Connect Gmail or Outlook

1Connect Gmail

Click Tools in the sidebar, then Gmail. Click Connect with Google.

On Google's screen, tick every permission and click Allow. You come back to the Gmail tool with your inbox loaded.

2Connect Outlook

Click Tools, then Outlook. Click Connect with Microsoft. Click Accept on Microsoft's screen.

3Set the label format

In the Gmail tool, click the gear at the top right (Matter label settings). Type the parent label name and the code. Set the Archive and Leads label names.

Click Save. Only new labels use the new format. Existing labels keep theirs.

4Pick the source of truth accounts

Click Admin, then Email. Turn on the mailboxes whose labels the app should copy to everyone else.

Under Teammate copies, choose whether a filed email is copied to every teammate's inbox.

5Read and answer your email

Your folders are down the left: Inbox, Starred (Flagged in Outlook), Sent, Drafts, then More. Your own labels or folders are under Labels (Folders in Outlook). Click the arrow beside one to show what is inside it.

To see every email whichever folder holds it, click More, then All Mail (All mail in Outlook). It leaves out the Bin and Spam (Deleted Items and Junk Email in Outlook). An email you move or archive from there stays on the list.

Type in Search mail. Once you have typed two letters, a list under the box shows up to six matching emails. Click one to open it, or move through the list with the arrow keys and press Enter.

Click the empty Search mail box to see your recent searches, newest first, and click one to run it again. While you type, recent searches holding those words show under Search all mail. Click the cross beside one to take it off the list. Recent searches stay in the browser you searched from, so another computer has its own list.

Press Enter, or click Search all mail for, to see every result. Your results open on a screen of their own, with a progress bar while your mailbox answers. Click the arrow above them, or the cross in the box, to go back to your folder.

Narrow the results with the buttons above them: From, Any time, Has attachment, To and Is unread. Each one adds its words to the search box, such as from:jane@example.com or has:attachment, and you can type those words yourself in Gmail or Outlook.

Click the sliders in the search box for Advanced search. Fill in any of From, To, Subject, Has the words, Doesn't have and Date within, then click Search.

On the phone, the same buttons sit under the search bar once you search. From and To list the people in your mailbox. The date button offers a period or a Custom range. The sliders in the search bar open Advanced search, and the arrow beside them returns you to your folder.

Click a conversation to read it. Each older message shows as one line: click one to open it. Click the grey ••• to show the history quoted under a reply.

Click a PDF attachment to read it beside the email in Diract's PDF editor. Mark it up and click Save to put an edited copy in a matter's documents. Its name ends in (edited). The editor starts on the matter that holds the email, and the box at the top picks another. When you have not chosen a matter, Save downloads the copy. The email keeps its own file unchanged.

To send your changes back, click the reply or forward arrow at the top of the editor. Pointing at them shows Reply with this copy and Forward with this copy. The message opens with the edited copy attached in place of the original, and a forward keeps the email's other files. You do not need to save first.

Once a free trial ends, saving into a matter's documents in Diract needs Enterprise or a law firm's plan, and Save says so. Your changes stay on screen: click Download PDF to keep them, or reply with the copy.

To check or change a PDF before you send it, click its name under the message you are writing. It opens in the same PDF editor, and Save puts your edited copy on the email in place of the original.

To attach a matter's documents, click the folder beside the paperclip, under the message. It opens on the matter that holds the email. Tick the files and click Attach. A matter that keeps its documents in OneDrive shows its folders, so you can open one and pick from it.

On the phone, tap a PDF attachment to open it in the PDF editor. Save keeps an edited copy in your PDF editor list, named with (edited) on the end. The dots beside Save offer Share or print and Open on the web.

To keep an attachment in a matter's files, click the disk beside its download arrow. Pointing at it shows Save to files. Choose the matter, then where to save it: Diract storage, OneDrive or Google Drive. A store your company has not connected says Not connected, and an admin connects it in Admin, then Storage. In OneDrive you can open a folder inside the matter's folder first, or click New folder to make one there, which opens it. Click Save to, and the panel says where the file went, with a link to open it. On an email with more than one attachment, Save all to files beside Download all lists every attachment, each ticked. Untick any you do not want, then save them to one place together. A file that does not save is named and stays ticked, so saving again tries only that one. If you close the panel first, Save all to files on that email opens next time with only the ones that did not save ticked, each marked Not saved last time. Google Drive takes files up to 4 MB from here.

Click any other attachment to preview it before you download it. The panel shows Word documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, Markdown, web pages, code and text files, pictures, audio, video and what is inside a ZIP file. Click Download at the top of the panel to save the file under its own name.

A file sent without an extension, such as an InfoTrack alert, opens as what it really is. A PDF among them opens in the PDF editor and downloads with .pdf on its name. Diract cannot preview an older Word file (.doc), an older PowerPoint file (.ppt) or a file over 20 MB. The panel says so and offers a button to download it.

