> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.topformbuilder.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Email Templates > Customize email notifications sent to you and your respondents with dynamic templates using variables. Create professional, personalized email messages. ## What are Email Templates? Email templates let you customize the content of notification emails sent when someone submits your form. Use variables to include submission data dynamically. **Template Types:** * **Admin Notification** - Sent to you when form is submitted * **Auto-responder** - Sent to respondent after submission * **Confirmation with Summary** - Sent to respondent with their answers * **Custom Templates** - Create your own **Use Cases:** * Personalized thank you emails * Order confirmations with details * Application received notifications * Support ticket confirmations * Event registration confirmations ## Available Variables Variables are placeholders replaced with actual submission data. ### Standard Variables Available in all templates: | Variable | Description | Example | | ---------------------- | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | `{{form_title}}` | Form name | "Customer Feedback Form" | | `{{submission_id}}` | Unique submission ID | "12345" | | `{{submitted_at}}` | Date and time | "March 15, 2024, 2:30 PM" | | `{{completion_time}}` | Time taken | "2.5 minutes" | | `{{workspace_name}}` | Workspace name | "Acme Inc" | | `{{answers}}` | All answers formatted | *See below* | | `{{respondent_email}}` | Email from form | "[user@example.com](mailto:user@example.com)" | ### Question-Based Variables Each form question becomes a variable: **Format:** Question title converted to lowercase with underscores **Examples:** | Question Title | Variable | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | "What's your name?" | `{{whats_your_name}}` | | "Email Address" | `{{email_address}}` | | "Phone Number" | `{{phone_number}}` | | "Company Name" | `{{company_name}}` | | "How did you hear about us?" | `{{how_did_you_hear_about_us}}` | **Contact Info Fields:** For contact\_info question type, additional variables: | Variable | Description | | ----------------------------- | --------------- | | `{{contact_info}}` | Full JSON | | `{{contact_info_first_name}}` | First name only | | `{{contact_info_last_name}}` | Last name only | | `{{contact_info_email}}` | Email only | | `{{contact_info_phone}}` | Phone only | **Example Question Variables:** ``` Question: "What's your email?" Variable: {{whats_your_email}} Result: user@example.com Question: "Preferred Contact Method" Variable: {{preferred_contact_method}} Result: Email Question: "How satisfied are you?" Variable: {{how_satisfied_are_you}} Result: Very Satisfied ``` ### {answers} Variable Special variable that includes all form answers formatted as HTML. **Example Output:** ``` 📝 Submission Details Name John Doe Email Address john@example.com Phone Number (555) 123-4567 How did you hear about us? Google Search Message I'm interested in your services... ``` ## Creating Email Templates ### Access Email Templates 1. Go to **Workspace Settings** 2. Click **"Email Templates"** in sidebar 3. Click **"Create Template"** button **Quick Access:** ``` Workspace Settings → Email Templates → Create Template ``` ### Template Creation Steps **Step 1: Template Name** ``` Name: Welcome Email with Summary Description: Sent to customers with order details ``` **Step 2: Email Subject** ``` Subject: Thank you {{whats_your_name}} - Order Confirmation ``` **Step 3: Email Body** ``` Hello {{whats_your_name}}, Thank you for your order! We've received your submission. Order Details: - Order ID: {{submission_id}} - Submitted: {{submitted_at}} - Email: {{email_address}} {{answers}} We'll process your order and get back to you within 24 hours. Best regards, {{workspace_name}} Team ``` **Step 4: Save Template** * Click **"Save Template"** * Template now available for all forms in workspace ### Default Templates TopFormBuilder includes 3 default templates: **1. Admin Notification** ``` Subject: New submission for {{form_title}} Hello, You have received a new submission for your form "{{form_title}}". Submission ID: {{submission_id}} Submitted at: {{submitted_at}} Time taken: {{completion_time}} Thank you! ``` **2. Auto-responder** ``` Subject: Thank you for your submission Hello, Thank you for submitting "{{form_title}}". We have received your response and will get back to you soon. Submission ID: {{submission_id}} Submitted at: {{submitted_at}} Best regards ``` **3. Confirmation with Summary** ``` Subject: Your submission has been received Hello, Thank you for your submission to "{{form_title}}". Your responses have been recorded. Submission ID: {{submission_id}} Submitted at: {{submitted_at}} If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Best regards ``` ## Using Email Templates ### Assign Template to Form **Method 1: Form Settings** 1. Open Form Builder 2. Go to **Settings** tab 3. Scroll to **"Notifications"** section 4. Under **"Admin Email Template"**, select template 5. Under **"Respondent Email Template"**, select template 6. Save form **Method 2: Quick Settings** 1. Form Builder → Settings 2. Enable notifications 3. Select templates from dropdown 