This video covers how to create a public email for your project or topic, then manage the emails you receive or forward to that endpoint. 

It also covers two the new workflow feature available on the 'Complete' plan, which allows you to set the status of emails:

To get started, go to the Email tab on your admin Home page. 

You can manage all your emails on this tab. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of how Statuses work, how to Manage comments and how to Export emails. 

A project can have more than one Project Email Address. There are the email addresses automatically generated when a project is set up, and custom endpoints you can create. To give your consultants a break, let's create a public-facing email address to help automate this workflow: creating comments out of emails sent to your company.

To create a public-facing email address, go the Settings page (click Settings at the top right of the page) and create a new link URL.

Any custom, public-facing URL created in the Build Custom Link section will automatically be generated as a public-facing email address. For example, publicinput.com/inbound-example will create the address "inbound-example@publicinput.com".

There are two approaches to creating a comment from an inbound email.

Method 1: First, click on an email. On the far right, click on the Create comment from email button.
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In the next dialog, you can edit the Comment Text so that it is succinct and to the point. You also want to edit out any HTML code or superfluous text.  

This is easy enough to do, but there is a better, slightly quicker, and more intuitive, way. 

Method 2:  Click to open an email. Next, highlight the text you wish to create a comment with. When you highlight the text, you will be presented with an option to Create New Comment. 

In the next dialog (the same as the one displayed in Method 1), the Comment Text is already edited.

Connecting to a question or meeting: You can assign a comment to a question or meeting on the create comment form. The meeting option will only appear if you have meetings on this project, board, or commission.

Forwarded emails: If this email was forwarded, we'll scrape the email for past senders so you can choose the comment's author from the dropdown menu:

Hidden from public site and non-admin reports: Note all comments created via email are made hidden by default unless you un-toggle the default checkbox on the create comment form:

Resident database sync: Comments created will be associated with the resident database record for this email address and added to your comment analysis tab and dynamic reports.

You can assign a status to an email from the list of emails in your Inbox or when viewing an email. Simply click on the round radio button and set a status. 

In the example below, there are four statuses: Unassigned, Needs Reply, Needs Attention and Done.

If you select a status like Needs Reply, you can reply immediately or return to your Inbox later to manage emails that need replies, further attention or to be assigned. 

Tip: Next to the Status column header are two arrows that allow you to sort your Inbox by status. 

To reply to an email, click the three dots (⋯) next to an email’s subject and select Reply. After creating a reply, don’t forget to change the email status to Done.

Tip: You can see there are a number of other options here, similar to those in most email applications, e.g. Mark as read. There is also the option to Create comment.
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Tip: Each organization's internal process can have its unique quirks, so we've built workflow management to be fully customizable. If you've got specific status checkpoints you'd like included, just let us know and we can set them up within a few hours. For example:

At the top right of the Email tab, there are additional tools to manage your emails.

It is recommended you set Auto-reply to emails to On (this is the default status). You can also edit the auto-reply email. 

Note: It is recommended you only set Create comments automatically to On if you are getting a lot of direct comments. If your team is CC’ing or forwarding comments, you should create comments manually instead so you can edit the email content more effectively, stripping out any forwarded text, selecting only one sender address and date, etc. A typical forwarded email may have multiple senders and sent dates.  

To view all your comments, jump to the Comments tab.

On this tab, you can perform various bulk actions, like creating tags, highlighting comments and making comments private.

When you add tags, they will appear at the top of the tab in the data visualization area. 

To export emails so you can further analyse and report on your data, go to the Results & Data tab. Scroll down to the Emails section and click Download Sent and Received Emails.

We’re committed to automating as many of the tasks in your workflows as possible. Drop us a line if you found this feature useful or have a suggestion!
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​More articles on email:
​Email Toolkit FAQ
​Creating an email with the email editor
​Email and Text Messaging Articles
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