Creating E-mail Templates in Thunderbird for Windows

These instructions describe how to configure Mozilla Thunderbird to send both HTML and plain text parts for messages, and how to create a Thunderbird template using the HTML from the U's e-mail templates. You will need to chose the appropriate template, based on the descriptions in the e-mail templates 'Read me' file, before you start.

Configure Thunderbird to compose messages in HTML format

1. Go to the Tools menu and select Account Settings. A new window appears.
2. Locate your UMN e-mail account in the listing of accounts, on the left, and click Composition & Addressing.
3. Check the box for Compose messages in HTML format.*
4. Click OK.

* If Thunderbird is the client you use for your own e-mail, you may want to uncheck this box after you have saved your template so that subsequent messages aren't written in HTML format.

Configure Thunderbird to send HTML messages with a plain text part

1. Go to the Tools menu and select Options.
2. Switch to the Composition pane.
3. Switch to the General tab.
4. Click Send Options.
5. Change the When sending messages in HTML format… option to either "Ask me what to do" or "Send the message in both plain text and HTML."
6. Click OK.
7. Close the preferences window.

Note: selecting the "Ask me what to do" option may become an annoyance if you continue to compose messages in HTML format, as it will frequently prompt you when sending messages.

Create a template

1. Create a new message.
2. Enter a useful name for the template in the subject line field.
3. Click in the message body area, so that the cursor flashes in the body.
4. Go to the Insert menu and select HTML.
5. Copy the HTML source code from the appropriate e-mail template and paste into Thunderbird. (The e-mail template can be opened using Dreamweaver or a text editor such as NotePad or WordPad.)
6. Click Insert. Your rendered HTML should now appear in the message body area.
7. Go to the File menu and select Save As->Template.
8. Close the new message window.

To create a new message using your template, open the Templates folder in your UMN e-mail account and double-click on the template.

If you prefer to compose most messages as text only, repeat the steps in the first section, above, unchecking the box in step three.

Other E-mail Clients

The methods for creating multipart messages in e-mail clients other than Thunderbird will vary based on e-mail client. Thunderbird is supported by the University for both Windows and Macintosh. You will need to consult the appropriate manual to construct multipart messages with other clients.