Special Edition Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5

Previous chapterNext chapterContents


- 30 -
Using Outlook



This chapter covers the basic features of Outlook. Whether you are using Outlook just as an e-mail client or as the tool to organize your company, you will find Outlook very powerful, but surprisingly easy to use. Furthermore, if you are familiar with using the Exchange Client and Schedule+, you will find that Outlook has integrated these functions into one nicely organized package.

Configuring Outlook Views

The Outlook screen contains two main windows (see Figure 30.1). The left window is the Outlook Bar that looks like a vertical toolbar with icons to your favorite items sorted in Outlook groups. The right window is called the Information Viewer. When you choose an icon from the Outlook Bar, the contents of that folder are displayed here.

FIG. 30.1 The Outlook main view.

When you first run Outlook, you will find three default groups on the Outlook Bar: the Outlook Group, the Mail Group, and the Other Group. In Tables 30.1, 30.2, and 30.3, you will see which folders have been created in each group.

The Outlook Group has the set of folders that are the main features of Outlook (see Table 30.1).

Table 30.1  Outlook Group

Icon What You Can Do
Universal Inbox View the contents of your Inbox folder.
Calendar View your calendar. The calendar can be viewed in Day, Week, or Month format.
Contacts View the contact list in the Address Card view and other predefined views.
Tasks Open your tasks list. Here you can view details such as the person to whom a task was assigned, whether the task is active or overdue, and more.
Journal Open your Journal. You can manually add Journal entries or view entries grouped in various ways. Contact activities like e-mail, faxes, meeting requests, phone calls, and usage of Microsoft Office documents can be automatically tracked.
Notes You can post small, miscellaneous notes in the Notes folder. Works like regular sticky notes.

The Mail Group contains the set of folders pertaining to e-mail (see Table 30.2).

Table 30.2  Mail Group

Icon What You Can Do
Inbox View your incoming mail.
Sent Items View copies of outgoing mail.
Outbox View outgoing mail waiting to be picked up.
Deleted Items View mail and other items waiting to be deleted.

The Other Group is a group of folders that help you navigate around your computer system (see Table 30.3). This group is similar to Windows Explorer in Windows 95 and NT 4.0.

Table 30.3  Other Group

Icon Action
My Computer Accesses your computer's hard drives, floppy drives, mapped network drives, folders, and other files on your computer.
My Documents Opens your folder for documents created using Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products.
Favorites Displays your shortcuts to Internet links and other items.

Using the Office Assistant

When you open Outlook for the first time, you will see the Office Assistant (see Figure 30.2). The Office Assistant is an animated character that is helpful in several ways. It can search for an answer to any questions you may have about Outlook. Also, it can provide shortcuts that you may not be aware of or recommendations on how to make your work a little easier. You can hide the Office Assistant by clicking the X in the toolbar above it. You can display the Office Assistant by clicking the Office Assistant button on the toolbar.

FIG. 30.2 The Office Assistant.


Configuring Folder Permissions Through Exchange

One of the best features in Outlook, when used in an Exchange organization, is the capability to set view permissions for your main Outlook folders: Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Journal, and Notes. With this capability, Outlook moves from being a standalone product to a powerful information manager for you and your organization. However, you don't need to be worried that someone else could be monitoring your Outlook folders. Initially, all of these folders can only be viewed by you, the mailbox owner.

By setting the proper permissions, you unlock a world of possibilities. You can allow others to view your schedule only to see when you are free or busy, or you can delegate authority to others to manage your schedule and other Outlook features as well. Figure 30.3 shows the Permission page.

FIG. 30.3 The Permissions page on the aCalendar folder properties page.


Using the Inbox

The Inbox folder is the most important feature in Outlook for helping you communicate with others. From here, you can send and receive electronic messages. These messages can be as simple as a memo or as complex as a formatted message with attachments or electronic forms. In the Inbox, you can sort your messages either manually or automatically. This is great for users who are tired of clutter and want to impose some structure and organization on their inbox.

