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Outlook 2013 template - added text not always in sent items folder
I have a user that has a template that she uses to send emails. I set up this template for her a few months ago and it has been having sporadic issues in regards to her sent items folder since.
She opens the template, adds the recipient, adds some details to the message body and then sends it. The email is showing up in her sent items folder, but the additions to the message body are sometimes missing. I'd say it's about a 50% split of working or not working. I've had her send me a handful of emails using this template and the message that I receive does reflect the changes she made to the message. It's just the email in her sent items folder that is appearing unchanged. It is almost as if Outlook is just copying the template to the folder and disregarding the changes she is making.
Troubleshooting so far:
- Created a new email template from scratch, no help
- Created a new mail profile, no help
- Performed a repair installation of Outlook, no help
- Copied the template file to my computer, same problem
Has anyone ever seen this behavior? I'm able to find others having problems with items not being saved at all in the sent items folder, but no one who has had a problem with the contents of the messages in the sent items folder not accurately reflecting what has been sent.
She opens the template, adds the recipient, adds some details to the message body and then sends it. The email is showing up in her sent items folder, but the additions to the message body are sometimes missing. I'd say it's about a 50% split of working or not working. I've had her send me a handful of emails using this template and the message that I receive does reflect the changes she made to the message. It's just the email in her sent items folder that is appearing unchanged. It is almost as if Outlook is just copying the template to the folder and disregarding the changes she is making.
Troubleshooting so far:
- Created a new email template from scratch, no help
- Created a new mail profile, no help
- Performed a repair installation of Outlook, no help
- Copied the template file to my computer, same problem
Has anyone ever seen this behavior? I'm able to find others having problems with items not being saved at all in the sent items folder, but no one who has had a problem with the contents of the messages in the sent items folder not accurately reflecting what has been sent.
ASKER
Yes. She drafted up the skeleton of the mail message that she sends and then saved it as an OFT file.
And when she sends a message using this template, are these the actions she's following?
1. New Items
2. More Items
3. Choose Form
4. User Templates in File System
5. Selects template
6. Enters message
7. Clicks Send
1. New Items
2. More Items
3. Choose Form
4. User Templates in File System
5. Selects template
6. Enters message
7. Clicks Send
ASKER
Developer Tab
Choose Form
User Templates in File System
Selects emplate
Enters recipient(s) and message
Clicks Send
Choose Form
User Templates in File System
Selects emplate
Enters recipient(s) and message
Clicks Send
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Disabling add-ins made no difference.
However, if I click the save button before clicking send, the changes made to the email appear in the sent items folder. Is this the solution or an indication of what the problem could be?
However, if I click the save button before clicking send, the changes made to the email appear in the sent items folder. Is this the solution or an indication of what the problem could be?
She shouldn't need to click Save before sending, so this is both a clue and an interim solution. Outlook should always save changes to an item before sending it. If she creates an item from scratch, saves it to Drafts, then opens it from there, makes a change and sends, does the change appear in the copy in Sent Items?
ASKER
I had her create a new email. She added one line to the message body, closed the message and saved it to her Drafts folder. She opened the message in her Drafts folder. The line that she added was there. She added an additional line and then sent the message. The copy of the message in the sent item folder contained both lines.
So he problem appears to just be with the template. That's so odd. I've not seen this behavior before, so I don't have a proper fix. The best I can do is to suggest a couple of workarounds.
1. Have her save messages she creates from the template before sending them.
2. Add a macro that will automatically save all items she sends as they are sent.
This is outside the scope of the question, but I can also offer a way for her to create a message based on this template with a single click rather than going through the 4-step process she uses now. That would be another macro.
1. Have her save messages she creates from the template before sending them.
2. Add a macro that will automatically save all items she sends as they are sent.
This is outside the scope of the question, but I can also offer a way for her to create a message based on this template with a single click rather than going through the 4-step process she uses now. That would be another macro.
ASKER
Saving the email before sending it consistently makes the changes to the email appear on the message in the sent item folder. While this is a great workaround, I wish there was a better solution.
Open the template , go to format text and select "Rich text" instead of html, then save the .oft template again and test.
Guys,
We had the same issue and I changed the template file (.oft) to "Rich Text" and saved it over itself and it is working for us now.
Thanks for the recommendation secuteamers!
We had the same issue and I changed the template file (.oft) to "Rich Text" and saved it over itself and it is working for us now.
Thanks for the recommendation secuteamers!
Are we talking about an actual template (i.e. an .oft file)?