How to edit email templates and the company footer
Control the wording of the automatic emails in the template list: edit each one, switch one off, send yourself a safe test of any of them, and put one branded company footer on all outbound mail, all under Settings > Email.
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How to do it
Open Settings > Email > Email Templates and look at the list.
Many of the emails the portal sends on its own live here, such as ticket updates, CSAT surveys, quote invitations, agreement and invoice emails, and security alerts. Sort the list by Name, Key, or Status. Key is the fixed internal name of each email and cannot be changed. Status shows Active or Inactive. Above the list sit Test All and Show Merge Variables.
Open Settings > Email > Email Templates and look at the list. Click a template's row to expand its editor.
The editor has a Subject field, a Body editor, an Active toggle, and the Send Test and Save Template buttons. There is no Delete button, because templates cannot be added or deleted.
Click Show Merge Variables to see every placeholder you can use.
The panel lists placeholders such as ticket_number, client_name and signature, each with a one-line description. You write a placeholder with its name inside double curly braces, and it is replaced when the email is sent. The signature placeholder is filled from the sender's own signature and the company footer, depending on the Footer Behavior mode you pick under Signature & Footer.
Click HTML Source to edit the Body as raw HTML.
HTML Source shows the same Body as markup, which is handy for pasting a fully designed email. The Visual Editor link brings you back to the formatted view.
Edit the Subject, then click Save Template.
The Subject takes plain text and merge variables together. Ticket Update, for example, ships with a subject that reads "Re:", then the ticket's subject placeholder, then "- Ticket Update". The next email that uses the template reads the saved version, so a change applies straight away.
Toggle Active off and click Save Template to stop a template's email.
The template stays in the list and stays editable, and its badge changes to Inactive. While it is off, the portal skips that email. For Ticket Update the portal writes an error line to the system log, "Template 'ticket_update' not found or inactive - email NOT sent", and the customer gets nothing. Switch it back to Active and save to resume.
Warning: Nothing on the ticket or in the customer's inbox says an email was skipped. If a customer says they stopped getting an email, check this list for an Inactive badge first.Click Send Test on a template to email yourself a preview.
The portal fills the template with sample data and sends it to the address you are signed in with, from your helpdesk mailbox, never to a client and never to an address you type. The subject starts with [TEST], and a yellow TEST EMAIL banner at the top names the template and its key and the address it was sent to. It works on Inactive templates too, so you can read one before you switch it on. You need edit access to Settings.
Click Test All to send yourself a preview of every template.
Test All sends one test email per template, active or not, to your own address. The result line reads "Sent N test emails to" and your address. If your instance has outbound mail suppressed, it reads "Rendered N test emails. Outbound mail is suppressed on this instance, so nothing was delivered." instead. If no portal base URL is set, nothing is sent and the message tells you to set it at Settings > System > General, because every link in the emails would be dead.
Open Settings > Email > Signature & Footer and look at Footer Behavior.
Footer Behavior is headed "When a user has no personal signature configured" and has four modes. Fallback uses the company footer only when the sender has no personal signature. Append adds the company footer below the sender's personal signature. Replace always uses the company footer and ignores any personal signature. Disabled never attaches the company footer.
Pick a mode and read the hint under the footer builder.
The hint under Company footer states the rule for the mode you picked. Fallback reads "Personal signatures take precedence; this footer fills in only when none is set." Append reads "This footer renders directly below every sender's personal signature." Replace reads "This footer replaces personal signatures on every outbound email." Click Save at the top of the card to apply it.
Build the company footer with Layout, Style and Fields, and check the Live Preview.
Pick a Layout: Classic, Modern, Compact, Banner, or Centered. Under Style choose the color, the font and its size, the divider, the photo shape, and the logo size. Under Fields add the lines you want, such as your name, title, company and address. The Live Preview beside the builder shows the footer as it will go out, and a Preview or HTML switch shows the markup. Custom HTML lets you paste a footer you built elsewhere, and Reset returns the builder to its defaults.
What you will have
- Find the Email Templates list and know what its Name, Key, and Status columns mean.
- Edit a template's Subject and Body with the merge variables, and know templates can be edited but never added or deleted.
- Know what happens when you switch a template off.
- Send yourself a test of one template, or of every template, and know exactly what arrives.
- Find Signature & Footer and know what each of the four Footer Behavior modes does.
- Build the company footer with Layout, Style, and Fields, and read the Live Preview.
Why it works this way: How to edit email templates and the company footer
Send Test and Test All never take an address you type: they always email the account you are signed in with, from your helpdesk mailbox, and the subject starts with [TEST] so nobody mistakes it for a real message.
Switching a template off stops that email without any warning to the person waiting for it. When the Ticket Update template is Inactive, customers simply stop getting ticket update emails and the only trace is an error line in the system log.
Email templates cannot be added or deleted. You can change a template's Subject, Body and Active state; the list of templates is fixed.
If it did not work: How to edit email templates and the company footer
- If a customer stopped getting an email, open Email Templates and look for an Inactive badge on that template.
- If Send Test or Test All say outbound mail is suppressed, mail is switched off on this instance. The test still rendered, but nothing was delivered.
- If a personal signature you expected is missing from a sent email, check the Footer Behavior mode. Replace ignores personal signatures, and Fallback only fills in the company footer when the sender has none.
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