A great place to start is understanding the types of views available to you...before your inbox gets completely out of hand. You can adjust these views as needed to make your inbox attractive and functional for you (see Figure 30.4).

FIG. 30.4 Various messages in your inbox.

Table 30.4 lists the predefined views and describes how your messages are displayed in each view.

Table 30.4  Inbox Views

View Display Results
Messages A list of messages.
Messages with AutoPreview A list of messages with a preview of the first three lines of each message.
By Message Flag Grouped by message flag.
Last Seven Days Only those messages received during the past seven days are shown.
Flagged for Next Seven Days Only those messages flagged for follow-up during the next seven days are shown.
By Conversation Topic Messages are grouped by subject.
By Sender Messages are grouped by sender.
Unread Messages Only those messages that have not been read yet are shown.
Sent To The message recipients are shown rather than the sender.
Message Timeline Icons arranged by date sent on a timeline are shown.

Creating Messages

In Outlook, you can start creating a new message in a number of ways. The screen that appears while composing messages is actually a mail form (see Figure 30.5). This form is a guide to help you get your message out to the appropriate recipient (person).


TIP: You can start a new mail message in a variety of ways. One way has already been described. Also, typing Ctrl+Shift+M from anywhere in Outlook will bring up a new mail form. A third method is to right-click the Information Viewer and choose New Mail Message from the menu. All other Outlook folders have the same set of shortcuts to open a new item.

FIG. 30.5 The message page of the mail form.



NOTE: A message needs only a valid name or distribution list in the To, Cc, or Bcc box for it to be deliverable. All other fields are optional. 

The following sections will help you understand how to create and track your message. After you have configured all of the options, you can send the message by clicking the Send button on the toolbar or typing Ctrl+Enter.

Configuring Information Under the Message Tab of Your Message  You have many options to configure before sending out a message. First, you need to decide who will get your message. You can type into the To name field or click the button and select one from the address book.


TIP: By default, the Bcc field is not shown when you compose a message. You can activate (or view) it by selecting the item from the View menu.

In the Subject box, you can type in a subject for this message.

In the Message Area, you can start creating your message. Outlook supports rich text, so your message text can range from plain black text to something creative with color, different fonts, and attachments.


NOTE: It is helpful to know what type of e-mail system and client your recipients are using. By default, Outlook uses RTF (rich text format). If your recipients cannot handle this type of format, you may need to keep your messages in plain text format. If you don't, what you may consider hard work and creativity will show up as garbage to the recipient of your message. 

The Options Page  In Outlook you can control many characteristics of your message. Under the Options page, you can set various details about your message.

General Options  The General Options section helps you set notifications about your message. You can alert the recipient of the importance of your message. You can also control any replies you are expecting from the recipient about your message.

Delivery Options  You can set options on when to deliver a message and how that message is handled after a particular day:

Tracking Options  You can set options to be notified when your message was delivered and read. This option works best when you send messages within your Exchange organization:

Message Flag  In Outlook, you can enhance a message by inserting a message flag. Suppose you really want to stress the importance of the message before the recipient reads through the whole message: A message flag can do exactly that. A flag appears in the recipient's inbox, and a brief description of the reason for the flag appears under the message page when the recipient opens the message. You can add your own flag to any messages you send out by clicking the message flag button on the toolbar. In the Flag Message dialog box, you can use the predefined flags or type in your own flag. You can also set a date and time that the message should be acted on.

Reading Messages

In Outlook, reading and sorting messages can be an overwhelming task if you don't manage your inbox efficiently. Messages that appear in your inbox may not be ordinary messages. Some messages have higher importance than others. Some may need special attention and require you to respond immediately to an appointment, meeting, or task request. Other messages may be important to you because they are responses to requests you sent out previously. You have many tools available in inbox to help you keep track of all these events.

You can open a message by double-clicking the message you want to read. Depending on the message options set by the sender, you may see a note about the message in the gray comment area above the message header.

