Email

Introduction

Email, short for Electronic Mail, consists of messages which are sent and received using the Internet. While there are many different email services available that allow you to create an email account and send and receive email and attachments, we have chosen to focus this class on the services available through Gmail because it is free and one of the more popular email services available.

Email Menu

The Email menu located at the top of the Houdini desktop contains 3 items. The first item is the Unread Email counter. In the center is the Email Dashboard and finally the New Email form.

Click the Email icon (red arrow) to view, compose, send, reply to and link Email to Matters.

Click the Envelope icon to compose a new Email.

Email Dashboard

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1. Primary Email folders. Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Trash.

2. Account list. Houdini allows you to manage all your Email accounts. They can be GMail, Yahoo, Hot Mail, Exchange, etc. IMAP and POP3 are supported. Please note; although POP3 is supported we strongly suggest against using POP3 Email in your practice. Email flags such as "read" simply are not supported in POP3. All Email providers support IMAP.

3. User defined folders. You can optionally place Email into folders to help keep your Email organized. You can drag-n-drop one or more Emails onto a folder to move them into that folder. You can create as many folder as you like.

4. Filter bar.
Exclude Linked: When you link a Email to a Matter it is immediately removed from the list. If you would like to view linked Emails uncheck this box.
Last 24-hours, 5 Days, 2 Weeks, All: You can quickly view Email in one of the primary folders (Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Trash) within the selected date range by simply making a selection.

5. Sort and Search.
Sort: Select a sort column to sort the list.
DESC: Click to sort in descending order, uncheck to sort in ascending order.
Search: Enter text you would like to search for. Only the subject and recipients will be searched. To perform a full text search of Email use IRIS (click the large magnifying glass icon on the Houdini desktop to open IRIS).
Matter Filter: Enter the Matter reference you would like to limit your search to.

6. Email list. Each row represents a single Email. Each row contains the Subject, From, and Date. If the Email has attachments a paperclip icon along with the number of attachments will appear to the right of the Subject.

7. Option bar.
New: Click new to compose a new Email.
Delete: Click delete to move the selected Email(s). Please note; deleted Email is moved to Trash not physically deleted.
Unread: Click unread to mark all selected Emails as unread.
Read: Click read to make all selected Emails as read.

Selecting Multiple Rows

There two ways to select multiple rows.

1. To select individual rows click the first item, press and hold the control/command key while making more selections.

2. To select a range of rows click the first item, press and hold the shift key while making your second selection.

Viewing Email

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The default view of the Email Dashboard is to show just the list of Emails.

1. If the Email Viewer isn't displayed double click a item from the list. This will open the Email viewer. IF the EMail Viewer is already open simply clicking a Email from the list will cause the Email Viewer to show its contents.

2. To view a Email full screen click the expand icon located at the top of the Email viewer. Use this button to toggle between full screen and the default.

3. Click the orange icon in the upper right hand corner of the Email viewer to collapse/hide the Email viewer.

You can resize the Email viewer by placing your mouse cursor between the Email list and Email viewer and dragging your mouse. Please note, the Email viewer has a default minimum size so you may have to resize the Email Dashboard itself first.

Create a Folder

You can optionally place Email into folders to help keep your Email organized. You can drag-n-drop one or more Emails onto a folder to move them into that folder. You can create as many folder as you like. User defined Folders are children of the primary folders Inbox, Sent, Drafts, and Trash.

1. Click the add button at the bottom of the list. This will open the new folder form.

2. Enter the name of the folder you want to create and click the [save] button.

To view Emails with a folder simply select the folder. You can also select more than one folder by holding down the cotrol/command key while making your selections.

3. When you have one or more folders selected they remain selected until you clear the selection. To clear the selection click the orange and white icon. This will return the list to the default view for the primary folder currently selected.

Moving Email to a Folder

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There are two ways to move a Email into a folder.

1. Drag-n-drop the Email onto the folder you wish to place it into.

or

2. From the Email Viewer select a folder from the drop down.

When you create a folder you are essentially creating the named folder for all primary folders Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Trash. For example, if you select a Email from the list while the primary Inbox folder is selected and you drag-n-drop a Email onto one of your own folders then the Email will be placed in the named folder but under the primary folder Inbox. Searching the named folder for this Email while any of the other primary folders Sent, Drafts, or Trash are selected will yield no results.

When you create a folder you are essentially creating a folder under each of the primary folders as illustrated below.

Inbox
myFolder
Email 1
Email 7 <--- the email just moved
Sent
myFolder
Email 5
Drafts
myFolder
Trash
myFolder
Email 3
Email 6

Linking Email to a Matter

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Keep your client Emails linked to their associated Matters.

You must be view the Email in order to link it to a Matter. If the Email Viewer is not open Double click a item from the list to open it otherwise select the Email you would like associated with a Matter.

1. Type the name Matter reference in the regarding field. You don't have to type the whole thing, Houdini will lookup Matters as you type. Select the Matter from the list provided.

2. Click the [link] button. This Email is now linked to the Matter.

IMPORTANT When you link a Email to a Matter the Email will not be visible in the Email Dashboard unless you uncheck Exclude Linked (3) at the top of the screen. Linked Emails are removed so the Email Dashboard isn't cluttered. Houdini will automatically index the Email and all its attachments. You will be able to perform full text searches using IRIS.

Searching for Email

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Finding Email is a sinch and can be accomplished one of three ways.

1. You will find a Matter's Emails listed under the EMail tab of the Matter form

2. You can search for Emails in the Email Dashboard using the Matter Filter field located at the top of the Email Dashboard.

3. You can use IRIS. You really only need to use IRIS when searching for text that may be within the body of a Email or Email attachment.

Email Matter Widget

Matter Widgets are convienent but are limited on what they can do.

The Email Matter Widget list the Matter reference at the top and list all Emails related to the selected Matter. Emails listed in white are received Emails, those listed in pink are sent emails.

Double click a item to open it in the Email Dashboard.