Outlook enhancements are now available!
Discover what's new by reading this article: Outlook Add-in enhancements
In this article:
Getting started
LawVu's Outlook add-in eliminates app switching by automatically saving and organizing emails and attachments in LawVu. This keeps all your legal matters, contracts, and related information readily accessible in one central location.
Once you launch the LawVu add-in from the Outlook ribbon, you can click on the pin icon to keep the panel permanently open.
On the initial screen, you'll find a list of recent matters and contracts, automatically sorted by date. The matters or contracts you've worked on most recently will be at the top. You can also sort the list of matters and contracts by Manager or Owner when you want an instant overview of your work.
Create new matters and contracts from existing emails
To create a matter from an existing email
Click the +New button.
The Name of the matter defaults to the email's subject line, but you can change it to suit your legal team's naming convention. Select the appropriate matter type you want to create.
If a team is set for the matter type, that team will auto-populate, but you can select a different one as needed.
Asterisks appear next to any fields required for the Save button to become active.
4. You can save just the email, the attachments of the email, both the email and its attachments, and/or future replies and forwards.
Save all emails in this conversation saves the entire email conversation as it exists at that time. Leaving the box unticked only saves the selected email.
Save future replies and forwards tracks the email thread and will save all future replies and forwards to this email automatically in LawVu.
5. At this step you can also edit and change the name of the email so it better describes its content or is more easily categorized.
Click the 'Open in LawVu' message to go directly to the newly created matter. Under the Files tab, navigate to the Emails view, where you'll find the newly saved email. Any attachments will be visible in the Attachments column.
You can also save the attachment as a separate document so it appears in the Files view. Learn how to do this and more regarding working with emails and attachments in this article.
When creating a contract from an existing email, the email attachment will automatically become the Contract file.
If multiple attachments are added to the email, then you can choose which one you'd like to be the contract document:
After you click the Save button, you'll be able to save the attachments of the email separately, to the Files tab of the contract.
To learn how to work with emails and attachments once they are saved in LawVu, check out this article: Managing emails and attachments
Update the current contract file easily
When an agreement you're working on has been updated, and you have the latest version attached to an email, you can save it as the newest version of the contract document immediately, so you don't have to worry about keeping track of the most up-to-date version.
Select the relevant email from your inbox and then the corresponding contract. Then click Save. Next, you'll select the option to Save attachment as new version of Contract File.
When you open the contract in LawVu, you'll see the version button update, and you can click to see the previous versions under version history.
Saving emails to LawVu
Saving multiple emails in one go
If your emails appear in your inbox consecutively, you can hold down the Shift key and click on the last one in the series to select them all. Then, hover over the matter/contract you want them saved to and click the Quick Save icon.
If they're arranged non-consecutively, you can select them by using the Ctrl/Command key:
Click on the first email you want to select.
Hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Mac).
While holding the key, click on each additional email you want to include in your selection.
Release the Ctrl/Command key when you're done selecting.
Hover over the desired matter/contract.
Click the Quick Save icon.
To save multiple emails to a specific folder within the Files tab, select the matter or contract, then hover over the folder and click the Quick Save icon.
Alternatively, you can select a matter or contract and then use the Save button to save all the emails in a conversation.
To learn how to work with emails and attachments once they are saved in LawVu, check out this article: Managing emails and attachments
Tracking emails to LawVu
Tracking will automate the saving of ongoing replies and forwards within the same conversation thread. You may untick this checkbox if you do not wish to save future correspondence on this conversation automatically.
You can start email tracking during creation (as seen above) or afterward by selecting the email you want to track and then the matter or contract to which you want to track it.
If you want to track multiple emails, you can follow the same steps used above to save multiple emails.
Next, you can decide whether to track your emails to the main folder in the Files tab (highlighted in red) or a subfolder (highlighted in teal). If you're looking for a specific folder in the matter/contract and don't see it, you can use the search box (highlighted in yellow) to locate it, then click Save.
The Save Email and Save future replies and forwards options must be selected before you click Save for tracking to be applied.
