Configuring Drag and Drop in WorkPoint Express 365 – Welcome! How can we help?

article last updated: Weds 13th May 2026

This article introduces the upcoming Drag and Drop feature in WorkPoint Express 365. It will be available in the next release, currently planned for mid June 2026. The content is an early preview of the feature and configuration options and may change before release.

Introduction

WorkPoint Express 365 now introduces drag and drop support in Outlook desktop clients allowing users to drag emails and attachments directly from Outlook to either start WorkPoint Automate processes or upload Emails and Attachments using a simple drag and drop interaction..

This article explains how to configure drag and drop behaviour across the different views in WorkPoint Express 365.

It describes how drop zones are defined, how to customise their labels, and how to link drop actions either directly to WorkPoint Automate processes or to a user-selected action after the item is dropped.

Clarification: Supported Outlook Clients

For clarity, the Drag and Drop feature in WorkPoint Express 365 is now possible following Microsoft's implementation of Drag/Drop support in the Add-Ins framework. As Express 365 is reliant on the underlying Microsoft framework, Drag and Drop in Express365 is supported in the following versions of the Outlook host application.

Outlook Client	Support for Drag and Drop
Outlook on the web	Supported
New Outlook on Windows	Supported
Classic Outlook on Windows	Supported
Outlook on Mac	Supported
Outlook on iOS / Android	Not Supported

Clarification: Email Enabled Processes

In this article, My Tools actions refer to those linked to email-enabled WorkPoint Automate processes. These are processes configured to use Output from Express as the initial input parameter.

When a My Tools action is linked to an email-enabled process, WorkPoint Express 365 recognises that it should be triggered using the email messages selected in Outlook. In most cases, these processes use the Upload Outlook Emails and Attachments action. However, the process logic can be customised to meet specific requirements.

The example below shows a My Tools action for journaling emails into a Project Entity. The configuration defines:

Availability of the Action in Express 365
The Action is linked to a WorkPoint Automate User Process
Which Process to Launch
.. and in Process Builder, in the Process Configuration - the Process uses Output for Express as process input.

Later in this support article, we will look at how these Email Enabled My Tools actions can be linked to drop zones in different views in WorkPoint Express 365.

Clarification: Drag Origins

Before configuring drop zones, it is important to understand how drag-and-drop is handled in Microsoft Outlook (Desktop).

In both the Classic and New Outlook experience, drag operations can originate from two locations as shown in the image below.

1. Mail items within a mail folder

2. Attachments within the email body

It is important to highlight that Microsoft Outlook controls the drag operation. WorkPoint Express 365 does not influence where a drag starts or what is available to drag. WorkPoint Express 365 can only detect when an item is dragged over the task pane and enable the different Drop zones to inform the user about what will happen when they drop the item on a specific part of the WorkPoint Express 365 UI. Express 365 does not have any information about what is dragged until after the item is dropped - so Express 365 will validate the dropped items before it launches the process or rejects the action.

My Tools Configuration > Drop Zone Actions

In core WorkPoint, the availability of My Tools menu actions is defined at each level in the solution hierarchy from the "root" (or global actions), to each Business Module Entity and each Library defined in the Entity Master.

WorkPoint Express 365 will only recognize My Tools actions that are tagged for use in Express 365 (see support article here). If a My Tools action is Linked to an Email Enabled Process in a specific My Tools context (e.g. Business Module = Projects such as the example below); Express 365 will enable and label drop-zones when the user drags an item across the Express 365 Task Pane.

The image below shows a summary of the relationship between the My Tools Instance configurations in WorkPoint Admin Portal and the Drop Zones they control in the WorkPoint Express 365 client. In the following section, we will walk through how to configure actions for these drop zones and options for managing simple vs. process based Email and File uploads using Drag and Drop actions in WorkPoint Express 365.

Here, we will walk through how the configuration at each My Tools level influences these drop zones so you can configure your solution optimally for your customers' needs.

My Tools -root- Context

In My Tools configuration the -root- instance controls how menu items are presented in the Business Module List view. Since these actions are at the Business Module level there is no current WorkPoint Entity context.

Typically, these root level actions are used to Create Entities.

In the examples below we show how Email Enabled process(es) can be exposed at this level and how the Drop zones will behave when there is either a single/default action or multiple actions available to the current user.

Single Action

When there is only a single Email Enabled Action configured in the root context (shown as 1 below), when the user drags over the task pane (2) the Drop Zone in the Business Module List (above and around the Entity list) will show a label including the default action name.

Dropping Email Items on this zone will automatically trigger the default action (3). The WorkPoint Process linked to the action will run either interactively or as a background (non-interactive) process per the My Tools configuration.

Since there is no Entity in this context, the Business Module view does not support dropping of Attachment items. As WorkPoint Express 365 cannot see the object until it is dropped - if an Attachment is dropped in this view, Express 365 will present a toast error (4) to inform the user only Email Items are supported.

Multiple Actions

When multiple Email Enabled Actions are configured at the Root Context (shown as 1 below), as the user drags over the Task Pane panel - the drop zone displays a generic "Select action" label.

After the user drops the items, if the items are supported Email Items Express 365 will display a compact My Tools actions available to the user. The user selects the action to execute or clicks elsewhere to abandon.

This allows multiple email-driven workflows to be configured for the same Business Module view, and lets the user decide which action is triggered at drop time.

