iManage Work has an intuitive and user-friendly interface.  You’ll see it in both the iManage Work Web and the Work Panel in Outlook so it’s familiar everywhere you work. The layout consists of six main areas. You can dive deeper into the features later, but let’s just explore and see what’s where for now.

First up is the Side Navigation. This has tabs for Documents, Emails, and Folders. Law firm professionals will see tabs for Clients and Matters. For other folks, the labels on these tabs might differ – like "Department" or "Business Unit" instead of Client, and "Workspaces" or "Projects" instead of "Matters". Note that even if the labels change, the briefcase or portfolio icons remain the same. There's also a tab for My Favorites.

The Documents tab is designed to help you stay organized, with easy-to-use subtabs along the top for Recent Documents, My Documents, and Checked-Out Documents. Recent Documents shows you files you’ve worked on in the past 30 days, while My Documents highlights everything you’ve authored. Checked-Out Documents gives you a quick view of anything you currently have checked out, so you know which files only you can currently work on.

Over in the Emails tab, you’ll find subtabs for Recently Filed Emails and Emails Filed by Me, making it simple to find what you’re working on. The Folders tab also keeps things tidy, with separate sections for Document Folders and Email Folders.

To make navigation even smoother, the ‘Recent Matters,’ ‘My Matters,’ and ‘My Favorites’ lists come with a built-in Tree View. Just expand the tabs to reveal your Matters and their folders, so you can quickly jump to the work you access most often. And if you want to manage your screen space, simply select the three lines in the top left corner to expand or collapse the entire Side Navigation. It’s all about making it easier for you to find what you need and stay focused on your work

Use the search bar to find your files quickly by selecting the type from the drop-down. Options include documents, emails, folders, Matters, or Clients. You can search by titles, keywords, or authors. Want to get more specific? Use the Advanced Search option to search titles, keywords, and authors at the same time, just toggle the ‘Advanced’ button on. For more information on Search, check out the Search useiManage pathway!

Choose how you want to display content by applying Grid View or List View. Grid View allows you to customize column headers based on different Properties. List View allows you to view content in a list format and displays predetermined Properties.

Narrow displayed content by applying Filters. In the ‘Filters’ pane, you can choose to show content based on specific Properties such as ‘Date’, ‘File Type’, or ‘Author’.

In the ‘Show Details’ pane, you can see and manage Properties and Security details for each item. For Docs or Emails, you can also preview them and check out any related documents. If there are multiple versions of a document, they’ll be listed under the ‘Versions’ tab.

Finally, in the top right corner, there's the user menu. From here, you can access your Trash, modify settings like language, set defaults or hop into Control Center if you have access.

Now that you’ve seen your way around the main navigation, let’s look at some deeper functionality. These three dots are called “the kebab” and every item in iManage Work has one. When clicked, it exposes the kebab menu. Most actions you can take on a document, email, client, or matter are under its kebab. You can use this menu to show where an item is in the tree of the side navigation menu or add it to favorites. Or you can use it to copy a link to the item.  The kebab menu is a key part of taking action within iManage Work.

When working with documents in iManage Work, certain operations are tracked in the Activities dialog. The dialog lists performed activities such as uploading, copying, moving, referencing, or deleting. Depending on the operation, you may be able to quickly navigate to the document's folder location, view its properties, undo, or retry the action. You can also expand, collapse, and clear the dialog to manage space on your screen or close the dialog completely. For instance, here I’ve uploaded a document. From the Activities Dialog, I can now see its properties and leave a comment in the Details pane or change its title.  

Access iManage Work in Outlook with the Work Panel. The Work Panel can be found in the iManage Group of the Home tab .It offers the same functionalities as iManage Work Web. You can browse Clients and Matters, search for items, upload, file, create new items, and more. All without leaving Outlook.

You can undock the Work Panel from Outlook by selecting 'Undock' from the ‘Settings’ options. Undocking the Work Panel means it is no longer fixed in Outlook, and you can move it freely around your screen or to a separate monitor. This gives you more room in Outlook to view your emails. You can dock the Work Panel again by selecting the ‘Settings’ options and then clicking 'Dock'.

In Preview, you can view a document within Work instead of opening it in its native program. This saves you the hassle of having to download the document in order to see what’s inside. There are three ways to enter preview mode: You can click on the document, you can select Preview from the Open section of the kebab menu or open the 'Show Details' pane and then select the 'Preview' tab. Once in Preview, the Tools tab at the top gives you a variety of options like ‘download’, ‘upload new version’, or ‘copy link.’ You can even view a document’s Timeline from the Preview Tool bar.

If you want to search inside the document while in Preview, just go to the Search tab. Type what you’re looking for into the box and it will find text that matches. To do an exact search, click the quotation mark button—this highlights exact matches of what you typed. Select the letters button to apply Match Case Search. Match case ensures that text aligns with the capitalization of the entered letters. A whole word search highlights matching words, but in any order. Begin with search highlights words that begin with the entered text. Here, 'l-o-s' returns words like 'loss' and 'losses' since both words begin with ‘l-o-s’. End with search highlights words that end with the entered text. You can also use wildcards like asterisks or question marks to replace missing letters. For example, an asterisk can stand for any number of characters. Proximity search highlights words or phrases with fewer than a specified number of words. The number of words is preceded by a tilde. Here, the search returned words found less than five words apart from each other.