Welcome to the Legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook

6 minutes
10 months ago

Welcome to the Legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook

The legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook integrates Microsoft Outlook with Project Center for seamless filing between Outlook itemsSupported Outlook items include email messages, tasks, posts, appointment/meetings, contacts, distribution lists, journal items, meeting requests, and reports. and your projects. It enables you to file email items to a Project Center project. It also enables you to send a file transfer via Newforma Info Exchange directly from inside Outlook.

For information on the current Outlook Add-in, please see Welcome to the Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook.

File Email Items to Project Center Projects

You can file email items using any of the following methods:

The File in Project button, which files email items directly to a selected project’s default Project Email folder, or to a project folder or other project item.

The Synchronize button, which files items placed in the Newforma – Items to File Outlook folders. Project Center creates a folder under Newforma – Items to File for each of your active projects. The folder structure is synchronized with the projects in your My Projects tab each time the Synchronize button is clicked, so that the projects that appear in your My Projects tab will be added here. The Project Center Server automatically moves email in these folders into the appropriate project location when the Synchronize button is clicked. Project folders appear in alphabetical order.

Administrators can change the names of the project subfolders listed under the Newforma – Items to File folder in the Email Folder Label field of the Edit Project Settings dialog box Admin tab. Do not change the names of the project subfolders by right-clicking on them and choosing Rename!

The File As option (located under File in Project), which creates a project item from an email item.

 

For more information on the controls that are available, see Legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook Toolbar.

 

In addition to filing email items, you can also do the following:

File email items to existing project items.

View and edit the action item linked to an action item taggedA tag is a text identifier that Project Center appends to an Outlook item’s Subject line to indicate which Project Center project and item the Outlook item is linked to. Do not edit or remove it.

The tag will look similar to the following example: ActionItem:00004:lCSPU message.

You can search email items and email message attachments in a project.

You can set Outlook options for the legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook.

When sending an email message, you can click Send and File in Project to send the message to the recipients and file it to a project at the same time.

If a calendar item has been modified, you can update it in Project Center by selecting it and clicking the File in Meeting button from the legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook Toolbar.

Launch Project Center.

Additional functionality

Email messages support multiple tagsA tag is a text identifier that Project Center appends to an Outlook item’s Subject line to indicate which Project Center project and item the Outlook item is linked to. Do not edit or remove it.

The tag will look similar to the following example: ActionItem:00004:lCSPU, which enable them to be filed to multiple project items and by multiple companies using Project Center. For example, an email message that has been filed to an action item by company A can also be filed to a submittal and RFI by company A, and can also be filed by other companies that use Project Center.

The Newforma Project Email Information message, which is created in the Newforma – Items to File folder in Microsoft Outlook, contains links for the project email addresses for all projects in the My Project Center activity center My Projects tab.

The Newforma Automated File Items Report is added to the Inbox at 7:00 AM (the default) if there are errors in Automated File Items.

Dragging and dropping items from Outlook vs. filing items from Outlook

You can drag and drop email items directly into Project Center. However, if you drag and drop a message from Outlook to different Project Center folders, you might create multiple instances of the same file. Because of this, you should use the legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook to file messages instead of dragging and dropping them. Some of the benefits of using the legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook are:

You can easily file into the default project email folder, preventing duplicate files.

The most recently filed location is remembered.

Tagged items are automatically filed in the appropriate locations and associated with the appropriate action item, RFI, submittal, or project timeline item.

You can easily browse the action items, RFIs, submittals, and timeline items in which to file the items.

 

Send Info Exchange File Transfers

The legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook provides you with a simple method for sending Info Exchange file transfers. This allows users to quickly create file transfers that will still be logged in the project without having to open Project Center.

You can create a file transfer by:

Selecting the File Transfers > Send Files option from the toolbar.

Selecting recipients and files.

Selecting the desired Info Exchange options, including setting transfer expiration dates and requiring recipients to log into Info Exchange before downloading files.

 

Important information

If an email item is sent to multiple contacts, and those contacts try to save the item to the same Project Center folder, Project Center only saves the item once. It does not create duplicate items. However, be aware that some email servers may modify the message, which could result in a duplicate item being saved.

When the administrator has enabled the Force Email Filing setting for a user, each time they send an email from Outlook, they will be prompted to file that email into a Newforma project.  The pop up File in Project window will allow the selection of a project to file the outgoing email in, as well as an option of Send & Do Not File for emails that should not be filed in Newforma.

The legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook requires Outlook 2007, 2010 or 2013 (32 or 64 bit) with the latest service packs.

Email item file names are saved with the following formatting in Windows Explorer: Date and timestamp (the time is saved in Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, with a four-letter code appended to it by Project Email), followed by a portion of the sender’s email address, followed by a three-letter code, followed by a an abbreviated message subject.

    • The four-letter code represents the body of the email message.

    • The three-letter code represents the complete subject of the message.

Installation and use of the legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook is optional. Its functions are also supported using a combination of automated email filing and other features in Project Center.