Responding to Messages  If you need to take further action on a message, you have three options:

In all of these options, you can still edit the message as if you were creating a new message. Responding to a message saves you the hassle of typing in the correct e-mail address.

Sorting Messages: Arrow or Groups  You can sort messages in many ways, depending on what you feel is most useful to you. You have two options on how to organize your messages.

Arrow  When you choose to sort messages by field, an arrow appears after you click the field heading. Messages can be sorted in ascending or descending order. In a text field, such as the Subject field, an ascending sort (the up arrow) sorts information from A to Z. A descending sort (the down arrow) will sort from Z to A. In a field such as the Received field, the up arrow indicates messages sorted from oldest message to newest message. The down arrow indicates messages sorted from newest to oldest.

Groups  You can sort your messages by groups in two ways:

1. Under the View menu, click the Group By box.

2. Drag the column header to the Drag a Column Header Here to Group By That Column box.

Using the Calendar

When you open Calendar for the first time, you see three sections in your Information view: your schedule for the current day, called the Appointment area; a calendar with a view of the current month and next month, called the Date Navigator; and your taskpad (see Figure 30.6). You can adjust the current view in several ways. You can change the width of your schedule for the current day by dragging the vertical bar that separates it from the other two sections to the left or right. By moving this bar, you increase or decrease the number of calendar months you can see, and you adjust the size of your taskpad. You can also move the horizontal bar above the taskpad to change the overall view.

Adding an Appointment to Your Calendar

In the Appointment area, you can instantly type in an appointment, without going into detail:

1. In the Appointment area, click the start time of your appointment.

2. Type in a short description of the appointment.

3. Drag the bottom bar for the appointment to the approximate ending time for it, then press Enter to set the appointment.

After you have set the appointment, you see a couple of default settings. The appointment is marked as Busy, represented by the blue bar. Also, a bell appears in your appointment, indicating that you will be reminded 15 minutes before the start of it.

FIG. 30.6 The Calendar main view.

Adding a Detailed Appointment to Your Calendar

In Outlook, appointments can be more detailed and involve more than just a quick reminder to yourself of something that needs to be completed at a particular time. You may need to schedule a meeting with associates in your Exchange organization. Calendar will help you set a meeting time, send out requests to all attendees involved, and allocate resources that are required for the meeting.

Here is a step-by-step example of creating a detailed appointment:

1. Open your calendar.

2. Choose New Appointment from the Calendar menu (see Figure 30.7).

3. In the Subject text box, enter the topic for this appointment. When you are finished setting up the whole appointment, it will be saved as that subject.

4. In the Location text box, enter the location for the appointment. The drop-down list box will be available to you if you have set other appointments and want to use a previous location.

5. In the Start Time text boxes, enter the date and time of the appointment. Repeat this step for the End Time text boxes. If the appointment runs through the whole day, select the All Day Event option.

6. If you want to be reminded of the appointment, set the amount of time prior to the start of the appointment in the box next to Reminder. If you do not need a reminder, deselect the check box next to Reminder.

FIG. 30.7 A blank appointment form.

7. In the Show Time As box, use the drop-down list box to set your availability through the duration of the appointment. This choice affects the colored bar next to the appointment in the Information Viewer and is also reflected in the Free/Busy time in Meeting Planner.

8. The final section is the Notes area, where you can enter any miscellaneous notes for the appointment.

At this point, you have just finished setting up a detailed appointment. If your appointment involves only yourself, you can click Save and Close to complete the steps. However, if your appointment requires the attendance of your associates or a resource such as a conference room, you need to notify all parties involved.

Organizing a Meeting

This section guides you through setting up a meeting with other people in your company:

1. Create or open an existing appointment.

2. Click the Meeting Planner tab.

3. Under the Meeting Planner page, notice that your name is the first required attendee in the All Attendees box. To start adding attendees or resources, select Invite Others. This displays the Select Attendees and Resources dialog box.

