Keep a client's people, mail and chat on their desk

When a piece of work is about one client, one deal or one supplier, you can give its desk everything about the people involved, not just the documents. This guide walks through setting up such a desk with four widgets:

• Contacts for the people the work involves.
• Inbox for the email from them, and nothing else.
• Email for the one message you need to keep, such as the signed quote or the brief.
• Chat for the desk's own conversation.

At the end you share a live view of the desk, so your client can follow progress without touching anything.

Before you start

• Every plan includes these widgets.
• Use the PlexiDesk desktop app. Mail, and the Inbox widget that reads it, work in the desktop app. In a browser the Inbox widget says Mail isn’t available here.
• Connect your mailbox in PlexiiMail first, so the Inbox has mail to show and you can keep emails on the desk. See Connect your email account Coming soon.
• Sign in to your PlexiDesk account. The desk's chat and sharing need it. See Create an account and sign in Coming soon.
• Have a desk for the client. See Create a desk.

Add the people involved

The Contacts widget lists the people this desk is about: colleagues from your organisation and anyone else, such as the client, their accountant or a supplier.

1. Open the client's desk.
2. Click Add widget in the centre of the header.
3. Click Contacts.

The Add widget menu groups widgets into columns by what they are for. Contacts, Inbox and Chat are in the People & messages column. You can also type a widget's name in the search box at the top of the menu and press Enter to add the first match.

4. On the Contacts widget, click Add someone (the person icon at the right of the filter row). A short form opens.
5. Look under People already on this work. These are people PlexiDesk found in your own work, each with the reason it is suggesting them:
   • emailed you once or emailed you 3 times: they sent you mail recently.
   • assigned 2 tasks here: tasks on this desk are assigned to them.
   • organised a meeting: they organised a meeting on a calendar you have connected.
   • in your organisation: they are a colleague.
6. Click a suggested person to add them to the desk.
7. To add someone who is not suggested, type their Name and Email, and if you like their Role, Company and Address, then click Add. Add becomes available once there is a name or an email.
8. Click the same button again (now an ×) to close the form.

What you will see

• Each person shows their initials, their name and a line with their role, company and email.
• People you type in yourself are guests and carry a Guest tag. Colleagues you add from an in your organisation suggestion are listed as team members.
• All, Team and Guests along the top filter the list.
• Click a person to open their details. A person you added from a suggestion keeps a note of where they came from, for example "Added from mail — emailed you 3 times".
• Edit lets you correct their details and add a Phone number. Click Save when you are done.
• Remove takes the person off this desk.

For everything the widget can do, see Contacts widget.

Show only the client's mail

The Inbox widget shows your mailbox narrowed to this desk by a rule you can see and change. The rule is always written under the widget's header, so you know exactly what it is showing.

1. Click Add widget in the header, then click Inbox.
2. The widget starts with a rule made from the desk's name: it picks up to two words from the name and shows emails from the last 30 days whose subject contains either of them. Short common words, such as "project", "plan" or "notes", and plain numbers are left out. The rule reads, for example, "about renovation · in the last 30 days".
3. To tighten the rule, click the rule line, or click Edit filter (the sliders icon at the top right of the widget).
4. In From, type the client's email domain, for example @example.com. You can type a name or a full address instead. Separate several with commas: any one of them matching is enough.
5. In Subject contains, type the words their emails use, separated by commas, or clear the box if their subjects vary.
6. Choose how far back to look under Last: any time, 7 days, 30 days or 90 days.
7. Tick Unread only, Flagged or Has attachment if you want to narrow it further.
8. Click Done.

Your changes apply as you type. When you fill in more than one part of the rule, an email has to match all of them: for example, from the client's domain and with one of your subject words.

What you will see

• The header shows how many emails match, such as 12 matching, and how many of them are unread, such as 3 new.
• Each email shows the sender, how long ago it arrived and its subject, with a paperclip when it has an attachment and a flag when it is flagged.
• The line at the bottom shows how many emails were looked at and when, for example "12 of 200 scanned · updated 2m". The widget looks through your latest 200 emails and updates by itself when new mail arrives. Click Refresh (the circular arrow) to check now.
• Click an email to read it over the desk. You can Reply or Reply all from there without leaving the desk. Press Esc to close it. To draft a reply with AI, see AI reply drafts in your voice Coming soon.

Reset to this desk, at the bottom of the rule editor, puts the rule back to the one made from the desk's name.

The Inbox widget shows your email. It is different from Office > Communicate > Inbox, which holds your notifications and share invites.

For everything the widget can do, see Inbox widget.

Keep the key email on the desk

The Inbox shows whatever matches its rule right now. When one email matters for the life of the work, send it to the desk as an Email widget. It stays on the desk after you archive the message, and whether or not it still matches the Inbox rule.

