Email Templates in Outlook: Templates, Quick Parts and .oft Files in Every Version
Outlook has four different ways to reuse what you write, and which ones you get depends on the version of Outlook and the account. Here is what each one saves, where to find it in the new and classic Outlook, on the web, on a Mac and on a phone, how to share a template with colleagues, and what to do when My Templates has disappeared.
In short: in the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web, write the email, then select Mail template > Save email as template on the Message ribbon; reuse it with New > Mail from template on the Home ribbon. In classic Outlook, select File > Save As in the message window and choose Outlook Template, which saves an .oft file; open it with New Items > More Items > Choose Form. On a Mac, File > Save As Template. For short snippets of text, use the My Templates add-in, and for reusable blocks inside an email, Quick Parts. In the new Outlook and on the web, Mail Templates, My Templates and .oft files need a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription.
Four Kinds of Template, and What Each One Saves
Microsoft’s article Create email templates in Outlook separates the built-in feature from the add-in, and the classic Outlook file format and Quick Parts sit beside them:
| Feature | What it saves | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Mail Templates | A whole email: recipients, subject, body, formatting and attachments | Complete emails you send again and again, such as announcements |
| My Templates add-in | Short pieces of text, plain text with basic styling | Standard replies and phrases you paste into an email |
| .oft file (Outlook Template) | A saved draft as a file: subject, content, formatting and attachments | Classic Outlook templates, and sharing a template with someone else |
| Quick Parts | Reusable blocks of content, such as a paragraph, a table or a signature block | Assembling an email you are already writing from standard parts |
A template is the starting point for a new email. My Templates and Quick Parts work the other way round: you are already writing, and you drop in a piece you saved earlier.
Which Outlook Has What
| New Outlook and web | Classic Outlook | Mac | iPhone and Android | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full email templates | Yes, Mail Templates | Yes, .oft files | Yes, .emltpl files | Opens .oft files |
| My Templates | Yes | Yes (View Templates) | Yes, Exchange accounts | Not documented |
| Quick Parts | Yes, since 2026 | Yes | Not documented | Not documented |
| .oft files | Partly: add, download, forward, open | Yes | Uses .emltpl | Open and send |
The table follows Microsoft’s template articles and its feature comparison between the new and classic Outlook, which lists Mail templates (OFT files) as available in the new Outlook since December 2025, and general .oft file support as partially available. “Not documented” means Microsoft’s articles do not cover it, not that it is impossible.
New Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the Web: Mail Templates
Both use the same steps, and a template you save in one is there in the other, because it is stored in the mailbox of the account you wrote the email from.
- On the Home ribbon, select New > Mail. Write the email you want to keep, including recipients, subject and attachments if they never change.
- On the Message ribbon, select Mail template > Save email as template.
- In the Save email as template dialog, type a name and select Save.
To use it, select New > Mail from template on the Home ribbon and pick the template in the Templates dialog. It opens as a draft: change the recipients, subject or text, then select Send. Microsoft notes that changes you make to that draft are not saved to the template; to update a template, save it again.
All your templates are listed by account under Settings > Mail > Templates. Mail Templates need a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription; if the Mail template button is missing, that is the first thing to check.
The My Templates Add-in (Text Snippets)
My Templates is an add-in that Outlook includes by default, and it works in the new and classic Outlook, on the web and on a Mac. It saves plain text, not whole emails, and its templates are stored in your primary mailbox, so one you save in Outlook on the web shows up in classic Outlook or on a Mac too.
- Start a new email.
- On the Message tab, select My Templates (in some versions it is under Insert > Apps > My Templates). In classic Outlook the button is called View Templates. A task pane opens.
- Select +Template, type a name in the Title field and the text in the field below it.
- Select Save. The template now appears in the My Templates pane, ready to insert into the email you are writing.
