Create your template in Google Docs and import it in Gmail – Documentation - Yet Another Mail Merge Support

If you want to send beautiful emails, you can create your template in Google Docs, then copy it into Gmail. YAMM will keep all the formatting from your template and send it to your recipients. This article will show you how to do so.

Send a beautiful campaign with a Google Docs template

timer 20 min.

stars Goals

Create a template in Google Docs
Import your template in Gmail

check_circle Prerequisites

Good knowledge of Google Docs
Sending a regular mail merge with YAMM

mode_edit Running a simple example

The YAMM Team will send you a newsletter with a special gift for Christmas
You download the gift and send your own campaign to your colleagues, friends...

1. Create your template in Google Docs

If you want to try with our newsletter example, click the following button, and make a copy of this template:

Copy template

To copy this template, go to File > Make a copy...

Or open a new Google Doc, and start drafting your newsletter as you want.

1.1. Prepare the 'canvas' (optional)

For more comfort and flexibility, we recommend to reduce all the margins down to 0:

Margin Docs 0

info This step is optional, you can choose to narrow the width of your newsletter by adding more margins

1.2. Build the backbones of your template

Then, it is very simple! Just shape your newsletter into tables. Add the main one, then inside it, add other tables for sections, insert columns/rows to divide sections etc.:

Add tables to Google Docs

info Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect! This is the main advantage of Google Docs vs. HTML code: You can always modify your template as many times as necessary, until you are satisfied with it.

1.3. Design your template

Now that you have the backbones of your template, it's time to be creative! Add some colors, images, texts etc.

For example, here's an overview of our newsletter:

Template newsletter overview

info You can import images from your PC, but for now YAMM doesn't support 'Drawing' from Google Docs.

Your template is now ready to be imported in Gmail!

2. Import your template in Gmail

To do so, select first all your newsletter content from Google Docs (or press ctrl + A / cmd + A), then copy it (ctrl + C / cmd + C).

In your Gmail inbox, compose a new message. On the body content, paste your template (ctrl + V / cmd + V).

Import G Docs template in Gmail YAMM

3. Send your newsletter through YAMM

Select your template in YAMM, and hit the 'Send Emails' button as you would usually do.

Send mail merge YAMM

Your recipients will get your nicely formatted newsletter in their inbox:

Newsletter from Docs with YAMM

By combining Google Docs with YAMM, you will be able to create pretty newsletter in a few clicks. As long as you are not using complex elements (see 'WARNING' paragraph), YAMM will keep all the formatting in your email sent!

warning By following this tutorial, please make sure that you are composing your entire newsletter from A to Z directly in Google Docs. You should not copy/paste any elements from another source (e.g. another web page) to your Docs, or you might get formatting issues when sending it with YAMM.

Besides, some elements from Google Docs are for now not supported by YAMM, like the different column displays and the 'Drawing' elements. To make sure that your emails will be correctly displayed, try to keep your template as simple as possible by inserting only basic elements like text, images, tables etc.

Comments

3 comments

Waymanh April 09, 2018 19:44

When I paste my content into a new email message, the fonts and formatting all change! Any advice would be very helpful.

1

Krista October 03, 2018 19:31

I had the same issue. When I paste my content into a new email message, the fonts and formatting all change! Any advice would be very helpful.

0

Rohan C.K. January 20, 2019 12:31

Hello!
When i had the same problem, this helped:
Make the tables in word and then paste it into gmail. For some reason, gmail is able to hold the tables better when its pasted from word. I had incorporated a GIF and an image and getting them to align was a nightmare.
It eventually after a lot of adjustments, got it to look like this (still shoddy but i'll live with it):

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