Templates allow to create Out of Office rules faster: instead of creating a rule manually and filling out the form every time, it’s possible to just activate a saved template, either manually (soon) or via an integration with external sources.

What is a template?

A template is essentially a saved configuration of an Out of Office rule that can be reused over and over.

There only two differences in the form for creating templates and rules:

• Template forms don’t have dates

• Template forms have names

	Rules	Templates
Dates
Name

Supported sources

Here is a list of sources of out of office absences, and whether they currently support templates

Creating templates

1. Adding existing templates

• Click on Add template

The dialog displays all available templates

• Check the templates you want to add

• Save your selection

Please note that:

• There is no limit to the number of templates that can be added

• Added templates need a unique scope. For example, there can only be one template in the table for the "Awesome Service Desk" project

• In particular, there can only be one All Projects template in the table at any given time.

The selected templates will be immediately added to the table.

In this case, Out of Office will create one rule for each template, when Auto Reply in Outlook is on.

• The dates in the rules will be taken from the Auto Reply

• The details of each rule will be taken from the templates

2. Creating new templates

• Click on Add template

• Click on Create template

• Give the template a name

• Fill in the remaining details.

As in regular rules, it's mandatory to have either a covere or an Out of Office message

• Click on Save as template

• The template will be immediately added to the list

Generation of rules from templates

Once the connection creates a new absence, one rule will be created for each connected template.

Let’s see an example with Outlook:

Keep reading: See how we prioritize rules

Common issues with templates when using multiple connections

Changes to templates are global

Please note that, since templates can be shared across sources, edits and changes will be carried over everywhere.

For example, changing the Out of Office message in a template connected to Outlook will also modify the message of rules coming from Tempo, if the same template is connected to Tempo.

Conflicts across sources

Since a single template can be in use by several sources at the same time, the app checks whether changes in the scope of the rule create conflicts in either the current source or any other source where that template is in use.

In case of conflict, the change in scope will be blocked, showing the following error message:

Conflicting scope

This template can’t be applied to Outlook because it would create a conflict with another connected template in the integration with Tempo

To apply the changes, you can either create a new template, or disconnect the template from Tempo, and then save the new scope.