Outlook Template Types

Outlook templates in primedocs are created and managed for Outlook (New). Email, signature, and campaign templates are primarily designed in HTML: email and signature templates in the primedocs HTML template editor, campaign templates in the visual editor, where the HTML is generated in the background. In addition, these three template types hold a plain text content for emails in «Plain text» format. The disclaimer template is the exception: it is created as a Word document (.docx).

Template Type	Purpose
Email Template	Predefined email messages with dynamic fields and forms.
Campaign Template	Content blocks (banners, promotional text) in HTML and plain text that are automatically embedded in signatures.
Signature Template	Automatic email signature with profile data and optional campaign fields.
Disclaimer Template	Legal notices that are appended to outgoing emails.

Tools

These tools are used when creating the HTML-based Outlook templates:

• Outlook (New): For creating the visual content of an email or signature.
• primedocs Add-In (Templating menu): For converting the visible content into HTML and back.
• HTML template editor: For editing the HTML content directly in the primedocs template editor. Next to the editor, the Preview continuously shows the result, with the values of the profile chosen under Profile. If the preview cannot be generated, a warning with the reason appears there.
• Visual editor: For designing campaign templates directly in the template editor, without HTML knowledge.

HTML and plain text

Email messages in Outlook (New) are usually HTML-based, which is why the templates are designed in HTML in a template editor. However, emails can also be composed in «Plain text» format, either as the default format in Outlook or switched per message. For that case, every email, signature, and campaign template additionally holds a plain text content, which the «Extract plain text from HTML» button can take over from the HTML. If it is empty, it is derived from the HTML at generation time.

Content and placeholders

Placeholders work in the HTML content and the plain text content, in email templates also in Subject, To, Cc and Bcc.

Placeholders are written in double curly braces and refer to:

• Forms fields: {{Forms.<Id>}}, for nested elements (Object, ObjectCollection) {{Forms.<Id>.<Field>}}. The fields of an AdditionalProfile are not available in Outlook templates.
• Data values from Connect: {{Data.<Id>}}, email templates only
• Profile data: {{Profile.User.<Field>}} and {{Profile.Org.<Field>}}
• Document and template metadata: e.g. {{Document.LanguageLcid}} or {{Document.Template.LocalizedName}}
• Fields: {{<Name>}}

The following rules apply:

• Text values are inserted HTML-escaped in the HTML content and unchanged in the plain text content, the subject and To, Cc and Bcc. FormattedText values are inserted as HTML. Choice fields insert the Value of the selected option, date fields the formatted text.
• Use FormattedText only in the HTML content. In the plain text content, the subject and in To, Cc and Bcc, use Text fields.
• Use yes/no fields only as a condition in {{#if}}, not as output.
• Conditions ({{#if}}) and lists ({{#each}}) work as described under Placeholders, Loops and Conditions. An ObjectCollection from Forms is output with {{#each Forms.<Collection>}}…{{this.<Field>}}…{{/each}}.
• Which HTML attributes accept placeholders is listed under Dynamic Attributes. <img src="{{Profile.Org.Logo}}"> embeds the image in the email.

Conditional content

Compute content that should only appear under a condition in a Field. The field returns empty text when the content is not needed:

<Text Name="DeputyLine">
  <Code>$("Forms.ShowDeputy") ? "Deputy: " + $("Forms.DeputyName") : ""</Code>
</Text>

In the HTML content, place the field in an {{#if}} block so that the surrounding markup is omitted as well:

{{#if DeputyLine}}<p>{{DeputyLine}}</p>{{/if}}

Use a FormattedText field the same way for formatted blocks.

Multilingual Outlook templates

An email, signature or campaign template covers all languages selected under Languages on the Properties tab. A template of its own per language is not necessary. Which language applies is determined by the email: in the web add-in it is the language chosen under Language, for the automatic signature the language last chosen in the add-in, otherwise the default document language of the datasource. Only signature and campaign templates that list this language are eligible for the email.

The content of a template is either language-independent or exists per language:

• Language-independent: the Editor button opens the language-independent HTML and plain text content. It applies to every language that has no content of its own. Texts that depend on the language come from Fields with translate-Value or with $.translations.getText(…), which take their value from the global translations in the document language.

  <Text Name="Greeting" translate-Value="Signature.Greeting" />

  {{Greeting}}<br/>
  {{Profile.User.FirstName}} {{Profile.User.LastName}}

• Per language: Create in other language creates content of its own for one of the selected languages. After confirming, the editor opens this language version, with its own HTML and plain text content. The Editor button then becomes a menu with Language independent and every language that has content of its own. When generating, the content of the email language applies, and without content of its own the language-independent one. If a language is deselected on the Properties tab, its content is deleted on save.

The recommendation is a language-independent content with translated fields: layout changes are made once and take effect in all languages. Content of its own per language is only worthwhile when the structure differs between languages. The editor shows under Language which version is currently open.