Email templates are created in HTML code.  That means you must provide the software with raw HTML code that will be used to render your emails when sent.  Understandably, this can sound like a daunting task.  Fortunately, there are tools to make this a lot easier than it sounds.

The easiest place to start is customizing our existing default templates.  For this example, we will be creating a new default Repair Done template that is based upon the built-in template we provide.  

To do so:

1. Click Administrative > Notifications > Manage Notification Templates, then click the Add New Email button at the bottom.
2. Enter Repair Done New Default as the Name and select Repair Done from the Type drop-down.
3. Next, click the Load Default Values button at the bottom.  This will fill in the Email Subject and Body with the software’s default values.
   
    
4. To see how this email will look rendered, click the Preview button at the bottom.  The preview will render using the most recent notification data sent, so in this case the last repair done email that got sent to a customer.
   
    
5. Now, let’s customize this by changing the greeting, adding the done date to the repairs, and putting the store’s information at the end.  Close the Preview that you opened in the last step and click inside the HTML code in the body.
6. Scroll down until you find the section that says “Greetings {{Customer.FirstName}} {{Customer.LastName}}”.  Notice the text in purple; purple text indicates this is a data merge field that is a placeholder for data that will come from the repair.  Available fields appear on the right.
   
    
7. Click inside the HTML and change “Greetings {{Customer.FirstName}} {{Customer.LastName}},” to “Hello {{Customer.FirstName}},”.  
   
    
8. Scroll down and find the <!- -Start_Section_RepairsDone - -> text in green.  Green indicates this is an internal comment that will be ignored when this email is rendered.  These internal comments always appear between <!- - and - ->.
   
    
9. Click after {{Repair.EnvelopeNumber}} and type in “<br />Done:”, then on the right double click DoneDate.  <br /> is HTML code to break to the next line.  It should now look like this.
   
    
10. Scroll down and find the text <!- - Footer - -> at the bottom.
    
     
11. Completely erase <!- - Footer - -> and in its place type: “If you have any questions please call us here at “ and then on the right double click PhoneNumber to insert {{Store.PhoneNumber}}, then type in “<br /><br />Sincerely, <br /><br />Your Friends at” and on the right double click Name under Store.  It should look like this.
    
     
12. Finally, click Preview.  A preview will display using the most recent repair done email data.  If you compare to the preview from Step 4 you can see the changes we made.
    

Now that you have created the template, you must instruct the software to use it.  See the Template Administration section for more information.