Writing a good letter or email takes time. You finally get the words “just right” to explain your position or to sell your product, so why waste time trying to recreate a similar note to another client?
Create a template that can be reused over and over again. I do this for meeting confirmations and standard product purchases. My assistant knows which template to use and I can feel confident that a consistent message that I have approved has gone out – all without me being there!
Here are the instructions for creating and using templates in both Outlook 2003 and ACT! 2005.
To create the template:
1. Tools > Options > Mail Format. Clear the checkbox ‘Use Microsoft Office 2003 to edit email messages’. Apply > OK.
2. Start a new email message. Enter the standard text and subject line. Leave space for any variable information. File > Save As. Change the name of the template now if you want. Save As type should be Outlook Template. Note: If you have an automatic email signature chosen, it will appear when you create a new email message. You can either delete it or decide to turn off the signature.
3. Change the setting back in step 1 if you want.
To use the template:
1. Tools > Forms > Choose Form. Click Look in drop-down arrow > User templates in File System. Select your template > Open. Again, you may need to delete any added signature. Press Send and your email is on its way. If you are using ACT! and you’ve chosen a contact from the ACT! database, the email will be attached to the contact record on the History tab.
To create the template:
1. Write > New Letter/E-mail Template. Enter your text, including any mail merge fields. File > Save As > enter a filename. It should save to the Templates folder and the type should already be an .adt file (this is an ACT template file).
To use the template:
1. Look up who you want to send the template to. It can be one contact or multiple contacts.
2. Write > Mail Merge > follow the prompts in the Mail Merge Wizard. On the Select Template window, click Browse and select the template you want. ACT! will remember the last one you used. Once you click Finish, if you selected multiple contacts, the templates will be created (if you were sending an email, they would be sent). If you selected one contact for an email, you will see the email on the screen and can edit it before it is sent.
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