Email Integrations with NetDocuments

NetDocuments provides two ways to integrate email and attachments:

  1. The first way to integrate your emails if you have Microsoft Outlook 2003 or higher, is to download and install an integration which will allow you to send email messages and attachments directly to NetDocuments and to insert attachments from NetDocuments directly to a new email in Outlook. You can also Profile the email. Profiling an email provides for more efficient document management and for powerful search capability.

    Note that emails which are archived into NetDocuments using this method will end up as msg type unless specified otherwise at the time of import.  Any message that is an msg format that is synchronized using the EMS Agent or the Outlook integrations after January 17th, 2007 and has an attachment, will display an icon that includes the attachment shown as a paperclip on the icon. 

    Important - If an msg file is imported from your PC into NetDocuments, it will not include the paperclip icon (it will only include the paperclip on the icon if it was dragged into an EMS watched folder or if it was imported using the NetDocs Add button in Outlook added by installing the Outlook integrations.)

    NOTE: If a duplicate email already exists in NetDocuments it will not be sent into NetDocuments unless you do not have at least View rights to the message.  If you do not have View rights, then another copy of the message will be sent to NetDocuments.

  2. Secondly, in NetDocuments every NetDocuments cabinet, folder, category, and document has a unique email address. You can use these email addresses to send new messages and attachments or forward email directly to specific folders and cabinets in NetDocuments.  You can forward any single email and you can also select several emails at one time from any Outlook folder, such as the Inbox, and forward them into NetDocuments.

     NOTE: A Cabinet Administrator can disable the ability of anyone from emailing into the Cabinet using this feature.

    NOTE: You are not allowed to forward an email to more than one NetDocuments Email address at a time.

    NOTE: If a duplicate email already exists in NetDocuments it will not be sent into NetDocuments unless you do not have at least View rights to the message.  If you do not have View rights, then another copy of the message will be sent to NetDocuments.

    Note that emails which are archived into NetDocuments using this method will end up as a text format.  If the message has attachments, those will be added as additional documents in their native format.  These types of messages can be forwarded from any email system.

Using Microsoft Outlook to Save & Profile Email and Attachments

 

If you have Microsoft Outlook 2003 or higher, follow these steps to setup Outlook integrations:

  1. Click on My Account and then on Application Settings

  2. Download and install the Outlook Integration Component (should take less than a minute). This adds two buttons to the Outlook message window toolbar that lets you save messages and attached documents directly into NetDocuments and access documents in NetDocuments directly from Outlook to attach to an email.

    Note: You should NOT use Microsoft Word as the editor in Outlook (Outlook 2003 only).  The buttons may not appear.  To change the editor, deselect that option from Outlook's Tools|Options|Mail Format screen.  There are two check boxes for the Word Editor - both should be unchecked. If you are not using Word as the editor and encounter a problem, note your Outlook version and contact support@netdocuments.com. 

    Note: In some cases, if you receive a Plain Text email and you reply and enter text in the message body and then access the ND Insert button, your edits on the reply message will disappear.  In Outlook 2003, this can be remedied by going to Tools, E-mail Accounts, then selecting "View or change existing email accounts", then click OK, then click Change on the highlighted Exchange Server.  Underneath the Server name is a box and text that reads "use cached Exchange mode".  Check that box and then continue to finish the process.  Now go back in and uncheck the same box. The problem of lost text, will now no longer occur.  For earlier versions of Outlook such as 2002 (XP), search the Outlook Help for the term "offline folders" and follow the instructions.

Sending an email into NetDocuments will work as follows:

  1. Open an email with or without attachments

  2. A NetDocuments button should exist on your toolbar. Click the NetDocs Add button.

  3. If you are not already logged into a session, a new browser session will open and prompt you for your ID and password

  4. From the Import Email screen within NetDocuments, type a Document name or use the default (email subject)

  5. Select a Cabinet and Folder wherein the message and attachments will be filed

  6. If the Cabinet you selected has required custom profile fields that were created by an administrator, the Edit Profile screen will appear. Complete the information and select OK.  You also have the option to View or Edit the Access List during this step.

  7. The email will be sent into NetDocuments in one of three ways:
    1. As a MSG file which can be read by others with a Viewer or with the Outlook client.  The file will not be changeable.
    2. As a NetBinder with an option to save the message and/or the attachments. The NetBinder will contain the attached documents and a separate file that contains the email text. The documents are accessible to all cabinet members who have default rights to View documents in the cabinet.
    3. As separate documents and message.  With this option, you can choose to only import the attachments or you can include the message.  If you include the message, the documents are linked to that message. Documents imported this way, can be modified by those who have rights.

    NOTE:  When an email is sent to NetDocuments, the Created by and date will be the person who put the email into NetDocuments and the date they put it there.  The Modified by is the originator of the email and the Modified date is the date of the email itself.

Attaching documents in NetDocuments to an email from within the Microsoft Outlook interface

 

The Outlook Integration also provides the capability, when creating a new email from Outlook, to select the NetDocs Insert button and attach one or more documents which are stored in NetDocuments to your new email.

  1. To attach a document stored in NetDocuments to the email, from the New message window in Outlook, click the NetDocs Insert button.

