I think one of the most underappreciated features of Apple Mail is the “Send Again” command, which you can access in a few different ways. Get to it from the menus after you’ve clicked on a message…
…by right- or Control-clicking on an email…
…or by using the “Send Again” keyboard shortcut (Shift-Command-D) after selecting your message.
Why is this useful, you may ask? Well, it’s a handy way to pass along an email that you’ve already sent without doing a lot of cleanup. I’m sure you’ve noticed that when you forward a message, it by default puts header information in the body of the email and quotes the original text in a different color.
When you use “Send Again,” though, it re-creates the message without headers or adding new quote levels.
So if you’re looking to just use the previous email as a template, you can do so without having to copy and paste or edit out unnecessary elements. Just be sure to change the recipients’ email addresses before you hit Send. Note, too, that this works with any message you’ve got, not just ones you’ve sent, so you could select “Send Again” on someone else’s email if you wanted to. Be sure to use that power for good, my friends.
I like to use this as a way to create and access templates in Apple Mail. Some people use drafts for that purpose, and others enjoy the built-in stationery feature (File> Save as Stationery), but I’ve found both methods to be unreliable and, honestly, kinda clunky. So what I do is write a new message, save it as a draft, and then drag it out of my drafts mailbox into a folder I’ve created just for my templates. When I need to reuse a message, I select it and press Shift-Command-D, and blammo! Piping hot new-messagey goodness.
I have no idea what that last sentence means, by the way. Sometimes I think higher brain functions are not involved in my writing at all. And no, you guys aren’t allowed to comment and agree with that sentiment, OK?