Using Outlook 2002 | Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrators Companion

Microsoft Outlook 2002 is a popular messaging program because it is relatively easy to use, has many handy messaging and calendar features, works well with Microsoft Exchange Server, and has excellent support for Internet standards-based e-mail. It also comes with Microsoft Office XP, making it a simple installation for many organizations.

This part of the chapter covers how to configure and customize Outlook and use it with Exchange Server, as well as how to set up and use Outlook's scheduling and e-mail processing features.

Real World

Security and Outlook

Microsoft Outlook was created to be a flexible and powerful messaging client. Unfortunately, all of this power combined with the design decisions made by the Outlook development team yielded results similar to putting a big bullseye on the forehead of the program. As such, it has become every virus writer's favorite target, and numerous worm viruses (such as the ILoveYou virus) have been written to exploit Outlook's security holes and people's social susceptibilities. Not surprisingly, Outlook has acquired something of a negative reputation as a result.

Fortunately, there are ways of dealing with these issues. The first thing Microsoft did was block users from opening potentially dangerous e-mail attachments (the primary method of virus infection). This was first implemented in the Outlook Security Update for Outlook 2000 and is integrated into Outlook 2002 (and customizable by Exchange Server administrators). Note that if users need to send attachments of a type that Outlook blocks (.EXE, .VBS, .BAT, etc.), users need to either zip the files (compress them in a .ZIP file) or find another means of sending the files (such as publishing on a file server).

The second way of protecting users from viruses is to install a third-party virus scanning program on the client (and keep it up-to-date), such as Norton AntiVirus, which actively scans incoming and outgoing e-mails.

Administrators can also install server-based virus scanning programs (if using Exchange server), and/or filter e-mail using a proxy server (such as Microsoft ISA Server).

When these solutions are applied, Outlook can be an appropriately secure e-mail client (although of course, terminal based e-mail clients are still more secure, although clunky and inappropriate for most users).

Configuring Outlook 2002

Even if you're familiar with earlier versions of Outlook, you should read this section because some configuration procedures have changed in Outlook 2002. Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2000 are quite similar and most procedures described here work for both versions. If Outlook 97 or Outlook 98 is deployed in your organization, you should upgrade for the increased speed and flexibility of newer versions.

Running Outlook for the First Time

Most companies include Outlook as a part of their Office XP installation, although it can be purchased separately (Exchange Server users should know that each Exchange Client Access License provides a license for Outlook). When you install Office, Outlook is installed by default.

Outlook 2002 does away with the separate Internet Only and Corporate Or Workgroups modes. In past versions, choosing one mode during installation dictated which message services you could access (most notably whether you could access an Exchange Server or not). With Outlook 2002, you can freely mix and match the type of messaging services you use, without having to reconfigure or reinstall the program.

The first time you run Outlook, you need to configure it for the current user by importing old messages and settings and/or setting up an e-mail account. To do so, follow these steps:

Launch Outlook 2002 from the Programs folder of the Start menu.
If a previous version of Outlook is installed on the computer, specify whether Outlook is used for e-mail. Clicking Yes retains all settings from the earlier Outlook version and finishes the configuration process.
If other e-mail programs are installed on the computer, such as Outlook Express, Eudora, or Netscape Messenger, you can use settings from any of these programs. Select the program from which to import settings, or select None Of The Above, and click Next.
If you haven't set up an e-mail account on the system yet, the e-mail part of the Internet Connection Wizard is displayed (shown in Figure 24-1), which walks you through setting up an e-mail account. Provide the user name, Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) server settings, and any other information it requests.

Figure 24-1. Setting up a new e-mail account.

Importing Data and Settings

If Outlook detects an existing e-mail program during installation, it asks if you want to import existing messages and account settings from the program. However, if the e-mail program isn't installed on the same computer on which you installed Outlook, or if the program isn't recognized by Outlook, you can still import data and settings after installation by using the following procedure:

Choose Import And Export from the File menu, shown in Figure 24-2.

Figure 24-2. The Import And Export wizard.
Choose what kind of information you want to import:
- To import e-mail account settings from Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, or Microsoft Internet Mail and News, choose the Import Internet Mail Account Settings option and then click Next. The program you want to import from must be currently installed and configured.
- To import messages and addresses from Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, or Microsoft Internet Mail and News, select the Import Internet Mail And Addresses option and then click Next. In the next screens, select the program to import from, specify what folder to import the messages and addresses into, and specify where the program is installed.
- To import data from a different program, such as a previous version of Outlook or Lotus Organizer, choose Import From Another Program Or File and then click Next. In the next screens, select the type of data to import, the file to import, where to place the imported data, and check any field mappings to verify that the data will be translated properly.

When importing data from other programs, create a new folder in your information store and import the data into that folder. Once the data is safely and accurately imported into Outlook, you can then move it to the appropriate folder with much less risk of overwriting or damaging existing messages, contacts, or other Outlook items.

Managing E-Mail Accounts

There are a number of tasks to perform when managing e-mail accounts in Outlook 2002. These include adding or modifying e-mail accounts, or changing how Outlook checks for new messages on various e-mail accounts.

Adding Accounts

When you install Outlook, the Setup program helps you establish your primary message account, but you can easily establish additional accounts any time after Setup completes.

To set up additional accounts, follow these steps:

Choose E-mail Accounts from the Tools menu. Outlook displays the E-Mail Accounts dialog box, shown in Figure 24-3.

Figure 24-3. The E-Mail Accounts dialog box.

If you chose to import settings from another e-mail program or a previous version of Outlook that had multiple mail accounts configured, Outlook 2002 preserves these mail settings, usually obviating the need to configure additional accounts.
To add an e-mail account, select the Add A New E-mail Account option, and then click Next.
Choose the type of e-mail account you want to add and then click Next, as shown in Figure 24-4.

