E-mail & E-Sharing
Outlook 2010 FAQs
How do I create a message?
To compose a mail message click on the Home tab and select New E-mail Message.
You will then get a new screen for an Untitled Message when you can then compose your new message to send out.
How can I find a user’s email address?
All faculty/staff and students at the University of Cincinnati are defined in our Global Address Tables. We also provide directory lookups for some affiliate entities such as U.C. Health, Alumni as well as our Student email system Uconnect.
To find a user, open a new message and click on the Address Book Icon. Start typing the last name of the individual you want to send in the search area and the outlook address view will change as matching users are found. You can then select and add the user to the To, CC or BCC field of the message.
What else do I need to know about finding users easily?
Users such as students, as well as affiliates, that are defined in our Global Address tables have pre-defined prefixes to distinguish them from internal Exchange users. Those users are contacts and are grouped into separate Address Lists for easy viewing and retrieval by users. Within Outlook you can view each table by accessing the Address Book and then use the pull down list to select a specific view. For example to look for students you could select the U.C. Bearcat Online (BOL) view to get a list of all the student addresses on Uconnect.
I still can’t find the user. How about using the advanced find function?
While using the advanced find function in the Address Book, you can search for users based on various information. First Name, Last Name, Title and such are all searchable. To search for a user open up the address book and click on the Advanced Find and enter the information and click on OK. Outlook will then return all the matching addresses found. UC populates much of that information for its users.
I sent a message to the wrong person. How do I get it back?
Within Exchange, you can retract a message that was accidentally sent to a wrong user as long as they also are on UCMail, our in-house Exchange deployment at U.C. There is a feature called recall which will allow a user to recall a sent message. With that being said, the recall function requires the recipient to approve the recall of the message and you cannot recall it without their knowledge. To recall a message, open the original and under more actions select “Recall Message”.
For messages sent to external recipients, there is no way to remove the message once it is sent. At that point, the best course of action would be to follow up with the non-intended recipient and please ask them to disregard and delete the message in question. Always check twice before hitting that send button!
How do I create a calendar event for myself?
Under the Home tab, select the Calendar Icon and select appointment. A new untitled Appointment will be displayed and you can Set the Subject, Location, Date, Time as well as invite users and schedule a resource such as a conference room. You can also set up a pop-up reminder for the event to notify you of the upcoming appointment.
How do I create a meeting and invite someone to it?
You can easily create a meeting request and use the scheduling assistant to invite people to your meeting. The calendar scheduling assistant allows you to look at people’s schedule which can help facilitate creation of meetings. To create a meeting, under the Home tab click calendar, select new appointment.
Once you create a meeting you will see a meeting creation screen. Set the appropriate Date, Time and Location of the meeting as well as the subject.
Click the “To” button and you will see the Global address table where you can then select the users you want as required and optional for the meeting request to be sent to. Once that is completed, hit the send and they will receive your meeting request and it will be added to the calendars.
How do I see if someone is available for a meeting?
When you create a new meeting, one of the tabs is the Scheduling Assistant. Click on the button and you can then click on the Add Attendees which will put you in the global address table. Once added, you will see their availability and you can go from there.
How do I reserve a conference room?
The University of Cincinnati has created resource conference rooms for each building on campus. All conference rooms start with a prefix of “Conf Rm” and are then followed by the Building and room for easy identification. To add a conference room when you create a meeting, click on the “Room” button on the right corner
Once pressed, you will see available conference rooms that you can then add to your meeting. The room will be automatically booked for your meeting.
What is the difference between granting delegated access and setting permissions on my Calendar and Folders?
By default Delegated Access grants the user rights to receive and respond to e-mail messages and meeting requests on your behalf. You can also grant additional permissions to allow that delegate to have specific rights to other folders within your mailbox, but by default they will have the ability to send message on your behalf. Delegated access is typically geared toward users who want to allow administrative assistants access to their mail and send mail on your behalf. If you do not want to give a user the ability to send on behalf of privileges, you should use Calendar and Folder permissions.
How can I see how much free space I have in my mailbox?
- 1. The easiest way to determine how much free space you have on your mailbox is to modify your outlook status bar. That way your available free space is always viewable when you are in Outlook and processing mail.
- To enable the view, get into Outlook and right click on the customize status bar at the bottom of your Outlook view and check the Outlook Information check box
- The current amount of space free will then be display on your mailbox in the left hand corner whenever you are in outlook.
How can I determine what my current quota size is (space allocated to my mailbox)?
- You can check the current size of you inbox and the current quota size allocated by clicking the File Tab and Selecting Info.
