Outlook add-in
With the Workist add-in for Microsoft Outlook, your employees send an open email to a Workist channel with one click instead of forwarding it. If an inbox agent works in your company, the add-in also shows its reply draft for the email.
What users do in Outlook
- Send an email to Workist: the user opens an email, opens the add-in and picks a channel. Workist processes the email with its attachments as if it had been sent to the channel's email address, see Incoming documents. If the email contains nothing Workist can process, Workist creates no document.
- See the status: for an email already handed over, the add-in shows the resulting documents with channel, status and a link into the Workbench.
Supported are channels for orders, invoices, order confirmations, price requests and delivery notes.
Creating an add-in
Users with the IT and Admin roles create add-ins, see Users, roles & teams.
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Open Settings → Integrations and select Outlook Add-Ins under Workflow Tools on the left.
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Click Add Add-In and fill in the form:
Field Meaning Name Name of the add-in as shown in Outlook. Channel Mode Which channels the add-in offers, see Channel mode. Order Channels Order channels the add-in offers. Only for the channel modes Add-In and Manual. Invoice Channels Invoice channels the add-in offers. Only for the channel modes Add-In and Manual. Order Confirmation Channels Order confirmation channels the add-in offers. Only for the channel modes Add-In and Manual. RFQ Channels Price request channels the add-in offers. Only for the channel modes Add-In and Manual. Delivery Note Channels Delivery note channels the add-in offers. Only for the channel modes Add-In and Manual. -
Click Create Add-In.
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Download the manifest file (XML) via the download icon in the add-in's row.
Channel mode
| Channel mode | What Outlook users see | New manifest needed? |
|---|---|---|
| All Channels | All channels the Workist user with the Outlook mailbox's email address can see (by their teams). | No, channel changes apply immediately. |
| Add-In | The channels selected in the add-in. Workist loads them when the add-in opens. | No, channel changes apply immediately. |
| Manual | The channels selected in the add-in. They are written into the manifest file. | Yes, after every change of the channels. |
With All Channels, every Outlook user needs a Workist account with the same email address, see Teams and visibility.
The manifest file contains an access key for your Workist account. Only pass it on to the people who roll out the add-in. If you delete the add-in, the key becomes invalid and the rolled-out add-in stops working.
Rolling out the add-in in Microsoft 365
An administrator of your Microsoft 365 tenant rolls out the add-in:
- In the Microsoft 365 admin center, open Settings → Integrated apps.
- Choose Upload custom apps, the Office add-in as app type, and upload the manifest file.
- Select the users or groups that should get the add-in and complete the deployment.
It can take a few hours until the add-in appears in Outlook. Workist recommends deploying it to the whole organisation or to all teams concerned.
Changes: every time you save, Workist increases the add-in's version. If you change the name, the channel mode or, in Manual mode, the channels, download the new manifest file and update the app in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Inbox agents' reply drafts
This feature is only available if your Workist plan includes it (Inbox agents). Your Workist contact can enable it for you.
If an inbox agent handles the emails of a mailbox, the add-in shows the agent's result for the open email: a reply draft or an internal summary. The user can edit the draft and have it translated, attach or remove files, create a reply draft in Outlook from it or send the reply directly, rate the result and ask the agent follow-up questions about the email.
When a Manager or Admin creates an inbox agent, Workist automatically creates an add-in with the agent's name and the Add-In channel mode. Download its manifest file and roll it out as described above. If you delete this add-in, Workist also deletes the agent. More about agents under Agents.