4. Done! ### Admin vs Respondent Templates **Admin Notification:** * Sent to form owner/admins * Can include all submission details * Use `{{answers}}` variable * Configure recipient in Form Settings **Respondent Notification:** * Sent to person who filled form * Personalized with their data * Use question variables * Sent to email field in form **Example Setup:** ``` Admin Template: "New Lead Notification" → Sent to: sales@company.com → Contains: All form data Respondent Template: "Thank You Email" → Sent to: {{email_address}} → Contains: Personalized thank you ``` ## Template Examples ### Example 1: Event Registration **Template Name:** Event Registration Confirmation **Subject:** ``` Registration Confirmed: {{event_name}} - {{whats_your_name}} ``` **Body:** ``` Hello {{whats_your_name}}, Thank you for registering for {{event_name}}! Registration Details: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: {{whats_your_name}} Email: {{email_address}} Phone: {{phone_number}} Ticket Type: {{ticket_type}} Number of Attendees: {{number_of_attendees}} Event Information: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Date: March 20, 2024 Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: Convention Center, Hall A Your confirmation number is: {{submission_id}} Please bring this email or your confirmation number to the event. See you there! Best regards, Events Team ``` ### Example 2: Support Ticket **Template Name:** Support Ticket Created **Subject:** ``` [Ticket #{{submission_id}}] Your support request ``` **Body:** ``` Hello {{whats_your_name}}, We've received your support request and created ticket #{{submission_id}}. Your Request: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subject: {{issue_subject}} Priority: {{priority_level}} Category: {{category}} Description: {{issue_description}} ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Our support team will review your request and respond within: - High Priority: 2 hours - Medium Priority: 24 hours - Low Priority: 48 hours You can track your ticket status at: https://support.company.com/ticket/{{submission_id}} Need urgent help? Call us at (555) 123-4567 Best regards, Support Team ``` ### Example 3: Job Application **Template Name:** Application Received **Subject:** ``` Application Received - {{position_applying_for}} ``` **Body:** ``` Dear {{whats_your_name}}, Thank you for applying for the {{position_applying_for}} position at {{workspace_name}}. Application Summary: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Position: {{position_applying_for}} Application ID: {{submission_id}} Submitted: {{submitted_at}} Email: {{email_address}} Phone: {{phone_number}} ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Next Steps: 1. Our hiring team will review your application within 5 business days 2. Qualified candidates will be contacted for a phone interview 3. Selected candidates will be invited for an in-person interview What to Expect: - Application review: 3-5 days - Phone screening: 30 minutes - In-person interview: 1-2 hours You'll hear from us at {{email_address}} by March 20, 2024. In the meantime, check out our company culture: https://company.com/careers/culture Thank you for your interest in joining our team! Best regards, HR Department {{workspace_name}} ``` ### Example 4: Order Confirmation **Template Name:** Order Confirmation with Details **Subject:** ``` Order #{{submission_id}} Confirmed - Thank You! ``` **Body:** ``` Hi {{customer_name}}, Your order has been confirmed! 🎉 Order Information: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Order ID: {{submission_id}} Order Date: {{submitted_at}} Total Amount: {{total_amount}} Shipping Address: {{shipping_address}} {{city}}, {{state}} {{zip_code}} {{country}} Contact Information: Email: {{email_address}} Phone: {{phone_number}} ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Items Ordered: {{answers}} Estimated Delivery: Your order will be delivered within 5-7 business days. Track Your Order: https://shop.company.com/track/{{submission_id}} Need Help? - Email: support@company.com - Phone: (555) 123-4567 - Live Chat: https://shop.company.com/chat Thank you for shopping with us! Best regards, {{workspace_name}} ``` ## Viewing Available Variables See all variables for a specific form: **Method 1: Template Editor** 1. Create/edit template 2. Click **"View Variables"** button 3. Modal shows all available variables for selected form 4. Click variable to copy **Method 2: Form Builder** 1. Open Form Builder 2. Go to Settings → Notifications 3. Click **"Available Variables"** link 4. List of all variables for this form **Variable List Example:** ``` Standard Variables: - {{form_title}} - The form title - {{submission_id}} - Unique submission ID - {{submitted_at}} - Submission date and time - {{completion_time}} - Time taken to complete Question Variables: - {{whats_your_name}} - What's your name? - {{email_address}} - Email Address - {{phone_number}} - Phone Number - {{company_name}} - Company Name - {{message}} - Your Message ``` ## Email Formatting ### HTML vs Plain Text **Plain Text (Default):** * Simple formatting * Line breaks with `\n` * No styling * Better deliverability * Works in all email clients **HTML (Auto-converted):** * Line breaks converted to `
