Using tags to label and file conversations
Overview
Front supports nesting tags to categorize them in groups and allows you to drag messages from your inbox into a private tag or the Starred section to file them away.
When you connect a Gmail or Office 365 account, your Gmail labels and Outlook folders will be synced to Front automatically as tags. To learn more about tags, read Understanding tags.
Using private tags like folders
How to add a tag to your sidebar
Private tags can be used as your personal folders. For a shortcut to conversations with important tags, add them to your sidebar. You can then drag and drop conversations from your Inbox to your private tags to file them away, or add private tags using the tag icon to mark and categorize them.
Step 1
Hover over any item currently in your sidebar, and click the three-dot menu, then Edit sidebar.
Step 2
In the edit menu, click Add private tags. Check off any tags you'd like to show in your sidebar.
Step 3
Click Save at the bottom of the Edit sidebar menu.
Once added to your sidebar, you will see the tags in your sidebar with their tag icons. A lock symbol next to the tag name means it's a private tag. You can show up to 500 tags in your sidebar.
Drag messages to private tags like folders
For any private tags shown in your sidebar, you can drag conversations into them like folders. Filing a conversation in a private tag does not affect other participants in the conversation, so you can organize your personal workflow the way you want. Similarly, when you drag and drop conversations into your Starred section of your sidebar, the conversation will also move out of the original inbox and be filed into the Starred section. You can un-star the conversation to return it to the original inbox.
Step 1
Add a private tag to your sidebar following the instructions above.
Step 2
Click and hold to drag a conversation from your inbox into a private tag in your sidebar. You can only drag conversations into private tags.
Step 3
The conversation will no longer be visible in your inbox. Find the conversation by clicking on your private tag, which acts as your private folder.
Note: Tags will be automatically added or removed from the conversation when you drag a conversation from your inbox into a tag or between tags.
The private Inbox tag
The Inbox tag is a default private tag added to every conversation (open, archived, snoozed, etc.) in your main Inbox section (your private inboxes, Shared with me, Assigned to me). That way, you know if a conversation lives in your inbox or in a private tag that you're using like a folder.
- If the conversation comes into your private inbox, gets assigned to you, or is shared to you, this tag will be automatically added since all of these are your own copies of the conversation that you can freely work with.
- The Inbox tag makes possible the ability to move conversations into a private tag to be used as a private folder. Once you drag-and-drop a conversation from your Inbox into a private tag, it will remove the Inbox tag, and add the private tag.
- You can always re-add the Inbox tag to a conversation if you want it to show up in your Inbox again, or drag-and-drop the conversation from your private tag back into your inbox.
Use quick rules to file messages
Here's how to quickly create rules to move messages from certain senders into private tags:
Step 1
Open an email, and click on any of the following:
- Three-dot menu at the top of the conversation
- A tag on the conversation
- Contact name in the email header
- Three-dot menu on the email message
- Three-dot menu next to a private tag in your sidebar
Step 2
From any of the above menus, click Create quick rule.
Step 3
The When a new message is received from field will already be populated with the contact name. Select a tag under the Move to field, which is where all future messages from this contact will be moved.
Step 4
Click Create to enable your rule. You can view or edit your rules anytime by clicking the gear icon on the top right of Front and into the Personal settings. Then select Rules from the left menu.
For more information on rules, see our article How to create a rule.
Use regular rules to file messages
You can also use rules to file messages from your inbox into private folders. This example will show how you can use a personal rule to file new inbound messages into a private tag:
Step 1
Click the gear icon on the top right of Front and into the Personal settings tab.
Step 2
Select Rules in the left menu, then click the Add a rule button.
Step 3
Name your rule, and format the triggers like such:
WHEN inbound
IF conversation has tag “Inbox”
THEN add tag “Folder #1”
Remove tag “Inbox”
11 replies
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The new inbox tag is interesting. I don't know if I'm seeing correctly but it looks like there are loads of historical messages now tagged with Inbox, even those that have been tagged already, archived and deleted. Confusing 😕
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Have been waiting for these feature for long.
Sadly only works with private tags, what a waste of time honestly. -
Why not company tags?
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Andrew Armitage Hi there! The Inbox tag is added to all the conversations in your private workspace, including Assigned and Shared conversations since those are considered your copies of the shared conversation. The inbox tag allows you to then drag and drop any of your own copies to organize into your private tags (aka folders), as the inbox folder will be removed and new tag will be added to signify that it's been moved out of the inbox. Some users who don't have a private inbox added will also be able to use private tags as private folders in this way. So even if conversations were already archived, you can still retroactively organize things if you'd like, made possible by the Inbox tag. And if you don't use private folders, you can just ignore the tag as it's just silently added.
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Hi Vitor Luis and Aleksander Palamarczuk - we definitely agree adding drag and drop between team tags would be very helpful, and we are looking into adding it soon! We have always had team folders (empty inboxes) to organize your team conversations, so you can still use that for now. We will let you know once drag and drop for team tags is available!
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Helena Li I'd love to know who the use case of the nested tags were for. The reason people were excited about them, was for teams to be able to better use tags and to understand more about what customers are talking about. There's no point in doing that for private conversations, because you rarely (if at all) need to report on them.
Zendesk's 'tag categories' is essentially what you want to compete with here, and I'm quite baffled why it hasn't been introduced from the get-go.
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Hi Adam Maskell , there might be two different questions here:
- Nesting: You can set up parent-child relationships for both private and team tags. This should make it easier to organize and use both kinds of tags.
- Drag-and-drop: You can use private tags like folders for any conversation in your inbox (even team conversations). This is to give people more control over how they organize their inbox, especially if they are transitioning from Outlook or Gmail and use folders and labels heavily there.
Let me know if that helps, or if I misunderstood your question!
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Helena Li Ah, thank you! Serves me write for reading the comments before reading the article ;)
Great work, thanks!
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Helena Li P.S. I'll delete my original comment so no one is confused by it.
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Helena Li I can't delete comments. Oh well.
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Adam Maskell I think the info will be helpful for others who might be confused, so I'll leave them and just delete these last few comments :)