From Add-ins Collection for Outlook (Template Phrases)

Migrate to Shared Email Templates

On this page, find out how to transfer templates from Template Phrases to the Shared Email Templates add-in. As there are some important notes and limitations, please pay special attention to the Before you start section.

Note. This manual is for the Template Phrases add-in for Outlook desktop included in Add-ins Collection for Outlook. For Template Phrases for Outlook Online, follow this migration guide.

Before you start

Please read the below remarks carefully before starting the migration.

  • The migration includes two simple actions: exporting templates to an XML file in Template Phrases and importing them to Shared Email Templates.
  • In Template Phrases, you can export either single templates or folders. The number of imported templates is limited only by the number of items your Shared Email Templates subscription plan allows.
  • Templates bigger that 65000 symbols are not supported in Shared Email Templates.
  • Images and attachments are saved to the "Ablebits - Imported Files" folder under the specified OneDrive account.
  • Attached files and inline images bigger than 4Mb are not transferred to OneDrive and are ignored.
  • The templates are exported to an XML file that is saved to C:\Users\username\Documents\Ablebits\Export to SET
  • All the issues occurred with macros or files are described in the log file that is saved to C:\Users\username\Documents\Ablebits\Export to SET
  • All unsupported by Outlook HTML tags, attributes and styles are removed when importing.

Supported macros

Some of the Template Phrases macros are not supported in Shared Email Templates, here is the full list of them. Such macros can be automatically removed from templates if you check the corresponding option or marked in red if you do not do this.

Attached files

The attached to templates files will be transferred to your OneDrive. To find them in OneDrive, go to My Files and open the Ablebits - Imported Files folder:
Ablebits - Imported Files.

You local folder structure will be preserved. For example, if your file is located in C:\Users\username\Sales, the new path in OneDrive will be My Files\Ablebits - Imported Files\C\Users\username\Sales

Inline template pictures

All inline images will be saved to OneDrive to the following folder:

Documents\Ablebits - Imported Files\Inline Pictures\folder name\template name

Step 1. Export templates from Template Phrases

  1. The Export to SET menu option is available only in a new email message window. Make sure that the message body is blank, run Template Phrases, right-click the folder or template you want to export and select Export to SET:

    Click Export to SET.

    Note. If the Export to SET option is absent from the menu, back up your templates, download the latest version of Add-ins Collection, and install it.
  2. Check the additional options if needed and click Start:
    Click Export to SET.

    • Remove unsupported macros
      If you check this option, all the macros that Shared Email Templates does not support will be deleted from the imported templates.

      If the option is unchecked, but templates contain such macros, they will be marked in red in the imported template text:
      Unsupported macro in red.

    • Remove missing attachments
      Your templates from Template Phrases may include attached with the help of the ~%ATTACHFILE= macro files. If you check this option and the add-in does not find files by the indicated directory, the macro will be removed from the template.

      If the option is unchecked, but templates contain missing files, the macro will be preserved in the template and marked in red:

      Missing attachment in red.

  3. If you are doing this for the first time during the Outlook session, select your Microsoft account and enter your credentials:

    Sign in to Microsoft.

    Accept the permission requests (required only once):

    Export: requested permissions.

    Have full access to your files

    Allows the add-in to create a folder in your OneDrive and save all the exported files to this folder.

    View your basic profile

    Allows the add-in to sign you in to OneDrive while exporting templates and files.

    Maintain access to data you have given it access to

    Allows the add-in to get the OneDrive identifiers of the transferred files.

  4. When the export is complete, you'll see the window with the number of exported templates and issues if there are any:
    Export complete.

    To see the list of issues, click Open log file:
    Export complete.

Step 2. Import templates to Shared Email Templates

  1. Run Shared Email Templates, right-click My Templates or a folder/team and select Import in the contextual menu:

    Click Import.

  2. Go to C:\Users\username\Documents\Ablebits\Export to SET and select the XML file that is named the same way as the folder you exported:

    Select the XML file.

  3. Find the imported templates in the folder/team you selected initially:

    Imported templates.

Check macros (optionally)

After the import, you may want to check some of your templates that contained macros to make sure no important information has been lost.

Tip. Shared Email Templates offers more powerful macros for your templates. You can look through them on the Complete list of macros page.

Unsupported macros

Due to the technical limitations, the following macros are not supported in the imported from Template Phrases templates and are either deleted or marked in red:

  • ~%FROM_ACCOUNT=[]
  • ~%BEHALF_OF_NAME=[]
  • ~%INSERT_TEMPLATE
  • ~%ATTACHMENTS
  • ~%SELECTED
  • ~%INSERT_RECIPIENT1_FIRSTNAME
  • ~%INSERT_RECIPIENT1_FULLNAME
  • ~%INSERT_RECIPIENT1_LASTNAME
  • ~%CLEAR_SIGNATURE
  • ~%SWITCH_TO_HTML
  • ~%CLIPBOARD
  • ~%CURSOR
  • ~%REQUEST_READ_RECEIPT
  • ~%REQUEST_DELIVERY_RECEIPT
  • ~%SET_HIGH_IMPORTANCE
  • ~%SET_LOW_IMPORTANCE

Post a comment

Seen by everyone, do not publish license keys and sensitive personal info!

If you have any questions or issues with this add-in, please feel free to post your concerns in the comments area. As soon as we answer, a notification message will be sent to your e-mail. If you do not want to share your thoughts in public, please contact us at support@ablebits.com.