---
title: Configuring workflow e-mail notifications
---

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>
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When a document reaches a workflow step, the system can send out notification e-mail messages to those involved in the workflow process. This topic describes how to enable e-mail notifications:

- [globally](#enabling-workflow-e-mail-notifications-globally),
- [for a workflow](#configuring-e-mail-notifications-for-a-workflow),
- for a workflow step.

The topic applies to both basic and advanced workflow.

The e-mails are based on global e-mail templates. Kentico comes with several default templates, which you can use without any additional configuration. If you want to create your own e-mail templates for workflow notifications, follow the instructions in the [Writing workflow e-mail templates](#writing-workflow-e-mail-templates) section.

The system sends notification e-mails according to the following rules:

- When a document reaches a step (except Edit, Published and Archived), the **Waiting for approval** e-mail is sent to users allowed to approve or reject the current (new) step.
- When someone approves a document, i.e., moves it from an approval step to the next step, the **Approved** e-mail is sent to the user who submitted the document for approval.
- When someone rejects a document, i.e, moves it to the previous step, the **Rejected** e-mail is sent to the user who submitted the document for approval.
- E-mails are never sent to users who performed the action that invoked the sending.

## Enabling workflow e-mail notifications globally

1. Open the **Settings** application.
2. Navigate to **Content -> Content management**.
3. Turn the **Send workflow e-mails** setting on.
4. Type an address into the **Send workflow e-mails from** setting. This address will appear to recipients as the sender of the e‑mails.
5. Click **Save**.

## Configuring e-mail notifications for a workflow

1. Edit () the workflow and switch to the **E-mails** tab.
2. Set the **Send notification e-mails** setting to **Yes**. Alternatively, you can **Use site settings**.
3. Check the box next to events that you want users to be notified about:
   - **Send waiting for approval** - sends an e-mail when a document reaches an approval step (i.e. all steps except Edit, Published and Archived).
   - **Send approved** - sends an e-mail when a document leaves an approval step in the direction towards the end of the workflow process.
   - **Send rejected** - sends an e-mail when a document leaves a step in the direction towards the beginning of the workflow process.
   - **Send published** - sends an e-mail when a document reaches a Published step.
   - **Send archived** - sends an e-mail when a document reaches an Archived step.
4. (Optional) Select an e-mail template for events for which you don't want to use the default template.
   - To bring up the list of available templates, click **Select**.
   - To edit the currently selected template, click **Edit**.
   - To create a new template, click **New**.
   - To clear your template selection and revert back to the default template, click **Clear**.
5. (Optional) Specify whether you want to notify users who are not involved in the process. This notification will be sent every time a document reaches a step that needs to be manually approved.
   1. Select users using the **Add users** button.
   2. (Optional) Select an e-mail template. Otherwise, the default template will be used.
6. Click **Save**.

## Configuring e-mail notifications for a particular custom workflow step

You can configure e-mail notifications for particular **custom** workflow steps.

1. Edit the step and switch to the **E-mails** tab.
2. Set the **Send notification e-mails** setting to **Yes**. Alternatively, you can **Use workflow settings**. See [Configuring e-mail notifications for a workflow](#configuring-e-mail-notifications-for-a-workflow).
3. Choose events you want users to be notified about.
   - **Send waiting for approval** - sends an e-mail when a document reaches the step.
   - **Send approved** - sends an e-mail when a document leaves the step in the direction towards the end of the workflow process.
   - **Send rejected** - sends an e-mail when a document leaves the step in the direction towards the beginning of the workflow process.
4. (Optional) Select an e-mail template for events for which you don't want to use the default template.
   - To bring up the list of available templates, click **Select**.
   - To edit the currently selected template, click **Edit**.
   - To create a new template, click **New**.
   - To clear your template selection and revert back to the default template, click **Clear**.
5. Click **Save**.

## Writing workflow e-mail templates

1. Open the **E-mail templates** application.
2. In the **Site** drop-down list, select global.
3. Click **New template**.
4. Enter a name for the new template into the **Display name** field.
5. Choose **Workflow** from the **E-mail type** drop-down list. This ensures that you will have relevant macros available to insert into the template's text.
6. (Optional) Specify a sender, a recipient, copy and blind copy recipients and a subject (**From**, **Cc**, **Bcc** and **Subject** fields).
7. Write the text of the template.

   - An e-mail template can have two formats - HTML and plain text. You should write the template text at least in the format that you use on you websites. By default, the system sends HTML e-mails. You can find out what your settings are in **Settings -> System -> E-mails -> E-mail format**.You can insert context-specific information into the template's text, such as the current step name or the link to edit the document, using macros. See the following section for a list of available macros.
8. Click **Save**.

## Macros in workflow e-mail templates

In e-mail templates of the **Workflow** type, you can use macros that hold information about the workflow and about the document that invoked sending the e-mail. The following list presents workflow-related macros that you can use:

- **ActionDefinition** - object that holds the parameters of the current step, if the current step is an action step.
- **ApplicationURL** - URL address of the application.
- **Comment** - comment that users can add when approving or rejecting documents.
- **CurrentStep** - object that holds data of the step the document is currently in.
- **CurrentUser** - object that holds data of the currently logged in user.
- **Document** - object that holds data of the document.
- **DocumentPreviewUrl** - address where anyone can view the latest version of the document as it would appear on the live site.
- **DocumentEditUrl** - address pointing to the page in the **Pages** application where editors can modify the document.
- **DocumentActionName** - name of the action that was performed with the document. The macro has four possible values.
  - Approve
  - Archive
  - Publish
  - Reject
- **OriginalStep** - object that holds data of the step the document was in before it was moved to the current step.
- **Workflow** - object that holds data of the workflow process.

Besides the listed macros, you can also use any other macro expression, as described in the [Macro expressions](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/macro-expressions.md) chapter.