With the legacy AODocs Smartbar installed, you can import your emails and their attachments from your Gmail interface into your Document Management libraries. The Import into AODocs feature creates a new AODocs document in the root folder of the default document class of your selected library.

Important: This feature isn't available in the new Smartbar. Learn more: What are the differences between the two AODocs Smartbars?

Before running the import, you can:

• choose whether to import the email body, including any inline images
• define the format of the email body (if you chose to import it)
• select the attachments and inline images to import
• choose whether to import the email attachments and inline images as a zip archive or as attachments to your new document

Notes:
– The Import into AODocs button is available only if you can create a document in an AODocs library or if you have access to one or more Document Management libraries.
– The Import into AODocs feature isn't available in delegated accounts. A message appears to indicate that the operation must be run by the owner of the email account.

Automatically generated table of contents

Import an email 

Access the import feature

1. Open the email to import.

2. Click the Import into AODocs button. The Import email into AODocs dialog opens.

Select the destination library

1. In the Import email into AODocs dialog, select the destination library. There are two ways to do this:

• Select Recent location and choose a Document Management library from the most recent locations you imported to

• Select Library name and choose a Document Management library from the library picker

Tips:
– You can use the library picker like a search field to find a library by its name.
– You can click the star button to add a library to your favorites. Your favorite libraries are synchronized between AODocs and the Smartbar, so all your favorite libraries are listed in the library picker drop-down list. Learn more: Manage your favorite libraries. 

Important:
– You only have access to the Document Management libraries in which you can create documents.
– In Document Management libraries, you can import your emails only into the root folder of the default document class. The Folder name field is always greyed out.

A message in the dialog indicates that a new document will be created at the root of your Document Management library. The email subject becomes the name of your new document.

2. Click Next. 

Choose whether to import the email and select a format

1. If required, activate the switch to import the body of your email. Then select the required format:

• The AODocs document's description: the email body becomes the description of your new document
• A Google document attachment: the email body becomes an attachment of the document (the document description remains empty)
• A PDF attachment: the email body becomes a PDF attachment of the document (the document description remains empty)

Note: If you import the email body, it becomes a document with a header indicating the subject, sender, recipients and date of receipt. Any inline images are included in the document. You can also choose to import attachments and inline images separately 

An email body included as a PDF file

2. Define whether to import the original email in Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) format as an EML file, attached to your AODocs document.

EML is a file extension for email messages in the MIME RFC 822 standard format.
An EML file contains all the original email data (header, body and attachments).

This format is often used to archive emails. You can open EML files with most email clients like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Tip: In Google Drive, you can find your EML file by running a search on its ID, subject, sender, recipients, body, attachment names and inline image names.

3. Click Next.

Note: If you don't activate either switch, you must select at least one attachment or inline image.

Select attachments and inline images to import

1. Select any attachments and inline images you want to include in the import. By default, email attachments are selected and inline images are not selected.

Notes:
– If you import the email body, any inline images are also included in the Google document, PDF file or AODocs document description.
– If you chose not to import the email body or an EML file, you must select at least one attachment or inline image to import.

2. Define how to import the selected files:

• If you don't activate the Import selected attachments as a ZIP archive switch: each selected file becomes an attachment of the new document.
• If you activate the Import selected attachments as a ZIP archive switch: the selected files are included in a zip archive when imported.

3. Click Import. A confirmation message is displayed with a link to your new AODocs document.

Notes:
– Your import choices are saved until you reload your Gmail page or leave it. If you want to import another email to AODocs, the previous options are automatically selected.
– If you import an email that's part of a conversation, its body will contain the bodies and inline images of previous emails in the conversation. Only the attachments of the imported email are imported.

Access the new document in your library from the AODocs interface

You can now access your newly created document from the AODocs interface. Below are two examples of AODocs documents created by import, with different settings.

Import with the option Include the original email (EML file) as attachment selected

Import with the option Include selected attachments as a zip archive selected

Visual example