A template is an email that you can use anytime you want to send the same email to other users without having to compose the message every time.
Outlook Mail Templates
Sometimes, the word “template” is used in different ways. Even adding a quick text is a template. Some people also use “rules” and “Quick Steps” for the same purpose as a template does. But for this article, we meant template as a *.oft file that you save to a file outside of Outlook, where OFT stands for “Outlook File Template.”
Saving or creating a template is easy. Simple compose a new message, add whatever message/text you want, add attachments if needed, and then go to ‘save as.’ Choose “Outlook Template” as “Save as type,” name the template, and click “save.”
When you select “Outlook Template (*.oft)” as save as type, the location to save that file would automatically switch to …\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, but you can manually save the file anywhere you want.
Now whenever you need to send the same mail to anyone, you double-click on this *.oft file and it will open in Outlook (if that’s your default email client).
But sometimes, a template file can get corrupt or other issues may come up and you won’t be able to use the template properly.
Here are the fixes if you too are having some problems with using the templates:
- Try to use Outlook in safe mode and find out if any add-on is causing the problem. In many cases, if you have Adobe extensions installed, they might cause a conflict in using the template like it was supposed to be used. Specifically, Adobe Send & Track for Microsoft Outlook – Acrobat add-ins. Try disabling the add-in and then use the template again.
- Make sure the total size of the template file is less than 4 MB. Larger than that, there might be some issues.
- If you are using Outlook forms yourself (which is a developer item), try reducing the maximum space to 4mb for custom forms on hard disk. (File à Options à Advanced à Custom forms)
- Make sure you are looking at the right place for the template you want to use. The default location for templates is …\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, but while saving, you also get an option to save the template anywhere else. So it is very easy to choose your own preferred folder to save them, but then look into default folder and not finding them.
- If these don’t work, you can try opening the *.oft through Outlook options rather than by double clicking the file. Go to Home tab and then click on new items and select more items from the dropdown and then select ‘Choose form.’ Then, next to the ‘Look in’ dropdown, select “User Templates in File System” as shown below:
Then browse where the template is saved and click on it and then click on “Open” to open that template.
We hope the above 5 ways to manage opening Outlook mail template works for you if the usual method was not working for some reason.