Using Outlook on the Web Introduction You can use the Outlook Web Application (OWA) to access your University Microsoft Exchange Online account, although ICT recommends that you become familiar with the Outlook desktop client first, before learning to use OWA. Using a web browser, visit outlook.com/beds.ac.uk and login with your full University email address and your usual network login password. The OWA is not as feature-laden as the full Outlook client, and it has a number of restrictions in comparison. Whilst ICT will always recommend using the full Outlook client over the OWA, it is recognised that staff can only use the full client outside of the University network if they have bought a personal copy of Microsoft Office 2010 or 2011 for home use (visit in.beds.ac.uk/ict/benefits for details) or have access to a University owned computer or laptop at home that has Office 2010 or 2011 featuring Outlook 2010 - installed on it. Overview The OWA looks similar to the Outlook desktop client, but without the tabbed ribbon menu along the top. Instead, all of the OWA’s options are links, buttons or drop-down menus. Help! The OWA has an in-built help option. Just click the question mark icon (left). After a successful login, you see your favourites (which you can drag & drop to just like in the desktop client) and your account on the left. Beneath is a familiar looking menu with four buttons.
Figure 1 - Outlook Web App menu
Using Outlook on the Web Choose from Mail, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks by selecting the appropriate option. These options are similar to those in the desktop client, but with some differences (see below) Mail The Inbox and all your folders are here. Look inside ‘Search Folders’ to see the ‘Unread Mail’ folder. Note that you can’t create search folders in the OWA, and search folders created in the full Outlook client don’t appear in the OWA automatically. Calendar The main difference from the Outlook desktop client is you have to doubleclick to create a new appointment in the Calendar. Contacts There is a handy ‘Import Contacts’ option that will let you upload comma delimited text (.csv) files containing contact information from other email systems. For most of us, our contacts have been migrated from GroupWise so there shouldn't be any need to do this. Tasks Quickly filter tasks by only showing those ‘active’, ‘overdue’ or ‘complete’ as well as showing them ‘all’. Although the OWA has an option to change your password, it won't work. As your Outlook account uses the same password as your network login and numerous other University systems, you should instead change it via pwd.beds.ac.uk.
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Using Outlook on the Web Mail Select the ‘Mail’ menu option to go to your inbox.
Figure 2 - Example Inbox from the OWA The layout is similar to the full Outlook client, but without the copious options available from the ribbon menu. Instead, the most commonly used options are available via links. New Delete Move Filter View
Message, Meeting Request Delete, Ignore Conversation Move to folder, Copy to folder Sent to me, Cc'd to me, Unread, Category, From, Flagged, High Importance, Attachments Use Conversations, See more Conversation options, Reading pane: right, bottom, off
You can Search the Entire Mailbox or click the down arrow at the end of the Search box to be more specific. The Options link on the right gives you more options to choose from.
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Replies When viewing an e-mail, you have some commonly used options at the top of the message.
Figure 3 - Reply, Reply to all, Forward icons
Reply - Reply to the sender of this item Reply All - Reply to every e-mail address in the item Forward - Forward this item to another e-mail address
The Actions drop-down menu reveals all of the options, including Forward as Attachment, Create Rule (based on the current item), Delete, Move, Copy and so on.
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Calendar Double-click on the Calendar to open up a new appointment. Until you invite other attendees, this remains a personal appointment. As soon as other people are invited, Outlook calls this a meeting rather than an appointment. The scheduling assistant tab allows you to see if invited attendees have anything booked in their Calendar already.
Figure 4 - Calendar scheduling assistant In the example shown (above), the green and red lines show the start and end of the intended meeting. We can see that the first attendee is already busy for part of the meeting's timeslot. You can drag the green line to a different starting time, or you can manually amend the times shown above to accommodate the person who would otherwise be unable to attend.
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Options In the top-right corner of the Inbox is a link to Options. Click the link and a new menu appears. Set Automatic Replies… A way of setting up a ‘Vacation rule’ with start and end dates, or having an automatic reply sent out each time someone contacts you (just from University colleagues or from anyone) Create an Inbox Rule… Use a wizard to create rules for new items, moving items and so on. You can even delete many items in one go if they contain a specific keyword! See All Options… This includes options for your account, rules, groups, general settings, junk mail, and so on. Junk Mail Go to Options, See All Options and select the Block or Allow left-hand menu option. If you are getting lots of University emails going straight into your Junk E-Mail folder, then you might consider turning Junk settings off:
Select Don't move e-mail to my Junk E-Mail folder Click Save.
Figure 5 - OWA Junk settings turned off ICT (February 2013)
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Themes Themes allow you to amend the look of the OWA by selecting from a group of pre-defined themes. You don’t have to change anything, but you might get bored occasionally!
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Search folders When you create new search folders in the desktop client, they don't appear in OWA unless you turn off cached exchange mode on your account, which is on by default. What is Cached Exchange Mode? Cached Exchange Mode saves a copy of your account onto your computer to speed up access. It frequently updates with the exchange server to keep the local copy up-to-date. How to turn cached exchange mode on/off In the Outlook client, go to File, click the Account Settings button and then choose ‘Account Settings’. 1. In the ‘E-mail’ tab, select your account from the list. Click the ‘Change…’ button at the top. 2. Select the box next to ‘Use Cached Exchange Mode’ to turn the option off/on. 3. Click ‘Next’, ‘Finish’, ‘Close’ and ‘Close’ then ‘OK’. The next time you login to the OWA, your search folders will appear (example shown below).
Figure 6 - Example search folders in Outlook Web App Please note that you only need to have cached exchange mode turned off (box unticked) to force OWA to see any new search folders recently added to your account. You should turn the option back on as soon as you have checked that your new search folders have appeared in the OWA. Conclusion Temporarily turn cached exchange mode off to force the OWA to see any new search folders, and then turn it back on again Repeat this whenever you create new search folders and want to see them in the OWA.
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Index Actions ............................................................................................................. 4 appointment ................................................................................................. 2, 5 automatic reply................................................................................................. 6 Cached Exchange Mode .................................................................................. 8 Calendar ...................................................................................................... 2, 5 favourites ......................................................................................................... 1 help .................................................................................................................. 1 Import Contacts................................................................................................ 2 Inbox ........................................................................................................ 2, 3, 6 junk mail ........................................................................................................... 6 login ......................................................................................................... 1, 2, 8 Mail .............................................................................................................. 2, 3 meeting ............................................................................................................ 5 Microsoft Office 2010 ....................................................................................... 1 Options ........................................................................................................ 3, 6 Outlook desktop client .................................................................................. 1, 2 ribbon menu ................................................................................................. 1, 3 rules ................................................................................................................. 6 Search ..................................................................................................... 2, 3, 8 search folders .............................................................................................. 2, 8 tasks ................................................................................................................ 2 Themes ............................................................................................................ 7 Unread Mail...................................................................................................... 2
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