In this article:
Overview
The LawVu for Outlook add-in is designed for people who predominately work in Microsoft Outlook and want to be able to send data back and forth to LawVu easily and efficiently.
With the LawVu for Outlook add-in, you can create matters from your emails and, optionally, include any attachments. You can quickly save emails into LawVu with just 2 clicks. You can also track email chains by automatically saving them in the Files Tab of your matters or contracts.
Features for existing emails
A. Quick file to Matter
Start by opening the email that you wish to save and click the 'Quick file to Matter' button. This action will trigger a small window to appear on the side, displaying your recently worked-on matters. If the matter you intend to associate with the email is among the displayed options, you can easily click on it to select it.. If the matter you want to file against isn't on the list of matters, you can then use the search bar option. The list will update as you type.
Below is how the email will appear in LawVu once it has been filed.
Any attachments on the email will be saved INSIDE the .eml file. To access these attachments you will need to click on the red paper clip icon and the files will be displayed in a new window.
B. Add new matter or contract
Often you'll be reading an email and want to quickly create a matter or contract from it. To do this, click the Add New option.
A side window will open with the various fields required for creating a new matter or contract in LawVu. If you complete these, the matter or contract will be created inside LawVu and you'll be assigned as the Matter/Contract Owner (you can change this later in LawVu if you need to).
The email subject will automatically be used as the Matter/Contract name.
You can save the email or not (any of the attachments will be embedded inside the .eml file) and save email attachments to Matter Files. You can also upload new files to be included.
At this point, you can also decide whether you want to continue to save all emails included in the email thread or just the one you've selected and/or whether you want to continue to save replies and forwards ( more information in the tracking section below)
When creating new contracts from emails, the email attachment will become the contract file. (Note that Contracts can only be created for emails with attachments.)
C. Save an email to LawVu
You can save the currently selected email into LawVu in a few different forms. Start by selecting the matter or contract that you want to save the email against and click on Save in LawVu as.
If you chose to:
Save email - The email will be saved as a '.eml' file in the Files section of the selected matter/contract. Any attachments on this email will be embedded in the saved file - not saved separately in the Files tab
Save all emails in this conversation - The email will be saved along with all other emails in the thread. Each email in the thread will appear as an individual record on the email file. Unchecking this option will only upload the currently selected email in your inbox
Save future replies and forwards - any subsequent replies and forwards will be tracked in LawVu in the respective matter or contract.
Save email attachments to Matter/Contract Files - Any attachments on the selected email will be saved separately into the Files tab of the selected matter/contract.
Upload - you can choose to upload another file from your local drive to the matter/contract
D. Continue to save replies and forwards (tracking)
This option enables you to save email threads as files into the Files Tab of existing or new matters or contracts. A tracked email thread can only be saved into the Files Tab of a single matter or contract. Tracking can be turned off and reinstated as required.
As the email thread is saved into LawVu, every reply or forward you make and receive on that email will be saved as the current version of the file. The thread will continue to automatically update with each new entry.
If you wish to discontinue tracking, simply click the Stop saving to this matter/contract option. Once you turn the tracking off, no new replies will be saved in LawVu.
Please note
In cases where Outlook itself treats a reply or forward as belonging to a different conversation (such as a substantive change in the subject line), our automated "tracking" will see this as separate from the previously tracked conversation and will not save these to LawVu automatically.
To take a conversation that has carried on under a separate thread, you will need to separately save the separate thread to LawVu. If you leave the "Continue to save replies and forwards" option selected, this allows any ongoing correspondence on *both* threads to be saved. |
Email tracking functionality is not available in the following environments:
Exchange Server on-premises (Hybrid)
Azure/Office for US Government
Features for newly created emails
Save to LawVu
When writing new emails, this option enables you to send the email to your recipient while simultaneously saving it to a specific matter.
Having the email that you just wrote open, go to the Save to LawVu option in the ribbon and select the matter you want this email saved under.
Upon clicking Send, the email will be sent to your recipient and at the same time, it will be saved in LawVu as a .eml file, in the Files tab section of the matter. Any attachments will be embedded in the saved file:
Get files from LawVu
Use this feature to quickly browse through matters or contracts and attach existing files from LawVu to the email that you are writing.
From a matter:
Click Get Files from LawVu, and select Matter Files
Search and select the appropriate matter, or select one from the most recent list
This will show the list of files and folders within the matter. Click on the appropriate file to attach it to the email.
From a contract:
Click Get Files from LawVu, and select Contract Files
Search and select the appropriate contract, or select one from the most recent list
This will show the files and folders within the contract. You can choose to attach a file from the files section or the contract file itself.
Conditional logic
LawVu Administrators can configure intelligent intake forms for the Outlook add-in. When users create new matters or contracts using the add-in, the forms dynamically adjust to user input. This means that depending on the response given in a preceding field, certain fields may either appear or be hidden.
Learn how to configure conditional intake forms by accessing this article.
In this example, the Other Party field will be displayed when the value of the 'Other party role' field is 'Customer':
Watch this animation to see how the rule I set above reflects in the Outlook add-in:
Installation instructions - how to install the LawVu for Outlook add-in
⚠️ Your organization may limit users' ability to install or upgrade Outlook add-ins.
If you cannot install the LawVu Outlook add-in yourself, you may need to speak with your IT department.
Compatibility
The LawVu add-in for Outlook is available for Outlook on iOS, Outlook on Android, Outlook on the web in Office 365 and Outlook.com.
The LawVu Add-in is not supported on the on-prem exchange server any more.
The Outlook REST APIs and Exchange REST APIs have been deprecated by Microsoft, March 2023, which was the last method for the Graph API to communicate with on-premise exchange servers.
In order to use the Outlook v2 add-in you will need to use an Office 365 mailbox.
Installation options
You should install the Outlook Add-in from the 'Store'. To install the add-in on the desktop version of Outlook, click on 'Get Add-ins' on the ribbon, search for 'LawVu' in the store, select 'LawVu for Outlook' and click on 'Add'.
Once the add-in is installed, we recommend restarting Outlook.
To install the add-in on the web version of Outlook, open one of your emails and click on the ellipsis on the top-right to see more options. Click on 'Get Add-ins' and repeat the same steps as above.
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.
The first time you sign in to our Outlook add-in, you may need to consent to the following permissions. 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 below message during installation, your Office365 administrator has blocked the installation, and your administrator must approve the installation.
This is a restriction imposed by your organization and not by the LawVu software.
The link to be used during the approval process is below. Once your Office365 administrator has approved the installation, you should be able to proceed.
Troubleshooting
Outlook can be configured in numerous ways and corporate IT teams can configure networks in numerous ways - all of these can contribute to issues with Outlook Add-ins. If you are experiencing issues please work through the steps in the following article and then contact LawVu Support. Check our Troubleshooting article to get started.
Additionally, if your organization uses a firewall, the new Outlook add-in will need to 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.