Writing and replying
Replying
Open a thread and write in the box at the bottom. Send it with the arrow button, or with Command+Enter on a Mac, Ctrl+Enter on Windows. Enter on its own starts a new line.
Your reply arrives in their normal inbox, and their answer comes back into the same thread.
It arrives under your business name, the one you set under Settings → Business. Without a business name, CoreHue uses the name on your account. The reply address belongs to CoreHue. That is what brings their answer back here rather than leaving it loose in your inbox.
Your messages sit on the right of the thread, theirs on the left. A reply you wrote from your own mail app is marked via email.
Starting a new conversation
Choose New message, from the plus in the sidebar, the plus button at the bottom of the conversation list, or Send message on a contact's record.
- To. Search your contacts by name or email and pick one. If they aren't a contact yet, type the name or address and choose Add "..." to create one without leaving the message you're writing.
- Subject. Required. It becomes the thread's title in Messages and the subject line they see.
- Message. Write it, attach anything you need, and choose Send.
If the contact you pick has no email address, CoreHue asks for one before letting you continue. Nothing can be sent to a contact without an address.
Formatting
A formatting bar sits across the top of the message box: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, a link, and a Variables menu. That's deliberately the full set. Mail apps display anything fancier unpredictably. On a phone the buttons fold into Styles and Lists menus.
Using a saved template
If you write the same thing often, save it once. The document icon in the message box opens Templates, listing the templates you have active. Choose one and it drops into the box, ready to edit, after anything you'd already written. Manage templates at the bottom takes you to the library.
Templates carry a subject as well as a body. The subject is optional. In a new message, a template with a subject fills an empty subject line. It leaves a subject you've already written alone.
Templates aren't only for Messages. The same library appears when you send a booking, invoice, proposal, contract, questionnaire, gallery, payment receipt or reminder, which is where they save the most time. See Email templates.
Using their name
The Variables menu is in the toolbar here too. Because you already know who you're writing to, the first-name tag shows their real name as soon as it lands.
Where it does matter is templates. A template written with the client's first name in it fills that name in as soon as you pick the recipient. It happens right in front of you, so what you see in the box is what they'll get. See Filling in names automatically.
When an address has had trouble before
If an earlier email to the person in an open thread failed or was reported as spam, a warning sits above the reply box. It says this address reported or blocked a previous email, that you can still send, and that delivery may be refused. Take it seriously. Check the address, or reach them another way. The warning belongs to the thread, so a brand new message won't carry it. See When an email doesn't arrive.
Writing well to clients
Answer the question they asked. Inquiries often ask three things and get an answer to one.
Say what happens next. Every message should leave them knowing what you need or when you'll be in touch.
Keep it short. Most of this is read on a phone.
Attach rather than describe. If they asked about pricing, attach it. See Attachments.
Turning a conversation into work
When you've agreed something, turn the conversation into work. If it started as an inquiry, the inquiry itself offers to create a booking, proposal or invoice with the details carried across. See Inquiries.
For anything else, open the contact from the top of the thread and use Create proposal, Create booking or Create invoice there.