  2. (You will be asked to log into NetDocuments if you are not already logged in.)

  3. The browser window will display your NetDocuments Home Page.  You will see a large red Select box on the menu bar to be used to select the document(s).  First, locate the document(s) you want to attach, mark the respective check boxes, and then click the Select button.  You will be returned to your Outlook Message with the documents attached.  You can repeat this step as many times as you need to.

    If you go to the Versions dialog while in this mode, you can select multiple versions at one time.

Custom Security Settings in Outlook and Exchange
In some instances, when you are using the Email Management Service, you may see the following dialog in Outlook, if you are using a later version of Outlook.

 
This comes up in two scenarios.  First in some cases if you have Word set as your Editor in Outlook, you may see this message.  You should not use Word as the editor. To change the editor, deselect that option from Outlook's Tools|Options|Mail Format screen.  There are two check boxes for the Word Editor - both should be unchecked.  If you are seeing the above dialog, try this setting first, it is simpler.  If it doesn't work, then you will have to follow the next scenario.
 

The other scenario is that Microsoft prompts this message as part of security changes they have added to Outlook in more recent versions.  We recommend that you disable this dialog.  It can be disabled as described at the following site, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011402931033.aspx. 

We do not endorse or support any 3rd party tools, but this is another tool which can be used for the Outlook client http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/

Here is also another solution that some customers have implemented. http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/security/
 
 

Using NetDocuments Email Addresses to send an email into NetDocuments



Folder Email Addresses
Each folder in NetDocuments has an email address associated with it.  To locate a specific folder email address, open the folder and click on Email Address in the Folder navigation menu. Either copy the address and paste it into a To field of a message, or use the Add to Outlook button, if you have Outlook, to add it to your Outlook Address Book.  Documents forwarded from an Email system to this email address will inherit the Profile values of that folder as well as the security of that folder. NOTE:  The security will default to the folder security regardless of whether the option is set at the Cabinet level for documents to inherit the Access rights from the folder.

Category Email Addresses
 Each Category in NetDocuments has an email address associated with it.  To locate a specific Category email address, open the Category and click on Email Address in the Category navigation menu. Either copy the address and paste it into a To field, or use the Add to Outlook button, if you have Outlook, and it will add it to your Outlook Address Book.  Documents forwarded from an Email system to this email address will inherit the Profile values of that category as well as the security of that category.  NOTE: An email with its attachments may not meet the Search Criteria of that specific Category - this feature just uses the Profile values of the Category to be used as a Template to create the Profile values for the email and its attachments.

Document Email Addresses
 Each document in NetDocuments has an email address associated with it.  To locate a specific document email address, open the document Profile and click on Email Address in the menu. Either copy the address and paste it in a To field, or use the Add to Outlook button, if you have Outlook, and it will add it to your Outlook Address Book.  Documents forwarded from an Email system to this email address will use the document's Profile values as a pattern and will inherit the Profile values of that document as well as the security of that document regardless if the option is set at the Cabinet level for documents to inherit the Access rights from the folder.  NOTE: An email with attachments will not be filed in any folders that the "template" document may be filed in.

Your Personal NetDocuments My Cabinet Email Address
Every NetDocuments user has a personal email address for his or her My Cabinet Inbox. Click on My Account and select Account Information to obtain your personal email address. A personal NetDocuments email address looks similar to this: jdoe@mail.vault.netvoyage.com. This is the default address.  Emails sent to this address end up directly in My Inbox folder in My Cabinet.

 
Results of Emailing to NetDocuments
Any document emailed into NetDocuments will not be changeable by anyone unless using the NOMESSAGE: option described below.  A new version of the message or attached documents can be created, but the original documents and email cannot be modified.  If an email does not contain attachments, a single document with the message text will be created and will inherit the Profile Values of the Folder, Category, or Document you used as the Template Profile.  If there are any attachments, NetDocuments will create a link from each document to the message. The attachments and the message text will be filed as separate documents.

There are two additional options which can be used when forwarding an email into NetDocuments.  First of all, if you want the documents and the message to be placed into a new NetBinder without links, enter NB: or NetBinder: into the subject line of the email.  NOTE:  If the email is sent into a NetBinder, the message and the attached documents can be edited.

Also, if you just want the attachments to be sent to NetDocuments and not the message, you can enter NM: or NoMessage: into the Subject line of the email message.  In this case, the documents will NOT be linked to each other, however the documents will be editable and inherit the rights of the cabinet and/or profile-based security.

Note: If you are a Microsoft Outlook user you may also want to consider using the NetDocuments Outlook Integration as described above to save and profile emails into NetDocuments.

Summary of Rights for forwarding Emails into NetDocuments:

Forwarding to a Folder, Category or a Document - it will inherit the Profile and Access of the Folder, Category or Document.

Forwarding with NB: or NetBinder: in the Subject - allows the text message and/or documents to be edited.

Forwarding with NM: or NOMESSAGE: in the Subject - Emails only the attachments which are editable.  The message is not included.

Using the Outlook NetDocs Add button to archive msg records - Does NOT allow the message or attachments to be edited (except new versions)

Using the Outlook NetDocs Add button to forward as NetBinder - allows the message text and attachments to be editable.

 
 
 

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