4. From here, you have three options to configure: Required Attendees, Optional Attendees, and Resources. After you have configured all of the necessary options, click OK. This returns you to the Meeting Planner page.

5. You can now see an updated list of all attendees and their availability (see Figure 30.8).

FIG. 30.8 Viewing meeting attendees under Meeting Planner.

Editing Appointments and Meetings

In Calendar, you can adjust the details of an appointment or meeting quite easily.

Changing the Time of an Appointment or Meeting  You can change the starting and ending times of a meeting or appointment in various ways. In the Appointment area, you can drag the horizontal bar of either the starting time or ending time, or both, to the updated times. A second method is to double-click the appointment and change the time directly on the appropriate time box.

Moving an Appointment or Meeting  If your appointment or meeting needs to be moved to a different day, you have two options available.

Recurring Appointments  Recurring or regularly scheduled appointments can be set automatically. Using the Recurrence feature, you can plan your schedule more efficiently (see Figure 30.9).

On the toolbar, click the Recurrence button. You can also select Recurrence from the Appointment menu. In the Appointment Recurrence dialog box, you need to complete all of the required information for the recurrence to be set correctly.

FIG. 30.9 Configuring the Appointment Recurrence dialog box.

Adding Events

You can add special events such as a convention or anniversary to your calendar. The difference between an event and an appointment is that an event lasts the whole day.

Time Zone Issues

If your Exchange organization spans multiple time zones, there are a few things to consider when dealing with your calendar.

Setting Up Meetings over Different Time Zones  Suppose you are in Los Angeles and you need to set up a conference call with someone in your Exchange organization in New York. You want to make sure that callers in both locations have the correct time information about that meeting. Outlook and the Exchange Server work together in getting meeting times correct. If the meeting is set for 9 a.m. Pacific time in Los Angeles, the meeting time should and will appear as 12 p.m. eastern standard time in New York.

Traveling in Multiple Time Zones  Suppose you are traveling with your computer and your destination is in a different time zone. Outlook has a special feature to handle moving to a different time zone. The following steps demonstrate how to use this feature:

1. From the Tools menu, click Options.

2. Under the Options dialog box, click the Calendar tab.

3. To adjust the time zone, click the Time Zone button.

4. You will see the current time zone that you are in. You can add an additional time zone by selecting Show an Additional Time Zone and adjusting the time zone displayed.

5. When you choose the Swap Time Zones button, the additional time zone will be your current time zone.

6. Click OK to accept the changes.

Managing Your Contacts

The Contacts folder in Outlook provides a great way for you to store and organize all of the information you have about your associates and friends. It is more than a personal address book; it helps you track activities you have with your contact. Plus, you can define a view of contacts who are the most productive and meaningful to you (see Figure 30.10).

FIG. 30.10 The Contacts main view.


Adding Contacts

To add a contact, click Contacts on the toolbar and click New Contact. The Contact dialog box has four tabs under which you can add information about your contact: General, Details, Journal, and All Fields (see Figure 30.11).

The General Page  Under the General page, you can type in some common information about your contact.

In the Full Name box, you can type in the name of your contact. You can also click the Full Name button to add more details about your contact's name such as Title and Suffix.

FIG. 30.11 Filling out the Contacts form.

If your contact works for a particular company, you can enter it in the Company box, along with the position that person holds in the company in the Job Title box. This information can be useful if you plan on grouping your contacts by company. Also, this affects the File As box, because you will have more options available to file your contact.

In the Address text box, you can type in the business, home, or other address of your contact. You have the option to fill in the address in greater detail for your contact, just as you can when you click the Full Name button.

In the Phone text boxes you can enter and save, up to four phone numbers for your contact. Also, you can specify what type of phone number each one represents, such as business, fax, home, cellular, pager, and so on.

If your contact is available through the Internet, by e-mail or a Web page, you can also save that information on the Contact dialog box.

Finally, you have the common features found throughout Outlook, such as a Notes area, the capability to put your contact in certain predefined categories, and the capability to store your contact as "private," hiding details of your contact from those who have access to your contacts.