Figure 24-4. Choosing a type of e-mail account to add.

To add an Exchange Server account, you may have to close Outlook. Then double-click the Mail icon in Control Panel, click the E-Mail Accounts button, and proceed from step 2.
Enter the requested settings such as your name, e-mail address, mail servers, and logon information, as shown in Figure 24-5.

Figure 24-5. Entering account settings.

If creating a new Post Office Protocol (POP) based e-mail account, click Test Account Settings to send yourself a test message to verify the settings you entered.

Modifying E-Mail Account Properties

To modify the properties of an existing e-mail account, use the following procedure:

Choose E-Mail Accounts from the Tools menu.
To view or modify an existing e-mail account, select the View Or Change Existing E-Mail Accounts option, and then click Next.
To specify which e-mail account should be the default account, select the desired account, and click Set As Default.
To change the order in which e-mail accounts are processed, select an account and click the Move Up or Move Down buttons, as shown in Figure 24-6.

Figure 24-6. Viewing e-mail accounts.
To modify the properties of an e-mail account, select the account and then click Change.
To change the Outlook data file (such as your personal folders file or Exchange Server mailbox) to which Outlook delivers e-mail messages, select the appropriate folder store from the Deliver New E-Mail To The Following Location box. Click Finish when you're done.

Setting Up Send/Receive Groups

Outlook 2002 controls which e-mail accounts are checked for new messages using so-called Send/Receive groups. You can use Send/Receive groups to check groups of e-mail accounts on different schedules. For example, you might want to check your business e-mail every five minutes and your personal e-mail every three hours.

To set up or modify the properties of Send/Receive groups, use the following procedure:

Choose Send/Receive Settings from the Tools menu, and then choose Define Send/Receive Groups from the submenu.
By default, all e-mail accounts are included in the All Accounts group (shown in Figure 24-7). To create a group with only certain accounts (such as frequently used accounts), click New, enter a name for the group, and then click OK.

Figure 24-7. Working with Send/Receive groups.
In the next dialog box, select which e-mail accounts to include in the group by selecting the account from the list on the left and then selecting the Include Account In This Send/Receive Group check box, as shown in Figure 24-8.
Select the folders to check for new messages if there are multiple folders in the account (as is usually the case for IMAP and Hotmail accounts).
Specify whether to download just the message headers to save time (the full message is downloaded when you display the message in the Preview pane or in a separate window), or to download the complete messages by selecting the appropriate option at the bottom of the dialog box.

Figure 24-8. Choosing which accounts to include in a Send/Receive group.
To view the properties for an account, click Account Properties. This allows you to change advanced settings such as whether messages should be left on the server and whether the mail server requires secure authentication. Click OK when you're done.
Back in the Send/Receive Groups dialog box shown in Figure 24-7, select the new group and modify when Outlook checks the group for new messages. Click Close when you're done.

Changing Where Outlook Data Is Stored

By default, Outlook stores all of its local data in a single file called a personal folders file (Outlook.pst), unless you're using Outlook with Exchange Server. The personal folders file is stored by default in the following hidden folder: \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft \Outlook\Outlook.pst.

If you use an Exchange Server e-mail account, your Outlook data will most likely be stored in your mailbox on the Exchange Server, although you can specify to deliver messages locally to your personal folders file instead.

The size of your Outlook personal folders file (Outlook.pst, the file that stores all Outlook data unless you're using an Exchange Server mailbox) cannot exceed 2 GB in size, or else you'll lose all of your data (Office XP Service Pack 1 and newer versions include a fix that warns users before this happens). To work around this, occasionally choose Mailbox Cleanup from the Tools menu and then use the resulting dialog box to delete unnecessary messages and archive infrequently used data. You can also create additional personal folders files in which to store Outlook items by choosing New-Outlook Data File from the File menu.

To control where messages are delivered and where your personal folders file is located, use the following procedure:

Choose Data File Management from the File menu. This displays a list of data files used to store your Outlook data, as shown in Figure 24-9.

Figure 24-9. The Outlook Data Files dialog box.
To create a new personal folders file or to open an existing file, click Add, click OK, select or name the desired personal folders file, and then click OK.
To see where the personal folders file is stored on your hard drive, select the personal folders file and then click Open Folder (although you should close Outlook before you move or copy a personal folder file that's in use).
To change to where new messages are delivered (for example, to specify that messages should be delivered to your Exchange Server mailbox), choose E-Mail Accounts from the Tools menu, select the View Or Change Existing E-Mail Accounts option, and then select the appropriate folder store from the Deliver New E-Mail To The Following Location box, as shown in Figure 24-10.

Figure 24-10. Changing the location to which messages are delivered.

Managing Address Books

Some users may have more than one address book in Outlook. These address books can consist of one or more Contacts folders, an Exchange Server Global Address List, and/or one or more LDAP directories.

If the address books aren't set up optimally and users don't understand the differences between address books, there is bound to be trouble. The following sections help you understand how Outlook handles addressing, and how to set up Outlook to work with address books in a way that bests suits your users.

Address Books in Outlook The Contacts folder is the default address book in Outlook 2002 and the best one for all address information. It can contain just about any type of address information you'd like to store: e-mail, Exchange mailbox, postal address, telephone numbers, Web page addresses, and so on. It's also customizable and integrated extremely well into Outlook.

If you're connected to an Exchange server, you also have the Global Address List, a directory of mail accounts kept on the Exchange server. This address list is read-only by default, but users can add addresses from the Global Address List to the Contacts folder by right-clicking the address and choosing Add To Contacts from the shortcut menu.

You can also use a Personal Address Book (PAB) file to store addresses. This feature was retained primarily for backward compatibility with older Exchange and Windows Messaging clients, which use the PAB as the default address book. The Contacts folder has a nicer interface and is better integrated with Outlook, but the capability is there if your users have existing PAB files they want to use.

