Templates
Streamline Your Communication Scheduling
Templates in the Communicate App let you reuse communication plans across your campaigns. Communicate offers two kinds:
- Smart Templates — timeline-based plans anchored to campaign Start or End, with placement that respects Channel Preferences and Channel Schedules when you apply. Recommended for new work. Full guide: Smart Templates.
- Legacy Templates — classic week-and-day grid templates from earlier versions. Still available; for preference- and schedule-aware placement, prefer Smart Templates (or Convert a Legacy card).
Templates are a Plus feature. Owners, Admins, Managers, and Editors can create and edit; Delete is for Owners, Admins, and Managers. Applying a template needs communication edit access on the campaign schedule.
1. Templates page
Open Templates from the sidebar. Templates appear as cards in a grid, sorted alphabetically by name.
Toolbar
- New — choose Legacy template or Smart template
- Search templates — filter by name
- Filter — narrow by category (same pattern as the Campaigns list)
Each card shows
- Template name (click the card to open the editor)
- Smart or Legacy badge
- Category, duration (N wk / N wks), and communication count (N comm / N comms)
- ⋮ menu — Duplicate or Delete (when you have permission)
Legacy template cards also show a Convert to Smart Template strip with a Convert button when you can create templates.
Smart cards use a blue accent; Legacy cards use neutral styling. With multi-campus on, Smart templates are filtered to the current workspace (Global vs campus); Legacy templates stay in the full list.
2. Creating a Legacy Template
- Templates → New → Legacy template. (Sidebar New → New Template also opens the Legacy builder.)
- Set Name, optional Category, and length with the Weeks dropdown (1 Week(s) through 20 Week(s)).
- Drag channels from Available Channels into the week/day grid (Day 1–Day 7), then Save.
Reducing weeks asks you to confirm that communications in removed weeks will be removed.
Legacy templates do not use live channel preferences or schedules. For schedule-aware planning, use Smart Templates.
3. Creating a Smart Template
See Smart Templates and Quick Start: Smart Templates.
Summary:
- New → Smart template
- Set Name, optional Category, and anchor to campaign Start or End (new Smart templates default to End)
- Drag channels onto the timeline; set Follow Preferences, Follow schedule, Choose day, or Auto per item
- Use Week to add weeks as needed, then Save
4. Applying a Template on a campaign
- Open the Communication Schedule on the Campaign page.
- Click Template.
- Pick a template under Smart templates or Legacy templates. Only templates that fit the campaign length are available; longer templates appear grayed out.
- Template Preview — Review ghost placements on the schedule. Drag communications to reposition or remove them. Click Apply or Cancel. If Conflicts remain, resolve them on the grid or Apply and confirm Apply anyway.
Legacy templates — Day 1 aligns with the campaign start date. Existing campaign communications are not overridden; apply adds new placements.
Smart templates — Placement resolves from your anchor (Start or End), week offsets, and each item’s placement mode (preferences, schedule, or fixed day). With multi-campus on, apply a global Smart template only from Global onto a global campaign; campus Smart templates only from that campus onto campus campaigns.
5. Converting Legacy to Smart
On the Templates page, open a Legacy template card and click Convert in the Convert to Smart Template strip.
Conversion:
- Creates a new Smart Template — your Legacy template is not changed or removed
- Keeps the same name, duration, and category
- Anchors to campaign Start and maps your legacy week/day layout onto the Smart timeline
- Sets placement modes from your current Channel Preferences and Channel Schedules where possible
- Opens the Smart Template builder so you can review and adjust before your next apply
After conversion, use the new Smart template on campaigns with Template Preview for schedule-aware placement.
6. Best Practices
- Prefer Smart Templates for new plans, especially when you use Channel Preferences or Channel Schedules.
- Use Convert on Legacy cards to migrate older templates instead of rebuilding from scratch.
- Use Start anchoring for “build toward the event” rhythms; End for “count down from the event.”
- Build separate templates for major all-church series vs smaller ministry pushes.
Additional Resources
- What's New — July 2026 — release overview
- Smart Templates — full Smart Template guide
- Quick Start: Smart Templates — minimal steps
- Channel Preferences and Schedules — how apply-time placement works
- Campaigns — Communication Schedule
- Documentation — all guides
Questions? [email protected]