A conversation is a collection of related messages exchanged securely between two or more participants.

A conversation can be associated with a contact or an opportunity, making the conversation contextual. All of your conversations appear in the Conversations sidebar, which contains the conversations inbox and other conversation functionality. The conversations are sorted according to their latest messages; the conversation with the most recent message appears at the top of the Conversations sidebar.

To open the Conversations sidebar, click the View Conversations button , or the View Unread Conversations button , in the navigation toolbar. The button changes based on the number of conversations you have that contain unread messages. To close the Conversations sidebar, at the top of the sidebar, click the right arrow next to Conversations.

You can create new conversations and send messages within existing conversations from the Conversations sidebar, a contact's Detail tab, or an opportunity's Detail tab. Once you send a message, conversation participants will receive an email notification or see a pop-up notification in the bottom right corner of any workspace in NexJ CRM , depending on how each user configures their conversation notification preferences. Any conversations related to a contact appear in that contact's Detail tab and Journal tab. Any conversations related to an opportunity appear in that opportunity's Detail tab.

Starting conversations

Start new conversations in the Conversations sidebar with other NexJ CRM users with whom you can exchange messages.

To start a conversation:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Click New.
   The New Conversation dialog opens.
3. In the With field, click Select and choose the participant or participants you want to start a conversation with.

4. [Optional] In the About drop down, select Contact (which could be a company) or Opportunity as context for this conversation. This is the contact or opportunity you plan to discuss in the conversation.

   All conversations appear in the Conversations sidebar. In addition, conversations associated with contacts appear in both the Detail tab and Journal tab of the associated contact's record. Conversations associated with opportunities appear in the Detail tab of the associated opportunity on the Opportunities workspace.

5. [Optional] In the Subject field, add a meaningful subject for this conversation.

6. [Optional] In the Attachment field, click the Add Attachment button  to add an attachment to this first message in the conversation.

   You can add only one attachment to each message in a conversation.

7. [Optional] In the Security field, select Private to Participants to mark this conversation as private.

8. In the message field, enter the text for this first message.

   Messages must contain text, an attachment, or both, or they cannot be sent.

9. Click Send.
   The New Conversation dialog closes.

The message is sent to the specified users and each user receives a message notification. The conversation appears in the Conversations sidebar. It also appears in the associated contact's Detail tab and Journal tab or the associated opportunity's Detail tab. Any replies to this first message will appear in those places as well.

Starting conversations about specific topics

You can start a new conversation about a contact, including company contacts, or about an opportunity.

Starting a new conversation from within the Conversations subtab in a contact's Detail tab automatically sets the context of the conversation to that contact and adds them to the About field in the conversation details. Starting a new conversation from within the Conversations subtab in an opportunity's Detail tab automatically sets the context of the conversation to that opportunity and adds it to the About field in the conversation details.

To start a conversation about a specific contact or opportunity:

1. Do one of the following:
   • Navigate to the Contacts workspace and select the contact you want to use as context for a conversation.
   • Navigate to the Opportunities workspace and select the opportunity you want to use as context for a conversation.
2. In the Detail tab, click the Conversations subtab, and then click the Add button .
   The New Conversation dialog opens with the contact or opportunity you selected in the About field.
3. In the With field, select the user or users you want to exchange messages with.
4. [Optional] In the Subject field, add a meaningful subject for this conversation.

5. [Optional] In the Attachment field, click the Add Attachment button  to add an attachment to this first message in the conversation.

   You can add only one attachment per message in a conversation.

6. [Optional] In the Security field, select Private to Participants to mark this conversation as private.

7. In the message field, enter the text for this first message.

   Messages must have message text, an attachment, or both, or they cannot be sent.

8. Click Send.
   The New Conversation dialog closes.

The message is sent to the specified users and each user receives a message notification. The conversation appears in the Conversations sidebar. In addition, it appears in the associated contact's Detail tab and Journal tab or the associated opportunity's Detail tab. Any replies to this first message will appear in those places as well.

Replying to conversations

Any participant in a conversation may reply to it.

To reply to a conversation:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Locate the conversation you want to reply to.

3. In the Reply field, enter the text of your message or click the Add Attachment button to add an attachment to this message.

   Messages must contain either text or an attachment or they cannot be sent.

4. Click Reply.

Your message is sent to all of the participants in the conversation and each participant receives a conversation notification. The conversation is marked as read.