Because Outlook 2002 integrates the former Internet Only and Corporate/Workgroup modes, you can now manage multiple address books including PAB files regardless of whether you're using Outlook with an Exchange Server.

Configuring a Folder as an Address Book Outlook can use any folder in Outlook as an address book—you aren't limited to just one Contacts folder. This can come in handy if you want to keep personal contacts separate from business contacts, for example.

To create a new folder in which to store contacts and to make this folder available as an address book, follow these steps:

Choose New from the File menu, and then choose Folder from the submenu.
Enter a name for the folder in the Name text box, as shown in Figure 24-11.

Figure 24-11. The Create New Folder dialog box.
Select Contact Items from the Folder Contains drop-down list box.
Choose the folder in the personal folders file or an Exchange Server mailbox in which to create the new Contacts folder, and then click OK. If Outlook asks if you'd like to create a shortcut to the folder on the Outlook Bar, click OK.

If you can't access contacts in this new folder from the Select Recipients dialog box or from the Address Book window, right-click the folder, choose Properties from the shortcut menu, click the Outlook Address Book tab, and then select the Show This Folder As An E-Mail Address Book check box.

Configuring Address Book Handling Outlook lets you easily configure which address book to store personal addresses in, which address book to display when addressing messages, and the order in which Outlook checks the address books when searching for an addressee. In previous versions of Outlook, you could only do this if you used the Corporate Or Workgroup configuration. Fortunately, in Outlook 2002, you can change the way address books are handled, regardless of what type of e-mail accounts you use (no Exchange Server required).

To configure how Outlook handles address books, follow these steps:

Display the Address book by clicking the Address Book toolbar button in Outlook's main window (or choose Address Book from the Tools menu).
Choose Options from the Tools menu.
From the first drop-down list, choose the address book to be displayed first when you call up the address book, as shown in Figure 24-12.

Figure 24-12. The Addressing dialog box.
From the second drop-down list, choose the address book in which to store all new addresses.
Use the Add button and the Remove button to change which address books are selected, and use the up and down arrows to adjust the order in which the address books are selected.
Click OK when you're finished.

To change how addresses are sorted (for example, by last name or by first name), choose E-Mail Accounts from the Tools menu, select View Or Change Existing Directories, click Next, select Outlook Address Book, click Change, select the contacts folder you want and then choose either the First Last or File As option in the Show Names By section of the dialog box.

Adding LDAP Directories or PAB files If users access addresses routinely from a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory, you can add the directory to the list of address books available in Outlook. Similarly, if a user has an existing PAB file that they'd like to use, you can set up Outlook to use the file as an additional address book.

Although you can set up Outlook to work with Internet directories such as Bigfoot (ldap.bigfoot.com), they are slow and generally don't work well in Outlook. Instead, set up Outlook to work only with local LDAP servers, such as the network's Active Directory service. Leave Internet LDAP directories for the Windows Search-For People tool or a Web browser.

To accomplish either of these tasks, use the following procedure:

Choose E-Mail Accounts from the Tools menu.
Select Add A New Directory Or Address Book, and then click Next.
Select Internet Directory Service (LDAP) to provide access to an LDAP directory, or select Additional Address Books to add a PAB file, and then click Next.
Enter the LDAP server name as shown in Figure 24-13, or use the Personal Address Book dialog box to create or open a PAB file.

Figure 24-13. Adding LDAP directory access to Outlook.
If you're connecting to an LDAP server that requires you to log on, select the This Server Requires Me To Log On check box and type the user name and password in the boxes provided.
If you need to enter a search base for the LDAP server, click More Settings, click the Search tab, and enter the appropriate setting in the box provided.

Customizing Outlook

Now that you've handled the basic setup, you might want to change a number of Outlook settings for particular users. The following sections explain how to customize some key Outlook features such as the toolbars and personalized menus.

Outlook data files cannot exceed 2 GB in size, or you'll lose all your data. To prevent this from happening, occasionally choose Mailbox Cleanup from the Tools menu and then use the resulting dialog box to delete unnecessary messages and archive infrequently used data.

Changing the Default Message Format

Outlook 2002, like most modern e-mail programs, sends messages in HTML format by default. This allows users to perform fancy formatting of their messages, add background pictures, and generally waste time and network bandwidth. Unless HTML is necessary, make plain text the default format for e-mails. Reserve HTML formatted messages for those messages that truly need special paragraph and font formatting. Plain text e-mails send faster, consume fewer resources, and are readable by all e-mail clients.

To change the default message format to plain text, use the following procedure:

Choose Options from the Tools menu.
Click the Mail Format tab.
Choose Plain Text from the Compose In This Message Format box, as shown in Figure 24-14.

Figure 24-14. Changing the default message format.
Optionally use the other options in the Mail Format tab to control whether Microsoft Word is the e-mail editor and whether to include a signature by default.
Click OK when you're done.

Customizing Toolbars and Toggling Personalized Menus

Outlook 2002 lets you customize your toolbars and turn off the Personalized Menus and Toolbars feature if a user doesn't like it. (The Personalized Menus and Toolbars feature of Office XP hides menu commands and toolbar buttons that are infrequently used.)

To do so, right-click the toolbar you want to customize and choose Customize from the shortcut menu. Then do any of the following tasks and click Close when you're finished:

To turn off the Personalized Menus and Toolbars feature, select the Always Show Full Menus check box.
To create a new toolbar, click the Toolbars tab, click New, enter a name for the toolbar, and then click OK. A small, floating toolbar appears on the screen.
To add commands to a toolbar, click the Commands tab, select a menu category, and then drag a command to the toolbar of your choice.
To modify the appearance of a toolbar button, right-click the button and use the shortcut menu to modify its appearance.
To remove a toolbar button, drag it off the toolbar.

