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      How to Create and Use Canned Responses in Gmail
      by Andrea @ Savings Lifestyle on October 5, 2011




      They can be your very best efficiency tool available. When you have canned responses set up, flagging that email as a “Respond Later” (and forget about it) versus just responding right away with a response already written is awesome. Since I have implemented canned responses, I now response to all advertising inquiries with a few clicks.

      Watch the video above to learn the following:

      1. Enable Canned Responses
      2. Create a Canned Response
      3. Send a Canned Response
      4. Edit a Canned Response
      5. Delete a Canned Response

      The steps are also written below for your convenience.

      How to Enable Canned Responses in Gmail

      1. Log into Gmail.
      2. Click on Mail Settings.
      3. Select Labs.
      4. Click to Enable Canned Responses.
      5. Save.

      How to Create a Canned Response in Gmail

      1. Create a new email.
      2. Type in the text you wish you save as your Canned Response.
      3. Click on Canned Responses.
      4. Under Save, click “New canned response…”
      5. Name your Canned Response.

      How to Send a Canned Response

      1. Create a new email or reply to an existing email.
      2. Click on Canned Responses.
      3. Under Insert, select the canned response you want to include in the message.

      How to Edit a Canned Response

      1. Create a new email draft or open the existing Canned Response draft.
      2. Make any edits.
      3. Click on Canned Responses.
      4. Under Save, select the canned response you want to edit.
      5. Click “OK” and agree to override the existing Canned Response content.

      How to Delete a Canned Response

      1. Go into any post draft.
      2. Click on Canned Responses.
      3. Under Delete, select the Canned Response you want to delete.
      4. Click “OK” and agree to delete the Canned Response.

      Do you currently use Canned Responses?
      What types of Canned Responses do you send?

: Leave a Comment

  • Ellen-TCMom on October 06, 2011 at 8:55 am
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    Thanks for sharing this is going to be a HUGE time saver!
  • Myrah - Coupon Mamacita on October 06, 2011 at 9:12 am
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    Thank you very much! This post was extremely helpful!
  • Saidah@AProverbsWife.com on October 06, 2011 at 11:13 am
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    I have about 50 canned responses. I know…I’m terrible. They work so well and save so much time. They are like my virtual assistant without the salary.
  • Tawra@Living On A Dime on October 06, 2011 at 4:57 pm
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    Sounds like we need to change to G-mail. I haven’t made the change yet just because it’s yet another thing to learn and my to-do list is already a mile long! LOL
  • Debra @ A Frugal Friend on October 06, 2011 at 7:02 pm
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    I have only a handful that I use right now, but when I started earlier this year, oh, what a life saver!!!! :-)
  • Heidi on October 09, 2011 at 12:15 pm
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    Maybe I come from a different train of thought but for the most part I really dislike canned responses. I think they are annoying to get as a customer so I dislike using them for our emails. I prefer answering emails live and in person even if that means it takes me a little more time. But I cannot tell you how many people tell me that they cannot believe that a live person emailed them back and did not send a canned response. Now mind you I do have an assistant that answers emails for us but there are still plenty of emails I answer each day. I think people would much rather have a real email that answers their question or inquiry that is sent 24 hours later than an instantly sent email that is just a canned response.

    Also as a website owner I cannot begin to tell you how many times someone subscribes to my site, email newsletter, rss feed etc and then has a auto responder for that email address. For example there is a blogger with a largish blog that has subscribed to a thread on our forums. So every time a email notification of new posts is sent to her because she subscribed, that email bounces back to me with a canned response “thank you for contacting me….blah blah blah, I am too busy to answer all of my emails blah blah blah”

    As a owner of multiple sites, mother of 5 kids, etc I am busy too, and still find a time to answer my emails. I probably write 50-100 emails a day.

    Now that is not to say I do not use canned resonsponses. I do. For example there is a email that is sent to members when they have a new private message on our forums. However sometimes people hit “reply” to that email notification message instead of to the private message directly. I use a canned response for those letting folks know that they mistakenly sent the message to me instead of logging into their account and replying directly to their private message.

    Also we often get weird emails regarding weird stuff. Recenly we kept getting emails from people complaining that we were not sending them a freebie. It was a hot freebie, however we were just blogging about it and not fulfilling the offer. So after 50 or so emails I set up a canned response that I used to let folks know that we just blogged about the freebie to complain about not getting the freebie they needed to contact the company directly…blah blah blah. I did not use that to auto send and email but added a canned response whenever our contact us email was a complaint.

    I think canned response in gmail is great to compose email messages that you send frequently to save some typing however I dislike automatically sent emails. I think using the pre written email is a time saver but that you should still read each emails and if additional questions are asked edit your message to answer them and add the persons name and personalize the canned response a little.

  • Craig on April 27, 2012 at 7:50 am
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    Hi
    I have just setup 3 x canned response templates but am having difficulty saving the recipient addresses.
    I send a weekly activity email to 3 Clients, each of these 3 groups have several email addresses inserted.
    When I save a canned response, it saves the main text but doesnt save the send to email addresses or the subject title

    Anyone know how to do this?
    Thanks

  • dee on July 05, 2012 at 12:03 pm
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    Is it possible to delete a canned response even if you are not a paid member?
  • Howard on July 16, 2012 at 11:42 am
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    I am unable to figure out how to use canned responses in Gmail. The “canned responses” link only shows up when composing an email from scratch. There is no such link available when replying to an email. Did something get changed in Gmail that broke this lab?
  • Dionysis Chrysikopoulos on August 01, 2012 at 4:24 am
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    Is there any way to save attached pictures or word doc in a canned answer?

    Thanks

    Dionysis

  • Lori on September 26, 2012 at 12:13 pm
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    Thank you so much for the instructions! Amazingly simple!