How to use Outlook drafts as email templates

How to save a draft in Outlook

There is unlikely something easier than creating a draft. There are just 3 steps to take to save a draft in Outlook:

1. Open a new email or create a reply to any message.
2. Write your text, add links, formatting and pictures if necessary.
3. Save this email (either by clicking on the Save icon or by closing the window).

That’s pretty much it :) This unfinished email will be saved as a draft in your Outlook.

But how to find drafts in your Outlook? You may see all of them in the Drafts folder on the Navigation Pane:

Double-click on any draft and it will become an email that you may continue editing or send.

I told you, it couldn’t be easier :)

How to delete a draft

It may happen that there are too many drafts and some of them were created accidentally, hence, there is no need in them. How to get rid of the drafts you don’t need? Easily! There are several ways to remove a draft in Outlook:

• Go to the Drafts folder and hover the cursor on the unwanted draft. You’ll see the trash icon on the right side, just click on it and the draft will be removed right away:
  
• If there are several drafts you need to get rid of, select them (or use Ctrl+A to select all of the drafts), right-click on any of them and choose Delete from the dropdown list:
  
• You may also do it in an old-fashioned way - by drag and dropping the unwanted drafts into the Deleted Items folder.

How to recover deleted drafts in Outlook

Restoring drafts doesn’t differ from restoring messages at all. There are also a few ways to go:

• You may use the Undo button (or the Ctrl + Z shortcut) in your Outlook and retrieve the last removed message.
• As draft is just an email, it goes right to the Deleted Items folder after you remove it. So, open Deleted Items, find the drafts you still need and move them to the necessary folder in your Outlook:
  
• Or even simpler, select the draft(s) to restore, drag and drop it into the necessary folder.
• If however, you have already emptied your Trash folder, you may still restore the removed messages. Hit “Recover items recently removed from this folder”, choose the items to retrieve and get them back in a click:
  

Please keep in mind that once you send a draft, it gets converted into a sent email and it will no longer be available. Draft is a to-be-sent email so when you finally send it, you actually lose your draft with all its content.

Disappointing a little bit, right? But what if I told you that there is a way to save a draft and use it as a pattern for the outgoing messages? Would you like to know how you may make your drafts Outlook templates so that they don’t get lost, removed and can be used as long as you want? Keep up reading ;)

Create folder for your templates

For Shared Email Templates to “see” your drafts, you’ll need to place them in a separate folder in Outlook and then connect it to the add-in. To begin with, create a new folder and place your future templates there.

You may create several folders and place different sets of drafts in each of them or share the particular folder with the particular people.

Now you need to add this folder to Shared Email Templates.

Connect drafts folder to Shared Email Templates

Once the folder is ready and filled with drafts, let’s connect it to the add-in to make them templates. So, start Shared Email Templates, choose a folder on the add-in’s pane, right-click on it and choose “Connect Outlook Folder”:

Then browse for the necessary folder with your drafts, add it and it’ll be available as a new folder with a small O letter on its icon:

If you expand this folder, you’ll see all the drafts you’ve created.

Share connected folders within a team

If your teammates want to use the templates you’ve created too, there is no need to send them the content and make them follow the same steps to create and add drafts in Shared Email Templates. You may simply share your own drafts with the rest of your team. It’ll take no more than a few minutes, let me guide you through this process:

1. Start Shared Email Templates and create a new team.
2. Connect your Outlook folder with the drafts so that the to-be-shared templates get loaded.
3. Invite your teammates to your team and set the desired permissions level for everyone.
4. Now let’s grant the others access to your special folder with drafts. Find the folder with your drafts on the Navigation Pane, right-click on it and choose Properties:
   
5. Go to the Permission tab and click on the Add icon:
   
6. You’ll get the Add Users dialog window open. Here you choose and add the accounts you’d like to share your drafts with. Once everyone is added, hit OK to get back to the folder’s properties.

You’ll see the newly added accounts with the None permission level. In this case, your teammates still won’t see your drafts and won’t be able to use them. Stand on the necessary account, open the Permission Level drop-down list, and pick Reviewer or higher.

One more step to take - you need to make your Outlook folder available to everyone. But it is not enough to open the drafts folder you are to share, you’ll need to share your Outlook mailbox. It’s easier done than said, see:

1. Get back to your root folder, right-click on it and hit Folder Permissions:
2. Pick the necessary account and check the Folder Visible checkbox:
   

   Note. No worries, the others won’t be able to access your account and emails once you enable the Folder Visible option. It just lets the add-in to check the structure of your folders, nothing more.

3. Do it for each and every account you are to share your drafts with and you’re good to go :)

In case you forget to add a user’s account in the folder’s properties or don’t set the permission level, your teammate will get the following notification:

In this case you go to step 4 and in a minute your colleague is all set up.

See? It’s not rocket science, the drill is plain and simple. From now on, your teammates may use the drafts you’ve created as templates.