Exporting to Outlook App

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Overview of Outlook App Connector

Connectors within the RGE Studio enable you to export your beautiful designs to your sending platforms. RGE Studio offers a comprehensive array of connectors, which you can reference in our Using connectors in RGE Studio article. 

The Outlook App Connector allows you to download your RGE Studio email designs as OFT and EMLTPL files that you can then upload into your Outlook App. 

If you would like to export your RGE Studio design to Outlook Web, visit our Exporting to Outlook.com article to learn more. Otherwise, continue reading this article to learn more about how to download your design’s OFT and EMLTPL files.

Continue reading this article or watch our RGE Studio Academy tutorial to learn more about how to connect and export to the Outlook App connector within RGE Studio.

Prerequisites

Prior to getting started, ensure you have the following:

• RGE Studio account
• Outlook App installed

How to Connect to Outlook App

You can take one of two methods to connect your RGE Studio account to your Outlook App. These methods are the following:

• Workspace settings
• Export Options

Workspace Settings

Take the following steps to connect to the Outlook App connector through your Workspace Settings:

1. Log in to your RGE Studio account.
2. Click on Settings located on the Top bar or Sidebar depending on your Appearance setup.
3. Click on the Connectors tab.
4. Locate the Outlook App connector within the list of connectors.
5. Click the Connect button for the Outlook App connector.

You will receive a confirmation message that you connected successfully to the Outlook App.

Export Options

Take the following steps to connect to the Outlook connector through your Export Options:

1. Log in to your RGE Studio account.
2. Navigate to your email design.
3. Enter your design.
4. Make and save any changes you’d like prior to exporting your design.
5. Click Export on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

A pop-up will appear with four options.

6. Select Integrations.
7. A list of connectors will appear.
8. Click the Outlook App connector.

A message will appear asking if you would like to connect to the Outlook App.

9. Click Connect to continue 

You will receive a confirmation message that you connected successfully to the Outlook App.

How to Download Files

Once you connect to the Outlook App successfully, you can download an OFT or EMLTPL file for Windows or Mac depending on which device you have.

Take the following steps to download these files types:

1. Navigate to the email design you’d like to export.
2. Make and save any changes you’d like prior to exporting your design.
3. Select Push to your sending system.
4. Click the Outlook App connector.
5. You will be prompted to Download for Outlook App.
6. Select Download for Windows if you’d like an OFT file, or Download for macOS if you’d like an EMLTPL file.

You will receive a confirmation message that your downloaded template file is ready.

Upload File to Outlook App

Once your template file download completes, the Outlook App on your computer will automatically open with your template. 

You’ll notice the following metadata also exported with your design from RGE Studio to Outlook App: 

• Name of the email if you did not add a subject line.
• Email subject line, if you added that metadata to your RGE Studio design.
• Preheader and UTMs.

Outlook Rendering Considerations

If sending your emails through Outlook, we recommend designing simple, single-column designs. Outlook has some limitations when used to send HTML emails. It's important to remember that Outlook is an email client rather than a sending platform. As a result, it may ignore, remove, or alter HTML elements from our code. This can cause rendering issues that we can't resolve. For more information about this, check out our Outlook.com connector article.

That said, the Outlook App connector generates emails using OFT or EMLTPL formats. These are coding languages specific to Outlook. This may cause your email to behave differently from an HTML version.  As a result, there are some rendering behaviors unique to the Outlook App connector. Please consider the following:

• GIFs rendering with a play icon in Outlook App.
• Additional spaces may appear in the layout. Our tests indicate this is most common when these emails are viewing in Gmail.
• Icon elements may not perform as expected.
  • Icons stack on top of eachother.
  • Icon blocks with labels cannot be centered.
• Links are underlined in Outlook App.
• Random lines in the email templates when those are not designed in RGE Studio.
• Mobile responsiveness will not work. The desktop version of your email design will also display on mobile devices. 

Note that there are some rendering limitations that apply to Outlook no matter how an email is sent. For more information on these limitations, see the Additional Considerations section below.

Additional Considerations

• Most Outlook clients do not support web fonts. If you're using a web font (or custom font), in your design, it will populate with a fallback after export. For more information, please see Using Web Fonts.

• Most Outlook clients do not support background images. However, we always recommend setting a background color similar to your background image. This way your design will still work if your background image fails to display. For more information, please see Adding a Background Image to your Designs. 

• Make sure that the links attached to your buttons include an HTTP or HTTPS prefix. Otherwise, your button may function as text.