Flag Email for Follow Up

One method for managing email messages in SmarterMail is by flagging them so that they can be dealt with at a later time. For example, if you can't respond to an important message right away, you can flag that message as soon as you read it. This allows you to easily see that the message requires follow-up action. Flags work well as a lightweight to-do system: an invoice that needs to be paid, a question you owe someone an answer to, or a registration that needs completing can all be flagged and then worked through in one pass later.

There are a few ways for users to flag a message:

The flag icon in the messages list - A faint flag icon sits at the right side of each message's row in the messages list, becoming solid when you hover over it. Simply click it to flag the message; click it again to unflag.
The right-click context menu - Select one or more messages, right-click, and choose "Flag" (or "Unflag") from the context menu. This is the fastest way to flag several messages at once — when flagging multiple messages, you'll be asked to confirm.
The Mark menu - When viewing a message, select Flag (or Unflag) from the Mark dropdown in the message toolbar.
The flag icon in the message header - An open message also displays a flag indicator near the sender information that can be clicked to toggle the flag.

Regardless of which method you choose, the flag icon turns red and the message's row is highlighted in the messages list, making flagged items easy to spot as you scroll.

Note: In a shared folder where you have read-only access, you can see which messages are flagged, but you can't flag or unflag them yourself.

It should be noted that the ability to flag messages in SmarterMail is primarily intended to help users easily identify messages that need follow up. The functionality is supported through the IMAP protocol and the sync protocols, such as MAPI/EWS and EAS, so flagged messages stay flagged in email clients like Outlook and eM Client, as well as email clients on mobile devices — and messages you flag in those clients show as flagged in webmail, too.

Finding Flagged Messages

Although flags help messages stand out in a list, it may be difficult to find a specific flagged message if you have a lot of messages in your inbox. To quickly view all messages marked for follow up, use the Filter option at the top of the messages list and select Flagged. Filtering in this way displays ONLY messages that are flagged for follow up, and a "Filtered by Flagged" indicator appears above the list so you know the filter is active. Combined with flags, this makes a simple workflow: flag anything actionable as you read through new mail, then filter by Flagged when you're ready to work through the follow-ups.

Microsoft Outlook "Follow Up"

Within Microsoft Outlook, users have the ability to add a "Follow Up" flag to a message. They can then schedule that follow up for the same day, the next day, or various other periods. When this is done, Outlook places that item in the "To Do List" area of Outlook. When using EWS/MAPI and synchronizing SmarterMail to Outlook, any message marked for Follow Up in Outlook is also flagged in the SmarterMail web interface. However, that message is not added as a Task in webmail. When the To Do List task is completed, the flag is removed.

While flagging a message in webmail is a simple on/off action — there are no due dates or reminders attached — webmail WILL display the follow-up details that were set in Outlook. A message flagged in Outlook with a start date, due date, and/or reminder shows a notice in the message header along the lines of "Follow up: Start by <date>, Due by <date>, Reminder on <date> at <time>." So even when working in webmail, you can see exactly what follow-up schedule was assigned to a message.

Note: Flagging a message in your Drafts folder creates a flag for the RECIPIENT'S copy: after the message is sent, it arrives flagged with the follow-up information you set. Webmail notes this on the draft with the text "After this message is sent, it will be flagged for you with the following information:".

Removing a Follow-up Flag

To unmark a message for follow up, simply click on its flag icon again, or right-click the message and select "Unflag" from the context menu. It's also possible to remove a flag using the Mark menu when viewing the message. Just as with flagging, unflagging can be done in bulk: select all the messages you've finished dealing with, right-click, and choose "Unflag".