B-10 · Email, Outlook and Letter Text Setup¶

Book B — Agency Administrator Guide · draft v1 (2026-08-29)

How HousingOS sends email¶

Three routes exist; which one a workstation uses depends on your Microsoft 365 setup:

Route	When	What the user sees
Microsoft Graph (recommended)	user has signed in via Edit User Information (▸ B-3)	HousingOS's own Email window; Send goes straight out; calendar invites work
Classic Outlook	Outlook desktop (classic) installed; Outlook classic switch on	the message opens in Outlook for review; user clicks Send there
New Outlook	the new Outlook app; New Outlook switch on	the message opens in New Outlook; some flows (bid thank-you) behave slightly differently

Set the agency default in Default Settings (▸ B-4) and the per-workstation/user override where offered. HousingOS never requires the Outlook object library — nothing to install beyond Outlook itself.

Shared mailbox (optional)¶

Settings ▸ Email Password stores a shared account's credentials for letters that should come from a department address; Email Test on the Settings form sends a test message and reports success/failure.

Lead-paint inspector address¶

Settings ▸ Lead Paint Inspection Reports Email: the inspector's email, subject and body text used by the LIRA Request and Clearance Request buttons (▸ C-10). The Lead Paint sub-tab tells users "Email will be sent to: … (ask Program Administrator to change)" — this is where.

Bid and notice email texts¶

Program Settings (▸ B-4) holds the per-program switches and subject/body for bid invitations, bid review and bid results, plus Additional insured wording.
The Email Letters library (Bid Letters ▸ Manage Letters…, ▸ B-7 §5) holds the reusable letters — Initial Bid Letter, Rescheduled Bid Letter, Thank You, Homeowner Bid Walk Notice — with Restore Default on shipped ones. Anyone can add letters; keep an eye on wording.
Placeholders are [bracketed] field names filled at send time ([ApplicantName], [BidWalkDate], …). While editing a body, type [ and the suggestion popup lists valid placeholders — pick one to insert it. Unknown placeholders print literally.

Standard email body for documents¶

Printing Options setup (▸ B-7 §4) decides, per document, whether the email uses the agency's standard body text or copies the letter into the email.

Watch-outs¶

Mixed Outlook flavours in one office are fine — set the switch per workstation/user, not agency-wide, if people differ.
Consent — the first Graph sign-in per tenant needs an admin to consent to the HousingOS app (Housing Programs sends the link, ▸ A-8).
Emails "not sent" with attachments usually mean a file on a path the workstation can't see (▸ C-19 watch-outs).
Sent items for Graph mail appear in the user's own Sent folder; for the shared mailbox, in that mailbox.

Screenshot shot list¶

Shot	What
B10-01	Lead Paint Inspection Reports Email form
B10-02	Manage Letters (Email Letters manager)
B10-03	suggestion popup while typing `[`

Open items for John¶

Where exactly the classic/New Outlook switches live (Default Settings vs Program Settings vs per user) — the code reads defaultsettings.outlookclassic and TempVars!NewOutlook.