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Customize email templates

CertCentral sends emails to users throughout the certificate lifecycle process: confirmation emails; certificate request approval and revocation emails; expiring and expired certificate emails; and expiring and expired order emails. You can customize these email templates, so they align with your business requirements.

Before you begin

Email settings are managed in a few places. Before you start customizing your templates, make sure to set up your email recipients and configure your renewal emails settings.

To configure your email recipients and language preferences, see:

To configure your renewal email settings, see:

When editing a template, we will remind you of these relevant certificate email settings.

Customize an email template

  1. In your CertCentral account, in the left main menu, go to Settings > Notifications.

  2. On the Notifications page, click Custom email templates.

  3. Under Manage custom email templates, in the Email type column, click the name of the template you want to modify.

    • Order confirmation email

    • Order approval email

    • Order rejection email

    • Order expiring email

    • Order expired email

    • Multi-year Plan: expiring certificate email

    • Multi-year Plan: expired certificate email

  4. On the Edit template page, in the banner at the top of the page, under Name, you will see the name of the email you are editing.

  5. Now, you can edit the subject and body of the email.

    Plain text and HTML tags are supported.

    Notice

    We recommend avoiding adding information that is likely to change over time, such as certificate validity periods or allowed hashing algorithms. If you must include this information, remember to update your templates as industry standards and best practices change.

  6. On the right side of the page, you will see a list of variables you can include in your template.

    Variables allow you to insert dynamic order and user information into the email.

    To add a variable, click the copy icon and paste the variable into the subject or body of the email.

    Notice

    The "Default custom renewal message" variable refers to a setting on the Preferences page with the same name (Settings > Preferences). To include that message in your template, use this variable. If you do not have a default renewal message, this variable will not add any information to the email.

  7. To preview your changes, click Preview.

    Email preview allows you to see what your customized template will look like, confirm you've entered all variables correctly, and verify there are no broken HTML tags.

    Notice

    When variables are entered correctly, they will appear as strings of random numbers and letters in the Email preview popup window.

  8. When satisfied with your email template changes, click Save.

What's next

CertCentral will now use the your customized email template to send the email.

Restore an email template

If you change your mind, you can restore an email template to its default state.

  1. In your CertCentral account, in the left main menu, go to Settings > Notifications.

  2. On the Notifications page, click Custom email templates.

  3. Under Manage custom email templates, in the Email type column, click the name of the template you want to restore to its default state.

  4. On the Edit template page, click Reset.

  5. In the Reset custom template window, click Reset.

What's next

CertCentral will now use the default email template to send the email.