Princeton Personal Librarians

Princeton University

Templates and Test Emails (Optional)

Create a Template

Send a Test Email

Customizing Your Email Template:

(Optional: you can also modify an existing template at step 12 of Sending Emails to your Students. If you are comfortable with the my.princeton.edu platform you can skip straight ahead to Sending Emails to your Students)

  1. Log in to my.princeton.edu
    • Select the Princeton University Login option and use your University NetID and password to sign-in
  2. From the top menu, choose Groups –> Personal Librarian Program
  1. From the left side menu, choose Emails –> Templates
    • Note: If you would like to create an email from scratch you may choose Emails –> Sent and select the +Compose Email option in the upper right
  1. Choose the template you wish to duplicate and click the three vertical dots on the far right
  2. Select Duplicate template
  3. Your new duplicate will appear at the top of the list
    • Note: It will add (COPY) to the end of the title, you can delete this during step 8
  4. Click Edit on the far right of your new template to customize
  5. Rename your template starting with your name
    • Ex: JANE DOE email to juniors/seniors
  6. Customize the subject and content of your email
    • Note: Make sure you update any links to outside sites
  7. Be sure to format your greeting as shown in Figure 1 below. When viewing the email in preview mode the greeting will appear as in Figure 2 below. Only when formatted correctly will the field be populated with individual names
    • Note: You will also have an option to choose a greeting, rather than typing it in, during step 12 of the Sending a Test Email and Sending Emails to Your Students instructions below
Figure 1
Figure 2
  • A blue box will appear at the top of your window you can click on Mail merge fields for more information on mail merge options
  1. Click Save
  2. For easy retrieval in the future, you can also create and/or edit a custom tag by clicking Edit tags in the middle column
    • Note: If working from a duplicate, the template will retain the tag of the original
  3. In the drop down menu, under Action, select Create New Tag
  4. Create your unique tag and click OK
    • Ex: PL-John Doe
    • Note: Once your tag has been created it will appear under Select Tag
  1. Delete the original tag by clicking the x next to it

Sending a Test Email:

(Optional: Follow these steps if you would like practice using the myprinceton.edu platform. If you are comfortable with the platform you can skip straight ahead to Sending Emails to your Students)

  1. Log in to my.princeton.edu
  2. From the top menu, choose Groups –> Personal Librarian Program
  3. From the left side menu, click Members
  4. From the available filters, choose Member Tags and select your NetID from the list
  1. Next, from the available filters, change Current Members to Officers
    • Note: This should filter the list down to include only yourself.
    • Note: If your name does not come up when filtered this way, or other names do, please reach out to Audrey (abw@princeton.edu)
  2. If your list looks correct, click the checkbox to select all
  1. From the top of the list, click Send Email
  1. Choose Email Composer
  2. Under Choose a “From” email address, select your email from the drop down menu
  3. Under Compose your email, fill in the subject line
    • Ex: TEST EMAIL: Your Princeton Personal Librarian is here to help you!
  4. Select from the list of templates in the content box below
  5. Make any further modifications to your desired template if desired
    • Remember, to use the mail merge feature to populate the greeting with individual first names it must be formatted as Dear [FIRST_NAME], (see Figure 3).
    • Alternatively, you may select a greeting from the drop down menu (see Figure 4). If choosing this option, remember to delete any greeting you may have added to the body of your message (the new greeting will appear at the very top of the email)
Figure 3
Figure 4
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the page
  2. Choose Preview it first…
  3. Finally, click Save and Send
    • You will receive a confirmation email when sent
  • To review your sent email, return to the left side menu and click Emails –> Sent. Here you can review all sent emails and some corresponding statistics, including:
    • total number of recipients
    • percentage of emails that have been opened by the recipients
    • number of clicks on links
    • date and time sent