The Details Page  Under the Details page, you have the option to add extra information about your contact such as department, office, profession, assistant's name, manager's name, birthday, anniversary, nickname, and spouse's name (see Figure 30.12).

FIG. 30.12

The Journal Page  Under the Journal page, you can start recording journal entries for your contact and view particular entries made for your contact (see Figure 30.13).

The All Fields Page  Under the All Fields page, you have the ability to add even more information about your contact (see Figure 30.14). You can select from many fields and even add a few of your own.

After you have configured all of the important and useful information for yourself, be sure to click Save and Close to finish adding in your new contact.

FIG. 30.13 Viewing all journal entries for your contact.

Viewing Contacts

Now that you have entered the appropriate information about your contact, you need to start organizing your contacts in such a way that you can find them when you need them.

FIG. 30.14 A display of available fields for your contacts.

Table 30.5 displays a list of predefined views to see your contacts' information.

Table 30.5  Contacts

View Display Results
Address Cards Individual cards with primary mailing address and important phone numbers such as business, home, and fax.
Detailed Address Cards Same as Address Cards, with secondary points of contact.
Phone List Table that includes business, fax, home, and mobile numbers.
By Category Grouped by category and sorted by contact name.
By Company Grouped by company with job details.
By Location Grouped by country.

Suppose you want to change the way you view your contacts. You may need to see information that is not set in the default views available. The following steps guide you through defining a view that is more useful.

1. In the View Menu, click Define Views.

2. In the Define Views for Contacts dialog box, click New.

3. In the Name of New View box, enter the name of this new view.

4. In the Type of View box, choose the type of display in which you want to see this new view.

5. In the Can Be Used On box, choose who and when this view can be displayed.

6. In the View Settings dialog box, click Fields to adjust the fields for the new view.

7. You can add fields from the Available Fields list to the Show These Fields in This Order list by clicking the desired field and then clicking Add. If a field is not displayed in the Available Fields, you can use the drop-down list under Select Available Fields From to select more fields. If you want to create a new field, choose the New Field button type in the appropriate information for the new field.

8. In the Show These Fields In This Order box, you can change the order of the fields displayed by clicking the field and then clicking the Move Up or Move Down button, to change the order of importance of that field.

9. When you are finished configuring all views, click OK.

Importing Contacts from Personal Address Book

If you worked with the Exchange Client (Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Exchange Client 4.0) prior to moving to Outlook, you can import your old Personal Address Book into your new Contacts folder.

1. Under the File menu, click Import and Export.

2. In the Import and Export Wizard dialog box, highlight Import from Schedule+ or Another Program or File, and click Next (see Figure 30.15).

3. In the box under Select File Type to Import From, click Personal Address Book and then click Next.

4. In the box under Select Destination Folder, click Contacts and then click Next.

5. Click Finish to start importing data.

Deleted Item Recovery

Deleted Item Recovery is one of the new Exchange Server 5.5 enhancements that Outlook 8.03 was designed to deliver. This feature takes message deletion from a two-stage process to a three-stage process and puts additional control in the hands of the user. This section examines the steps involved in using this new functionality.

Figure 30.16 shows a Deleted Items folder with two items in it. These items are normally emptied upon exit or may be emptied manually if a user is cleaning house.

In Figure 30.17, the items are deleted and the folder is empty. Figure 30.18 shows the Recover Deleted Items button at the far right of the toolbar.

FIG. 30.15 The Import and Export Wizard dialog box.

Clicking the button brings up the Recover Deleted Items window (Figure 30.19), from which you can select multiple items and click Recover Selected Items. The items are then returned to your Deleted Items folder from which you can use them again.

FIG. 30.16 The messages in the Deleted Items folder.

FIG. 30.17 The messages have been deleted.

FIG. 30.18 The Recover Deleted Items button.

FIG. 30.19 The Recover Deleted Items window.


Previous chapterNext chapterContents