Point at a row to Remove from inbox (Archive in Outlook), Delete or Mark as unread it. Tick rows to act on several at once.

An email with files names them under its subject, up to three, so you can find a document by browsing a label. Click a name to preview that file without opening the email. A PDF opens in the PDF editor. A +2 after them counts the files not shown.

In the Gmail tool, Remove from inbox is the box beside the back arrow on an open email. It takes the email out of your Inbox and keeps every label on it, the matter's included. You still find it under that label and in All Mail. In Outlook, Archive moves the email to your Archive folder.

With rows ticked, the toolbar above them also has Move to and, in the Gmail tool, Labels. A label shows a tick when every ticked email has it. Click a ticked label to remove it from every ticked email. Click an unticked label to add it to every ticked email.

Labels and Move to list your labels A to Z, and fold each nested label under its parent label. Click the arrow beside a label, or press the right arrow key, to show its own labels. A search looks through every label, nested ones too, and shows each by its full name.

Type part of a name and press Enter to choose the first match, and the list closes. The up and down arrow keys move to the others. To add several labels, click them instead, and the list stays open for the next one.

Click Reply, Reply all or Forward under the newest message, or Compose for a new email. Press Send, or Ctrl and Enter.

Diract saves what you write to your mailbox's Drafts a few seconds after you stop typing. A cloud with a tick then appears at the foot of the window. Point at it to read Saved to Drafts. Closing the window keeps the draft there. Sending deletes it, once the email has gone.

Click the bin in the window to throw the email away. Diract deletes it from Drafts as well.

A new email from Compose opens as a window in the bottom corner, ready for your message. Click the minus at its top to shrink it to a New message bar, and click the bar to open it again.

Click the name of an attachment at the foot of the email you are writing to open it. This works for a file you added and one the email is forwarding. The email moves to the left of the preview, so you can read both at once.

To attach a matter's documents, click the folder icon beside Send. The email moves to the left of the list, so you can still see it. Each document shows when it was last changed, newest first. Sort beside the search changes that to Oldest first or Name. Click the eye beside a document to read it first, then tick the ones you want and click Attach.

A draft saved in a conversation shows Edit draft and Discard draft. Edit draft opens it in the compose window with its recipients, words, signature and files. Sending it replaces the draft, and the draft stays as it was until you do.

A PDF or Word document on the email you are writing opens in its editor. Click Save to put your edited copy on the email in place of the original. A file you attached from a matter's documents is saved over the matter's copy as well. If somebody changed the matter's copy after you attached it, your edit stays on the email and the matter's copy is left alone.

Every message in a conversation has Reply, Reply all and Forward beside its date, so you can answer an earlier one. A message with files on it also has Reply with attachments, which starts a reply carrying those files. Click the cross on a file to remove it from the reply.

Start typing a name or an address in To, Cc or Bcc. The people you write to most come up first, led by those whose name starts with what you typed. Press Tab or Enter to add the one marked Tab, or use the arrow keys to pick another. If the person you want is missing, type a few more letters of their name.

As you write, the rest of your sentence can appear in grey after the cursor, such as you are well. after Hope. Press Tab or the right arrow to add it, or keep typing to ignore it. Press Esc to hide it. To turn this off, click the gear at the top right and, under Writing help, turn off Suggestions as you write.

To move a recipient between To, Cc and Bcc, drag their name from one line to the other. Cc and Bcc appear while you drag, even when they were hidden.

To add a link, select the words and click the link icon beside Send, or press Cmd and K (Ctrl and K on Windows). Choose Web address, Email address or Phone number, type where it goes, and click Apply. Click a link to see where it goes. Click the address to open it in a new window, or choose Change or Remove.

Click Aa beside Send for the formatting bar. Choose a font from Sans Serif and a size from Normal. The font sticks to the text you selected, or to what you type next.

Click the list buttons for bullet points or numbering. Press Tab, or click Indent, to put a point under the one above it. Shift and Tab, or Outdent, moves it back. Numbering runs 1, then a, then i, and the email arrives numbered the same way.

To add bullet points under a numbered point, start the next line with a dash and a space, or click the bullet list button. The bullets sit under the number above. Press Enter on an empty bullet to go back to the numbers, which carry on from where they were. On the phone, tap the bullet list button on the numbered line.

Each level's number starts where the text of the level above starts, and each level's text starts one tab stop to the right. Wrapped lines stay under the text, never under the number.

To add space after a paragraph, put the cursor in it and choose Small, Medium or Large from None in the formatting bar. None removes the space. On the phone, the same choice sits beside the size.