Viewing earlier messages in a conversation

When you open the Conversations sidebar, only a conversation's details and its two latest messages are shown. However, you can open a conversation to view more of its messages when more messages exist.

To view earlier messages in a conversation:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Locate the conversation you want to see more messages for.
3. Click Load More.
   The conversation expands, displaying up to 20 earlier messages. Also, the Collapse link appears, which you can click to collapse the conversation back to the two most recent messages.

If there are more than 20 earlier messages, the Load More link remains. Every time you click it, 20 more messages appear. When there are no more messages, the Load More link disappears.

Filtering conversations

In the Conversations sidebar, you can filter conversations by their associated participants.

To filter conversations:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Click the Select button  in the Search for User field.
   The Select User dialog opens.
3. Locate and select the desired participant and click OK.
   The Select User dialog closes and the Conversations sidebar refreshes to show only conversations with the selected participant.
4. Click the Clear button  to return to the original, unfiltered view of the Conversations sidebar.

The Conversations sidebar refreshes to display all conversations regardless of associated participants.

Inviting participants to existing conversations

Invite additional participants to an existing conversation when you want them to be able to view and reply to new messages in the conversation. Newly invited participants cannot see messages that were sent before they joined the conversation.

To invite participants to an existing conversation:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Locate the conversation you want to invite additional participants to.
3. Click Invite.
   The Invite Participants dialog opens.
4. Select from the list of available conversation participants on the left side of the dialog and click Add.
   New participants populate the list on the right side of the dialog.
5. Click OK.
   The Invite Participants dialog closes.

The new participants join the conversation, and all current participants are sent a conversation notification.

Leaving conversations

Leave a conversation when you no longer want to be notified of or reply to new messages. Your copy of the conversation, up until the time that you left it, will still appear in the Conversations sidebar. You can only leave conversations that you did not start and that have three or more participants.

To leave a conversation:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Locate the conversation you want to leave.
3. Click Actions and select Leave.
   A confirmation dialog opens, asking you to confirm that you want to leave the conversation.
4. Click Yes.
   The confirmation dialog closes.

You have left the conversation. You can no longer reply to, invite others to, or receive new messages from this conversation. All other participants are sent a notification that you have left the conversation.

Related links

Deleting conversations

Deleting conversations

Deleting a conversation removes only your copy of the conversation; other participants in the conversation can still see the conversation in their own Conversations sidebar. If you delete a conversation, and a participant sends a new message, you will continue to receive the new messages but the older messages will still be gone. In order to stop receiving new messages, you need to leave the conversation.

To delete a conversation:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Locate the conversation you want to delete your copy of.
3. Click Actions and select Delete.
   A confirmation dialog opens, asking you to confirm that you want to delete your copy of the conversation.
4. Click Delete.
   The confirmation dialog closes.

Your copy of the conversation is deleted. You will no longer see the conversation in the Conversations sidebar. Once a conversation is deleted, you will no longer be able to reply to it. If the conversation was associated with a contact, it is still visible in the contact's Detail tab or Journal tab. If it was associated with an opportunity, it is still visible in the opportunity's Detail tab.

Marking conversations read

Marking a conversation as read marks all the unread messages within that conversation as read. The Read button is only available when a conversation has unread messages in it. Conversations are marked as read either when you reply to the most recent message in them, or when you manually mark them as read. Conversations that you do not reply to, or do not mark as read, will continue to be counted by the View Unread Conversations button .

To mark a conversation read:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Locate the conversation you want to mark as read.
3. Click Read.

The conversation is marked as read.

Marking all conversations read

Conversations are marked as read either when you reply to the most recent message in them, or when you manually mark them as read. If you have a lot of conversations that you are not replying to, but want to mark as read, you can mark them all read at the same time. Conversations that you do not reply to, or do not mark as read, will continue to be counted by the View Unread Conversations button .

To mark all of your conversations read:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Click the arrow next to the New button and select Mark All Read.

All of the conversations in your Conversations sidebar are marked read.

Managing conversation notifications

When you receive new messages or conversations, you can choose to receive pop-up notifications in NexJ CRM, as well as notifications sent to your email address.

To manage your conversation notifications:

1. Open the Conversations sidebar.
2. Click the arrow next to the New button and select Manage Conversation Notifications.
   The Manage Conversation Notifications dialog opens.
3. Select or clear the corresponding checkboxes for desktop or email conversation notifications.
4. Click OK.
   The Manage Conversation Notifications dialog closes.

Your conversation notification settings are updated and you will receive notifications as specified.