- You will then see a Mailbox Cleanup selection screen that will display your current free space available and the maximum size of your mailbox.
How do I grant access to my Calendar and Folders?
You can grant users specific access rights to your Calendar and Folders (such as your inbox) by setting permission levels within your mailbox. Setting specific permission levels does not grant users send-on-behalf of rights as does when you setup a delegate for your mailbox. When setting up permissions, you can use the pre-defined Permission Levels to match user access to your Calendar or Folders. The permissions are predefined by Microsoft but are customizable if you require additional granularity. See the table below, for Permissions Levels (definitions) that are available:
Notes:
*The default permission level for the Calendar is set up to display Free/Busy to all users.
*Folder permissions do not replicate down to sub folders and must be granted on each folder
Permission Level |
Definition |
Owner: |
Allows full rights to the mailbox’s (Calendar or Folder) , including assigning permissions; it is recommended not to assign this role to anyone |
Publishing Editor: |
Create, read, edit, and delete all items; create subfolders |
Editor: |
Create, read, edit, and delete all items |
Publishing Author: |
Create and read items; create subfolders; edit and delete items created by the user. |
Author: |
Create and read items; edit and delete items they've created. |
Nonediting Author: |
Create and read items; delete items created by the user. |
Reviewer: |
Read items. |
Contributor: |
Create items. |
Free/Busy time, subject, location: |
View the time, subject, and location of the appointment or meeting on your calendar. |
Free/Busy time: |
Shows only as Free or Busy on your calendar. No details are provided. |
None: |
No permissions are set for the selected user on the specified calendar or folder. |
How do I give someone delegated access to my mailbox and send messages for me?
By granting delegated access you can allow users to have access to your mailbox, review items, and respond to email on your behalf. Perhaps you have an assistant that you want to review your mail and calendar and respond to questions when appropriate. To delegate access to your mailbox go under the File tab, select Info and click on the Account Settings Button.
Once you click on the Delegate Access, the secondary delegate selection screen will display. Click the Add button and select the user you want added as a delegate to your mailbox.
A permissions selection screen will be displayed and you can then define the appropriate rights you want to give to the user you are granting delegate access. Note that you can tailor the access for each item in your mailbox.
I’ve been given delegate access to my bosses Calendar and Mail, how do I get in it?
If you have been given delegated access to someone’s calendar or mail you can access the contents by selecting the File Tab, select the Open function and then click on Other User’s Folder.
Once selected you will see a secondary screen where you can put the username of the user you have delegated access to and what folder type you wish to access. In this instance we are going to open Luke Skywalker’s Calendar. Once you click on OK you will see his calendar.
How do I set my Out of Office so that people get notified when I’m away?
Under the File tab select Info and click on the Automatic Replies Button.
A secondary screen will display where you can set the reply duration and message text. You can also have an additional OOF set for messages that you receive that are not internal (do not originate from users on the internal Exchange server). Note that only 1 OOF message is sent to a user during your absence so they only get notified one time if they send you multiple messages.
Warning! U.C. highly recommends that you do not set OOF for users outside your organization. This could present a security risk if you are informing users that you are away and could potentially inform someone that your home or business is vacant.
I travel a lot and want to work off-line. How do I turn on Cached Mode?
Cached mode is a function in Outlook that will keep a copy of your mailbox stored on your local computer. The feature will frequently update the mail server and synchronize the contents of your local mailbox with the contents stored on the computer. Cached Mode is ideal for users who are traveling and want to work with their computer off-line.
To set Cached Mode under the File Tab select the Info bar, Click on the Account Setting Button, Then click on the Account Settings and select the Account Settings function.
Double click on the mail account that you have created and you will see the Server Settings. Check the box labeled “Use Cached Exchange Mode” and click on next. You will need to log out and log back in once the change has been selected.
My local address book is out of date. How do I force an update from the server?
If you are running in cached mode, you have a local stored copy of the global address table on your computer. This can get out of date especially when updates to contacts and mailboxes are done on the server side. You can force a manual update of your tables.
Under File tab, select the Info bar, click on the Account Settings button and select Account Settings.
Once selected, you will see a secondary screen to download the Offline Address Book. Click on the OK button to start the download. Be patient…this process may take some time.
How do I update my photo?
Users can update their SharePoint presence information to contain a Photo that will be posted on Lync, Outlook and SharePoint. You can connect to the following SharePoint FAQ on instruction regarding posting a photo.
https://share.uc.edu/SPServices/Lists/FAQs/DispForm.aspx?ID=39 .
