any text field within your browser, and so you lot could merely as easily apply them in something like Google Docs, should the urge ever strike.

Text Bonfire is free for individual use, with a limit of ii,500 characters per saved template. You lot tin heighten that limit and unlock boosted features, including support for shared items and templates with images, by bumping up to a $36-a-year Pro subscription — and you can add in organisation-wide access controls and other visitor-aimed features with a concern or enterprise plan, starting at $84 per user per year.

Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves up tasty morsels about the homo side of engineering science. Hungry for more? Bring together him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to become fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday.

Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.