In a shared mailbox the rules differ by version. In classic Outlook, templates you create while working in a shared mailbox are visible only to you. In the new Outlook, if you promoted the shared mailbox to a full account, templates you create there are shared with everyone who opens it the same way. On the web, they are shared with everyone who opens the mailbox with Open another mailbox in a separate tab or window.
My Templates Is Missing
Two causes are documented. Microsoft’s tip says that if My Templates is not listed, your organization may have turned add-ins off, which only your administrator can change. And Microsoft tracked a known issue, My Templates are missing from Outlook, in which the View Templates button disappeared from the ribbon in classic Outlook and adding the add-in back failed with “Something went wrong”. It is marked fixed as of March 27, 2026, after Microsoft rolled back an Exchange Web Services change and an authentication change. Organizations that have disabled Exchange Web Services may still have the problem, and Microsoft recommends that their admins re-enable it.
If you need a template today and the add-in is gone, the built-in options above do not depend on it: Mail Templates in the new Outlook and on the web, and .oft files in classic Outlook.
Classic Outlook for Windows: Templates as .oft Files
- On the Home menu, select New Email (or press Ctrl+Shift+M) and write the content you want to keep.
- In the message window, select File > Save As.
- In the Save As dialog, in the Save as type list, select Outlook Template.
- Type a name in the file name box and select Save.
Outlook saves it to c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates unless you choose another folder. To write an email from it, select New Items > More Items > Choose Form, set Look In to User Templates in File System, select the template and Open. If it is saved somewhere else, select Browse. As in the new Outlook, editing the draft does not change the template: save it again under the same name to update it.
.oft Files in the New Outlook and on the Web
An Outlook Template file (.oft) is a saved email draft with its subject, content, formatting and attachments. The new Outlook and Outlook on the web store templates in the mailbox, but Microsoft’s article Download, add, and share templates as .oft files lists three ways to work with the files, all of which need a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription:
- Download a template as a file: go to Settings > Mail > Templates, find the template and select Save as OFT.
- Add .oft files as templates: under Settings > Mail > Templates, select Add > Add OFT, then Choose in the Add mail templates dialog, pick one or more files and select Add. This is how you bring classic Outlook templates across: they are in the templates folder named above.
- Share a draft as an .oft file: open the draft and select Forward as OFT on the Message tab. Outlook saves the draft as an .oft file and attaches it to a new email, ready to address and send.
You can also open a single .oft file without adding it: drag it from File Explorer onto the reading pane, or in Windows right-click it and select Open with > Outlook (new). Microsoft’s article on opening .eml, .msg and .oft files notes the same subscription requirement for .msg and .oft files.
Quick Parts: Reusable Blocks of Text
Quick Parts store building blocks: any piece of an email, formatted, that you insert with two clicks. They suit content that appears in many different emails, such as directions to the office, a pricing table or a standard closing paragraph. In classic Outlook, per Microsoft’s article Create reusable text blocks:
- In an email you are writing, select the text or content you want to keep.
- On the Insert tab, in the Text group, select Quick Parts > Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.
- In the Create New Building Block dialog, give it a unique name, optionally a category and description, and confirm.
- To use it, place the cursor where it belongs, select Insert > Quick Parts and choose it from the gallery.
To rename or delete one, right-click in the gallery and select Organize and Delete. Microsoft’s feature comparison lists Quick Parts as available in the new Outlook as well, with a status update in April 2026, and its roadmap describes them there as saved email snippets for Outlook for Windows and the web. In the new Outlook and on the web, Microsoft’s Quick Parts article gives different steps: select the text, then Insert > Quick Parts > Save selection to Quick Parts, and manage them under Settings > Mail > Quick Parts.
Outlook for Mac
Per Microsoft’s article Can I create email templates in Outlook for Mac?, the Mac has its own template files:
- Select the email you want to use as a template, then select File > Save As Template.
- Give it a name, add a tag if you like, choose where to save it and select Save.
- To use it, select File > New > Mail From Template, pick the template (its name ends in .emltpl) and select Open.