How do I enable Spellcheck and Autocorrect on my mail before I send a message?
If you want Outlook to perform a spell check before sending any message you can enable that by selecting the File tab, select the Info Bar and select Options.
Once Options is selected, select the Mail option and you will see a category for Spell Checking. You can select the Spelling and Autocorrect Button for advanced features for this category.
How do I add a signature to my outgoing mail?
You can add a signature to all your outgoing mail. This allows you to put in contact information so recipients of your messages can easily contact you. To add a custom signature, select the File tab, select the Info Bar, and select Options.
Once Options is selected, select the Mail Option and you will see a category to create or modify signature for messages. Click the Signature Button.
A secondary screen will display where you can enter your information. Remember, you are sending out information that will be available to anyone you send messages to so be careful when you decide the content of your signatures.
How do I add an additional mailbox into my Outlook such as a generic account I requested? The Exchange Administrator already gave me full access rights.
For some accounts such as generic the Exchange Administrator can grant full administrative rights as well as Send As rights at the server level. Users can then add in the mailbox as an additional mailbox to their existing outlook profile so it shows up alongside their own. To add an additional mailbox into your existing outlook profile under the file tab select Info and Account Settings.
Double click on the E-mail account displayed and click on the More Settings button
Click on the Advanced tab and the Add button. Add in the mailbox which the administrator has given you full access rights to and click OK and Apply. Once added you will see that additional mailbox listed in your Outlook window pane.
What is Auto-Archive and why do I get prompted for it?
Auto-archiving is an Outlook feature which will automaticaly remove items over 6 months old from your mailbox into an archive folder located on your computer. To disable this feature and leave all mail on the server, you can do the following: Under The File tab select Options
Under Options you select advanced and you will see the AutoArchive Settings Button.
Click on the Auto-Archive settings button and you will get the archive configuration screen. If you want to turn off the feature, uncheck the Run Auto-archive every nn days as well as the Prompt before Auto-Archive runs.
How do I restore archived information or mail from a Personal Storage File back to my mailbox on the server? I no longer want it stored locally on my computer.
There are a couple of ways you can restore data from your archive or personal storage folders back into your Email account. All Archive and Personal Storage Folders end with a .PST file extension. Personal Archives are typically created on the workstation in the following location:
C:\Users\usersname\Documents\Outlook Files\archive.pst
If you use a network share device, it is not uncommon for users to place the pst files on that drive. Locate the location of your personal and archive files before importing.
- The first method is to open your PST file and then manually move the folders and mail you want over as required. In this manner you can selectively move items you want back in your mailbox. Under the File tab select Open and select Open Outlook Data File. You can open up the PST file.
Select the PST file you wish to open and you will then see the Outlook Data File listed under your Outlook view like your mailbox. You can then select which folders and mail to move back to your mailbox. Just drag and drop folders of individual mail items you want back into your mailbox.
- The second method is to use the import function which will merge the contents of your Archive or Personal Storage back into your mailbox. Under File tab select the Open option and then select the Import function
The import function will then display Import and Export Wizard. Select the “Import from another program or file” option then Select “Outlook Data File (.pst)” for the import file type and click on next.
The import Outlook Data File location screen will be displayed. Click the browse button and select the archive or personal folder you wish to import. Typically those files are located in the C:\Users\username\Document\Outlook Folders\ area. Select the appropriate action to replace, allow or disallow duplicates when importing. Once selected, click on Next and the items will be imported back into your mailbox.
I accidentally deleted some messages and emptied my Deleted Items Folder. How do I get them back?
In our Exchange system there is a 30 day deleted item retention period. This means that when items are emptied out of the Deleted Items Folder, a user can still recover them for 30 days using the Deleted Item Recovery option. To recover deleted items, select the Folder tab and click on Recover Deleted Items.
When you click on the Recover Deleted Items tab you will then see the Recovery screen. You can sort by Subject, Deleted On, From and Received. Select the items and click on the recovery button and the items will then be moved back into the Deleted Items Folder.
How can I remove an invalid address from Outlook?
Outlook has a feature called Auto-complete which will automatically fill in a previously entered address as you are typing in a new message. This information is cached so it can become out of date. To delete an auto-complete entry that may contain stale information, create a new message, start typing in the name and then click on the delete and it will be removed.
Questions not covered in the FAQs?
If you are having a problem, please call our Help Desk at 556-HELP (4357) or HelpDesk@uc.edu.
Or, if you have a suggestion or comment regarding our service, e-mail us at technician@uc.edu.