EDI Enhanced Email Handling

The Enhanced Email Inbox will allow use of the newer Outlook versions with InStar and provides a much more efficient handling of Email in InStar. Outlook must be 32 bit (NOT 64 bit Yet!) but may use any version of Outlook with a local Outlook data file, .pst or .ost including Exchange and IMAP. Exchange server must store 1 to 3 months (recommended) on the local computer.

NEW!!! InStar will now store the original Outlook Email as a file with any Sent or Received Email. This feature may be turned off in Main Setup under the Letter tab. Click here for more details.

NEW!!! InStar will now store Read Receipts with the Sent Email in InStar. Click here for more details.

See how to Archive Email to keep your Outlook data files to a reasonable size. 1 to 5 GB Recommended.

Other New Email Features

New user preferences have been added so the New Email Inbox will; (File Menu >> User Preferences)
- Open the Client when filing email (“Always” recommended)
- Move the Filed Email item to the Read Items Folder when Filed to InStar. (Recommended)

Access Enhanced Email via EDI Enhanced Menu >> Open Email Inbox The existing email handling will be kept but will stop working as Agencies move to newer versions of Outlook. At this time users still using the old Email under the Document Management window are missing a host of new functions that better protect the Agency and allow for faster processing of email.

The Process; How Email Is Processed
Attaching Read Receipts
Using the New Email Inbox
Elements of Email Inbox and Functions
Old Help Page for Unhandled Items (No longer needed, very old before securing source code)

Recommended Process; Filing, Reply, Reply All or Forward

Note; there are often multiple ways to perform the actions described, a Button on the Window, Right Click Menu or Double Click on an Email Item to Open the Email.
The system will check for the existence of an Outlook Read Items and Set Items Filed folders and add folders as needed.
The user may then file email items to the Client or Broker by using one of the buttons or a right click on the email item in the list. Operations may be performed on multiple items using CTRL + Click for selecting multiple items and then a Right Click will give a menu. Email Items are NEVER completely deleted by the InStar to Outlook interface. Items are only moved to another folder. We currently limit the folders to which the user can move items being Deleted/Trash, Junk or Read Items.
When clicking on an Email Item and reading it the email item will be flagged as Read in Outlook
NEW: Read Receipts will be detected and have an additional option of “Attach to Sent Email”. This option will file the Read Receipt to the Sent Email which the user will need to select. We found trying to select in Outlook to be unreliable. Please note; You should have a good subject in the email to allow the user to find the Sent Email easily. More on this feature.
The system attempts to make filing as automatic as possible. When you choose to File, Reply, Reply All or Forward an email item;
- InStar will check for an InStarEmailId on the bottom of the email indicating this is a response to an email you generated from InStar. In this case InStar knows to which client this email belongs and will open a window with the client name simply for confirmation. Confirm the client or broker and the email is filed to the client and moved from the Inbox to the Read Items Folder.
- InStar, not finding an InStarEmailId on the bottom of the email will then check for the Senders Email Address or Email Domain (@myWebSite.com) in your InStar Contacts. If one or more clients are found, a window will be opened to select the client.
- InStar will also perform a lookup on a policy number in either the subject or the body of the email item. Highlight the policy number (double click is handy for highlighting text with no spaces or special characters) and right click, the HIGHLIGHTED text, to receive a popup menu to perform a lookup based on the selected part of the policy number. HINT: You can select just part of a policy number as the lookup is for the highlighted string occurring in any policy number. *Be careful when selecting just part of the policy number. The lookup is a “string” lookup meaning that the selected part of the policy number will be searched for ANY policy with that string in the policy number. For example, if you have policies ending in -001 or -002 and only highlight the -001 part of the policy number, the system will return EVERY POLICY number with -001 in ANY part of the policy number which will likely return so many results as to be slow and unusable.
- If the above methods do not find one or more clients then InStar will open the regular client or broker lookup to allow manual lookup. * The User may always cancel the client(s) automatically found and the system will proceed to the manual lookup.

How Email is Processed

Please note; the old InStar Email handling deleted the email item completely from Outlook, WHEN deleted from the InStar Email Inbox. The new Email Inbox will never delete an item from Outlook UNLESS deleted from the Deleted Items/Trash. InStar will simply move the email item to another folder in Outlook.

