ITDE Blog

How to send an e-mail with a different reply-to address

2012-02-01T14:41:19-05:00

Question: I have an organization alias that gets published on flyers and such that gets directed to me. When I send an e-mail from Outlook, how can I make it so people replying to the e-mail send to that alias, instead of my personal alias?

Answer: Start a new e-mail. Click on the Options tab and then click Direct Replies To. Change the address in the box next to "Have replies sent to:" to the alternate alias (for example, ce.pubs@unh.edu)

Make Outlook the default email program

2012-01-13T13:41:46-05:00

Question: When I click on an email address, Eudora opens. Is there a way to change this setting to have it go through Outlook?

Answer: Yes Go to File > Options > General, and check the box "Make Outlook the default program..." If it isn't already, the next time you open Outlook, it will ask if you want to make it the default.

Outlook Web Access Signatures

2012-01-13T13:35:03-05:00

Question: Using web version, I can't insert a signature on my emails (even though I have a signature set up in Outlook). Any suggestions?

Answer: Signatures are not stored in Exchange, but rather, exist in the client you use, such that you could have a different signature when sending from the web, Outlook, or your phone. To use signatures from the web, you need to create them. Go to Options > See All Options; click on Settings; in the Mail area, you can enter the signature(s) you'd like to use.

Outlook Contacts

2012-01-13T09:53:20-05:00

Frustration: Trying to quickly access an address has been very frustrating, sometimes you begin typing and the name comes up and sometimes it doesn't. Then sometimes I go to the different contact lists and sometimes the names are there and sometimes not!

Response: In General, the contacts come from three different places: Suggested Contacts, Contacts, and the Global Address List. When starting to type a recipient into the To, CC, or BCC fields, Outlook will attempt to Autocomplete the contact, based on contacts that you have previously emailed and people in your Contacts, but not everyone in the Global Address List. If you frequently email certain people, you may want to add them to your own Contacts.

The Suggested Contacts list is generated in the background, based on people you have emailed (See this Microsoft post that also describes the difference between suggested contacts and the autocomplete list.)

Adding Contacts:

When searching in the Global Address List, right-click on a Contact and choose Add to contacts.

From an email message, right-click on an individual and select Add to Outlook Contacts.

Accessing email from the road

2012-01-13T09:47:02-05:00

Question: How do we access email from home?

Answer: https://exchange.unh.edu is the web-based interface to the Exchange server. It uses the same data as the Outlook client, so whatever you do in either place, is reflected in the other.

If you have a UNHCE laptop with Outlook installed and configured, you can access your email as you normally would, provided you have an Internet connection.

If you'd like to access email from a mobile device, you can use the site above, or configure your device to interface with the Exchange server. See Mobile Devices and Applications at the UNH IT site for more details.

Outlook Automatic Replies (Out of Office)

2012-01-13T09:04:00-05:00

Question: Should we be using the automatic reply - out of office feature with Outlook or should we continue to go through IT?

Answer: Automatic replies have to be set up by the individual user, the ITDE staff cannot do this for other users. You can also set up automatic replies from the Outlook Web Access application (https://exchange.unh.edu) if you are already out of the office.

From http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290846 -

For Microsoft Office Outlook 2010:

Make sure that you have a folder in the Exchange account's message store selected.
NOTE: If you have other account types setup in the active Outlook profile, each account may have its own message store. If you do not have a folder contained within the Exchange account's message store, the "Automatic Replies (Out of Office)" option will not be visible in step 3 later in this section.
Click the File tab, and then click the Info tab in the menu.
Click Automatic Replies (Out of Office).
Note If you do not see this option, you are not connected to an Exchange Server. For non exchange account user, visit the following Microsoft Website:
Automatically reply to email messages without using an Exchange Server account
In the Automatic Replies dialog box, select the Send Automatic Replies check box.
If you want to specify a set time and date range, select the Only send during this time range check box. Then set the Start time, and then set the End time.
In the Inside my organization tab, type the message that you want to send within your organization, and in the Outside my organization tab, type the message that you want to send outside your organization.
Click OK.
If you selected the "Only send during this time range" option in step 4, the Automatic Replies (Out of Office) feature will continue to run until the date and time set for the End Time in step 5 is reached.
Otherwise, the Automatic Replies (Out of Office) will continue to run until you repeat step 1 and select the "Do not send automatic replies" option.

Changing Outlook calendar permissons

2012-01-13T08:57:10-05:00

Question: Once you've "shared" your calendar, can you go back in and change it from "full" view to "availability only" or do you have to re-share again with the person to do so?

Answer: You can modify the permissions of a shared calendar within the properties of the calendar. See the blog post Sharing Calendars - Are You Busy? for details on accessing the permissions area. Here, you can change your default sharing settings, or the sharing settings for any individual you've shared your calendar with.

Change default address book

2012-01-13T08:52:09-05:00

Question: How do I make the address book start in My Contacts, instead of the Global Address List?