You can make any toolbar button point to a Web page by right-clicking it while in the Customize mode, choosing Assign Hyperlink from the shortcut menu, choosing Open from the submenu, and then using the Assign Hyperlink dialog box to locate the Web page to which you want to link.

Changing the Default Mail Program

When you install Outlook, the program automatically becomes the default e-mail and newsreader program. To change the default e-mail program you use on the system to another program, follow these steps:

Open the Internet Options Control Panel tool.
Click the Programs tab, shown in Figure 24-15.

Figure 24-15. The Programs tab of the Properties dialog box.
Select the program you want to use to edit and create Web pages (HTML documents) from the HTML Editor drop-down list box.
Select the program you want to use by default to send and receive e-mail from the E-Mail drop-down list box.
Choose the default newsreader you want to use for reading Internet newsgroups by selecting a program from the Newsgroups drop-down list box. This newsreader is automatically launched when you choose Outlook's Go To command from the View menu and then click News.
Choose the program you want to use to handle Internet voice calls from the Internet Call drop-down list box.
Choose the program you want to use to manage the calendar from the Calendar drop-down list box.
Choose the program you want to use to manage the address book from the Contact List drop-down list box.
Click OK when you're finished.

If you change the default e-mail program from Outlook to another program, the next time you launch Outlook, you'll be asked whether you want to use Outlook as the default e-mail program. Click No.

Creating Custom Forms

Outlook uses forms for just about every bit of information you enter into the program. E-mail messages, calendar items, contacts, and notes are all forms. When you enter information in Outlook (other than in a Settings dialog box), you're entering it into a form. In most cases, Outlook's default forms work the best, but you might want to customize these forms for your company's own uses.

Customizing Outlook forms is fairly easy, but you can also get caught up in a lot of complexity if you feel like it (or if you stumble down the wrong alley). This section doesn't teach you all the details of Outlook 2002 form design, but it's enough to get you started.

More Info

For more information on designing your own Outlook forms, we suggest you pick up a copy of Building Applications with Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 (Microsoft Press, 2001).

To create a basic form, follow these steps:

Choose Forms from the Tools menu and then choose Design Form from the submenu.
Choose the form on which you want to base the custom form and then click Open. Outlook displays the selected form in Design mode, as shown in Figure 24-16.

Figure 24-16. The Design mode view.
To add a field to the form, drag the field from the Field Chooser onto the form.
Tabs with parentheses around their names are hidden to users. The tabs become visible to users when you add fields to them.
To reposition a field, drag it to a new location.
To delete a field, select it and then press Delete.
If you are customizing a post-based form or a message-based form, click the Edit Read Page toolbar button to display the Read page, which is used to display information once it has been entered (for example, a posted post or sent e-mail).
To add a display for a field you added to the Compose page, create a new field by clicking New in the Field Chooser, and then using the New Field dialog box to name the field and choose the field type and format (the field must have a unique name; we suggest you append display to the field name you want to display).
Drag the new field onto the Read page after creating it.
Right-click the field and then choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Use the Display tab to change how the field appears on the form.
Click the Value tab (Figure 24-17). Then click Choose Field, choose the appropriate field to display from the All Mail Fields submenu, and click OK.

Figure 24-17. The Value tab of the Properties dialog box.
When you're finished designing the custom form, click the Publish Form toolbar button.
Choose the location in which to store the form. (See the "Storing and Publishing Forms" Real World sidebar for more information on storing forms.)
Enter a name for the form and click Publish.

Real World

Storing and Publishing Forms

You can save a custom Outlook form in a variety of ways. For instance, you can save the form as a template by using the Save As command. This creates a file that you can use in another program or attach to an e-mail message to send to someone else. Or you can save the form to a folder in the message store, which is good if you plan to simply attach the form to an e-mail or if you don't plan to share the form with others.

You can also publish a form to a public folder (or a private folder), making it available to all users only when they're in the folder to which you saved the form. This is perfect for forms that you've customized for use with a particular public folder and really aren't applicable elsewhere, such as a form customized for reports or employee suggestions. Finally, you can publish the form in one of the two Outlook forms libraries. The forms libraries are as follows:

Personal forms library This library is stored in the mailbox in which you receive mail. Forms published to this library are available only to you. It's handy for storing forms intended only for personal use.
Organizational forms library This library is stored on the Exchange server, and forms stored in it are available to all users with access to the Exchange server. This is the best place to store a form that you want all users in the organization to have access to.

Using Outlook with Exchange Server

Now that you've configured Outlook and customized it the way you (or the user you're supporting) want it, the next several sections will help you integrate it with the company's Exchange Server infrastructure. Outlook 2002 is the best Exchange Server client on the market, and most companies that use Exchange Server for their intracompany e-mail will probably find themselves upgrading to Outlook 2002 at some point.

Setting Up Offline Folder Access

One way to change how Outlook works with Exchange is to set up Outlook to cache a copy of the Exchange folders locally, for offline use. You would usually do this for laptop users, but you could also do it for users with a slow or unreliable connection to their Exchange server (or for users with a slow and unreliable Exchange server). To set up the folders for offline access, follow these steps:

Choose E-Mail Accounts from the Tools menu.
Select the View Or Change Existing E-Mail Accounts option and then click Next.
Select the Microsoft Exchange Server account from the account list, and then click Change, as shown in Figure 24-18.

Figure 24-18. Selecting an Exchange Server account.
Click More Settings.
Click the Advanced tab and click Offline Folder File Settings, shown in Figure 24-19.

Figure 24-19. Advanced Properties for an Exchange Server account.
Enter the filename and path for the file to use as the offline folder store, choose an encryption method, and click OK, as shown in Figure 24-20. When asked if you'd like to create the file, click Yes.
To control whether a folder is available offline, display the folder, choose Send/Receive Settings from the Tools menu, and then select Make This Folder Available Offline.

