It’s easy to create your own stationery in Outlook (or your favorite HTML editor). The main thing to remember is that Outlook’s stationery picker stores the Stationery in the “roaming application data” path. In Windows 7 and Vista, its at C:\Users\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. You can jump to this folder by typing or pasting the following shortcuts into the address field of Windows Explorer.
In Windows 7 and Vista, the shortcut to the correct path is
%appdata%\microsoft\stationery
In Windows XP, use the following path
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\stationery
(The Windows XP path works in Windows 7 and Vista but its a lot more typing.)
To create the stationery using Outlook’s editor:
- Click the New button to open a new message form. If your default format is not HTML, change it to HTML (Format text tab in Outlook 2007/2010; Format menu in older versions.)
- Insert your images and any other elements you want to use and adjust the sizes as needed (don’t use huge images in email stationery!)
- When you are finished, go to the File, Save as menu and switch to the Stationery folder at C:\Users\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. (Type or paste the shortcuts above to easily jump to the folder.)
- Change the Save as file type to HTML and type in your desired file name. Save the HTML design.
Now when you want to use your stationery, you can select it from the New Items, Email message using… More stationery dialog. It will be added to the Email message using MRU (most recently used) menu after the first use.
This works with all versions of Outlook. In older versions, you’ll use the Actions, New message using menu to open the stationery picker.
How to Create Stationery Tutorial
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Last reviewed on Jan 23, 2012
This doesn’t seem right ot me.
On my Win7 machine the path to stationery is c:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Stationery\
- a mixture of emf, gif, htm [sic] and jpg files.
The folder at c:\Users\Phred\AppData\Roaming\microsoft\stationery\ is empty.
That’s where %appdata%\microsoft\stationery takes me.
Okay, using admin rights and putting the set of htm and lpg files/folders in the common folder the ‘stationery’ is there to work.
I’d have thought that stationery would simply be a background surface-printed image, but it’s an integral ‘template’, the image as much a part of the new message as the text; you have to Send it Back like ordinary WordArt. Huh?
Is this how’s it’s intended?
How it works depends on how the stationery is created. You need to set the image as the body background when creating the HTML
The appdata path is recommended for user defined stationery – you shouldn’t need to change the permissions to save files there and it’s more easily backed up – most backup software will get the user path, but not program files path – because everything in programs can be restored by reinstalling the application.
Okay, thanks Diane, but you seem to be teasing. How do we set the image as the body background when creating the HTML?
I have looked at a number of options but I just can’t find anything suggesting it – using Outlook 2010. I’ve been deep into Style Inspector and surrounds, but nothing hints at ‘body background’.
Yes, okay, you’re right about c:\Users\Phred\AppData\Roaming\microsoft\stationery\ – what I put there is working now, with Standard User permissions. It’s a sensible way Win7 is organised.
One thing you don’t mention is how to edit the stationery we’re creating. Getting that .html file back after Save as.. is a challenge, to me.
I’ve saved the original item as a message (goes to Drafts). I suppose that would do.
Unfortunately, I now seem to have my embedded graphic occupying the ‘standard template’, if that’s the expression. ‘New’ brings it up in a blank/new message by default. Can you tell us how to retreat a little?
(We can’t edit these posts, at least for a while, after sending them, can we..?)
Finally – completely by accident I found that the graphic under your Tutorial sub-heading, above, IS A LINK to a video!
A more prominent prompt would be handy.
What would be nice to see included, in the video, or even in your instructions, is how to create, save, edit, invoke and USE stationery, i.e. how we should expect the stationery* to behave – whether it will act like a piece of paper printed with designs and colours that we use in the analogue, real world, and call… stationery.
*and themes, for that matter.
I always create it using an HTML editor, although you can do it in Outlook too except Outlook is not a very good HTML editor. Once the stationery is saved you either need to open a message using the stationery then edit and resave, or open the HTML file in an HTML editor.
In Outlook to set a background: go to Options, page color, fill effects. Pick your image on the last tab.
The video is supposed to have a play button, but i see its really hard to see. I need to update it anyway… I made it in a hurry for someone so it covers the very basics only. I’m not sure about editing comments here. I can but that doesn’t count. :)
This did not work for me. I have it saved in a draft and I have saved it as a html and I copied the places you told me to save it, but have not been able to pull it back up as stationary or a html. What am I doing wrong?
I have Windows 7 and Outlook 2010.
In Outlook 2010, did you go to New Items button > Email message using > More Stationery ? The HTML message you saved to the Stationery folder (%appdata%\microsoft\stationery) should be listed in the stationery folder under the file name you used when you saved it