Use the Virtual Cabinet Indexing Pane in Microsoft Outlook

Summary:

This article describes how to use the Virtual Cabinet Indexing Pane in Microsoft Outlook.

More Information:

Please find the following sections in this article regarding the Virtual Cabinet Indexing Pane in Outlook.

• How to Index a document using the Indexing Pane
• How to set the “Indexing Defaults” for the Indexing Pane
• How to use Conversation Rules through the Indexing Pane

The Virtual Cabinet Office Addin will need to be installed before proceeding. Install/uninstall Office Addin.

The Indexing Pane will need to be enabled and shown to before proceeding. Enable/hide the Virtual Cabinet Indexing Pane in Microsoft Outlook.

How to Index a document using the Indexing Pane

Start by opening an e-mail, this can be by either composing a new one, opening a received e-mail or composing a reply. The Indexing Pane will appear on the right-hand side of the e-mail by default. You can then select a cabinet and enter your indexing information for the e-mail into the Indexing Pane. You can then click on the “Green Tick” to file the document into Virtual Cabinet.

Please note – If you are entering information for an e-mail you are about to send (technically a draft) then this is the only option you will have. This will queue the e-mail to be filed as soon as it is completed and sent, and you will see the following in the pane including the Indexing information provided (A).

If this is a received e-mail, then the e-mail will be filed at the time you press the button and you’ll see the following in the pane instead (B)

How to set the “Indexing Defaults” for the Indexing Pane

You can change the Default values for the Indexing Pane by following the steps below. In this example, we will always be filing e-mails into my “Internal” cabinet against the “E-mail” section value, and the “Description” of the file will always be the e-mail “Subject”:

1. Start by opening an e-mail, this can be by either composing a new one, opening a received e-mail or composing a reply. The Indexing Pane will appear on the right-hand side of the e-mail by default. Then click on the options cog as shown below:
   
   
    
2. You’ll then be shown the following “Setup Indexing Defaults” window.
   (a) In my example, I’ve clicked on the “Browse” button in the “Filing Cabinet” section and selected the “Internal” Cabinet.
   (b) We then clicked on the drop-down menu below to select the “E-mail” section value.
   (c) Then we clicked on the “Three Dots” against the “Description” Index.
   
   
    
3. After clicking the “Three Dots”, the following “Index Expression Builder” box will appear. You can then either enter fixed text into the “Text Input” area, or double click on one of the List Values\Keywords to set them as the Default value. In this example, we double click “Subject” which places {Subject} into the “Text Input” area, then click “Update Field” to pull it through to the Indexing Default window. Click save once you’ve set all of your “Default” Values.
   
   
   
   
4. Now that the Indexing Defaults have been set, when you open a new e-mail, you’ll see the results in the pane. In my example below, we’ve started to compose a new e-mail, and you can see that the Filing Cabinet is already set to “Internal” the “Document Type” (Section Value) is set to “E-mail” and the “Description” already has the Subject of the e-mail entered.
   
   

5. How to use Conversation Rules through the Indexing Pane

   Starting a “Conversation Rule” will allow future replies and forwards in the e-mail chain to be automatically captured into the same designated location in Virtual Cabinet (As long as you remain copied into the conversation)

   Please note – You will need to have our “E-mail Capture Service” set up with the relevant licences and Journaling Mailbox before being able to use this feature

   1. Start by opening an e-mail, this can be by either composing a new one, composing a reply, or forwarding an e-mail. The Indexing Pane will appear on the right-hand side of the e-mail by default. Enter your Indexing information into the Indexing Pane (this is that indexing information that will be applied to every e-mail in the chain), ensure that the “Email Conversation Rule” option is ticked to start the Conversation and then Click “File” before sending the e-mail. When you click “File”, a “VCID” will be added to the bottom of your e-mail (A) This ID will be picked up by the “Capture Service” to identify the Capture Rule and correctly Index the replies etc. Once your e-mail is completed send it as normal.
      
      
      
      
       
   2. When you open a reply to this e-mail, you’ll find that it is already filed in Virtual Cabinet (Assuming the Capture Service is running) as shown by the details in the Indexing Pane, and the Pane will also show the Active Capture Rule that relates to the VCID shown in (A).