Running Lion, how do you create new stationery templates for Mail? There are several articles in Google for Snow Leopard, et al, but nothing for Lion. Same in this Forum - everything regarding stationery seems to be 2-3 years old???
Also, where do the JPG's for the current stationery reside??
Thanks.
Mark
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), ... and Parallels 6 with XP
Hi,
Look into
/Library/Application Support/Apple/Mail/Stationary/Apple/Contents/Resources
every preinstalled template has a subfolder that contains all the elements.
I suggest to make copies of the ones you would like to tweak and give them new names before putting them back where they belong.
Thanks for the reply, but I'm still stymied. On my computer, the path is /Library/Application Support/Mail/Stationery/Apple/Contents/Resources. And, when I open the last folder (Resources) in Finder, there are no other files showing?
That subfolder that contains all the elements is very illusive!
Is there really no one, not even an Apple rep, that knows how to accomplish this??????
Your User folder/Library/Application Support/Mail/Stationery/Apple/Contents/Resources/Custom
Sorry, that's the location for custom stationary you create.
Thanks, dianeoforegon, for the reply.
When I go to Finder/Library/Application Support/Mail/Stationery/Apple/Contents/Resources, then use the Action Menu, the option "Show Package Contents" isn't available, so I assume the templates aren't there?? I know the templates are available somewhere, because I can select them from within the Mail program.
If I ever find them, what do I do then? Use one of the templates to create what I want, then place them in the Custom folder?
Thanks again for replying...I've been watching the Forum closely.
Open a New Message window. Use an existing stationary item as an initial template, or build a template from scratch - construct a message which has all the elements you want in your new stationary.
Once you're satisfied, go to the File menu and select "Save as Stationary..." - you'll be given an opportunity to give it a name of your choice. Once satisfied, click the Save button in that small window.
You can then grab it whenever you want to use it from the Custom area of the Stationary items, usually accessed via that named button in the New Message window's toolbar.
That sounds rather simply - I'll give it a try. What about files like the TableOfContents.plist? Does it need to be modified as well?
Thanks for the help, Don!
jmark1 wrote:
What about files like the TableOfContents.plist? Does it need to be modified as well?
Should be no need to do that.
I've followed your instructions to make custom stationery, but when I go to the File menu Save as Stationery is greyed out. What am I missing?
Make sure the New Message window in which you constructed your template is the active window.
Hi Don - There must be more to it than what you have outlined????🙂
It is understood you can open a current template in Mail and change text, then Save As Stationery.
However, I'm wanting to totally design a custom background. I tried opening a New Message, using Attach to get the back ground onto the text area; Save As Stationery; name it and close Mail. When I repopen Mail, the newly-created background has been saved in the Custom folder; however, when I attempt to place text on top of it, the graphic or image disappears???
As far as I know there is no way to place text on top of an attached image in Mail.
When you click on an image attached to Mail, the image is selected; when you then type in new text, the text replaces the image, just as it would replace any selected text.
You can add background color, set font face, style, and color for selected text, and do some other standard text formatting things.
But, Mail is not a word processor nor a page layout program. There is no word wrap-around for embedded (attached) images, nor the ability to layer text on top of such an image.
If you want to have text on top of an image, do that in another program (Preview or Pages, for example, depending on the complexity) and then attach the resulting composite to the email.
How it was done for the predefined templates is something I have not been able to replicate.
Thanks again, Don, for the reply. To be clear, I wanted to create an embedded background and use it as a new template (from the Custom) folder. I was hoping to select it and then send an email in which the email text would appear on top of the template background...just as it would if I selected (for example) "Stationery/Fun" from the template files.
Is thus what you mean?
create a new email
Go to Format
click "show Fonts"
also click "show colors"
In the box that appears there are four little rectangles above the list of fonts.The last one looks like a peice of paper with the corner folded.
Click that image
Now, in the "colors" thaing that showed up, pick a color. The background of you email should now be that color.
Add whatever other art you want, save as stationary.
Is that it?
Creating New Stationery Templates