The new email handling is designed to file email will little or no typing input from the user. Filing email items automatically is done in 1 of 2 ways.
– By lookup of the index on the email or lookup of the sender’s email address in the InStar Client Contacts. An index number is created on the bottom of any Email sent out of InStar. This Index should appear as a bar code. If you see letters and numbers then go to your InStar data folder (\InStar, \AMS_InStar, \IUG_InStar
– By Policy Number lookup.
If the automated lookup methods fail then the system will fall back on the familiar client lookup. Once the email item is filed in InStar, the Email Item, depending on User Preferences, is moved from the Outlook Inbox to the Outlook Read Items folder. The user’s Outlook Inbox SHOULD be kept only for items that have not been filed to InStar. This behavior can be modified in User Preferences. All email handled in this manner will be available in the Users Outlook Read Items folder until Archived further. (Read Items folder is automatically created by InStar if the user does not have a Read Items Folder)

HINT: The Email Subject can be very important for searching. The user can modify the Email Subject by simply typing into the subject field on the InStar Inbox Preview Pane. The modified subject will be saved INCLUDING modifying the subject on the Outlook Email. Update occurs when the cursor leaves the subject field in InStar. (User clicks or tabs out of the subject field)

Filing Email is automatic when performing a Reply, Reply All or Forward. Filing the email is just part of the process. For that reason you should have an archiving process for Outlook to keep your default Outlook data file to a manageable size. It is recommended you read our recommended Outlook archiving process.

Explanation of the various elements of the window and their functions. The window elements may also have a Right Click Popup Menu option which is noted under each item below. Right Click options require less mouse movement than clicking an item then moving the pointer to a button.

Close Button; Close the window. User may also click the the X in the top right corner or double click the top left corner to close the window. Any methods are acceptable.
File; File the email item to an InStar Client or Broker. Also available with a Right Click on the email item in the list.
Reply, Reply All, Forward; Performs the filing of the email item automatically then opens the familiar InStar window to create the response. Also available with a Right Click on the email item in the list.
Open; Open the Email Item in Outlook. Also available with a Right Click on the email item in the list or a Double Click on the email item in the list. HINT: If you prefer to read the email in Outlook simply double click the email item in the list and it will be opened in Outlook. Watch for the item to open behind InStar. If the user has multiple monitors it is very handy to have Outlook on the monitor opposite InStar as opening email is easier to see.
Delete; Move the selected ITEMS to the Deleted/Trash folder. This function operates on ALL Selected email items. Select items in the email list using a Shift + Click or a Ctrl + Click. Also available with a Right Click on the email item in the list with added functions to Move ALL Selected Items to Read Items or Junk Folder.
Refresh; Refresh the InStar Email Inbox to match that of the Outlook Inbox folder.
Prev or Next; Will move the Previous or Next email item in the list and refresh the preview pane with the selected email item.
Send/Rec; Will perform a send/receive in Outlook and refresh the InStar Email Inbox.
List of the EMail Items; This list allows for many functions, some are duplicates of the buttons above.
- Click an email in the list to see a preview to the right of the list
- Double click and email to open the email from Outlook. (The Outlook email may open in the background so watch your Windows task bar for a flashing icon)
- Right Click Opens Popup Menu; (When you see a number, the number represents the selected number of email items on which the option will operate. )
  - File to Client, Reply, Reply All, Forward; Will perform the selected action as described above.
  - Open in Outlook; Open all selected email items from Outlook.
  - Open Internal; Open a single item in the InStar Internal Email Reader.
  - Add Contact; Will add contact information to the selected choice, Client, Company, Producer, User, Vendor or as a general contact only available in the Contact QuickView. The user may Add a new contact or Add an Email Address to an Existing Contact. Watch the prompts to lead you through the process.
  - Move to Deleted/Trash; Move all selected items to the Outlook Deleted/Trash folder.
  - Move to Junk; Move all selected items to the Outlook Junk Email folder.
  - Move to Read Items; Move all selected items to the Outlook Read Items folder

The InStarEmailId-xxxxx- is an index number affixed to the bottom of any email sent from InStar to allow the email to be filed more easily when a reply is received. Some users did not like the text being added to the bottom of the email so with the addition of a barcode font added to windows the InStarEmailId-xxxxx- will appear as a barcode. The barcode font is automatically downloaded to the folder \AMS_InStar\UpdatesEDI. The file is named 39251.TTF. To install simply Right Click and select Install.

Attaching a Read Receipt to a Sent Email

InStar will now attach read receipts to the email that was sent from InStar allowing a user to see not only when the email was sent but when it was read and by whom.

InStar will detect a Read Receipt in the Enhanced Email Inbox in InStar and give the user an additional option at the top of the right click pop up menu to “Attach to Sent Email”

InStar will perform the standard client lookup and then present the user with a list of Sent Email matching the Subject line in the Read Receipt. InStar searches for a similar subject line in the email. Your subject line in email is VERY Important.
If there is more than 1 email as a possible match, the user will be presented with a list of Email Items and must select the Email to which to attach the Read Receipt. The user may need to consider the date sent and the Subject Line in the body of the Read Receipt. See Image below as to how we differentiated between 2 email with almost identical subject lines but the number of “Re” in the subject differs. Look at the subject in the BODY of the Read Receipt.

On Delivery Failure user may need to open the attached text files to see the subject and simply pick from all email for the past 2 weeks.
Filing a Read Receipt or Delivery Failure will show on the InStar Email in the Red Text previously reserved to show when the email was sent. Further, the Outlook Read Receipt or Delivery Failure is stored with the Outlook email.

When the Stored Outlook Email is opened from InStar, InStar will open both the Read Receipts and the Outlook Email something like this;