Microsoft lists these built-in controls as available to Microsoft 365 subscribers and in Outlook for Mac version 15.35 and later. The My Templates add-in also works on a Mac for Exchange accounts, from My Templates on the ribbon of a new email, but not in shared mailboxes.
iPhone and Android
Microsoft’s template articles do not cover Outlook for iOS and Android. Its Microsoft 365 roadmap lists the ability to open and send .oft files in the mobile apps, opened as a draft, as generally available from February 2026. In practice that means you create and manage templates on a computer or on the web, and a template that arrives as an .oft attachment can be used from a phone.
Replying Automatically With a Template
Classic Outlook can send a template on its own: a rule with the action reply using a specific template answers incoming mail that matches its conditions with an .oft file. It is the standard way to get an out-of-office reply on Gmail, Yahoo and other IMAP or POP accounts, which have no Automatic Replies. The rule runs only while classic Outlook is open on your computer. The full steps are in how to set up out of office in Outlook.
Tips for Templates That Stay Useful
- Name them by what they do. “Reply – invoice received” and “Send – meeting notes” sort together and are easy to find in a list of twenty. A client or project name at the start works for templates you use with one client only.
- Mark the parts to change. Put anything that varies in square brackets, such as [name] or [date], so a forgotten placeholder stands out before you select Send.
- Leave recipients out unless they never change. Mail Templates save the To, Cc and Bcc lines, which is useful for a fixed distribution list and risky for anything else.
- Check the attachments. An attachment saved in a template goes out with every email made from it, including the old version of a price list.
- Keep one copy for the team. Agree on one owner for each shared template and send updates as an .oft file with Forward as OFT, so nobody keeps sending last year’s version. For a team mailbox, use the shared mailbox rules for My Templates described above.
- Prune them twice a year. Delete templates nobody has used, and update the ones whose dates, prices or names have changed.
After the Template Goes Out
Templates speed up what you send. The replies still arrive one by one in the inbox, for many different clients and projects, and each one needs filing somewhere. Folder Suggest is an Outlook add-in that suggests a folder for each email from the ones you already have, so you can file the replies with a click when the suggestion fits. It has a free plan.
For the folders themselves, see how to organize emails in Outlook.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are email templates in Outlook?
In the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web, select New > Mail from template on the Home ribbon, and manage templates under Settings > Mail > Templates. In classic Outlook, select New Items > More Items > Choose Form, then User Templates in File System. On a Mac, select File > New > Mail From Template.
Why can’t I see My Templates in Outlook?
My Templates is an add-in, so it disappears if your organization has turned add-ins off. Microsoft also had a known issue in which the View Templates button went missing in classic Outlook; it was fixed on March 27, 2026, but organizations that disabled Exchange Web Services may still see it. In the new Outlook and on the web, Mail Templates and My Templates also need a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription.
Where are Outlook .oft templates saved?
Classic Outlook saves templates you create with File > Save As to c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates by default. Mail Templates in the new Outlook and on the web are stored in the mailbox of the account you created them from, not as files.
How do I share an Outlook template with my team?
Send it as an .oft file. In the new Outlook and on the web, Forward as OFT on the Message tab attaches the draft as an .oft file, and Save as OFT under Settings > Mail > Templates downloads a saved template. Colleagues add it with Add > Add OFT. In classic Outlook, attach the .oft file from your templates folder.
What is the difference between a template and Quick Parts?
A template is a whole email: subject, body, formatting and attachments, and in Mail Templates also recipients. Quick Parts are reusable blocks of content, such as a paragraph or a table, that you insert into an email you are already writing.
Can I use Outlook templates on my phone?
Microsoft’s template articles cover Windows, the web and the Mac only. Its Microsoft 365 roadmap lists opening and sending .oft files in Outlook for iOS and Android as generally available from February 2026, so a template someone sends you as an .oft file can be opened as a draft on a phone.