Write a new email

Updated New
View as Markdown

You can start a new email from anywhere in Rookery. Your words are saved on your device as you type, so a closed tab doesn't lose them.

Write and send

  1. Click Write in the sidebar, or press c. On a phone, tap the pen button.
  2. If you have more than one inbox, pick the address to send From.
  3. Type a name or address in To, and pick the person from the list. To copy others in, click Cc and add them the same way.
  4. Add a Subject. Every email needs one.
  5. Write your message.
  6. Click Send, or press ⌘Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows).

Checks on who it's to

Rookery looks at the addresses in To and Cc as you add them, with plain rules (no AI), so the email reaches the person you mean:

  • A likely typo: "Did you mean dana@lumenstudio.example? (14 emails)". Click Use it to swap in the address your team already writes to.
  • Scout flagged them before: a red line asks you to check it's the person you mean.
  • Someone new: a quiet note when nobody on your team has written to this address, or to anyone at their company, before.

These checks only use mail you can already see. The same checks run on Cc when you reply in a conversation. There, anyone new to the conversation also gets a quiet line, "They'll see the email you're replying to.", since your reply carries it (see The email you're replying to).

The / menu

Type / at the start of a line, or after a space, to see what you can add while you write. Keep typing to narrow the list, and press Enter to pick. Esc keeps the / as you typed it. The same menu works in a new email and in a reply:

  • Start with Quill
  • Offer times
  • Ask Dana for… documents or a yes
  • Request documents
  • Booking link, for each of your booking pages. In a reply, the link is made for that conversation: it books into it, filled in for them, once (see Send a booking link in a reply)
  • Send as a secure link, or Send normally to turn it off
  • Your snippets, and the team's, by name

Start with Quill

Not sure how to begin? Tell Quill what the email is about in one line, and it writes the start for you.

  1. Fill in To first, so Quill knows who it's for. It reads what your team already knows about them, like open conversations and anything you promised.
  2. Under the message, click Start with Quill, or press ⌘J (Ctrl+J on Windows). You can also type / in the message and pick Start with Quill.
  3. Type one line, like "Tell Lumen the pilot is confirmed for 12 seats, start Nov 3".
  4. Click Write it, or press Enter. "Quill is writing your email…" shows while it works.

Quill's words come in as suggestions, tinted green. Anything Quill doesn't know, like a price nobody mentioned, becomes a grey blank for you to fill in. Quill never sends.

Accept or reject Quill's suggestions

A bar above the message says how many changes Quill suggests. Words Quill would add are tinted green and underlined, with Quill's face at the start. Words it would take out are struck through.

  • Put the cursor in a suggestion, then press ⌥Enter to accept it or ⌥Backspace to reject it (Alt on Windows). You can also click Accept or Reject in the bar.
  • Press ⌥] and ⌥[ to go to the next and previous suggestion.
  • Click Accept all or Reject all to decide them all at once (⌥⇧Enter and ⌥⇧Backspace).
  • You can't send while suggestions are waiting. Send says "Accept or reject Quill's suggestions first." and takes you to the first one.

If someone is writing the email with you, they see the same suggestions, and either of you can decide them. Accepting is an ordinary edit, so ⌘Z undoes it.

Rewrite with Quill

  1. Select some words.
  2. Press ⌘J, or click Rewrite in the bubble over the words, or the rook in the toolbar.
  3. Pick Shorter, Friendlier, More direct or Fix grammar.

Quill's version comes in as a suggestion: your words struck through, Quill's after them. Quill keeps every number, date, link, address and blank as it was. If its version changed one, your words stay and you'll see why.

Offer times in a new email

You can offer a few of your free times in the first email, so they can book one with a click. Offer times comes with Pro.

  1. Fill in To first, so the times show in their time zone.
  2. Type / in the message and pick Offer times, click the calendar button in the send row, or press ⌘⇧A (Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows).
  3. Tick up to six times, then click Offer 3 times (the number is how many you ticked).

The times show under the message as "Offering 3 times", with Change and Remove. Nothing is offered or held while you write: when you send, the offer is made on the new conversation and the times go at the end of the email, each one a link that books it. From then, the times are held for you for 2 working days. If you throw the draft away, nothing was offered. If a time stops being free before you send, Rookery says so and doesn't send, so you can pick again.

Undo a send

After you send, the email shows at once in the shape of its new conversation, marked Sending…, and a moment later you land in the conversation itself. A countdown shows Sending in with an Undo button. You have 20 seconds. If you click Undo, the email doesn't go, and your text goes back in the reply box so you can fix it. Everything still in its undo window is also in Outbox, with its own Undo.

If Rookery can't send it (an address it can't use, a blank left in), you're back in the email with every word as you left it, and a line says why. Fix it and click Send again.

Good to know

  • Under the message you'll see "Saved on this device" and when it was last saved.
  • Close goes back to your inbox and keeps the draft. Discard throws it away.
  • Drafts follow you to every device you sign in on. Drafts (in ⌘K) lists everything you started and haven't sent, new emails and replies, grouped by what each one still needs. A draft that's ready can be sent from there after one look over it.
  • When they reply, the answer lands in the same conversation. Until then, it waits in your Waiting tab, assigned to you.
  • If you use the Screener, people you write to are let in automatically.
  • You can't add Bcc yet.
  • You can also start an email from ⌘K: choose Write a new email.
  • Each person can ask Quill up to 60 times an hour while writing. If you reach that, Rookery says when you can ask again.
  • Screen readers hear each suggestion as it's reached, like "Quill suggests adding: …", and what happens after you accept or reject it.