The Outlook Add-in for Windows, also known as Syncplicity for Outlook, allows you to email shared links to files that are too large to email.
When sending a new email or responding to one, you can choose to upload your files to a special Syncplicity folder in your Syncplicity account instead of mailing them. The Outlook Add-in then inserts links to the files in your email.
When you send or reply to an email, simply attach your files. When uploading large files, the Outlook Add-in uploads in small chunks so that large files can be sent efficiently as shared links even under poor network conditions.
The Outlook Add-in does more than that:
- You can configure the add-in to automatically upload all files that you attach to the email, or just large files but leave smaller files as attachments.
- You can add protection, which includes requiring users to log in to their Syncplicity account, enter a password, or both to access the shared link.
- File attachments live forever in your sent email. With the add-in, you can automatically expire the link after a specific number of days. Afterwards, no one can access the file using the shared link.
- You can email a shared link to folder (although not a Syncplicity folder). The add-in zips it, uploads it to your account then emails the shared link to the zip file.
NOTE: This feature is available to all Personal Edition (free) accounts. For all other accounts, it is up to your administrator to enable it. Your administrator can also configure some of these settings, which would prevent you from setting them yourself.
The Outlook Add-in places a Syncplicity Options icon to the Outlook ribbon, and Syncplicity menu items to the send or reply windows. It also creates a special shared folder in your Syncplicity account called Email Attachments. All of these are described below.
NOTE: The Syncplicity Outlook Add-in for Windows is not the same as the Syncplicity Outlook Add-in for Office 365, which supports the Outlook Web App (OWA) and so is available from multiple platforms.
Syncplicity icon and menus
Once the Outlook Add-in is installed on your system, the Syncplicity Options icon appears in the Outlook ribbon. You can click the icon to view the Syncplicity menu. The Settings menu option allows you to configure send and security options, if not already set by your administrator. The Support menu option allows you to send feedback to let us know what you like or dislike, as well as review the tutorial and send log files if you are having a problem.
In the new or reply mail ribbon, you have access to the Syncplicity menu items that allow you to attach a file currently in your Syncplicity account.
To use the add-in, you must be logged into your Syncplicity account; otherwise, you are prompted to log in.
Email Attachments folder
The Email Attachments folder contains the files that you attached to your email but elected to send as shared links. This folder has the following special properties:
- The folder cannot be deleted or shared. However, the files in the folder can be downloaded, shared or deleted as you would any other file.
- The folder does not allow subfolders.
- Files cannot be uploaded to this folder, except from email attachments from Outlook.
- Files cannot be versioned. Should you upload the same file again through the Outlook Add-in, it is uploaded as a different file. Therefore, there can be multiple occurrences of the same file.
- The folder does not synchronize to desktop clients.
- The folder is not available to the Syncplicity mobile clients. However, the folder is available in My Syncplicity.
- Items in this folder count towards your account’s storage.
NOTE: Should you need to free space, you can delete files from this folder. However, as with any file you delete in your Syncplicity account, any associated shared link will no longer be valid and recipients will not be able to download those files.
Next step
If you haven’t installed it already, see Installing Syncplicity Outlook Add-in for Windows.