Figure 24-20. Setting up offline folder access for an Exchange Server account.

Changing Exchange Server Synchronization Settings

After you've set up the Exchange folders for offline access, synchronize with Exchange Server before going offline. To control which folders are synchronized at what interval, use the following procedure:

Choose Send/Receive Settings from the Tools menu, and then choose Define Send/Receive Groups from the submenu.
Select the Send/Receive group containing the Exchange Server account, as shown in Figure 24-21 (see the section entitled Setting Up Send/Receive Groups earlier in this chapter for more information), and then click Edit.

Figure 24-21. Selecting a Send/Receive group.
Select the Microsoft Exchange Server account from the Accounts list on the left, as shown in Figure 24-22.

Figure 24-22. Modifying the synchronization settings for an Exchange Server account.
Specify the synchronization settings for the Exchange Server account, and click OK when you're done:
- Select the folders you want to synchronize from the list.
- Select the Send Mail Items and Receive Mail Items check boxes to send and receive mail from this account.
- To view the properties for an account, click Account Properties. This allows you to change advanced settings such as whether messages should be left on the server and whether the mail server requires secure authentication. Click OK when you're done.
- Select the Make Folder Home Pages Available Offline check box to keep the home pages for any Exchange folders up-to-date in the offline folder store.
- Select the Synchronize Forms check box to download updated copies of any forms posted in Exchange folders to which you have access.
- To be able to access the Global Address List while offline, select the Download Offline Address Book check box, and optionally click Settings to specify further details.
- Click Filter Selected Folder to apply a filter to the selected folder. This causes Outlook to only download and display items matching the criteria you specify for the specified folder.
- Click Limit Message Size and use the Download Options dialog box to modify the 50-KB message size download limit or specify exceptions to this rule.

Assigning Delegates

Outlook makes it easy to delegate the chore of managing e-mail, which is nice for those fortunate enough to have underlings to whom you can delegate tasks. Outlook lets you achieve this wondrous state of e-mail nirvana by allowing you to name one or more users as delegates with permission to access the Exchange folders and to send and receive messages for you.

To set up this capability, you need a mailbox on an Exchange server and the Exchange services set up on the system. However, you get the most bang for your delegated buck if you also set up your mail to be delivered to your Exchange mailbox instead of your personal folders file. Doing this gives you more granular control over which folders your delegate can access, and what kind of permissions your delegate has to each folder.

To assign control over your Outlook folders, follow these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu, click the Delegates tab, and then click Add.
If the Delegates tab is unavailable, click the Other tab, click Advanced Options, click Add-In Manager, and make sure that the Delegate Access add-in is selected.
From the Global Address List, select the people you want to make delegates for your Outlook folders and then click OK. Outlook displays the Delegate Permissions dialog box, shown in Figure 24-23.

Figure 24-23. The Delegate Permissions dialog box.
For each of your Outlook folders, choose the permission levels that you want to give to the delegate and then click OK.

Real World

Sorting Incoming Mail by Mail Account

Wouldn't it be nice if you could set up Outlook to deliver mail from different accounts to different locations—for example, to deliver Exchange mail and work Internet mail to your Exchange mailbox and to deliver personal mail to your personal folders file? Well, you can't.

However, you can get the same results by creating message rules to move messages sent to certain mail accounts to whatever folder you want. See the section entitled Creating Message Rules to Automatically Process Mail later in this chapter for more information.

Modifying Permissions on Exchange Folders

Exchange folders, like folders on an NTFS volume, have their own permissions settings that you can use to maintain tighter security on the network. You can set a number of different permissions levels, listed in Table 24-1. To change the permissions settings for a folder, follow these steps:

Display Outlook's folder list. Then right-click the folder on which to set permissions and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Click the Permissions tab and then click Add to add any users or groups for which you want to specify permissions (Figure 24-24).

Figure 24-24. The Permissions tab of the Properties dialog box.
Select a preset permissions level for the selected user or group from the Roles drop-down list box. (See Table 24-1 for a listing of the preset roles.)
If necessary for your system, create a custom permissions level by using the check boxes and option buttons in the bottom section of the dialog box.
Click OK when you're finished.

Table 24-1. Exchange permissions roles

Role	Permissions
Owner	Can read, modify, and delete all items and files and create items and subfolders. Owners can change others' permissions for the folder.
Publishing Editor	Can read, modify, and delete all items and files and create items and subfolders.
Editor	Can read, modify, and delete all items and files.
Publishing Author	Can create and read items and files, create subfolders, and modify and delete items and files they created.
Author	Can create and read items and files and modify and delete items and files they created.
Reviewer	Can have read-only access to items and files.
Contributor	Can create only items and files. All items not created by the user are hidden.
None	Cannot access the folder.

Customizing Public Folders

You can use Outlook in conjunction with Exchange Server public folders to create some remarkably easy-to-use and flexible workgroup messaging solutions. You can modify the default views for folders, create rules that process new posts, set up moderated folders, and use custom forms for posting to the folders.

To customize Exchange public folders, log on to the Exchange folders using an account that has administrative privileges and then follow the steps outlined in the next few sections.

Changing the Default View Although the default view is often the most appropriate view to use in public folders, sometimes a little change is in order. Although you can't create custom views and use them as the default view for all users of a public folder, you can group messages in several ways, kind of like a newsgroup, by following these steps:

Right-click the folder for which you want to change the default view and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Click the Administration tab and then select the view to use from the Initial View On Folder drop-down list box.

Changing the Default Form for a Folder If Outlook's default form just doesn't fit the purpose of your Exchange public folders, change it to another form that's a better match. This is easy to do, but coming up with a customized form that works in the folder and suits your needs is a little more difficult.

