Adding emails from Microsoft Outlook

Users can save entire emails, including attachments or save just the attachment without the email. Emails can be added to the library using a variety of methods:

• Drag and drop emails from Microsoft Outlook into the FileHold document management system.
• Use the Add to FileHold button from the Add Ins toolbar in Microsoft Outlook. The email message has to be opened in order to use the Add to FileHold button as you cannot do it from the messages view.
• Using a Microsoft Outlook "watched folder" allows you to add any emails into the “watched folder” in Outlook so that the emails are brought into a folder on the local computer or network location. Then having a watched folder or managed import set up in the FileHold Desktop Application (FDA) (see the Library Administrator Guide for more information), the emails automatically get brought into system for processing.

Emails are added to the library as .msg files. When they are opened from the FileHold client, they will open in Outlook with their attachments. The email header information (To, From, CC, Date, Subject and Attachment) may be automatically extracted into the metadata fields, depending on what your administrator has configured. That way, you do not have to type this information in; instead the system will do it for you. See Extraction Rules for more information.

For the watched folder in Outlook, you can set up special email rules in Outlook to ensure the correct emails are being moved into the document management system. You can also drag and drop emails into the watched folder. Once an email has been sent into the document management system from a watched Outlook folder, it will be marked so it will not be imported again.

To add emails from Microsoft Outlook

1. Do one of the following:

• From Microsoft Outlook, select one or more emails and drag and drop the files into either the Inbox or a folder location. Enter any required metadata and/or destination information. See Entering Metadata for a Document for more information on setting metadata on documents.
• From Microsoft Outlook, open an email and go to the FileHold tab and click Add (+ sign). Select the folder location and enter the metadata and click Add. See Entering Metadata for a Document for more information on setting metadata on documents.
• Drag and drop or set up an Outlook rule to send documents to the Outlook watched folder.
• Add msg files that have been saved to the local computer.

To add only an attachment from an email

If attachments are saved to the system without the email they are stored in their native format.

You cannot drag and drop an email attachment. You will need to use the Send to FileHold command.

You cannot add embedded attachments (attachments that were dragged and dropped into the email instead of using the paper clip attachment method) using this method. You will need to save the attachment and then add it to FileHold using the methods above.

1. In Microsoft Outlook, select and open an email with an attachment.
2. Right-click on the attachment and select Add to FileHold.

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3. Select a destination for the document.
4. Enter the metadata for the document. See Entering Metadata for a Document for more information on setting metadata on documents.
5. Select the following options, if applicable:

• Close the document before I add it — Closes the document in the application you are working in after you have added the file.
• Delete the local copy of this file after it has been successfully added — Deletes the copy of the file from your local computer after it is added.
• Email notify all folder members that this document has been added to this folder — Sends an email alert to all the members of the selected folder.

6. Click Add or Auto-File if the document was added to a folder that is auto-tagged.

Dragging and dropping emails from Outlook

Drag and drop allows a user to move multiple emails from Outlook to the document management system FDA.

1. Select the email(s) that are to be moved to the document management system.
2. Drag and Drop to the FDA.
3. Emails will automatically be sent to the Inbox for processing.

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Watching a Microsoft Outlook folder

You can configure one Outlook folder to be watched by the FileHold Office client. Any email added to this folder will be saved to the configured path on your workstation or network location. If you want these files added automatically to the FileHold library, you can setup a watched folder or managed import in the FileHold Desktop Application (FDA).

Watch the video on how to set up the Microsoft Outlook Watched Folder.

To set up the Microsoft Outlook Watched Folder

1. Create a folder in Microsoft Outlook that you want add the emails to.

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2. On your local computer or network location, create a folder to store any emails added to the Outlook watched folder.
3. If you want to automatically add the files to the FileHold library, in the FDA, do one of the following:

• Set up the Watched Folder for the folder you just created on your local computer or network drive. Users with version 16.3 or higher can use an extraction rule to add the email header information to metadata fields when they have an ADI license. If you have an earlier version of FileHold or you do not have an ADI license, but you want the email header information extracted into the metadata fields, use a managed import instead.
• Have your Library Administrator set up a Managed Import for the folder that was created on your local computer or network. If using a managed import to bring emails into FileHold, ensure that the import format has been set to “Dynamic import / Classic FileHold XML” in the user preferences. If the import format has been set to “Both” in the user preferences, ensure that the import format is set to “Dynamic import / Classic FileHold XML” on the individual managed import.

If you are using the “Both” option in the user preferences, ensure that folder you select for the import profile contains only one type of XML files. The rule also applied for any of its subfolders. The XML files for the different import formats cannot coexist in the same folder tree.

4. In Outlook, select the FileHold tab and click FileHold Watched Folder.
5. In the FileHold Watched Folder Configuration window, click the Enable Outlook Watched Folder check box.
6. In the Watched Folder in Outlook field, click Browse to select the watched folder you created in Microsoft Outlook.
7. In the Destination Folder for Export field, click Browse to select the watched folder on your local computer or network drive.

The email .msg file will be saved with a filename that matches the first 100 characters in the email subject. If two or more emails with the same subject are added to the watched folder at the same time, a number will be added to the end of the email to allow both messages to be saved to the Windows folder. Subjects that contain characters not allowed in a filename will be modified to exclude those characters. Subjects that match reserved device names or subjects that are blank, will result in a name like "unnamed.msg".

8. To create an XML file when the emails are exported, select the Export XML files in Document Import compatible format check box. This XML file is created for each .msg file and can be using in conjunction with the Manage Imports tool to import emails into the repository. The XML file contains the following message header information: To, From, CC, Date, Subject, and Attachments. This option is not required if you are using FileHold watched folders to import to the FileHold library.

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9. Click OK.
10. Test your configuration by adding a msg file to your Outlook watched folder. Then go into FileHold to ensure that the file has been brought into the Inbox for processing or sent to the folder, depending on your configuration settings in the Watched Folder or Managed Import.

Adding previously saved MSG files

You can add Microsoft Outlook msg files that have been previously saved to the local computer.

1. Open an msg file and go to the FileHold tab.
2. Click Add (+ sign). Select the folder location and enter the metadata, if required.
3. Click Add. See Entering Metadata for a Document for more information on setting metadata on documents.

The "Close this document before I add it" and "Delete the local copy..." options are not available when adding saved msg files. This is due to Outlook generating temporary files when a saved email is opened from the local computer. These msg files require manual deletion.