Some emails come back every week: a quote, a shipment confirmation, the answer to a question everybody asks. A template keeps that text in Trupeo, so nobody retypes it or copies it from an old email. Only the few values that change, a reference or a date, are left to fill in.
Insert a template
When you reply, forward or write a new email, the “Template” button is in the editor, next to the button that attaches a file. It opens the list of templates, with a search field on top. Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter, or with a click.
The text goes in where your cursor is, and what you had already written stays. With no cursor, it goes at the end of your text, above your signature. In a new email whose subject is still empty, the template’s subject fills it.
Once inserted, the text belongs to your email: you can change it like any other text, and changing or deleting the template later does not touch emails already written or sent. A team note has no “Template” button.
Fields to fill in
A template can hold fields to fill in, such as Reference or Port of loading. When you choose such a template, a short form asks for each one first, with a preview of the text that fills in as you type. Then “Insert”.
You may leave a field empty. It then goes into the email as its name between
double brackets, for example [[Reference]], and the email cannot be sent
until you type over it or delete it: Trupeo answers “Fill in: Reference”. No
email ever leaves with a field still empty.
Fields filled in for you
Some fields Trupeo fills in itself, from what it already knows: the contact’s name, organization and job title, the conversation subject, your name and the mailbox’s sender name. In the template editor, “Add a field” lists them under “Filled in for you”, above “Other field…”, which adds a field you name yourself. Their pill carries a lightning bolt instead of brackets.
When you insert the template, the form shows these fields already filled in, and you can still change them. The contact is the one the email goes to: in a reply, the address you reply to; in a forward, its recipient; in a new email, the first recipient already typed. Trupeo fills in the contact’s fields only from a contact you can see in the address book, and never makes a name up from an email address.
With no recipient, several main recipients, a contact group or a contact you cannot see, the contact’s fields stay empty and the form says “Not known: type it”.
The “Contact’s first name” is filled in when the contact’s card has a first name, typed in Trupeo or brought by Google or Outlook. It is never guessed from a full name, which is wrong too often: when the card has only a name, its first word is offered under the empty field, and one tap uses it.
Three kinds of templates
The list shows them in three groups, always in this order:
- “This mailbox”: shared. Every member of the mailbox sees and uses them, and any member can add, change or delete one. Each shows who changed it last, for example Edited by Marie, 3 days ago.
- “Mine here”: yours alone, and offered only in this mailbox.
- “Mine everywhere”: yours alone, offered in every mailbox you belong to.
Nobody else can see your own templates, the mailbox’s owners included.
Save an email as a template
At the bottom of the list, “Save as template” opens the template editor with the text of the email you are writing, and its subject for a new email. The quoted history and your signature are not copied. Give it a name, then choose under “Who can use it”: “Mine here” is ticked at first, so nothing reaches the team unless you choose “This mailbox”.
Where to manage them
“Manage templates”, under “Save as template”, opens the page of the group you are looking at:
- the mailbox’s templates: in the mailbox settings, “Templates” page;
- yours in this mailbox: in the mailbox settings, “Your settings here”, section “My templates in this mailbox”;
- yours everywhere: in “Your account”, “My templates” page.
There, “New template” opens the editor: a name, an optional subject and the text. “Add a field” in its toolbar adds a field to fill in, which shows as a pill with its name. Images are not accepted in a template. Deleting a template always asks you to confirm.
When two people change the same shared template at the same time, the last one to save wins. While a mailbox is paused, its templates can still be inserted, but they cannot be changed until it is open again.
Templates exist only in Trupeo
Templates are not written to Gmail, Outlook or your email provider, and Trupeo does not read theirs. An email written in Gmail’s or Outlook’s own app has no access to your Trupeo templates. To write with them, write from Trupeo. See also Reply, forward, write.