You'll see a message in the panel confirming that the email was saved; a teal tracking indicator and tracking label will appear on the email in your inbox as a confirmation that any future replies and forwards of this email will automatically be saved in LawVu.
A banner in the Outlook add-in (highlighted in red) will also tell you the email is being tracked. Click to expand it. This reveals the filename of the email and the matter or contract to which it's being tracked.
Hovering over the email's subject line tells you who tracked it. If you click the ellipsis button, you'll see the option to stop tracking the email or open it in LawVu.
If you choose to stop tracking, no subsequent replies or forwards will be saved from this moment forward.
When you open the matter/contract in LawVu, you'll get taken to its Files tab. You can scroll across the Emails view to see the tracking status and other useful information about the email.
If you try tracking an email that is already being tracked, you'll see a message alerting you to this. Click on Show more, to see the name of the matter where it's currently being tracked.
To learn how to work with emails and attachments once they are saved in LawVu, check out this article: Managing emails and attachments
Working with emails you're drafting
When writing new emails, you can send the email to your recipient while simultaneously saving it to a specific matter.
When composing an email, click the Quick Save icon:
You'll notice that a special 'draft' email address has been added as one of the recipients in the 'To' line. This is how the email is saved to LawVu when it's sent.
Currently, saving emails that you're drafting is not possible for contracts.
There is also no built-in tracking functionality when composing an email. We plan to integrate this into our native tracking processes in the future.
Attaching files from LawVu to your newly created email
Use this feature to quickly browse through matters or contracts and attach existing files from LawVu to the email that you are writing before it's sent.
Conditional Logic
LawVu administrators can configure intelligent intake forms for the Outlook add-in so that when users create new matters or contracts using it, the forms dynamically adjust to user input. This means that certain fields may appear or be hidden depending on the response given in a preceding field.
You can learn how to configure conditional intake forms by reading this article.
In this example, we have a matter type called Contract Disputes. We've applied conditional logic to a field called Specific Clauses or Revisions Violated.
This means that whenever someone selects 'material' as a choice in the Breach Type field, a paragraph field where they can enter the specific clauses or revisions that were violated appears. Let's see this in action as a matter is being created in the add-in.
Installation Instructions
⚠️ Your organization may limit users' ability to install or upgrade Outlook add-ins.
You may need to speak with your IT department if you cannot install the LawVu Outlook add-in.
Compatibility
The LawVu add-in for Outlook is available for iOS and Android, in Office 365, and Outlook.com on the web.
To use the Outlook add-in, you must have an Office 365 mailbox. Exchange on-premise is not supported.
Installation options - Desktop
To install the add-in on the desktop version of Outlook, click the All Apps button in the ribbon and then click Get add-ins.
Then, you'll search for LawVu for Outlook.
Then click on Add.
Alternatively, browse the MS Marketplace to download the add-in:
Once the add-in is installed, we recommend restarting Outlook.
Installation options - Web
To install the add-in on the web version of Outlook, open one of your emails, click on the apps button and select Get add-ins.
Next, you search for and install the add-in, as shown in the directions above, for the desktop version.
Once the add-in is installed, we recommend refreshing the Outlook web page.
Note - Installing the add-in on the desktop version automatically adds it to the web version of Outlook and vice versa.
You may need to consent to the following permissions the first time you sign in to our Outlook add-in. This should only be required once and is needed to allow our integration to save and track email conversations to LawVu.
Please refer to this article for more information on each permission and why it is needed.
If you receive the message below during installation, your Office365 administrator has blocked the installation, and they must approve it.
This restriction is imposed by your organization, not by the LawVu software.
Below is the link to use during the approval process. Once your Office365 administrator has approved the installation, you can proceed.
Troubleshooting
Having trouble with your LawVu Outlook add-in? This might be due to varying Outlook or network configurations. If you're experiencing problems, please start by checking our Troubleshooting article. There are steps you can follow to try to resolve the issue.
Additionally, if your organization uses a firewall, the new Outlook add-in must be whitelisted.
Drag and Drop
Looking for the ability to Drag and Drop emails from Outlook on your PC or Mac to LawVu? Please read this article.