More Info

For some in-depth information on creating custom solutions with Outlook, see Programming Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange (Microsoft Press, 2000).

To change the default form for the folder or to allow additional forms to be used in the folder, follow these steps:

Right-click the folder for which you want to change the default form and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Click the Forms tab and verify that the form to use is published in the folder. If the form is listed, skip to step 5. If the form isn't listed, click Manage.
Click Set, choose the forms library where the form is published, and click OK.
Select the form you want to use, click Copy to store it in the public folder (Figure 24-25), and click Close.

Figure 24-25. The Forms Manager makes forms available in the folder.
Choose which forms to allow in this folder, as shown in Figure 24-26:
- Select the Only Forms Listed Above option to add forms to the folder and specify which forms users are permitted to use.
- Select the Forms Listed Above And The Standard Forms option or the Any Form option to allow users more latitude with the forms they can use in the folder.
Figure 24-26. The Forms tab of the Properties dialog box.
Click OK to save the settings, then right-click the folder and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
To specify the default form to use for this folder, select the desired form from the When Posting To This Folder, Use drop-down list box. Click OK when you're finished.

Applying Rules to Public Folders Outlook provides similar rule-making abilities for public folders as it does for its own folder store. (See the section entitled Creating Message Rules to Automatically Process Mail later in this chapter for information about rules for the mail folders.) Unlike the Outlook rules you apply to the local folder store, rules you create for public folders are processed on the Exchange server and apply to all users—an attribute that makes them particularly useful for keeping public folders tidy.

To create a rule to manage messages in a public folder to which you have Owner privileges, follow these steps:

Right-click the folder for which you want to create a message-handling rule, and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Click the Administration tab, and then click Folder Assistant, shown in Figure 24-27.

Figure 24-27. The Administration tab of a public folder.
Click Add Rule in the Folder Assistant dialog box to create a new rule to apply to the folder.
Use the options in the Edit Rule dialog box to apply the properties you specify to all messages posted to the folder, as shown in Figure 24-28.
You can specify multiple phrases or words to use as selection criteria in the Subject or Message Body boxes by separating them with semicolons.

Figure 24-28. The Edit Rule dialog box.
Click Advanced to provide additional selection criteria such as size or date or to have the rule apply only to items that don't match these criteria.
Click OK when you're finished, create any additional rules, and then click OK.

Configuring Moderated Folders Moderated folders are an excellent way to make sure that only "approved" communications appear in a public folder that you maintain or set up. Moderated folders work by forwarding all incoming posts to another public folder or to one or more moderators for review. The moderators review the posts and then place approved posts into the moderated folder.

There are many reasons to set up a moderated folder, but it usually just boils down to improving the quality of the folder's content. Of course, someone's got to personally monitor and approve all posts to the folder, which can be a lot of work, so usually you want to set up a moderated folder only when a free-for-all public folder starts to decay into chaos.

To moderate an Exchange Server public folder over which you have Owner privileges, follow these steps:

Right-click the folder you want to turn into a moderated folder and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Click the Administration tab, and then click Moderated Folder to display the Moderated Folder dialog box, shown in Figure 24-29.

Figure 24-29. The Moderated Folder dialog box.
Select the Set Folder Up As A Moderated Folder check box.
Enter the name of the person who should receive all new posts, or click To to select the person from one of your address lists.
Select the Reply To New Items With check box to notify users who post messages that their messages are being reviewed.
To create a reply message, choose the Custom Response option, click Template, and create the message.
The standard message that Outlook sends to users who post to a moderated folder is as follows: "Thank you for your submission. Please note that submissions to some folders or discussion groups are reviewed to determine whether they should be made publicly available. In these cases, there will be a delay before approved submissions can be viewed by others."
Use the Add button and the Remove button to create a list of people authorized to moderate the folder (to add and delete messages from the folder). Click OK when you're finished.

Scheduling with Outlook

Scheduling is Outlook's other forte after messaging. Outlook 2002 has a useful and full-featured calendar, and has additional features such as the ability to send meeting requests, plan meetings for optimal times, and publish calendars to a Web page. This section briefly covers some of these features.

More Info

For more in-depth information about Outlook 2002's scheduling features, pick up a copy of Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 2001).

Sending Meeting Requests

You can use Outlook's Meeting Request feature to schedule meetings easily. Outlook sends a special e-mail message that contains a form allowing the recipients to easily accept or reject the meeting request. The recipients can also save the meeting time to their calendars if they use a scheduling program compatible with the meeting request format you send.

By default, Outlook sends meeting requests in a format that is readable only to other Outlook users; however, you can choose to send the request in the iCalendar format, which is readable by Lotus Organizer 5.1 and any other program that supports the iCalendar standard.

To send a meeting request, follow these steps:

Display the Calendar in Outlook.
Choose New Meeting Request from the Actions menu. Outlook displays a new Meeting form, shown in Figure 24-30.

Figure 24-30. A new meeting request message.
Use the To button and the text box next to it to list the people with whom you want to request a meeting.
Fill in the subject, location, and time information for the meeting.
To schedule an online meeting, select the This Is An Online Meeting Using check box and select the software you want to use to conduct the meeting from the drop-down list box.
If the attendees have free/busy information from their calendars published in Exchange or on the Internet in the form of an iCalendar file, click the Attendee Availability tab to see if the time you specified is available for everyone to attend.
To use free/busy information that a person or resource has published on the Internet, the URL of the contact's iCalendar file needs to be recorded in the contact item. This address should be stored in the Details tab, in the Internet Free/Busy Address box.
To send the meeting request using the iCalendar format (readable by a number of different scheduling programs), choose Send As iCalendar from the Tools menu.
Click the Send toolbar button to send the meeting request. Everyone you send the meeting request to receives an e-mail message with Accept, Decline, and Tentative buttons to quickly respond to the meeting request, and add the meeting to their calendar, if appropriate.