To show the ruler, open the formatting bar and click the ruler icon. It stays on or off as you left it. The top triangle sets where the line under your cursor starts its first line. The bottom triangle sets where its later lines start. The box under them moves both together. While you drag a marker, a dashed line runs down through your email so you can line it up with the text.

To, Cc, Bcc, the subject and the ruler stay at the top while you scroll down a long email.

In a numbered or bulleted list, a diamond on the ruler sets where the numbers sit. Drag the triangles to place the item's first line and later lines, which every item in the list follows. The email arrives laid out the same way.

Tab moves a line in one stop, and Shift and Tab moves it back.

To copy from another email while you reply, click Pop out reply beside Cc and Bcc. Your reply moves to a window in the corner and stays open while you read other emails. Full screen beside it opens the reply across the whole page.

Paste from Word, a web page or a chat and the email keeps your formatting. Blank lines stay between paragraphs, and numbered and bulleted points stay as lists. Bold text, headings, centred lines and coloured words stay too.

To find a word in an open conversation, press Cmd and F on a Mac, or Ctrl and F. Type the word and press Enter for the next match. Shift and Enter goes back one match, and Escape closes the bar.

Click the clock at the top right to open Activity log. It lists every email the mailbox received and sent, with the sender or recipients, the subject and the time. Search it, show only Received or Sent, and choose This week, This month or All time. Click a row to open that email. In a workspace, Filing to matters lists every email filed to a matter.

To paste an email somewhere as a picture, click the camera in the row beside Send. Diract copies the recipients, the subject, your message and your signature to your clipboard as one image, and the camera turns into a tick. Paste it into a chat or a document with Ctrl and V, or Cmd and V on a Mac. To include the quoted history, open it with ••• first.

To leave the earlier messages off a reply, click the cross next to the ••• button. Your email then carries none of them. Click Put them back to quote them again before you send. The phone has the same cross.

To change the earlier messages before you send, click ••• and type in them. Your email goes with the history as you left it. On the phone, the history becomes plain text once you change it.

To get rid of a saved draft, open it from Drafts, click Discard draft under it, then Discard. Gmail deletes it for good, so Diract asks first. Outlook moves it to Deleted Items.

On the phone, tap Compose, or Reply under a message. The row of buttons above the message sets the font, the size, bold, italic, underline, lists, a quote and a link. Swipe the row for more. Tap Sans Serif or Normal to choose a font or a size from the strip under it.

On the phone, Indent puts a point under the one above it, numbered 1, then a, then i. Outdent brings it back. On a plain line, each moves it one tab stop. The phone has no ruler.

Click the icon beside the search bar to read beside the list instead of in place of it.

Your browser's back and forward buttons move between the folders, searches and emails you opened in the mailbox. Back from the first one leaves the mailbox. Reloading the page keeps the folder, the search and the open email, and the left menu stays open or tucked away as you left it.

To see every email on its own row, click the speech bubbles beside it. That turns off Conversation view, and opening a row then shows that email alone. The envelope in their place groups replies again. Diract remembers your choice in this browser.

On the phone, the speech bubbles at the top right of the mailbox turn off Conversation view. The envelope in their place groups replies again, and the phone remembers your choice.

In the Gmail tool, a conversation still in your Inbox carries an Inbox tag in a search, in All Mail and under a label.

Click a label to open it, the same as clicking it under Labels. That works on a row, beside an open email's subject, and on the matter chips that show where you filed an email. A matter's name opens the matter's own label, or its folder in Outlook.

Click the printer above a conversation, or press Ctrl and P, to print it as a record. The page carries your company's name and logo, then every message from oldest to newest. Each message lists its sender, its recipients, its subject, the exact time it was sent and its attachments. Choose Save as PDF in the print window to keep a copy.

On the phone, tap the printer above a conversation for the same record as a PDF. An iPhone or iPad offers Print, Save to Files and Mail in its share sheet. Android opens its print window, and Save as PDF keeps a copy.

6File an email to a matter

Open a conversation in the Gmail or Outlook tool. Under its subject, in File to a matter, search the matter and click it.

The search finds a matter by its client, the other side, any other contact on it, or its property's address, as well as its name. A matter found that way shows why under its name, for example Client: Jane Smith.

Diract creates the matter's label and adds it to the email. The label appears in every connected teammate's mailbox straight away, and your list shows the matter's name beside the conversation.

The matter's name replaces the grey Gmail label on that row, in the label's own colour when you gave it one. A Gmail label that belongs to no matter stays as it is.

When you reply in a filed conversation, Diract files your reply to the same matter.

To file an email as you write it, click the briefcase at the foot of the window, beside Send, and pick the matter. The briefcase turns blue, and pointing at it names the matter. Diract files the email once it is sent.

An email that already carries a matter's label shows that matter with a dashed outline until Diract has filed it, usually within a minute. You can open the matter and work on its tasks straight away.

