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Combine automations and Packs

Add superpowers to your doc by combining automations and Packs.

Your time is valuable, so don’t waste it on repetitive tasks. Automations allow you to put necessary but repetitive work on autopilot. And when you combine them with Packs, your docs get superpowers. Automations help your docs run tasks automatically, while Packs integrate your doc with external tools like Gmail, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce. When you use them together, your docs can do even more, like sending emails automatically, posting updates to Slack, or creating tickets without manual work. In this guide, you'll explore how you can combine these two features to bring even more ease to your work rituals and routines.
You’ll learn:
  • How to create an automation to work with any Pack
  • How to combine automations with the Gmail Pack
buttons
You’ll use:
  • Automations
  • Gmail Pack
  • Buttons

Targeting Packs actions in automation rules

 Automations are made up of two main parts:
  • When: the trigger that starts the automation
  • Then: the action the automation takes
When you build an automation rule, you can choose actions from any Pack you have by selecting a Pack action in the Then step. That’s it! Turn your automation rule on, and you’re good to go.

Automate Packs actions with the help of buttons

 One of the easiest ways to combine Packs and automations is with the help of buttons. Do you already have Pack actions set up in a button? Create an automation to push those buttons for you!

Some popular combinations include the Gmail Pack and Slack Pack, but you can use this workflow with any supported Pack. The sky is the limit!
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Set up the Gmail Pack
Make sure you’ve installed the Gmail Pack in your doc before going forward. Need some help with that? Check out this help center article on installing Packs.

Automated mail merge with the Gmail Pack

 A common use case for the Gmail Pack is a mail merge. A mail merge allows you to send personalized emails to multiple recipients using information stored in your table. There are two great ways to set up this content in Superhuman Docs:
  1. Let the power of AI write customized messages for you with total ease.
  2. Use the Compose column feature to create customized messages based on the values in your table.
This example uses AI-generated content, but either approach works depending on the workflow.

Plan the automation

 Before building an automation rule, it’s helpful to outline your When and Then criteria ahead of time:
  • When: When do you want the automation to run?
  • Then: What action do you want the automation rule to take once the rule is triggered?
Example:
  • When: Every morning at 10:00 AM
  • Then: Send out personalized emails to contacts about an upcoming product launch.
If you’re following along, create a scratch section in your doc and draft your When and Then criteria before continuing.

Set up the Contacts table

 Let’s set up a simple Contacts table with columns for the following data:
  • Contact: A people column. For testing purposes, set this for yourself for now.
  • Title: A text column.
  • Company: A text column.
  • Email content: A text column using AI or Compose to generate a message. Feel free to add any test message here for now.
  • Send email: A button column. Here’s where the magic happens! We’ll configure this button to work with the Gmail Pack to send a customized email via automation.
Start with test data while building and testing the workflow. Once the automation rule and Gmail button are working as expected, replace the test data with real contacts.
 Your table should look something like this:

Set up your Gmail button

 Next, configure the button that the automation will use to send emails automatically through the Gmail Pack.
  1. Open up your button settings by right-clicking on one of the buttons.
  2. In the first step, On Click, select Packs → Gmail → Send email.
  3. Select Private or Shared mode for this button based on your use case.
  4. For the To field, use the Contact column and pull the email address from each People object with this formula: Contact.Email
  5. For Subject, enter a test subject line or the subject you want to use for your emails.
  6. For Content, target your Email content column.
  7. For Results Column, select + New Column. This will add a column to your table to record whether or not the Gmail Pack action was taken.
  8. In the Visual section of the button settings, give your button a descriptive label, like "Send email," and select a color and an icon.
  9. Under Advanced → Disable If, add the following condition to prevent duplicate emails from being sent: Results column is not blank.
The Disable if condition prevents the automation from sending duplicate emails to the same contact after the button has already run successfully. You can learn more about Disable if here. Your button settings should look pretty similar to this:

Build your automation rule

 Now, build an automation rule to push the button you built for any Contacts who need to be emailed. This example uses a daily schedule at 9:00 AM, but different When criteria can be used depending on your use case.
  1. Type “/Automation” on the canvas and choose the Automation option.
  2. Click + Add Rule.
  3. Give your automation rule a descriptive name, such as "Send email to contacts."
  4. Under Step 1 — When, select a Time-based trigger and configure it to run daily at 9:00 AM.
  5. Under Step 2 — Then, select Push buttons from the first dropdown menu, then choose the Contacts → Send email button column.
  6. At the bottom of the rule, choose whether the automation should run as yourself or as Automation Bot:
    • If the button uses Private mode, the automation must run as you.
    • If the button is set to Shared mode, the automation can run as the Automation Bot.
Your automation rule should look something like this:

Time to test out your automation

 Click the Test Rule button right under the Then step of your automation rule. You should receive an email with your test content from yourself. You can also check the Activity tab of your automation rule to see whether it fired successfully. If your test was successful, you can adjust your button to target each contact’s email address and add real data. This automation rule will send out emails for all rows where the button is enabled. Remember, the Disable If condition keeps the automation from sending duplicate emails to the same contact.

Now what?

 Now that you know how to combine the Gmail Pack and automations, how can you apply this powerful combination in your docs? What other Packs might you pair with automations? Hint: Slack.

Want to keep learning? Check out these resources:

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