Step 6 - Share your documents via email

Updated on:
September 6, 2023

Sometimes it might be useful to automatically share documents with a certain people via email as soon as the document is created. With Portant Data Merge you are able to do this using our 'Share via email' functionality.

In this article you’ll learn how to:

  1. Setting up an email
  2. Email attachments
  3. Email sending conditions
  4. Secondary emails
  5. Email limits

Setting up an email

To add an email to your workflow, you need to tick the checkbox 'Automatically email created docs', which is located in the 'Share via email' box under 'Document outputs'. When you click this checkbox a modal will open with email settings.

After the email modal is open, you'll be able to see all the functions available. The standard email fields such as To, Subject and Body on the left hand side, and on the right handside you have the source tags, attachment settings and sending conditions.

To

If one of your {{tags}} has email in the name, Portant will automatically place it in the 'To' field. You can enter other emails addresses into this field and also add multiple {{tags}} (if they are emails)

Subject

The subject line can be customised by using {{tags}}. This works in the same way as it does in the document, by placing your cursor in the subject line field and clicking 'Insert'

Body

The body of the email can also be customised using {{tags}}. This works in the same way as it does in the document, by placing your cursor in the body field and clicking 'Insert'

Portant Branding

Portant branding is added onto the emails in two ways. The first is adding 'via Portant Data Merge' to the end of your Sender name. And the second is via a footer that will appear at the bottom of every email. If you would like to remove this branding you can purchase Portant Pro.

Top tip - These emails will be send via your Gmail account. You will be able to view the emails send by accessing your sent folder in Gmail

Email Attachments

You can customise the attachments sent with your email. When you Share a Google Docs/Slides file you have three levels of access you can give the recipients:

Viewer

  • View documents and presentations
  • Download, copy or sync a documents or presentations to another device

Editor

  • Edit Google documents and presentations.
  • Invite or remove other collaborators.
  • View the list of other collaborators.
  • Make a copy of the document to save in Google Drive.
  • Delete the file.

Commenter

  • Comment on Google documents and presentations
  • View documents and presentations
  • Download or sync the document or presentation to another device
  • Make a copy of a document or presentation to save in Google Drive

You can also attach a pdf to the email if you have paid for Portant Pro.

Sending Conditions

Below the attachments box there is an option to set-up sending conditions. This is where you can send an email based on the data contained within a field in the data source. To switch this setting on, click the 'Send emails based on defined rules' checkbox. After you do this a new modal will open like this:

Here you can select a field to base a condition on and then add the rule. You can add multiple rules referencing different fields. After you have completed your rule you can name it in the top right hand corner then click 'Save'.

Secondary emails

After you have added your first email, you can add a second by clicking the 'Add secondary email' checkbox in the 'Share via email' box. After you click this checkbox another email modal window will open where you can customise your second email.

Top Tip - This is very useful if you are using Portant for approval processes. You can pair this feature with the Google Form source's Prefill links and send the first email as a Draft and the second as a final document for example.

Email Quotas

Google sets email quotas for different levels of Google Workspace account. These email quotas are displayed at the bottom of the 'Share via email' box and the 'Email settings modal'. These numbers are sourced directly from Google.

The email limits are based on the number of recipients, not the number of unique emails. These email limits reset every 24 hours. The exact time when Google renews your quota could vary but we've seen that the quota often resets around 1 PM PST

  • Free Gmail accounts are limited to 100 recipients/24 hours.
  • Google Workspace (GSuite) 1500 recipients/24 hours (the limit is 400 for new sign-ups) If you have just upgraded you may be limited while you are in the trial period.

If your email ends in '@gmail.com' you are probably a free Gmail user.

Feedback and feature suggestions

We created Portant in 2021 and the feedback we have received since then has been very helpful and greatly appreciated. If you have any feedback please feel free to send us an email at contact@portant.co or use our contact form here: https://www.portant.co/support

Thanks,

Blake and James

More than mail merge

You can do a lot more than just mail merge with Portant. Portant is a fully-fledged online document automation solution that can optimise many different document flows. You can use our online document automation platform to optimise your repetitive work, so you can get back to doing the work you enjoy.

Get started
Most Popular Templates

Save hours of manual work in just a few clicks

Transform your work life with responsive, fully customizable, and easy-to-use templates.