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Q: Stationary Problem In El Capitan Mail

I created a mail message that I send to a customer, every week.

 

I selected File -> Save as Stationary...

 

I entered a name for the stationary.  I saved this.

 

I started a new mail message.  I selected the stationary that I had created.  This action populated all of the fields, except for the content.  This is a reproducible problem.

 

I have searched the web and the Apple website for more information.  Surprisingly, I found very little help.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thank you.

 

Kurt

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 8, 2016 7:37 AM

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Q: Stationary Problem In El Capitan Mail

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  • by sberman,Apple recommended

    sberman sberman Aug 8, 2016 8:27 AM in response to Vark Shark
    Level 8 (40,255 points)
    Aug 8, 2016 8:27 AM in response to Vark Shark

    This is not a "problem".  This is working exactly as designed.

     

    See: https://help.apple.com/mail/mac/10.11/index.html?localePath=en.lproj#/mail15167

     

    As stated there:

     

    "When you write a new message, you can add a personal touch to it by using stationery.  For example, you can use the Party stationery to make a message look like a printed invitation."

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Aug 8, 2016 8:30 AM in response to Vark Shark
    Level 9 (50,871 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 8, 2016 8:30 AM in response to Vark Shark

    Stationery does not include content.

  • by David Mittman,

    David Mittman David Mittman Aug 9, 2016 3:31 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 9, 2016 3:31 PM in response to Csound1

    I find the answers posted here to be confusing, and make me think we're using the word "content" to mean different things. If I populate the body of an email with some images, for instance, and save it as Stationery, I would expect those images to reappear in a new email when I apply that same Stationery. After all, that's how the provided Stationery works: applies formatting to the body content which I can then modify.

  • by Vark Shark,

    Vark Shark Vark Shark Aug 9, 2016 3:48 PM in response to David Mittman
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 9, 2016 3:48 PM in response to David Mittman

    I read Apple's description of Mail Stationary.  Similar to David Mittman, I expected my saved Stationary to reproduce both the header data, and, the body data.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Aug 9, 2016 3:53 PM in response to David Mittman
    Level 9 (50,871 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 9, 2016 3:53 PM in response to David Mittman

    Content is the message it contains

  • by David Mittman,

    David Mittman David Mittman Aug 9, 2016 4:04 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 9, 2016 4:04 PM in response to Csound1

    I agree. But isn't the Stationery feature all about providing a content "template" into which you add more content to customize it? In other words, Stationery provides some content and the user provides more content.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Aug 9, 2016 4:09 PM in response to David Mittman
    Level 9 (50,871 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 9, 2016 4:09 PM in response to David Mittman

    I now have no idea what you consider to be content any more, you are all over the place.

  • by Vark Shark,

    Vark Shark Vark Shark Aug 9, 2016 4:13 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 9, 2016 4:13 PM in response to Csound1

    David is correct.  The Stationary (template, boilerplate, framework, et cetera) provides some data.  We provide more data.

     

    The Stationary's data doesn't change.  Our data does change.

     

    Kurt

  • by David Mittman,

    David Mittman David Mittman Aug 9, 2016 4:24 PM in response to Vark Shark
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 9, 2016 4:24 PM in response to Vark Shark

    In the image below, which is of an email produced by Stationery, all the body content is provided by Stationery. I would add my customization to the content by, for instance, replacing the "Happy Birthday, Jessica!" text with my own message text.

     

    When I go to create a new "Custom" Stationery, I create a Draft email with content not too different than below, and Save as Stationery. The problem is that when I go to create a new email message and apply my custom Stationery, I don't get any of my graphics. As you can see below, the "standard" Stationery does provide graphics as content.

     

    Untitled.png

  • by aliusmiles,

    aliusmiles aliusmiles Sep 22, 2016 3:15 AM in response to David Mittman
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 22, 2016 3:15 AM in response to David Mittman

    Possible solution:

     

    • Send message you want to choose as stationary.
    • Open it's raw source (View > Message > Raw Source) and copy hmtl content (everything between <html> and </html>)
    • Create custom stationary.
    • Find it's content file. Should be somewhere at:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Mail/Stationery/Apple/Contents/Resources/Custom/Contents/Resources/MY_C USTOM_NAME.mailstationery/Contents/Resources/content.html

    • Open content.html and replace it with html code from message's raw source.

     

    Not sure why it works, but I suspect it has something to do with formatting - saved stationary has really messy html code.

     

    P.S. Custom stationary could be dragged to Favorites for easier access.

     

  • by Vark Shark,

    Vark Shark Vark Shark Oct 3, 2016 9:17 AM in response to aliusmiles
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 3, 2016 9:17 AM in response to aliusmiles

    Hello, aliusmiles.

     

    Thank you for your suggestion.  I will try it, today.

     

    By the way, have you tested Mail Stationary in macOS 10.12 Sierra?

     

    Kurt

  • by Vark Shark,

    Vark Shark Vark Shark Oct 3, 2016 9:44 AM in response to Vark Shark
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 3, 2016 9:44 AM in response to Vark Shark

    Hello, aliusmiles.

     

    I located the file that you referenced.  I was unable to open with Mail, or, with some text editors.

     

    Kurt

  • by David Mittman,

    David Mittman David Mittman Oct 3, 2016 2:51 PM in response to Vark Shark
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 3, 2016 2:51 PM in response to Vark Shark

    I think I've isolated the problem, and while I do more tests, I wanted to share my "Aha!" moment with you in case you're still banging your head against this one. Go ahead and create your stationery as directed, then, when creating the new email message that you want to be based on your stationery, first create the new message, then turn off any signature you might have configured. This might mean simply selecting None from the Signature menu in the new message window. Once you've turned off your signature, you can now select your previously-saved Custom stationery.

     

    There seems to be some bad interaction between Signatures and Custom Stationery.

     

    I've submitted bug report 28597831 about this issue.

  • by Vark Shark,

    Vark Shark Vark Shark Oct 5, 2016 7:31 AM in response to David Mittman
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 5, 2016 7:31 AM in response to David Mittman

    Hello, David.

     

    Thank you for providing this update.

     

    At this juncture, I will wait, until Apple repairs this problem.  I do appreciate the attention that you have given to my posting.

     

    Kurt