Planning a Meeting for the Optimal Time

Outlook 2002 includes the Plan A Meeting tool, a handy tool that is also available in meeting requests in the Attendee Availability tab. This tool allows you to find a time when all required attendees and resources are available by checking free/busy information in Exchange or on the Internet in an iCalendar file. To use the tool to plan a meeting, follow these steps:

Display the calendar in Outlook.
Choose Plan A Meeting from the Actions menu. Outlook displays the Plan A Meeting tool, shown in Figure 24-31.

Figure 24-31. The Plan a Meeting tool.

If all attendees and resources have accounts on the Exchange Server, the Plan a Meeting Wizard works as expected. Attendees and resources that don't have accounts on Exchange Server need to have their free/busy information published on the Internet. To set up Internet free/busy information, see the next section.
Click Add Others to specify the people to attend the meeting and to select resources, such as a meeting room.
Enter a tentative start time and end time in the Meeting Start Time and Meeting End Time boxes. Don't worry if the time isn't available.
Click AutoPick Next and then choose the requirements for the meeting to take place from the shortcut menu. Outlook automatically finds the next available timeslot that matches your criteria.
Click the double chevron (<<) to the left of AutoPick Next to find a timeslot closer to the present.
When you've found your time, click Make Meeting and use the new meeting request form to send out invitations to all attendees.

Setting Up Internet Free/Busy Information

Outlook's Plan a Meeting functionality works great, if everyone involved uses accounts on the company's Exchange Server. Outlook 98 introduced the ability to expand this functionality to include users who don't have an account on the Exchange Server, if they've published their free/busy information on the Internet.

Unfortunately, this functionality really didn't work in Outlook 98. It also didn't work well in Outlook 2000. Outlook 2002 finally provides working Internet free/busy functionality, but there are still a few kinks.

Although the iCalendar file format (the underlying technology for the Internet Free/Busy feature) is an open standard, it isn't well defined, which causes some interoperability problems. Also, only Microsoft Outlook version 2002 and later can use Microsoft's Internet Free/Busy servers. Because of these factors, standardize on Outlook 2002 if this feature is important in your company.

The next two sections show you how to configure Outlook 2002 to work with Microsoft's Internet Free/Busy servers as well as how to use your own publishing location for free/busy information.

Using the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service To set up Internet free/busy information in Outlook 2002 using the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service, use the following steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu.
In the General tab, click Calendar Options.
Click Free/Busy Options.
Specify how many months of calendar information to publish in the first box provided (shown in Figure 24-32).

Figure 24-32. Setting up Internet Free/Busy Information publishing.
Specify how often to update the free/busy information on the server (the default 15 minutes may be too frequent for users who don't change their calendar information that frequently and have a slow Internet connection).
Select the Publish And Search Using Microsoft Office Free/Busy Service check box, as well as the Request Free/Busy Information In Meeting Invitations check box (this tells invitees to authorize you to view their free/busy information if they haven't done so already).
Click Manage and then sign into Microsoft Passport using the Web browser window that opens (if you don't already have a Microsoft Passport/Hotmail account, create one before attempting to use this service).
Configure Microsoft Passport with the e-mail address you want to use with Outlook and the Internet Free/Busy feature. To do so, click the Member Services link at the bottom of the sign-in window and then click the Visit The Edit Profile Page or similarly named link.
Click the Yes, I Agree hyperlink to agree to Microsoft's licensing terms, and then click Continue in the next page to move on (because you already set up Outlook to work with this feature, you don't need to download the ActiveX control that configures Outlook).
Enter the e-mail addresses of users who you want to be able to access the free/busy information in the first box provided, as shown in Figure 2433, or select the All Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service members to allow anyone to access the free/busy information.

Figure 24-33. Authorizing access to the free/busy information.
Click OK. This completes the configuration of the Free/Busy feature. You can view the information as well as other people's free/busy information from the Microsoft Web site, or from within Outlook using the Plan a Meeting tool, discussed earlier in this chapter.

Using Your Own Publishing Location To set up Internet free/busy information in Outlook 2002 using a Web server of your choice (necessary for interoperability with any scheduling client other than Outlook 2002), use the following steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu.
In the General tab, click Calendar Options.
Click Free/Busy Options.
Specify how many months of calendar information to publish in the first box provided (shown in Figure 24-34).
Specify how often to update the free/busy information on the server (the default 15 minutes may be too frequent for users who don't change their calendar information that frequently and have a slow Internet connection).

Figure 24-34. Setting up Internet free/busy information publishing.
Select the Publish At My Location check box, and then enter the URL of the file to which you want to save the free/busy information. Use the following guidelines to help you determine what to enter:
- To publish to a location on the internal network, use the file:// protocol for the fastest and most reliable operation. For example, file://srv1/schedules/jason.vfb.
- To publish to an Internet or intranet location, use the http:// protocol, unless the publishing location doesn't support http://, in which case use the ftp:// protocol. An example would be http://www.scribes.com/schedules/jason.vfb.
- The filename must consist of the e-mail user name followed by the .VFB extension. For example, if your e-mail address were jason@scribes.com, use the Jason.vfb filename.
Enter the default location Outlook should search for free/busy information in the Search Location box. Use substitution parameters so that Outlook can guess the proper server to search. For example, type http://%SERVER%/%NAME%.vfb. For a contact with the e-mail address jason@scribes.com, Outlook would search for free/busy information at the http://scribes.com/jason.vfb location, unless the contact has a different location specified in the Internet Free/Busy field in the Details tab of their contact item.
Click OK when you're done.