Answer: The Global Address List is the listing of everyone on the UNH Exchange server. If you would prefer to default to your own contacts, follow the instructions at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/change-the-default-address-book-watch-and-learn-HA010252526.aspx . The instructions are for Outlook 2007, but apply equally to 2010. Make sure you open the address book from your main menu, not from within a new message (otherwise, you won't have the toolbar to select Options.)

Resend email

2012-01-13T08:37:12-05:00

Question: Is there an easier way to "send again" instead of going to the sent box, double clicking on the message, then going to File, Recall or Resend?

Answer: Yes. Go to the Sent mail folder and open the message you want to resend (double-click to open in a window.) In the Move section of the ribbon, click on Actions > Resend This Message. (If this is something you need to do a lot, you can right-click on the Resend This Message command and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar)

Tip for Getting More Organized: Don't - Michael Schrage - Harvard Business Review

2012-01-12T16:15:13-05:00

http://blogs.hbr.org/schrage/2012/01/tip-for-getting-more-organized.html

How much time do you spend each day getting better organized? Cut it in half.

When it comes to investing time, thought and effort into productively organizing oneself, less is more. In fact, not only is less more, research suggests it may be faster, better and cheaper.

IBM researchers observed that email users who "searched" rather than set up files and folders for their correspondence typically found what they were looking for faster and with fewer errors. Time and overhead associated with creating and managing email folders were, effectively, a waste.

I swear I didn't see this before my earlier blog post.

All those mailboxes...

2012-01-12T12:05:45-05:00

How many mailboxes did you have in Eudora? Are you trying to recreate them all in Outlook?

Here's my opinion: ditch the mailboxes!

I'm a long time Google Mail user, and found that it was much more efficient to search for an email I was seeking, rather than trying to organize them as they came in and then try finding them in a particular spot. Outlook 2010 has a great built in search-functionality, so I'm doing the same in Outlook.

Here's what I do: I created a folder/mailbox called Archived. If I have any email I need to save for posterity, I move it to the Archived folder. If I need to find a particular email, I just type in the search box.

Why I think it's better:

I created a Quick Step, so that I can just click a button to archive a message.
Messages may belong in more than one folder
If I misfile a message, it's even tougher to find later, if I only look in one spot.
I don't have to spend the few seconds on each message, deciding where it goes.

All that said, I do still maintain a handful of folders for particular categories, but I may get rid of those in the future.

Sharing calendars - Are you busy?

2012-01-12T11:16:52-05:00

One of the handy features of being on the Exchange system at UNH is that you can share and view other people's calendars. To see someone's calendar: while in the calendar area of Outlook, click on Open Calendar > From Address Book, and find the person whose calendar you want to view. What you'll notice is that, by default, you can't actually see the person's appointments, but only whether they are busy or not. While this may be sufficient, it's nice to know whether a person is in the office or not, etc.

You can share more detailed calendar information with specific people, or change your default settings, so that anyone on the Exchange system can see more information about your schedule.

To share your calendar with specific people:

While in the calendar area of Outlook, highlight the calendar you want to share and click on Share Calendar. This will create a special sharing invitation email. Choose who you want to share with from the address book, by clicking on the To... button. You can check the box to request the recipient(s) share their calendar back with you. Finally, you can adjust the level of detail the recipient(s) will be able to see. Choose Limited details (will be ale to see the appointment subject and location) or Full details ( will be able to see limited details, plus notes, etc.)

To make details of your calendar visible to all Exchange users:

While in the calendar area of Outlook, right-click on the calendar and choose Properties. Click on the permissions tab (You will see everyone the calendar is shared with, if you shared it as described above.) Choose the Default entry, and adjust the permissions level to the desired level of visibility. Click OK.

You can still create appointments that are not visible to others, by marking the appointment as Private when you create it.

Outlook - Really deleting emails

2012-01-06T14:59:31-05:00

Question: Isn't there a simple "empty the trash" command somewhere? I'm having to individually delete each email message twice once I'm done with it (once to put in "trash" and again to finally delete from the trash box. That will get old fast.

Answer: To get rid of your deleted items, just right-click on the delete folder and choose Empty Folder. (See image below)

Outlook attachments

2012-01-06T14:56:39-05:00

Question: Attachments in outlook mail don't seem to go into my attach file. I've had several I wanted to delete as they came in, but can't find where they are.

Answer: Attachments are stored with the associated email, both on the server, and in your local cached copy (which you can't see into, except through Outlook). If you right-click on an attachment in Outlook, you'll have several options, including Remove attachment, which effectively deletes it. (See image below)

Creating a contact group in Outlook

2011-12-19T13:30:56-05:00

Many folks have had questions about creating a distribution list in Outlook (Outlook calls it a Contact Group). In brief, the steps are:

Get a list of email addresses, separated by a semi-colon ( ; )
Create a new contact group and name it
Click on Add members > From Address Book
At the bottom of the form (next to the button labelled "Members - >"), paste the addresses into the text box.

Note that, as with our old email server, there is a limit of 250 addresses in any one Contact Group.

Here's a video demonstration, using addresses generated from our DEX - Contact Manager:

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