How to Setup Canned Responses in Gmail

Last week I talked about five email responses that I prewrote so I wouldn’t have to rewrite them every time I take care of typical music studio communication. Today I’m going to explain how I setup those emails as canned responses in Gmail. Other email providers may have a way of saving canned responses, but Gmail is the one I know best, so I’m sticking to that.

There are three parts to this process, but it only takes a minute or two to setup if you already have the email written.

Enabling Canned Responses in Gmail

Step 1 – Open Gmail

Step 2 – Click on the Gear Icon and select Settings

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Step 3 – Click on the “Labs” Tab

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Step 4 – In the “Search for a lab” box, type “canned responses”, select Enable, and click the Save Changes button

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Writing and Saving a Canned Response

Step 1 – Compose the email

Nothing new here. Just write an email like you normally would. Leave the Recipients and Subject lines blank. I use ALL CAPS to easily identify phrases and words that I intend to personalize for the recipient later.

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Step 2 – In the New Message window, click the More Options button and select Canned Responses. Under the “Save” heading, select “New canned response…”

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Step 3 – Give your response a title in the window that pops up, and click OK.

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Using a Canned Response

All the canned responses in the world are no good if you don’t use them! When a situation comes up that calls for one of these canned responses, the process of using them is simple.

Step 1 – In Gmail, click Compose as if you were going to write a new email or Reply, if you are responding to an email.

Step 2 – In the message window, click the More Options button and select Canned Responses. Under the “Insert” heading, select the appropriate response.

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Step 3 – Boom! Your prewritten response should now appear in the message window. Proofread and personalize the response to make sure it fits the situation and hit Send!

Note: Any changes you make now won’t affect the original saved canned response.
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