Working with Outlook Items While Offline


If you use a laptop, you probably do many types of computing without being connected to the Internet. Not having a connection to your mail server doesn't prevent you from using Outlook. You can read and write messages and other items by using the local copy of your mailbox that is stored, by using Cached Exchange Mode, on your computer. This makes switching between working online and offline easy.

Cached Exchange Mode was introduced as an option with Outlook 2003 and is turned on by default in Outlook 2007. This feature creates a local copy (a copy that resides on your computer) of the contents of your Exchange mailbox. When you are working online (connected to Exchange) messages, appointments, meetings, tasks, and other Outlook items are kept synchronized between the server and the cache. As a result, when you go offline (disconnect from Exchange, either voluntarily or involuntarily) you can still open and work with all your Outlook items-including attachments-as usual. You can't receive messages while you're offline, but you can send them-at least as far as your Outbox, where they are held until the next time Outlook connects to Exchange. Cached Exchange Mode has greatly streamlined the offline working process, making it simple, for example, to catch up on e-mail on your laptop when you're in an airplane-of the old-fashioned sort, without onboard Internet.

Using Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook 2007, you can have available to you while working offline not only the contents of your Exchange account, but also the contents of shared folders and public folders (but only those you add to your Public Folder Favorites list).

Tip 

If your organization is running Exchange Server 2007, you can take advantage of the Unified Messaging functionality of Exchange Server. For example, rather than checking for voice messages through your telephone system, Exchange Server can send your voice messages to you as audio files attached to e-mail messages. You can also receive faxes by e-mail. This functionality, which is similar to that offered by many Voice over IP (VoIP) companies, enables you to manage all your communications from your Windows desktop, regardless of your location.

Outlook offers these three Cached Exchange Mode download options:

  • Download Full Items. This option downloads all your messages and their attachments one at a time. If you keep Outlook open and your computer connected to a network, this is the best option because it uses the least bandwidth to download all your messages. If you have a slow connection or receive messages with large attachments, messages might be slow to appear in your Inbox when you reconnect to your server.

  • Download Headers and then Full Items. This option downloads all the message headers quickly, so that you can be evaluating them while the message bodies and attachments are downloaded.

  • Download Headers. This option downloads only the message header, and does not download the body of a message or its attachments until you preview or open the message. This is the best option if your connection is very slow or if you are charged for the amount of bandwidth you actually use. You can evaluate messages based on their header information (sender, subject, message size, and so on) and then choose whether to download the message and any attachments.

The above options are available from the File menu. When you're working over a LAN, broadband, or other fast connection, you probably won't notice much difference between the first two options. You will notice obvious differences with the third option, and if you're not accustomed to mentally processing a message based on only a few words, it can be a bit frustrating.

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You also have the option to download only message headers when Outlook detects that its connection to Exchange is slow. To view or change the download options, point to Cached Exchange Mode on the File menu.

If you for some reason choose to disable Cached Exchange Mode, you can still make the contents of selected folders (even your entire Inbox) available when you're working offline. For example, you might create an Action Items folder to which you drag the messages you want to follow up on while traveling. Note that offline folders contain only messages that you received before you started working offline.

To make the contents of a folder available for offline use:

  1. In the Navigation Pane, select the folder you want to make available offline.

  2. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, point to Send/Receive Settings, and then click Make This Folder Available Offline.

    A check mark to the left of the menu item indicates that a local copy of the selected folder will be synchronized with each Send/Receive operation.

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Viewing Contacts While Offline

When Cached Exchange Mode is enabled, as it is by default, Outlook downloads a copy of the Global Address List along with your mailbox. This offline address book provides access to your co-workers' contact information regardless of whether you are online. If your network connection is slow and the address book is large, this download might take a long time. If you prefer, you can disable the automatic download of the address book, or reduce the amount of information transferred, and then manually update your offline address book at your convenience.

To reduce the transfer of address book information during send/receive operations:

  1. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, point to Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.

  2. In the Send/Receive Groups dialog box, click the group you want to change, and then click Edit.

  3. In the Send/Receive Settings dialog box, with the Download offline address book check box selected, click Address Book Settings.

    You can turn off the automatic address book update entirely by clearing the Download Offline Address Book check box.

    Troubleshooting 

    If the Download Offline Address Book option is unavailable (gray), select the Include The Selected Account In This Group check box.

  4. In the Offline Address Book dialog box, select the No Details option, and click OK. Then click OK in the Send/Receive Settings dialog box, and Close in the Send/Receive Groups dialog box.

To manually update your offline address book:

  1. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Download Address Book.

  2. In the Offline Address Book dialog box, with the Download changes since last Send/Receive check box selected, select the Full Details option, and then click OK.

    You can download an entirely new copy of the address book by clearing the Download Changes Since Last Send/Receive check box before clicking OK.

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Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Step by Step
The Time Management Toolkit: MicrosoftВ® Office OutlookВ® 2007 Step by Step and Take Back Your Life (Step By Step (Microsoft))
ISBN: 0735625840
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 137

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