` * Variables replaced * Basic formatting applied * Professional appearance ### Formatting Tips **Line Breaks:** ``` Hello {{name}}, Thank you for your submission. [Empty line creates paragraph break] We'll be in touch soon. ``` **Section Dividers:** ``` Order Details: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Order ID: {{submission_id}} Date: {{submitted_at}} ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ``` **Lists:** ``` Next Steps: 1. Review your submission 2. Wait for confirmation email 3. Check your dashboard ``` **Bold/Emphasis:** ``` **Important:** Please respond within 24 hours *Note:* This is a test email ``` ## Managing Templates ### Edit Template 1. Go to Workspace Settings → Email Templates 2. Click template to edit 3. Update subject and body 4. Click **"Save"** **Changes Apply:** * To all future emails * Forms using this template updated automatically * Previously sent emails NOT changed ### Duplicate Template Create variation of existing template: 1. Open template 2. Click **"Duplicate"** button 3. New template created with " (Copy)" suffix 4. Edit as needed 5. Save **Use Case:** ``` Original: "Admin Notification" Duplicate: "Admin Notification - Sales Team" Customize for sales with sales-specific info ``` ### Delete Template 1. Go to Email Templates 2. Click template to delete 3. Click **"Delete"** button 4. Confirm deletion **Warning:** * Forms using this template will revert to default * Action cannot be undone * Template history lost **Before Deleting:** * Check which forms use template * Reassign forms to different template * Export template content if needed ### Test Template Send test email before using template: 1. Open template 2. Click **"Send Test"** button 3. Enter test email address 4. Select form to test with 5. Click **"Send"** 6. Check inbox **Test Email Includes:** * Sample data from form * All variables replaced * Actual formatting * Subject line ## Template Best Practices ### Writing Effective Templates **Do:** * Use clear, concise language * Personalize with variables * Include submission ID for reference * Add contact information * Provide next steps * Use professional tone * Test before launching **Don't:** * Use ALL CAPS (spam trigger) * Include too many links * Write generic messages * Forget submission details * Make it too long * Use spam trigger words ("FREE", "ACT NOW") ### Variable Usage **Best Practices:** * Always include `{{submission_id}}` * Use `{{answers}}` for full details * Personalize with name variable * Include submission date * Add workspace name for branding **Testing Variables:** * Test with actual form submission * Verify variables display correctly * Check for missing variables * Ensure formatting is clean ### Email Deliverability **Improve Deliverability:** * Keep subject under 50 characters * Avoid spam trigger words * Don't use excessive punctuation!!! * Include plain text version * Add unsubscribe link (for newsletters) * Use professional email address * Verify sender domain **Spam Trigger Words to Avoid:** * FREE, WIN, PRIZE * ACT NOW, URGENT * * CLICK HERE * 100% GUARANTEED ## Troubleshooting ### Variables Not Replacing **Problem:** Variables show as `{{variable_name}}` in email **Solutions:** 1. **Check Variable Name** - Ensure exact match (case-sensitive) 2. **Remove Spaces** - Use `{{variable}}` not `{{ variable }}` 3. **Verify Question Exists** - Variable matches form question 4. **Test Email** - Send test to verify ### Missing Data **Problem:** Variable replaced with empty value **Reasons:** 1. **Question Not Answered** - User skipped optional question 2. **Wrong Variable Name** - Typo in variable 3. **Deleted Question** - Variable for removed question **Solutions:** * Make questions required * Check variable spelling * Update template if question changed ### Email Not Sending **Problem:** Template configured but emails not arriving **Solutions:** 1. **Check Email Settings** - Form Settings → Notifications enabled 2. **Verify Recipient** - Correct email address 3. **Check Spam** - Email in spam folder 4. **Template Assigned** - Form has template selected 5. **SMTP Configured** - Workspace email settings correct ### Formatting Issues **Problem:** Email looks wrong or broken **Solutions:** 1. **Check Line Breaks** - Use proper formatting 2. **Test Template** - Send test email first 3. **Variable Spacing** - Ensure spaces around variables 4. **HTML Tags** - Remove if using (plain text recommended) ## Advanced Features ### Conditional Content Show different content based on form answers: **Not Currently Supported** Workaround: Create multiple templates and use conditional logic to determine which notification is sent. ### Multi-Language Templates Create templates in different languages: **Setup:** ``` Template: "Confirmation - English" Template: "Confirmation - Spanish" Template: "Confirmation - French" ``` Assign template based on form language setting or user selection. ### Custom Sender Change email sender name and address: **Configure in:** ``` Workspace Settings → Email Settings → SMTP ``` **Options:** * Use default ([no-reply@topformbuilder.com](mailto:no-reply@topformbuilder.com)) * Custom SMTP (your own email server) * Your domain email [**Need help? Contact contact@topformbuilder.com**](mailto:contact@topformbuilder.com)