# Keep a client's people, mail and chat on their desk > Set up a client desk with the people involved, only their mail, the key email kept for good, the desk's own chat and a live view your client can watch. Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-people-and-mail Section: Widgets > People and messages Plans: All plans Updated: 2026-10-10 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help). - **Sign in** to your PlexiDesk account. The desk's chat and sharing need it. See [Create an account and sign in](https://plexiidesk.com/help). - **Have a desk for the client.** See [Create a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-create). > **Tip:** > Name the desk after the client or the deal. The Inbox widget uses words from the desk's name to make its first rule, so a clear name gives you a useful starting point. ## 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. > **Note:** > Suggestions appear only while the **Add someone** form is open, and only when PlexiDesk finds someone who is not already on the desk. It shows up to eight, with the people it has most reason to suggest first, and it skips automated senders such as no-reply addresses. For everything the widget can do, see [Contacts widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-contacts). ## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help). **Reset to this desk**, at the bottom of the rule editor, puts the rule back to the one made from the desk's name. > **Tip:** > If you keep a mail tag for this client, you can link the tag to the desk: in Mail, edit the tag (or make one with **New tag**) and choose the desk under **About a desk or task (optional)**. The desk's Inbox then follows the tag, and the line under its header reads, for example, **Following the “Example Co” mail tag**. Once you change the rule in the widget itself, the widget uses its own rule instead of the tag. See [Organise mail with tags](https://plexiidesk.com/help). 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-inbox). ## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-email) and [Put an email on a desk or turn it into a task](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-chat) and [Chat about a desk, room or document](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## 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. > **Note:** > In a live view, the Contacts, Inbox, Chat and Email widgets each appear as a placeholder with its title, so the people, mail and messages in them are not published. A kept email's title is its subject line. 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/share-desk-with-people). For the other kinds of link, see [Share a desk anyone can use](https://plexiidesk.com/help/share-public-desk-link) and [Sharing and invites](https://plexiidesk.com/help/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](https://plexiidesk.com/help). **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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-archive-trash). **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](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## Related tasks - [People & messages widgets](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widgets-people-and-messages) - [Contacts widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-contacts) - [Inbox widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-inbox) - [Email widget: keep an email on a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-email) - [Chat widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-chat) - [Add a widget to a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/add-a-widget) - [Publish a live view of a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/share-live-web-view)