# Email
The email channel works like just as you would expect it to in real life, but you can only **send and receive to players inside of your exercise**.
| Benefit | Feature |
| ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Emulate email for an interactive experience |
Forward
cc
bcc
Report phishing
Add attachments
Draft
|
## Running
{% hint style="success" %}
We recommend you encourage players to interact with emails as it makes the exercise much more engaging.
{% endhint %}
### Email Management
Manage your emails in various ways, on this page you will find more details on how to:
* **Create** new emails
* **Reply** to emails
* **Forward** emails
* **Draft** emails
* Email **multiple** participants
* Report emails as **phishing**
#### Creating new emails
Creating an email is as simple as in real life. The image below underlines the basic options when creating a new email:
#### Replying to emails
To reply to an email you need to use the buttons below the email, just as you would do in real life:
#### Forwarding emails
To forward an email, click the forward button and choose a contact you want to forward it to:
#### Draft emails
Save emails as drafts so you can plan and return to them at a later date. To do this:
1. Click `Compose` on the left-hand panel and begin writing your email
2. Navigate to the send button but click the upwards arrow next to it. Here you have the option to save as a draft
3. Your saved email can be found in the Drafts section of your email
#### Emailing multiple participants
To email multiple participants click the `To:` tab and select the desired contacts.
**Alternative: Create a contact list**
Alternatively, you could create an email group by navigating to the Contact List, creating a new list, and selecting the participants you want to add:
* Rename the list by clicking the pencil icon
* Send an email to all participants in this list by clicking the paper plane icon
#### Reporting emails
Allows players to report suspicious email content as phishing.
Phishing reports are presented to Exercise Control in the following ways:
* Review tab in the Facilitator Dashboard
* The Pulse Conversation widget
Report an email as phishing by clicking the three dots on the top right of the email and then clicking `Report phishing`.
#### Managing emails via tags/folders
Improve organisation by grouping emails based on their content or topic into **shared folders**.
This allows you to categorise your emails, making it easier to find specific messages when you need them. By creating and using shared folders, you can keep your inbox tidy, streamline communication, and ensure that important emails are stored in relevant, accessible locations.
### Creating tags and Folders
{% stepper %}
{% step %}
#### Select email channel
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
#### Hover over the icons on the left and click `Add tag`
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
#### Create a name for your tag/folder and `Save`
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
#### To manage your emails click and drag them across to the newly created folder
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
#### To remove the tag click on the `x`
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}
### :zap:Are emails published in the real world?
No, it's private. Emails you send stay within the secure, private environment of your exercise. What you see is a simulated inbox.
***
## Designing
### How to (Configuration)
There are various options for email configuration:
* **Enable or disable** (i.e. active or inactive)
* Allow players to **compose & send** emails (or prevent)
* Allow **autocomplete** of email addresses (recommended)
* Provide a **shared inbox**
* **Hide players' emails** from the contact list and autocomplete
#### Composing email configuration
For an exercise that's "on rails" where you want to prevent player agency (hint: never a good idea!) you can prevent players from writing & sending new emails.
If you allow players to create emails, we recommend you allow "auto complete" of the email address.
Autocomplete prevents players mistyping an email address. This is important because there is no bounce indication in Conducttr. A mistyped email address can't be delivered and they'll be no indication of it.
#### Shared inbox configuration
A shared inbox requires you to provide a (fake) email address to which all players and injects can send emails and have them readable in the shared inbox folder.
**Shared inbox options**
**Session vs team**
The shared inbox can be configured for session or for team. That is, everyone in the exercise sees the same shared inbox ("session") or each team sees their own shared inbox ("teams").
**Sending to the shared inbox**
The default configuration requires players to add the shared inbox email address to their sent email. You can however force all emails to be sent to the shared inbox.
#### Hide emails configuration
If you're using auto-complete, there may be some players' email addresses you don't want to display - for example, those of people on EXCON. Hiding their emails removes clutter and increases the realism.
There are three ways to configure this in the Editor by hiding:
* **All** player email addresses
* **Specific** player email addresses
* **Persona** email addresses
**Hide all players' emails**
This is available in the email Channel `Configuration` and affects the visibility of all player email addresses.
**Hide individual players' emails**
From the `Teams` table in the Editor you can toggle individual players' email addresses on and off from the contact list and auto-complete.
**Hide personas' emails**
From the `Personas` tab in the Editor you can toggle individual personas' email addresses on and off.
#### **Hide Help Desk email**
You need to turn this off even if the Help Desk channel is marked as inactive.
The option keeps the support address available for system use but invisible to players.
### How to (Injects)
#### Adding images to the Email body
**1. Create email inject**
Begin by creating an inject and selecting the email channel.
**2. Add text & attach media**
To attach your media click the `Attach media` buttons at the bottom of the content box.
You'll be directed to your media folder where you can select a pre-uploaded image, import a new one or use the AI Assistant to generate media.
### đŸ”¥Using smartwords
A useful way of using smartwords is to position images within the body of the email rather than have them always shown as attachments.
Use `{assets.1}` or `{assets.2}` within the body
You might also use `{name}` to add the player's name.
And this is how it looks when published from the MEL:
