Outlook 2007 - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about using the Outlook 2007 client with the Staff Exchange E-mail system.
- Folders, Archive, and Sharing
- Connecting
- Oh No! Deleting and Un-Deleting
- E-mail Addresses
- Calendar
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A member of staff is on long term sickness. How can I ensure that their e-mails don't go unanswered?
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How do I send an e-mail to a Manager and be sure that their Secretary / P.A. does not see it?
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How do I set a Vacation Message / How do I use the Out of Office Assistant?
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How can I have replies to an e-mail sent to a different e-mail address?
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My e-mails are failing to send / deliver to a particular person or I'm not receiving e-mails. Why?
Folders, Archive, and Sharing
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In the e-mail archive, how do I add a new folder and set its retention period?
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In the e-mail archive, for how long do e-mails last in the different folders?
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I get an error message when I Forward an e-mail from the E-mail Archive. How can I avoid this?
Connecting
Oh No! Deleting and Un-Deleting
E-mail Addresses
Calendar
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Use a helpful subject line that describes the contents of the mail.
In your Subject line use a prefix in capitals to indicate the type of message, for example:
- ACTION:
- INFO: (for information)
- REQ: (for a request)
- PLEASE: (e.g. PLEASE has anyone found my mobile?
- SOC: for social or NWR: for Not Work-Related
Sometimes you can communicate everything in the Subject line (like a tweet). Once the recipient has read the subject line they can delete it. Tell them that this is the case - the Subject is the message - with a suffix like END, for example:
- Schofield fire alarm test at 1:00 today END
Don't send to more people than is necessary. Do you really need to copy to your manager just to cover yourself?
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How do I turn off e-mail alerts?
The sound of new mail arriving can interrupt you from important non e-mail work with a trivial message. Turn off e-mail alerts unless there is a specific job-related reason to have them on.
From the Tools menu select Options. Ensure that the Preferences tab is selected and click the E-mail Options button. Click the Advanced E-mail Options button. Turn off the options under When new items arrive in my Inbox. Click OK three times.
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From the Tools menu select Rules and Alerts. For more details see our E-mail Rules setup web page.
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How do I Redirect my e-mail to someone else?
You need to set up an E-mail Rule to do this. From the Tools menu select Rules and Alerts. Select New Rule. Select Check messages when they arrive. You can select conditions, but if you want all e-mail to be redirected to someone else just click Next and confirm that this will be for every message. Select redirect it to people or distribution list, then under Step 2 click people or distribution list and select the person / people / list(s) as you would when sending an e-mail. You can add exceptions if necessary. Check the details in the Finish rule setup dialogue, editing the Name for the rule. If you are absolutely sure, click Finish. For more details see our E-mail Rules setup web page.
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A member of staff is on long term sickness. How can I ensure that their e-mails don't go unanswered?
The manager of the member of staff must e-mail the Service Desk IT.Services@lboro.ac.uk requesting that their e-mail is forwarded to one or more other members of staff. We can not do this without an explicit written request from the relevant manager.
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How do I turn on and set my Signatures?
There are two ways:
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From the Tools menu select Options then select the Mail Format tab. Click the Signatures button.
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From a New Mail message window, click the Insert tab. Click the Signature button and select Signatures.
In either case you will get the Signatures and Stationery dialogue. Ensure that the E-mail Signature tab is selected.
Under Select signature to edit you can create and name as many signatures as you wish; the signature itself is set up under Edit signature.
Under New messages and Replies/forwards you can specify which signature to automatically append to those sorts of e-mail messages, or set it to the default of (none).
If you automatically add a signature you can manually delete it in any e-mail where you don't want it. If you want to add a signature or add a different signature, from the New Mail window select the Insert tab, and click the Signature drop-down button. The names of all the Signatures you have previously set up will be available to you.
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How do I send an e-mail to a Manager and be sure that their Secretary / P.A. does not see it?
In the new mail item's Options tab expand the More Options group. Set Sensitivity to Private. For more details please see Private E-mails in our Manager / Secretary Working web page.
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How do I set a Vacation Message / use the Out of Office Assistant?
From the Tools menu select Out of Office Assistant.
Select the Send Out of Office auto-replies radio button.
Ensure that the Inside My Organization tab is selected. type your message in the text box. this auto-reply message will be used for people in this Organization - i.e. the Loughborough University Exchange E-mail system (students and alumni are not included).
If you want people Outside My organisation to receive the same or a similar message, in the text box press Ctrl+A to Select All and Ctrl+C to Copy.
Click the Outside My Organization tab.
If you have copied text from the Inside My Organization tab, click in this text box and press Ctrl+V to Paste. You can now edit the text if you wish - you may wish not to advertise to outsiders when you are returning from vacation for security reasons.
You can de-select the Auto-reply to people outside my organization checkbox to not send a vacation message to people outside the organization (including students and alumni). Otherwise you can select either My Contacts only or Anyone outside my organization radio buttons to determine who will / will not receive the vacation message.
If you wish you can also check the Only send during this time range checkbox and set the Start date and time and End date and time of your out of office / vacation time.
Finally, if you really wish, you can click the Rules button and specify some really sophisticated rules.
Click OK when finished.
Note that you can also set your Vacation Message using Outlook Web Access (Premium or Light versions).
Click Options at the top of the screen. Click Out of Office Assistant in the Options menu in the Navigation pane (to the left).
Options which are similar to those in Outlook 2007 are displayed. In the Light version you do not get the option to format the text (with bold etc.). Click the Save button at the top left of the Out of Office Assistant pane. In the Light version there is a Close option at the top right; in the Premium version just click on Mail or anything in your Navigation Pane to exit Options.
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How can I have replies to an e-mail sent to a different e-mail address?
In your New Mail window select the Options tab, and in the More Options group click Direct Replies To.
Under Delivery Options ensure that Have replies sent to is set to the correct e-mail address - you may use the Select Names... button to select from your contacts and address books.
Click Close.
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My e-mails are failing to send / deliver to a particular person or I'm not receiving e-mails. Why?
If you notice you can't e-mail someone else within Loughborough University or you're not receiving e-mails, it may be that the migrated computer has a slightly out of date Global Address List (also called Offline Address Book).
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Open the e-mail failure message.
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Click Send Again in the Report tab in the ribbon.
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Delete the recipient in Resend To. Click on the Resend To button.
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Type the Search name, select the person and click To->. Click OK.
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Click Send.
If after sending this e-mail it fails again, try re-sending it in two hours (this will allow the systems to be updated).
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Folders, Archive, and Sharing
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From the File menu select New and then New Folder or press Ctrl+Shift+E.
Type in the Name you want for the folder, e.g. Urgent Mail.
Select the type of things which the folder will contain from Folder contains; this will be Mail and Post Items for an E-mail folder, Calendar Items for a Calendar folder, etc.
The important bit: Use Select where to place the folder to do just that. Normally you will want an e-mail folder (e.g. for a project) under Mailbox - your name, so you will select that (as indicated in the diagram). This is how I created the Aika folder for the "Aika" project. These folders will be listed in alphabetical order.
You might want to create a folder inside another folder, e.g. Invoices inside Aika (to store Invoices to do with the "Aika" project. To do this you should select the Aika folder.
Click OK.
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In the e-mail archive, how do I add a new folder and set its retention period?
Each department chooses an administrator to maintain this. Please speak to this person. To view the list of Archive administrators for any part of the Archive, log in to the Archive Administrator Interface and then use the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page to select the Archive area.
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In the e-mail archive, for how long do e-mails last in the different folders?
Each department chooses an administrator to maintain this. Please speak to this person. To view the list of Archive administrators for any part of the Archive, log in to the Archive Administrator Interface and then use the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page to select the Archive area.
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I get an error message when I Forward an e-mail from the E-mail Archive. How can I avoid this?
Select to Forward the mail in the usual manner, and in the Forward Mail window, select the Options tab, and in the Fields group ensure that Show From is selected. Now in the From entry in the E-mail (which now appears above the To entry, you will see StaffMailArchive.
Delete the word StaffMailArchive. You can now continue to Forward the e-mail.
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To let others see your folders please see our Sharing Folders web page. To allow others to manage your calendar and more, please see our Manager / Secretary web page.
Connecting
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How do I connect from Outlook 2007 on my home computer?
Instructions on how to connect from home with Outlook 2007 are available. Briefly, if you try and connect from home on a University-managed laptop, you will be prompted for your Username and Password.
You need to precede your Username with LUNET\ (the last character is a backslash), for example LUNET\itpr. Once connected, your experience should be in line with that when connected to the University network. As a further option from home, you might also consider using Outlook Web Access.
Oh No! Deleting and Un-Deleting
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Oh no! I've deleted e-mails and they're not in my Deleted Items folder? How can I recover them?
Outlook users on Exchange can recover deleted items themselves up to 30 days after they are deleted. Select the relevant folder, usually Deleted Items. In the Tools menu select Recover Deleted Items. You will be presented with a list of messages which are available for recovery.
Once you have selected the items you wish to recover, click the Recover Selected Items button (the centre one of three in the button bar at the top of that window) and the items will be restored into the folder they were in when they were deleted. You can then move them as you desire.
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I've deleted lots of e-mails (or made other changes), but when I go into Outlook on another computer, the deletions / changes have not happened.
If you make changes (e.g. deletes e-mails) then closes outlook immediately, Outlook does not have time to replicate those changes to the exchange server. When you open Outlook from another PC the changes will not be on the server and therefore will not download to the second PC.
Customers can do either of two things:
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Make sure Outlook says All folders are up to date in the bottom right before closing.
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Press F9 to force a synchronise and wait until All folders are up to date to appear at the bottom right.
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E-mail Addresses
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How do I find Loughborough e-mail addresses, and how do I distinguish between two people with the same name?
Follow these steps:
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In the New Mail dialogue (or in the new Meeting dialogue), click the To button and the Select Names dialogue box will be displayed. Ensure that Global Address List is selected. (If you choose Outlook Address Book - Contacts you can search through your existing Contacts list.)
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Under Search start typing the name of the person you are looking for. However, if the person you are looking for is a Postgraduate Research student, type (pg) and then a space and then start typing their name, and similarly (s) for a student.
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If there are duplicates, right-click one of them and from the pop-up menu select Properties.
Under the General tab you can find the department the person is registered with. Under the Member Of tab you can also see what groups the person belongs to - this includes the department and the Modules and Programme if the individual is a Postgraduate research student. Click OK to close this dialogue box and return to the Select Names dialogue.
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Once you have found and highlighted the required individual in the Select Names dialogue box, click the To button to add them to the "To" list in the e-mail, or click the Cc button (or Bcc if present) to add them to the Circulate copies (or Blind Cc) list.
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Click OK when finished to return to the New Mail dialogue.
Note that in the Select Names dialogue once you have selected an individual you can right-click and from the pop-up menu select Add to Contacts to add that person's details to your personal Contacts list.
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How do I change my name as known by the system?
For example, my first name, as known by the system in the Address Book, is not the one I use as I use an abbreviated version or I use my second name.
Staff who are not Research Students: Send an e-mail to S.M.Clarke@lboro.ac.uk (Human Resources), asking to change your "preferred name in Trent". (Trent is the HR information system, which feeds this information into the e-mail directory.) You should include your staff number, name, and department, and the name you prefer to be known by (e.g. "Rob" rather than "Robert".) This could take several days to be changed.
Research Students: Send an e-mail to StudentEnquiries@lboro.ac.uk or telephone 222472 (Student Records in the Academic Registry) asking to change your "preferred name in Student Records". You should include your student number, name, department, and the name you prefer to be known by (e.g. "Sam" rather than "Samantha"). This could take several days to be changed.
Calendar
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I have shared my Calendar folder. How do I stop others from seeing what a particular appointment / all day event / meeting is about?
![[Private]](outlook-2007-images/private.jpg)
Open the item and in the left-hand tab (called Appointment, Meeting, Event, Invited Event, Appointment Series, Meeting Series, Recurring Event, or Recurring Meeting Event as appropriate) click the Private button. -
All Day Events in Outlook are, by default, set to "Free" rather than "Busy". As a result I have been double-booked. What can I do?
Some All Day Events you will want to be "Free" such as Birthdays, and perhaps Open Days or a Conference important for your department but which you are not attending. Some All Day Events such as a Training Course or Conference which you are attending you will want to be "Busy". Microsoft has for many years recommended that you treat these latter as Appointments lasting during working hours e.g. starting at 9:00 and ending at 17:30, but this is certainly not as appealing when the event lasts for more than one day. The default in Outlook is that All Day Events will be set as "Free", and Microsoft have not made it easy to change which is the default in Outlook. Please, then, be careful when you create an All Day Event to check that the Free / Busy setting is correct.
Please also note that currently when you use Outlook Web Access to create an All Day Event that this inconsistently sets it as "Busy" by default. We have asked Microsoft to look at this anomaly. In the meantime, please be extra careful when creating All Day Events in Outlook Web Access that the Free / Busy setting is correct!
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Meeting Acceptances used to stay in my Inbox, but now they do not. Why?
The Outlook / Exchange standard is that the Acceptance will update the Meeting (you can see it in the Tracking option) and then automatically be deleted (unless the Acceptance has a further message from whoever sent it). We recommend staying with this standard - you can see Acceptances from the Tracking option, and it is better to have a system as compatible as possible with other systems and all the Microsoft outlook documentation which is available.
However, if you wish to change this behaviour to the way things worked under earlier systems, follow these steps:
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From the Tools menu select Options.
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Select the Preferences tab, and click E-mail Options.
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Click the Tracking Options button.
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De-select the Delete blank voting and meeting responses after processing checkbox.
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Click OK three times.
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