Views Within the Add-in
The Agility Blue add-in does not contain many different views within the panel, but there are 3 notable views that you may see:
Create/Manage Task view
This is the main view that you will see. Most of the time, this view will show you a preview of the subject and body and options for creating a task from your selected email. If you are on an email that the add-in has detected to be from an Agility Blue task notification, you will see details about the task, the project, and buttons for managing the task such as adding the task to your calendar, assigning the task to yourself, moving the task to QC, approving/rejecting QC, placing the task on hold, completing the task, adding a comment to the task, cancelling the task, and deleting task.Task Created view
This is the view you will see after you’ve created a task from an email. It will show you details about the task and the project that the task is in and a couple of available actions such as adding the task to your calendar and an undo button to reverse creating the task.
Settings view
At the top right of the add-in is a settings button that will take you to the settings view. This view will let you change your connected workspace to another workspace, show information about the logged in account, resync permissions if a recent permissions change has not directly propagated yet, and reset the add-in to allow you to go through the connection process again.
Task Management
The task management features allow you to stay on top of your responsibilities without leaving Outlook.
Creating New Tasks
When you are on an email that you would like to send to Agility Blue as a new task, select a client and matter, an optional project (if you’d like the task to go into an existing project), and click on the Create Task button.
If the task has attachments, you will see a link that allows you to see all of the attachments that would be sent along with the task and you will have an opportunity to deselect any attachments you don’t want to send. The add-in is capable of detecting inline emails and normal attachments, and will send both.
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If you click on the Show more options link, you will have the opportunity to refine some details about how the task is created.
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The options are:
Plain text?
The add-in will do it’s best to create the task using HTML, but sometimes heavy HTML emails will not look that great in the main application do to the sanitization process the app does to maintain a high level of security. In these instances, you may desire to simply submit a plain text variant of the email, so flip this on to apply that treatment.Assign to me?
Tasks are created without an assignee, giving teams the opportunity to have PMs or analysts pick up tasks in a pool of unassigned tasks. If you would like to create the task and assign it to yourself in one action, flip this switch on.Due
The add-in will create tasks without a due date (known in Agility Blue as an “ongoing” task). If you would like to define a due date, do that here. Tasks with due dates will also allow you to add them to your calendar after they are created.
Priority
This setting only applies if you do not select a project. The default priority of a task is “Normal”. Use this dropdown to select a lower priority or a rush priority, if desired.
Save as draft?
This setting only applies if you do not select a project. If you would like to create the task without having to define a matter (for example, you need to create the matter in the main application because it does not yet exist), you can flip this switch on to create the task as a draft.
After choosing your options, click on the Create Task button.
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The task will be synchronized with your Agility Blue workspace and you’ll have an opportunity here to click on the task id to be brought to the task within Agility Blue, add the task to your calendar (if you chose a due date), or delete the task if you need to undo creating it.
Managing Existing Tasks
When you come across a task email that was generated by an Agility Blue notification, the add-in panel will display rich details about the task and project the task belongs to. You may also see a variety of actions available depending on the state of the task and if your account has the proper permissions to perform the actions.
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Task Actions
Available actions for each task include:
Add to calendar
Visible when your task has a due date. Clicking on this button will bring up Outlook’s event editor that will default to a 15 minute appointment at the day and time the task is due. The event name will be prefixed with “AB Task Due: “ and the name of the task. The body of the event will be prefilled with information about the task and it’s project along with links to the client, matter, project, and task.
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Assign to me
Visible when the task is not currently assigned to you. Choose this action if you would like to assign the task to yourself.
Move to QC
Choose this action if you would like to place the task into quality control. When a task is in QC mode, you will also have the opportunity to approve, reject, and cancel QC.
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Tip
If you mark a task as done while it is in QC mode, it will automatically approve the QC and mark the task as done in one action.
Mark as Done
Choose this action if you would like to complete the task. When a task is completed, most actions are removed. You will also have the opportunity to reopen the task to move it back to in progress.
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Place on Hold
To place a task on hold, a comment is required. When you choose this action, a dialog window will appear that will allow you to add a comment where the Place on hold? switch is flipped on for you.
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Cancel Task
To cancel a task, a comment is required. When you choose this action, a dialog window will appear that will allow you to add a comment where the Cancel Task type is selected for you.
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Delete Task
Choose this action if you’d like to delete the task. The panel will go back to task creation mode if the system cannot find the task while you have a task email notification selected.
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Add Comment
Choose this action to launch a dialog window that will allow you add a comment to the task. Please note that @mentions are not yet supported through the outlook add-in.