Find out what's urgent in your Outlook inbox
Monday morning, forty emails, and one of them really can't wait. With Outlook connected, ask your assistant what's urgent and it reads your recent mail and tells you in a few lines — and it can find the document you need in OneDrive without you digging through folders.
1/3 · Open Assistant from the left rail
- 4To find a document, ask for it by a word in its name — “Find the sermon outline in my OneDrive”It searches the OneDrive that comes with your Outlook connection.
- 5Tap a file to open itThe list is headed From your OneDrive. Each result is a link to the file, with the date it last changed. You see 15 at a time unless you ask for a number — “my 3 most recent docs”.
Good to know
- Want to answer one? Ask “Draft a reply to Maria about the headcount.” The draft opens for you to check, and nothing sends until you press Send.
- Want your inbox in your morning brief too? Ask “What's in today's brief?”, tap Customize brief (or Set up daily brief) under it, and switch on Unread inbox. That switch works only with Outlook connected.
- “My recent docs” lists your newest files rather than searching for them by name. To find one file, use a distinctive word from its title.
- If your church has both Gmail and Outlook connected, your assistant sends email and reads the calendar through Gmail, and reads the inbox and finds files through Outlook.
If it’s not working
It says “Reading your inbox isn't available with Gmail”
That's expected with Gmail, and nothing is wrong with your connection: Aligned sends email from your Gmail but doesn't read it, and reconnecting Google won't change that. Inbox summaries need Outlook. With Gmail your assistant still writes and sends email and reads and adds to your Google Calendar.
It says “Reading your inbox needs Outlook connected”
No Outlook account is connected yet. Open Connections in your Assistant, press Connect next to Microsoft Outlook on the Email tab, then ask again.
“You're all caught up — no recent emails to review.”
Your inbox had nothing recent to summarize. That's all it means.
It lists my emails, but there's no summary on top
The summary couldn't be written this time, so you get the plain list instead. Ask again in a moment for the summary.
It says searching Google Drive isn't available, or it found no matching files
Aligned can't search Google Drive — download the file from Drive and upload it in Brain under Documents instead. In OneDrive, “no matching files” means no file name matched the words you used: try one distinctive word from the title, or ask for your most recent files.
Next, you might want to
- Connect your email and calendarLink Gmail or Outlook so your assistant can read and add to your calendar and send email from your own address — or share only your calendar.
- Have your assistant write and send an emailTell your assistant who it's for and what to say, check the draft it writes in your voice, and send it from your own mailbox.
- Get a daily brief every morningTurn on a short morning summary of your calendar, to-dos and church numbers, and choose what goes in it.