Composing and sending

Writing email shouldn't mean switching to another program and losing sight of the customer you're working on. In MailDesk you write, format, attach, and send right inside Odoo — next to the same contacts and records you already use. This page walks you through the composer step by step, then shows two Pro features that make repeated mail much faster: signatures and email templates.

Writing email shouldn't mean switching to another program and losing sight of the customer you're working on. In MailDesk you write, format, attach, and send right inside Odoo — next to the same contacts and records you already use. This page walks you through the composer step by step, then shows two Pro features that make repeated mail much faster: signatures and email templates.

The composer at a glance

The composer is a small, movable window that floats over your inbox. You can keep it open while you look something up, so you never lose your place. From a single window you can:

• choose which mailbox the message is sent From,
• adjust the Sender Name your recipient sees,
• add recipients in To, Cc, and Bcc,
• write a Subject,
• format the body with a rich-text editor — bold, lists, links, images, and more,
• attach files,
• save a draft to finish later, and
• send the message immediately.

Everything stays inside Odoo, and a copy of everything you send is kept in your Sent folder — so there's no separate mail program to manage and nothing to lose track of.

Before you start

• You need at least one mailbox connected to MailDesk that you have access to.
• To send, that mailbox needs a working outgoing mail server. Your administrator sets this up when they connect the account, so it's usually already in place.

You can compose and send from any mailbox you have access to. Picking a template or a signature while you write is open to every mailbox user — only creating and editing templates is an administrator task.

Write and send a new email

1. Click Compose at the top of the folder tree. The composer window opens.
2. In From, choose the mailbox you want to send from (you'll only see this if you have more than one).
3. Optionally adjust the Sender Name — the friendly name your recipient sees alongside the address.
4. Type one or more recipients in To. Need to copy people? Turn on Cc and Bcc from the To field's controls (see To, Cc, and Bcc below).
5. Enter a Subject.
6. Write your message in the editor. Format text, add links and images, paste freely — it behaves like the rich-text editor you already know.
7. Attach any files (see Adding attachments).
8. Click Send.

Expected result: the message goes out through your mailbox's outgoing server and appears in your Sent folder right away. If the recipient replies later, their reply joins the same conversation automatically — no hunting for the original thread.

Keeping the window out of your way

The composer window can be minimized to a small bubble — handy when you need to check a figure or copy a contact while you keep writing — expanded to fullscreen for longer messages, and closed when you're done.

To, Cc, and Bcc

To keep the composer tidy, the Cc and Bcc fields stay hidden until you switch them on from the To field's controls. Turn them on only when you actually need them.

Adding attachments

Click the Attach button in the composer footer and choose a file. Attached files are listed just above the footer, so you can see at a glance what's going out — and remove anything before you send.

For the full picture — including previewing and downloading files you receive — see Working with attachments.

Saving a draft

Not ready to send? Click Draft in the composer footer to save your work. The saved message lands in your Drafts folder with a clear [Draft] label, ready whenever you are.

To pick it back up, open it from the Drafts folder and choose Edit Draft — the composer reopens with everything exactly as you left it: recipients, subject, body, and attachments.

Signatures

Available in: Pro

A signature should match the mailbox you're writing from — your personal mailbox and a shared team mailbox shouldn't sign off the same way. With MailDesk Pro, each mailbox carries its own signature, and when you compose or reply, that mailbox's default signature is added to the bottom of your message automatically. No more pasting the right block every time.

For any single message you can switch the signature, edit it inline, or remove it.

Choose or change a signature while composing

1. In the composer footer, click the signature button.
2. The Choose Signature picker opens, listing the signatures available for the current mailbox. A badge shows each one's scope and which is the Default.
3. Click a signature to insert it. It replaces whatever signature is already in the message.

Manage your signatures

1. Open MailDesk → Signatures. (The Manage Signatures button inside the picker opens the same list.)
2. Click New to add a signature.
3. Fill in the name, the mailbox it belongs to, an optional Sender Name, and write the signature content in the rich-text body. Tick Default to make it the automatic choice for that mailbox.
4. Save.

You can keep several signatures for one mailbox — say, a fuller one with all your details for first contact and a short one for ongoing replies — and pick the right one from the composer as you go.

Email templates

Available in: Pro

If you send the same kinds of messages over and over — quote follow-ups, support replies, onboarding notes — templates save real time. With MailDesk Pro you pick a template straight from the composer, and it fills in the subject, body, and recipients for you to tweak before sending. You're always in control: nothing goes out until you press Send.

Insert a template while composing

1. In the composer footer, click the Insert template button.
2. The Insert email template picker opens. Search by name, subject, or model to find the one you want.
3. Click a template. Its content is merged into your message — the subject is set, the body is added, and any recipients and attachments defined on the template are brought in.
4. Adjust the result as needed and send.

Templates tied to a record

A template can be linked to an Odoo record type — a contact, a CRM lead, a Helpdesk ticket, a Sale order, and so on. When you pick a record-bound template, MailDesk asks you to pick a record so it can fill in the template's placeholders — the customer's name, an order number, a ticket subject — straight from that record. Prefer to skip it? Choose Apply without a record and the record-specific placeholders simply stay empty.

If the email you're replying to is already linked to a record, the picker can use that record directly and skip the extra step — one less click.

Manage templates (administrators)

Templates are created and edited by administrators from MailDesk → Configuration → Mailboxes → Email Templates. There you set the template's name, subject, body, attachments, recipients, and any record binding. Once saved, it shows up in the composer's template picker for the relevant users.

If sending fails

MailDesk never silently drops an email. If a message doesn't go out:

• Check your Drafts folder — your work may have been kept there safely.
• Confirm the mailbox in From has a working outgoing server (SMTP or OAuth). This is an administrator setting.
• If it still fails, ask your Odoo administrator to check the server logs.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Replying and forwarding
• Working with attachments
• Inbox and folders
• Licensing and tiers