This pattern repeats across each level in the Express view hierarchy. As you navigate deeper, a single action is triggered automatically when only one option is available, while multiple actions are grouped and displayed in a compact My Tools menu.

Note: The Root and Entity Levels can only support dropping Email Messages (not Attachments). If Attachments are dropped - Express365 will display an error message informing the user that only Email items are supported here.

My Tools "Entity" Context

In My Tools configuration - defining Actions for a specific Business Module instance controls how Drop Zones are presented in both the Entity Items in the Business Module view (1) and the Main Content Panel of the Entity View (2).

In the example shown below, a "My Tools" action defined for the "Projects" Business Module (1) will control the drop zones in the Business Module List for each Entity Row (2) -and- the main body of the Entity View (3). Both these views relate to a specific Business Module Entity and use exactly the same configuration which we'll detail below.

1. Single / Default Action

If only one Email Enabled Action is available in this context (1 below), the Drop Zone displays the title of that action as a hint to the user what process will be launched when they release a valid Email Item (2).

Dropping supported Email Items will immediately trigger the associated process (3). The process may be interactive, where the user is prompted for input, or non-interactive, where it runs automatically based on predefined logic.

2. Multiple actions in scope

If multiple Email Enabled Actions are available in the Entity scope (1 below), the Drop Zone displays a generic Select action prompt (2) and defers the action selection to a compact "My Tools" menu displayed after the drop and after Express 365 verifies that the user has droppeda supported Email Items (3)

If valid, a compact My Tools menu is shown with the available actions. The user selects the action to execute. Selecting an action triggers the process. Clicking outside the menu cancels the operation.
If an attachment is dropped, the action is not executed. An error message is shown to inform the user that only Email Items are supported.

This enables multiple email-driven workflows within the same Business Module view, while allowing the user to choose the appropriate action at the point of interaction.

3. No eligible actions

Finally, if no actions are available for the user, the Drop Zone is disabled and a "No Drag Actions" label is displayed.

Note that Action availability is controlled by My Tools audience filtering. Since processes may run with elevated permissions using "Execute As" rules, the visibility of actions do not rely on the users permissions on the Entity or Site.

Business Module Entity View

When viewing a specific Business Module Entity, the main content panel drop zone (as shown below) behaves exactly as per the configuration 1-3 above. This allows users to access and trigger Entity specific actions either from the Business Module List (browsing multiple entities in one view) or, if viewing a specific Entity, to see and launch actions conveniently from this view.

My Tools "Entity Library" Context

In My Tools configuration, actions that combine the Business Module (1) and Library (2) levels - control the Express 365 drop zones in the Entity view library rows (3) and in the Library view (4).

Both zones rely on the same underlying configuration and behave identically.

Before looking at WorkPoint Automate processes versus standard file upload, it helps to understand the available drop zones in a document library.

In a document library, dragging items into the main content area highlights a single drop zone that covers all non-folder items in the current view (shown as 1). With standard file upload, this means that content will be added to the current location in the library.

Additionally, each folder in the library view acts as its own drop zone (shown as 2). This allows users to drop items directly into a specific folder. With standard upload, files are saved inside the selected folder. If the drop zone is linked to a WorkPoint Automate process, the folder location is included in the process context. The process can choose to use this information or ignore it.

Finally, if the user does not have Contribute permissions (and no processes are available), the drop zone is disabled (shown as 3).

Now, in this section we will walk through some examples showing how My Tools configuration influences drop zone behaviour in the Library view.

Simple File / Email Upload

If no My Tools configuration is defined in the Entity Library context, Express 365 allows users with Contribute or higher permissions to the library to upload emails and attachments by simple drag and drop from supported Outlook clients.

When an email is dropped, it is uploaded as a standard .eml file with no additional processing. The email content is stored as-is and attachments (if any) are embedded in the uploaded .eml file (as shown below in 1)

The same applies for Email Attachments. Dragging an attachment item into an Entity Library view will perform a simple file upload of the content to the drop location. The attachment is uploaded in the format with the file-name exactly as it appears in the email header.

This allows solutions to provide simple, process free content upload scenarios. Users can quickly store emails or attachments without triggering workflows. The only requirement is that the user has Contribute permission or higher on the library.

Process Driven Email Handling

Administrators can control how emails are handled in the Library context by configuring My Tools actions at the Entity and Library levels.

When a My Tools action is linked to an email-enabled process, dropping email items into an Entity Library triggers the configured WorkPoint Automate process instead of a standard file upload.

While dragging, all library drop zones display the generic label “Drop here to add items”. This is required because Outlook does not provide information about the dragged item until it is dropped.

After the drop:

If only one My Tools action is available to the user, the process runs automatically (1 below)
If multiple actions are available, a compact My Tools menu is shown, allowing the user to select the appropriate email-enabled process (2)

The logic for uploading the Emails (e.g. how metadata is mapped to columns or if emails are uploaded with or without embedded attachments) is defined in the process configuration. As mentioned above, if the user drops on a Folder target - the process can decide if the selected location is used or ignored when uploading the item to the library location.

Caution: If using Audience filtering on the My Tools action - it is important to ensure that users that are not part of the Audience for any action have less than Contribute access to the target library. Otherwise, their drag and drop actions will default back to the Simple drag > upload action per the preceding section.

Note that My Tools actions are only triggered when dropping Email Items into the Library view. If dragging an attachment directly (and user has Contribute or greater permissions), standard upload behavior will resume.