If you find yourself typing out the same email over and over again with different client and matter information, then Faster Snippets could potentially save you a lot of time.  We can take these common emails and convert them into email templates.

Let’s create a new folder called Email Templates, then create a new snippet inside this folder by right-clicking the folder in the left panel and selecting New Snippet.

Now we’ll give the snippet a name so we know what the email is related to, and configure an abbreviation.

Next we need to tell Faster Snippets what to do.

As an example, let’s open an email we've already sent.  Let’s begin by copying the content of this email and pasting it into the text field in Faster Snippets.

The email we copied probably has several pieces of matter specific information, so the first thing we should do is replace that information with Clio tags or custom variables.

Once we've replaced the matter specific information we won’t have to type this email anymore, we can just use the abbreviation, but we can actually do a little bit more.

Let’s add a Type Text action, then a Keyboard Shortcut action, another Type Text action, and a Press Keys action.  These actions will all be used before the content of the email, so we can drag the email block to the bottom.

The first new Type Text action we added is intended to fill in the client’s email address, so we can go to Matter > Client and find Primary Email Address, then paste this tag into the first action.

The next thing we would do in an email is fill out the subject line, so we should tell Faster Snippets how to get there.  The keyboard shortcut to jump to the subject line of an email in Outlook is Alt+U, so we’ll add those keys to be pressed by the Keyboard Shortcut action.

Now we can type our subject, let’s copy the subject from the email we have open, then paste Clio fields in place of the matter specific information.

From the subject line, all we have to do is hit Tab to get to the body of an email where we will type the content we created earlier, so we’ll add Tab in the Press Keys action.

Let’s review.  Our snippet will first type the client’s email address, then hit Alt+U to get to the subject line, type in a subject, press Tab to get to the body of the email, then fill the email in with the content from our last action.

Now if we save the snippet and open a new email, we can type the abbreviation to activate the snippet.  We should type the abbreviation in the email’s To field since the first thing the snippet will do is enter an email address.

When the snippet window appears, we can simply select the related matter, fill in our variables, and watch as Faster Snippet fills out the entire email for us.