Can stationary no longer be customized in Outlook 2007?

[Guest]

I'm trying to use e-mail formats that I created in Outlook 2003 with Outlook
2007. But there is no longer a stationary command for new stationary. Has
this feature been removed in Outlook 2007?

Thanks,

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook 2007 can still use custom stationery, but it provides no internal feature for creating stationery. Use any HTML editor to create it instead. See http://turtleflock-ol2007.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C1013F1F9A99E3D8!230.entry

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Guest]

What is the difference between stationary and the e-mail templates found on
the Microsoft download site?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

For example?
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Guest]

Are there any other locations where the information at the link below is
available? That site is not available from my workplace (rated adult
content). I appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Maybe your workplace doesn't want you to use stationery? Here's a copy/paste of the article, but the tables won't be very readable:

Managing custom stationery and themes for Outlook 2007

The Outlook Help topic "Apply stationery, themes, and backgrounds to e-mail messages" states:
Note Outlook stationery or themes cannot be customized.

That is definitely true up to a point. Outlook 2007 itself provides no way to customize existing stationery or customize a theme to add a background image. That does not mean, however, that you can't create and deploy custom stationery and themes with other tools and make them available to Outlook.
Where does Outlook look for stationery and themes? Four different locations:
Themes distributed with Office 2007 \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\THEMES12
Themes customized with Office 2007 .thmx files %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes
Legacy user-specific themes .elm files %appdata%\Microsoft\Themes
Legacy user-specific stationery .htm files %appdata%\Microsoft\Stationery

Let's consider the last location first. Even though you can't create or modify stationery inside Outlook, you can copy an .htm file created with any HTML editor to the Stationery folder, and Outlook will display it in the list of stationery and themes with (Stationery) after the file name.
I am also happy to report that with the help of Office MVP Bob Buckland and the Microsoft Knowledge Base article WD2000: How to Modify a Theme that Bob pointed out, I can now create a custom theme with a background image that Outlook 2007 can use for new messages.
The problem for many users will be that the method to create a custom theme requires FrontPage 2003. SharePoint Web Designer and Expression Web Designer don't support themes.
Here's the step-by-step how-to:
1. Open FrontPage 2003 (you don't need to connect to any existing web), and create a new normal page.
2. Choose Format | Theme to display the Theme task pane.
3. At the bottom of the Theme task pane, click Create new theme.
4. Use the Colors and Text buttons to change the colors and fonts for your theme.
5. To set the background picture, click the Graphics button.
6. On the Picture tab, under Background Picture, click Browse and select the picture you want to use, and then click Open. Click OK to accept that picture as the background.
7. When you have finished, click Save or Save As to save the changes to your custom theme. FrontPage will prompt you for a name for the new theme.
You should now be able to use your new theme in Outlook by choosing Actions | New Message Using | More Stationery or can make your new theme the default in Tools | Options | Mail Format | Stationery and Fonts | Theme. FrontPage saves custom themes as .elm files, each theme in their own folder, to the user's %appdata%\Microsoft\Themes folder. According to Bob, you also can copy a saved custom theme's folder to the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\THEMES12 folder; this is a good technique to keep in mind if you need to deploy a custom theme to all your users.
In case you're curious, the themes that users modify and save with Word or Outlook 2007 using the Page Layout | Themes tab are stored as .thmx files and can be modified with PowerPoint 2007, but the background image doesn't show up in a mail message or document. I wonder why that's the case.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

Are there any other locations where the information at the link below is
available? That site is not available from my workplace (rated adult
content). I appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much! I appreciate the help.

Maybe your workplace doesn't want you to use stationery? Here's a copy/paste of the article, but the tables won't be very readable:

Managing custom stationery and themes for Outlook 2007

The Outlook Help topic "Apply stationery, themes, and backgrounds to e-mail messages" states:
Note Outlook stationery or themes cannot be customized.

That is definitely true up to a point. Outlook 2007 itself provides no way to customize existing stationery or customize a theme to add a background image. That does not mean, however, that you can't create and deploy custom stationery and themes with other tools and make them available to Outlook.
Where does Outlook look for stationery and themes? Four different locations:
Themes distributed with Office 2007 \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\THEMES12
Themes customized with Office 2007 .thmx files %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes
Legacy user-specific themes .elm files %appdata%\Microsoft\Themes
Legacy user-specific stationery .htm files %appdata%\Microsoft\Stationery

Let's consider the last location first. Even though you can't create or modify stationery inside Outlook, you can copy an .htm file created with any HTML editor to the Stationery folder, and Outlook will display it in the list of stationery and themes with (Stationery) after the file name.
I am also happy to report that with the help of Office MVP Bob Buckland and the Microsoft Knowledge Base article WD2000: How to Modify a Theme that Bob pointed out, I can now create a custom theme with a background image that Outlook 2007 can use for new messages.
The problem for many users will be that the method to create a custom theme requires FrontPage 2003. SharePoint Web Designer and Expression Web Designer don't support themes.
Here's the step-by-step how-to:
1. Open FrontPage 2003 (you don't need to connect to any existing web), and create a new normal page.
2. Choose Format | Theme to display the Theme task pane.
3. At the bottom of the Theme task pane, click Create new theme.
4. Use the Colors and Text buttons to change the colors and fonts for your theme.
5. To set the background picture, click the Graphics button.
6. On the Picture tab, under Background Picture, click Browse and select the picture you want to use, and then click Open. Click OK to accept that picture as the background.
7. When you have finished, click Save or Save As to save the changes to your custom theme. FrontPage will prompt you for a name for the new theme.
You should now be able to use your new theme in Outlook by choosing Actions | New Message Using | More Stationery or can make your new theme the default in Tools | Options | Mail Format | Stationery and Fonts | Theme. FrontPage saves custom themes as .elm files, each theme in their own folder, to the user's %appdata%\Microsoft\Themes folder. According to Bob, you also can copy a saved custom theme's folder to the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\THEMES12 folder; this is a good technique to keep in mind if you need to deploy a custom theme to all your users.
In case you're curious, the themes that users modify and save with Word or Outlook 2007 using the Page Layout | Themes tab are stored as .thmx files and can be modified with PowerPoint 2007, but the background image doesn't show up in a mail message or document. I wonder why that's the case.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54