1. Open Mail: in the side menu go to Office > Communicate > Mail, or press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows and choose Mail.
2. Click the email in the list to open it.
3. Above the message, click Send to desk, beside Reply, Reply all and Forward.
4. Find the client's desk in the list and click:
   • This email to keep just this message, or
   • Whole thread to keep the whole conversation it belongs to.
5. A notice confirms it, for example Email sent to Example Co (or Thread sent to Example Co for a whole thread). Click Open in the notice to go to the desk.

What you will see on the desk

• The email's subject as the heading, with the sender underneath, or for a thread, how many messages it holds, such as "4 messages in this thread".
• For a single email, the date and who it was sent to. In a thread, each message's sender and date.
• The text of each message. Long quoted history is folded away: click the link that reads, for example, Show 6 more lines of quoted history to read it, and Hide quoted history to fold it again.
• Attachments listed by name. Rest the pointer on one to see its size.
• Check for new replies (the circular arrow) and Open in Mail at the top right.
• Show the whole thread or Show just this message at the bottom, to switch between the two without sending it again.

PlexiDesk keeps a copy of your mail on this computer, and the Email widget reads from it. That is why the email stays readable on the desk after it leaves your inbox. For a whole thread, click Check for new replies to add replies that have arrived since.

For everything the widget can do, see Email widget: keep an email on a desk and Put an email on a desk or turn it into a task Coming soon.

Open the desk's own chat

Every desk can have its own PlexiiChat conversation, named after the desk.

1. With the desk open, click Chat (the speech bubbles) in the row of quick actions in the header. Rest the pointer on a button to see its name.
2. PlexiDesk opens the desk's conversation and adds it to the desk as a Chat widget.
3. Type in Write a message… at the bottom of the widget and press Enter to send. Press Shift Enter for a new line.
4. Click Open at the top of the widget to see the full conversation.

The widget shows the conversation's messages, newest at the bottom, with each sender's name and the time. If the desk already has its chat widget, clicking Chat again does not add a second one.

To keep a different conversation on the desk, such as a direct message with a colleague, click Add widget, then Chat, and pick the conversation under Pin a conversation.

For more, see Chat widget and Chat about a desk, room or document Coming soon.

Share the desk with your client

A live view is a read-only web page of the desk that follows your changes. Your client opens it in a browser, with no account and nothing to install, and sees progress without being able to change anything.

1. Click the desk's name in the header to open the desk menu.
2. Click Share….
3. Under Who can open this desk?, click Anyone with the link.
4. Under What do they get?, click A live view they can watch.
5. Click Publish this desk to the web.
6. Click Copy beside the link, and send it to your client.

The link keeps working until you turn it off. In the same place you can:

• Pause publishing to keep the link working but stop updating it, and Resume publishing to start again.
• Publish now to update the page straight away.
• Stop sharing to turn the link off and remove the published copy.

To work on the desk together with a colleague, choose Specific people instead: they sign in and changes sync both ways. See Share a desk with specific people. For the other kinds of link, see Share a desk anyone can use and Sharing and invites.

Make it work for you

• A deal with two sides. Put both parties' domains in From, separated by a comma, so the Inbox shows mail from either of them.
• A busy client. Keep Last at 7 or 30 days and tick Unread only, so the Inbox shows what still needs you.
• Paperwork. Tick Has attachment to see only the emails with attachments, then send the ones you need to keep to the desk.
• Everyone in one place. Add the client's team from the People already on this work suggestions after the first few emails arrive, rather than typing them in.

Common questions

The Inbox says "Nothing matches". The note under it says how many emails were looked at and repeats the rule. Click Edit filter and widen the rule: choose a longer period under Last, clear Subject contains, or untick Unread only.

The Inbox says "No mailbox connected". Click Open Mail and connect your account. The widget fills in once Mail can read your mailbox. See Connect your email account Coming soon.

The Inbox says "Couldn’t read the mailbox". Check your connection, then click Try again.

No one appears under "People already on this work". Suggestions come from your recent email, tasks on this desk, meetings on a calendar you have connected, and your organisation. When everyone it finds is already on the desk, there is nothing to suggest. Add people with the form instead.

My desk is not in the Send to desk list. The list leaves out archived desks and shows up to 40 desks. If the desk is archived, unarchive it first. See Archive, trash and restore rooms and desks.

The kept email says the text has not been downloaded yet. The message text appears once PlexiDesk has read it from your mailbox. Leave Mail connected and check again shortly.

I opened the desk on another computer and the email or the people are missing. The Email widget reads the copy of your mail on the computer where you sent it to the desk, and people you add in Contacts are kept on the computer where you added them. Open the desk on that computer. The Email widget still shows the subject and sender it was saved with.

The chat widget says "Sign in to use chat on this desk". Sign in to your PlexiDesk account. See Create an account and sign in Coming soon.

Related tasks

• People & messages widgets
• Contacts widget
• Inbox widget
• Email widget: keep an email on a desk
• Chat widget
• Add a widget to a desk
• Publish a live view of a desk