Saving a Calendar as a Web Page

Outlook includes the ability to save the calendar as a Web page—one of the quickest ways to publish a user's or group's schedule to an intranet or to the Internet. To save the calendar as a Web page, follow these steps:

Display the calendar in Outlook.
Go to the File menu and choose Save As Web Page. Outlook displays the Save As Web Page dialog box, shown in Figure 24-35.

Figure 24-35. The Save As Web Page dialog box.
Choose the starting and ending dates for the Web page.
Select the Include Appointment Details check box to publish any information you included in the Notes field of the calendar items.
Select the Use Background Graphic check box and click Browse to specify a background image for the Web pages.
Enter a title for the calendar in the Calendar Title box.
Enter a filename in the File Name box and use the Browse button to find the folder or Web publishing location to which you want to publish the page.
Click Save when you're finished.

Customizing the Way Outlook Handles E-Mail

Outlook makes dealing with e-mail easier and more secure. You can set up rules to automatically process messages and create filters to handle junk mail and adult-content messages. You can also send encrypted or digitally signed messages. The following sections show you how.

Turning on Junk Mail and Adult-Content Rules

If you post messages on Internet newsgroups using a real e-mail name, perhaps you know the joy of receiving lots of junk mail and so-called adult messages. Fortunately, Outlook can help you deal with this—and not by abandoning your e-mail address, picking a new one, and keeping it a secret (although this is a surefire way to reduce the hassle).

Outlook has filters for junk mail and adult messages that allow you to color—or move to another folder—messages that contain certain keywords such as "order now" or "adults only." To turn on these filters, follow these steps:

Display the Inbox and then click the Organize toolbar button.
Click the Junk E-Mail tab, shown in Figure 24-36.

Figure 24-36. Using junk e-mail and adult-content filters.
To color junk or adult e-mails a different color, choose Color from the first drop-down list box and then select the color to use from the second box.
To move junk or adult e-mails to a different folder, such as the Deleted Items folder, choose Move from the first drop-down list box and then select the folder to which to move the messages from the second box.
Click Turn On to apply the rule.

Junk e-mail filters and adult-content filters work by looking for messages with certain keywords in them. Occasionally, they grab legitimate messages. Therefore, you might want to set up the rules to move messages to a Junk Mail folder that you periodically review. You might also want to use the Rules Wizard to copy the rule, and then modify it by adding a list of exceptions to the rule so that key messages aren't accidentally deleted.

Creating Message Rules to Automatically Process Mail

Outlook contains an extremely useful tool called the Rules Wizard that allows you to create client-side rules or server-side rules (when used with an Exchange server) that process e-mail for you. If you're using Outlook with an Exchange server, you can also use the Out Of Office Assistant command on the Tools menu to create a special server-side rule that can handle and respond to mail received while you're out of the office. To use this feature, follow these steps:

In the Inbox, choose the Rules Wizard from the Tools menu.
Click New to create a new rule.
Use the Rules Wizard's screens to supply the conditions to which the rule should be applied and to determine which actions should be performed. Click Finish when you're done.
To disable a rule in the Rules Wizard screen shown in Figure 24-37, clear the check box next to it.
To run a rule now on the messages you currently have, select the message and click Run Now.
To import or export message rules, click Options.
When you're finished creating rules, click OK.

Figure 24-37. Using the Rules Wizard to create and manage rules for processing e-mail.

Setting Up Security

Outlook allows you to increase the security of e-mail messages by using a digital ID to digitally sign and optionally encrypt e-mail messages. Digitally signing e-mail allows message recipients to verify that the message came from you and not someone trying to impersonate you. Encryption allows you to encode messages so that e-mail can't be read by anyone other than the intended recipient, even if the message is intercepted.

To use secure e-mail in Outlook, you need to obtain a digital ID from a certificate authority such as VeriSign or from the Key Management Server on the Exchange Server network. To obtain a digital ID, choose Options from the Tools menu, click the Security tab, and then click Get A Digital ID. Once you have a digital ID, follow these steps to set up Outlook for secure e-mail:

After obtaining and installing the digital ID in Microsoft Internet Explorer, as directed by the certificate authority from which you obtained the digital ID, choose Options from the Tools menu.
Click the Security tab and click Settings. Outlook displays the Change Security Settings dialog box, shown in Figure 24-38.

Figure 24-38. The Change Security Settings dialog box.
Enter a name for the security settings in the Security Settings Name box.
Select S/MIME from the Secure Message Format drop-down list box to specify the settings for Internet e-mail, or select Exchange Server Security to specify the settings for use with Exchange Server mail.
Select the Default Security Setting For This Secure Message Format check box to use these settings for all secure e-mail in this message format (S/MIME-based Internet e-mail or Exchange Server mail).
Select the Default Security Setting For All Secure Messages check box to use these security settings for all secure messages, both Internet e-mail and Exchange Server mail.
Don't use Exchange Server security for all secure messages unless the Exchange Server ID is S/MIME-compatible, because secure e-mail to Internet-mail-based recipients might not be readable (if encrypted) or the signature might be unrecognizable (if signed).
If the digital ID isn't already displayed, click Choose next to the Signing Certificate box to select the digital ID to use. Note that the e-mail address on the certificate must match the e-mail address you use to send mail.
To be able to receive encrypted replies from the recipients, select the Send These Certificates With Signed Messages check box.
Click OK and then select the Encrypt Contents And Attachments For Outgoing Messages check box at the top of the Security tab to automatically encrypt all messages you send.
Select the Add Digital Signature To Outgoing Messages check box to automatically sign all messages you send.
Encrypt or sign sensitive messages when you send them, instead of encrypting or signing all messages. This reduces needless configuration for recipients who might not use mail programs that support encrypted or signed messages.
Select the Send Clear Text Signed Message option to allow recipients whose e-mail programs don't support signatures (such as most programs you access through Telnet) to be able to read your messages.