Chat to email to chat

Summary PaT Chat lets you collaborate with people who only use email. Add them to a chat as an external user, with their email address and name, then send chat messages as usual: each one arrives in their inbox as a normal email. When they reply to the email, PaT puts the reply back into the right chat thread, so you keep all the power of PaT Chat while they keep using email. A link in each email lets them view the full message thread.

Steps

Step 1

On the Chat Wall, open the chat you want to add the email user to. In the chat editor, click the + at the top left of the members list, the row of photos at the top of the editor. A panel for adding members opens on the right of the screen.

Step 2

Click add external user, at the bottom right of the panel. A form opens at the bottom of the panel.

Step 3

Enter the person's email address in Email Address, then their First name and Last Name. All three are required: each label is marked with *.

Step 4

Click submit, at the bottom right of the panel.

Step 5

The person is now a member of the chat. They appear in the members list at the top of the editor, with the box beside their name ticked.

Sending messages by email

Step 6

Type your message in the large box below the purple formatting buttons, as you would for any chat.

Step 7

Click the purple send comment button at the bottom right of the editor, as you would for any chat.

Step 8

Your message appears at the top of the chat thread, on the right of the screen, like any other chat message.

Step 9

To the recipient, it is a normal email arriving in their inbox, sent on your behalf. The subject starts with the chat's title. Below your message is a View full message thread link, then your email signature.

Step 10

They reply as they would to any normal email.

Step 11

PaT picks up the reply and puts it back into the correct chat thread, at the top, just as it would a reply from a PaT Chat user. You have all the power of PaT Chat to manage the message.

Seeing the full message thread

Step 12

Send the external user another message the same way: type it in the editor and click send comment.

Step 13

The recipient gets the new message as a separate, new email. The earlier messages are not included further down in the body of the email. To see the history, they click the View full message thread link, above the email signature.

Note. Most email recipients pick this up intuitively, but some get confused, so you may need to point the link out to them.

Step 14

When a non-PaT user clicks View full message thread, a web page version of the full chat thread opens, with the newest message at the top. They can scroll through it, read the conversation, and open any links or attachments. However, they can't reply directly on the page: they reply to the email they received. Alternatively, they can sign up as a PaT user, which is the best option for ongoing communication within the platform.

Result. You can now communicate with non-PaT users by email as if they were PaT users, and use the full power of PaT Chat on the conversation. For example: - Instantly: convert the chat to a task, convert it to a task and then a project, convert it to an SD message (advanced), or dock the chat. - Automation: auto-follow the chat, auto-nudge recipients, and auto-file it (contextual filing). - Rapidly: link the chat thread to other digital documents (other chats, SDs or even emails) using copy URL, and apply to BFF. The Chat to task, Chat to task to project, Chat to SD and Docked Chats modules cover several of these.