Renaming a matter renames its label in every connected Gmail mailbox, usually within a minute. Until your mailbox shows the new name, the matter reads Renaming label under the subject.

7Work on a matter's tasks beside the email

The panel on the right of the Gmail and Outlook tools shows the open email's matter and its tasks. Click the checklist icon at the top right (Matter and tasks) to show or hide it. On a narrower screen it opens over the mailbox instead.

Open a filed conversation. The panel names the matter and lists that matter's open tasks under Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, This week, Later and No due date. Click Done at the bottom to see the finished ones.

Type in Add a task and press Enter. Pick a date first if the task has one, and pick who it is for from Unassigned. Link this email starts ticked, so the task keeps the email's subject and text under Reference email. Click More to set a team, a reminder or a date in business days before you save.

Click the circle beside a task to mark it done. Click the task itself to change it, log a follow-up, see its history or delete it.

Click the copy icon beside the matter's name to apply a task template. Click the matter's name to open the matter without leaving the mailbox.

An email that is not filed yet offers New matter from this email. Diract files the email to the matter as soon as you create it.

Click a matter's label in Gmail, or its folder in Outlook, and the panel lists that matter's tasks while you look through its mail. A lead's label shows that lead and its tasks the same way. Close the email, or open your inbox, for your own open tasks across every matter. Unassigned lists the tasks nobody has taken. Choose This week, This month or All time to set how far ahead they reach.

8File an email under a lead, or make one from it

Open the email and look at the panel on the right. Click File under a lead, search by name, email or code, and click the lead. Diract labels the email under the lead in Gmail, or files it to the lead's folder in Outlook. Your team gets it the same way they get a filed matter email.

Click New lead from this email for somebody who is not a lead yet. The lead form opens already holding the sender's name and address, today's date and the email's opening lines. Click Create, and Diract files the email under the new lead.

The panel then shows the lead with its tasks. Add and tick off tasks the same way as on a matter.

Click Convert to a matter when the lead becomes work. The New matter form opens with the lead as the client, and the name fills in from the matter type, the property and the client the same way as any new matter. Once you create the matter, the lead links to it and its status changes to Converted.

9Add a record to a table from an email

Click Add a record to a table at the bottom of the panel. Search for the table and click it. Its own record form opens. Fill it in and click Create.

10Put a task on the company calendar

Open the task and switch on Also add to the company calendar. Click Save changes. Diract adds the task to the company's shared calendar on its due date, and moves the event when you change the date.

11Read and answer a matter's email

Open the matter and click its Emails tab. Click an email in the list to read it beside the list.

A link in the email opens in a new browser tab. In a reply, ••• hides the history it quotes. Click ••• to show that history.

Click Reply to answer the open email, or Compose to write a new one. Diract sends it from your own Gmail or Outlook, quotes the original under a reply, and files what you sent to the matter.

12Open or edit an email’s attachments

Open the email on the matter’s Emails tab. Its files sit under the email. Click a PDF or a picture to open it in a new browser tab. Click any other file to preview it, with Download at the top. The download arrow beside a file saves it straight away.

A PDF shows Edit. Click it to open the PDF in Diract’s own editor, make your changes, and click Save. Diract saves an edited copy, such as "Contract (edited).pdf", to the matter’s Documents tab. A workspace on OneDrive gets it in the matter’s OneDrive folder instead. Saving again replaces that copy.

13Restore an email an admin removed from a matter

Open the matter and click its Emails tab. Click emails taken off this matter above the list. Each row shows the email, who took it off and when.

Click Restore beside the email. Diract files it back to the matter and puts the label back on every teammate's copy.

Any admin can restore an email, not only the admin who removed it. Members see the list without Restore.

14Check a contact or property the add-on created

A name typed in the add-on can match nothing you already have. Diract then creates the record and lists it at the top of its table, under need review, created from Gmail.

Click Confirmed when the record is right, or Discard when it is wrong. Click the record's name to see possible duplicates, and click Merge beside one.

Click Split when one box held several parties or several units. Two trustees and their trusts are one example, and "Units 1 & 2" is another. Diract proposes one record per part. Correct any part, click Add another for a part it missed, then click Split into to save them.

15Check your mailbox

In Gmail, the matter is a child label under the parent label, named with the matter number, name and a five character code.

In Outlook, the matter is a subfolder under the parent folder plus a category of the same name.

In Outlook, a filed email you have not opened yet stays in your Inbox with the matter's category on it. It moves into the matter's subfolder once you open it. The same goes for a teammate's copy, which stays in their Inbox until they open it.

In Outlook, a teammate the email was not sent to gets their own copy in their Inbox, unread, with the matter's category on it. It comes from the original sender, with the original date. This needs Copy filed emails to every teammate's inbox turned on under Admin, then Email, which it is unless somebody turned it off.