Export drafts to Outlook

When your IT blocks direct SMTP and OAuth, SAIDR can hand you a ZIP of Outlook-ready drafts. Extract, drag into your Drafts folder, review, send.

When to use this

• Your IT department blocks outbound SMTP or OAuth authorizations.
• You're required to send all customer communications from your corporate Outlook.
• You want Outlook's built-in review before a draft goes out.

Steps

1. 1
   In SAIDR, generate your emails as usual (Dashboard → Generate emails).
2. 2
   On the drafts list, click Export for Outlook next to Export CSV / Send all.
3. 3
   You'll download a ZIP named like saidr-outlook-drafts-20260421-1630.zip.
4. 4
   Extract the ZIP to any folder on your computer — Desktop is fine.
5. 5
   Open Outlook (Windows, new macOS, or classic macOS) and navigate to your Drafts folder.
6. 6
   Select all the .eml files in the extracted folder and drag them into the Drafts folder in Outlook.
7. 7
   Each file opens as an editable draft with the Send button active — review, tweak, and send from your own mailbox.

Tips

• Subject, body, recipient travel — sender doesn't. When you send from Outlook, your corporate email address will be the From. The .eml file has a placeholder From address that Outlook overwrites with your account when you send.
• This is one-way. Once you've exported, changes you make in SAIDR aren't synced back to your .eml files. If you edit a draft after export, re-export to get the latest.
• Cleanup is manual. SAIDR won't delete the .eml files after you've sent them — trash the extracted folder yourself when you're done with a campaign.
• Batch cap is 500. You can export up to 500 drafts at a time — for larger campaigns, export in batches. SAIDR will refuse an export over 500 with a clear error.
• Windows tip. If Windows Explorer complains about dragging .eml into Outlook, try opening Outlook's Drafts folder in its own window first, then drag from Explorer onto the window header.
• macOS classic Outlook tip. Drag the files onto the Drafts folder in the left sidebar (not the message list pane). The sidebar drop-target gives a blue highlight when it's accepting the files.

Troubleshooting

• “Outlook opened the draft but the Send button is greyed out.” You probably double-clicked the .eml instead of dragging it into Drafts. Drag-and-drop into the Drafts folder is what enables sending.
• “Outlook shows the draft as coming from ‘sender@example.com’ — I can't change it.” That happens when no sending email is configured in SAIDR. Set up either an OAuth connection or a custom SMTP config so SAIDR has a sender address to stamp on the draft. The From is still overwritten when you send from Outlook, but it makes the previewing cleaner.
• “I don't see the Export for Outlook button.” You need to have generated drafts on the page first. Upload a CSV or Excel file on Generate emails and the button appears with the other bulk actions.