Templates are pretty standard fare in the world of e-mail.  Or maybe that’s just the little bubble I live in.  Either way, creating and using templates in Outlook is remarkably and unnecessarily complicated.

In Thunderbird I have a templates folder among my mail folders.  I do a Save as… and save the message as a template.  From then on (until I delete it) that message is available in the templates folder where I can double-click it and begin composing from the template (including sender information, recipient information, text, &c.).  I can do this, both saving and using, from any location where I have IMAP access.

Outlook is less kind.

I have worked it out and here for your edification are the basics of the process.  I am writing this for Outlook 2007 but it will probably help you with slight modifications in older versions of Outlook.

To create a template you will first want to compose some basic message which will then act as your template.  You can alter your from and to lines, add some text, whatever.

Once you have crafted the template, you will want to choose Save As (which is now located under the Office orb in the upper left corner of your compose window).  When the Save As dialog opens, be sure to choose “Outlook Template (*.oft)” from the “Save-as type:” drop-down.  Choose a name for your template and note that Outlook saves this into a templates folder on your local hard drive—sorry, not my fault.

Being that it’s on your local drive there will be no accessing this template from other computers unless you copy the file over.  So it goes.  I’m sure for most uses this will be adequate.

Now, how about using that template later?  Gack!  Even more convoluted.

Start with clicking File —> New —> Choose Form… which will bring up a Choose Form dialog.  Now you must select “Use Templates in File System” from the “Look In:” drop-down.  This will reveal your templates folder as mention above where you will find the template you previously saved.  Click the “Open” button and you’re ready to roll.

(Don’t be fooled by your list of mail folders in the “Look In:” drop-down as you will not be able to open a message from them.)

Happy hunting.

Oh, and encourage your organization to switch to Thunderbird and relegate Outlook to enterprise calendar use until Sunbird/Lightning is fully prepared.  (Please note that Thunderbird will not interfere with Outlook’s calendar functionality as some other mail applications will.)