Business owners and managers spend a large percentage of their day replying to emails. Many of these emails often require a similar response. While it’s good business to personally respond to each email, that takes time. If you use Gmail, you have the option to put Canned Responses into your response, a real time saving feature.

Canned Responses are a form of template that you can use to quickly reply to common emails. This feature is useful if you find yourself short of time and having to give the same reply numerous times e.g., inquiries about service hours.

How to set up Canned Responses in Gmail
To set up Canned Responses:

1. Open Gmail in your browser and click on the Gear image beside your picture in the black bar at the top of the window.
2. Select Labs. If you don’t see Labs, select Mail Settings followed by Labs, located in the white bar at the top of the window that opens.
3. Scroll down to Canned Responses and select Enable. Navigate to the bottom of the page and select Save Changes. The page will refresh, and Canned Responses will be enabled.
4. Click Compose and enter a response in the text-body of the email. Don’t hit send.
5. Locate Canned Responses below the Subject line. Select New Canned Response from the menu that drops down. Enter a name for the response.

To use the response you’ve just set up, click on Canned Responses and select the response from the dropdown menu. Note: pick the response from under Insert(in grey). To edit a response, simply follow steps four and five above, instead of selecting New canned response, select the name of the response you’d like to edit from the Save sub-header.

If you spend a lot of time answering the same email and would like to save a bit of time, Canned Responses are a good idea. Just be sure to be judicious in their use, if the email is in response to a serious situation, best not to use one. For more tips and tricks on Google’s products, please contact us.

Published on 22nd May 2012 by Jeanne DeWitt.