New possibilities of the Quick Templates
In The Bat! 4.0.28 we significantly enhanced the work with Quick Templates. The major improvement is the option of previewing the result of the template's work. Let's concentrate on this particular innovation. In order to see what letter is generated as a result of applying one quick template or another, in previous versions you needed to create such letter using the template and to compare it with your expectations. The desired effect was hard to achieve from the first attempt, and the process of template creation took longer than you planned. The results of unsuccessful attempts were thrown into trash folder. Naturally, this state of things was a real waste of time and nerves.
In this manual you will find the description of quick templates creation and get acquainted with the new function. You can find out more about the preview option by reading the text whose title speaks for itself – A Farewell to Trial-and-Error Method.
Quick Templates help you save your working time by inserting specially prepared text fragments. If you are duty bound to answer similar questions or send out stereotyped letters, then you'll highly appreciate this instrument. With Quick Templates it is possible to attach files, vCards or automatically change message settings. You don't even need to take your fingers from the keyboard – a marvelous set of macros is available for Quick Templates as well as for the simple ones.
Each quick template has its own handle name. If you write it in the letter text and press , The Bat! will substitute the handle name with the result of the corresponding template. If you do not know the handle name of the template you need, just go to "Utilities -> Insert Quick Template" in the editor window.
Quick templates are bound to specific accounts, which allows editing them in the dialog box for setting up account properties – "Account -> Account Properties -> Templates -> Edit Quick Templates". In the same way does the "Options -> Quick Templates" item of the main window work.
There are many methods of applying quick templates that can interact with our program. For example, if a quick template uses the %ISSIGNATURE macro, the editor will replace your signature (any text after the special signature mark) with the result of its work.
In addition, you can divide the ordinary template into several parts and save them as quick templates by using the constructions like %QINCLUDE="header/footer/signature". In this way you do not need to make modifications in each template of the account. Edit the corresponding quick template – and the wok is done!
Creating Quick Templates
- Go to Options -> Quick Templates:
- In the opening window, from the list in the left part select an account for which you want to create a template or set up a Common Template for all accounts. Start creating a new quick template by clicking the Create a new Quick Template button.
- Appoint a name and a handle name in the corresponding fields. Check in the desired properties – share with other accounts, use for new messages/mass mailing, reply messages, forward messages. You can also appoint shortcuts for the editor, as a new message or as a reply.
- Enter your text in the template creation field using macros. For example:
- Using the quick templates editor tabs, you can insert various macros from a huge set, spell-check the text and preview the result of the template that is being created. That's how the preview works:
- Using the quick template preview you can view the result of the template handling any letter. You only need to drag and drop the message from the list to the preview area marked with the following inscription: Drag and drop a test (original) message here. After this you'll see the following result. In our example we used the %ATTACHMENTS macro that shows the list of the attached files names. You can experiment with any macro, adjusting it to your needs:
