This article explores common issues relating to email template formatting. If you're reading this article, you've already created email templates or are in the process of doing so. You can use email templates when communicating with candidates through Personio. You can tell there's an issue if the formatting in the resulting emails appears wrong.

In this article, we'll cover the following issues:

• The placeholder font looks different from the rest of the text.
• I don't know how to customize the formatting.
• A placeholder appears in code format.
• I can't add placeholders on the go.
• A placeholder is in the wrong language.
• Two sets of signatures appear in the body of the email.

Before you start

To create and edit email templates, you need permissions for your Recruiting company settings. 

Create a candidate profile for testing purposes

We recommend creating a mock candidate profile to test how your emails look. You can delete this later.

1. Go to Recruiting > Applications and click Create application.
2. In the email field, use an email address that you can access. For example, your personal work email. Avoid using an email address that’s already in use by one of your employees.
3. Finish creating your test application. Personio automatically creates a candidate profile.
4. In the candidate profile, go to the Messages tab.
5. Send a message to your test candidate.

Open the email and check how the formatting looks.

The placeholder font looks different from the rest of the text

Issue: The placeholder font appears different from the rest of the email text. This might be because you copied and pasted from another document, for example, a Word document. Now, the formatting of the email looks inconsistent.

Suggestion: We recommend you use the clear format option within the editor. Try these steps:

1. In Settings, go to Recruiting > Email templates.
2. Open the email template.
3. Select all text (command + A on a Mac) or highlight the incorrectly formatted text.
4. In the editor panel at the top of the email body, click the clear format icon.
5. Apply your changes.

Send a test email from your mock candidate profile to check if the formatting looks consistent.

I don't know how to customize the formatting

Issue: You want to customize the formatting of the email or signature.

Suggestion:  Go to Settings > Recruiting > Email templates. In the editor panel at the top of the email body, click More text and then Code view. Here, you can edit the email content’s HTML code. Learn more about how to customize the code. Remember to apply your changes.

A placeholder appears in code format

Issue: A placeholder isn't working. It appears in code format.

Suggestion: In Settings, go to Recruiting > Email templates. Open the email template and try typing the placeholder manually. This helps to avoid typos and errors. You can also try clearing the formatting in the editor. Apply your changes.

I can't add placeholders on the go

Issue: You want to email a candidate from the Messages tab of the candidate profile. You select an email template and try to add new or extra placeholders, but it doesn’t work. This is because you can only add placeholders in the email template settings.

Suggestion: In Settings, go to Recruiting > Email templates. Open the email template and add the necessary placeholders. Apply your changes.

A placeholder is in the wrong language

Issue: A placeholder appears in a different language from the rest of the email. This is a common issue with interview placeholders. It happens because the placeholder language is taken from the job’s default language.

Example:
You create a job with English as the default language. You send an interview invitation using a German template. The template contains the placeholder for the interview weekday. The email that is sent to the candidate is in German, but the weekday appears in English.

Suggestion: Before sending an interview invitation to a candidate, change any incorrect placeholders to the correct language. You need to do this manually.

Two sets of signatures appear in the body of the email

Issue: Two sets of signatures appear in the body of the email. This happens if you set a personalized signature and also add a signature to an email template. 

Suggestion: Make sure that:

• No signature is selected for the autoresponder. This is an automated email response that is sent to candidates when they apply. Go to Recruiting > Categories, and select the relevant recruiting category. Under Autoresponder, ensure no employee is selected. You need to perform this check for all relevant recruiting categories.
• You delete your personal signature when composing emails using templates.