Search and ask about filed emails

Emails filed from Outlook aren't only on the project's Emails page. You can find them with Part3's search, ask Ask Part3 about them, and read them from an AI assistant that your firm has connected to Part3.

In this article we'll cover the following:

• Find filed emails with search
• Ask Part3 about filed emails
• AI assistants connected to Part3
• Who can see what
• Troubleshooting

Find filed emails with search

Step 1: Open a project and select the search icon (🔍) at the top of the page.

Step 2: Type a word from the subject, the sender's name or address, or something from the email's text. Filed emails are listed under Emails, with the subject, the sender and the date it was sent.

When the match is in the email's text, the result shows the matching words, labelled email body.

Step 3: Select a result. The email opens on the project's Emails page, inside its conversation.

• Search covers the subject, the sender, and the first 4,096 characters of the email's text. It doesn't search inside attachments.
• Emails only show up when you search inside a project, not from your organization's pages.
• To filter by folder, sender or date, use the search on the project's Emails page instead.

Ask Part3 about filed emails

With a project open, select Ask Part3 (the tab on the right edge of the screen) and ask about the project's correspondence in plain language. For example:

• "What did the structural engineer say about the slab edge detail in RFI-014?"
• "Search the filed emails: what was the outcome of the door hardware resubmission?"
• "Which emails did Dana Whitfield send last week?"
• "Summarize the emails in the Site meetings folder from October."

Ask Part3 searches the filed emails by words, sender, dates and folder, reads the ones that match, and answers with the emails it used.

• What it reads: each email's sender, recipients, date, folder, attachment names and sizes, and the first 4,096 characters of its text.
• What it doesn't read: the contents of attachments. Open the email on the Emails page to download them.
• Folder names: if two folders have the same name, Ask Part3 asks you which one you mean.

AI assistants connected to Part3

If your firm has connected an AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to Part3, the assistant can also read your filed emails. It can:

• search or list a project's filed emails by words, sender, dates and folder
• list the project's email folders
• read an email, including who filed it, its folder history and its attachment names
• read a whole conversation, oldest first

Assistants can only read. They can't file, move or delete emails, and they can't open attachments. They see exactly the filed emails you can see in Part3.

Who can see what

Search, Ask Part3 and connected assistants follow the same rules as the Emails page:

• Everyone in your firm (members of the organization that owns the project) can find the project's filed emails.
• Restricted folders: emails in a restricted folder only show up for that folder's members and your organization admins.
• Other companies on the project, such as consultants, contractors and owners, never see your filed emails in search or in answers.

Troubleshooting

Q: I don't see an Emails group in my search results.

Make sure you're searching from inside a project your firm owns, and that email filing is turned on for your organization. If nothing matches, try fewer or different words.

Q: An email I know was filed doesn't come up.

It might be in a restricted folder you aren't a member of. Search also only covers the first 4,096 characters of an email's text, so words near the end of a long email or in an attachment won't match. Try searching for the subject or sender instead.

Q: Ask Part3 says no filed emails match.

Try naming the sender, a word from the subject, or a date range. You can also tell it the folder to look in.