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Managing your mailbox

Creating a profile

In Outlook, user profiles store the configuration of e-mail accounts, data files, and other settings you use in a given Outlook session. The first time that you launch Outlook from a clean installation, Outlook runs a wizard that sets up your profile.

Follow these steps to get started in setting up e-mail accounts:

  1. On the Start menu, right-click the Outlook icon and choose Properties. Alternatively, open Control Panel and double-click the Mail icon. If you are using Category view in the Windows XP Control Panel, the Mail icon is located in the User Accounts category.
  2. In the Mail Setup dialog box - (Screenshot), click Email Accounts.
  3. In the E-mail Accounts (Wizard) dialog box - (Screenshot), select Add a new email account and then click Next
  4. In the E-mail Accounts (Server Type) dialog box - (Screenshot), select Microsoft Exchange Server and then click Next
  5. In the E-mail Accounts (E-mail Accounts) dialog box - (Screenshot) click on Add
  6. In the E-mail Accounts (Exchange Server Settings) dialog box - (Screenshot) type your username and then click Check Name. This should populate the Microsoft Exchange Server text field. Ensure that Cached mode is not checked if you have a slow internet connection, as Outlook will begin downloading all emails to your local machine. Click Next.
  7. The creation of your profile is now complete, so click on Finish.

Managing the size of your mailbox

The Microsoft Office web site offers an excellent training course that will take about 45 minutes to complete.

After completing this course you will be able to:

The site is located at:

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC010294911033

Archiving Email

Archiving Email with Outlook 2003.

Mailbox Size

Your Mailbox is stored on the Exchange server, along with the Mailboxes of all other staff members and students connected to the Exchange server. Space on the server is limited and costly, so quotas have been implemented to limit the amount of space that each user can use.

To find out how much space is allocated to you, consult the document Mailbox Size Limits for Staff and Students.

To find out how much server space you are using:

  1. In the Folder List, right-click on the highest-level folder (this should be Outlook Today).
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click Folder Size....
  4. Total Size is the amount of space on the server you are using.
  5. Click Close and Cancel.

You can also find out how much space each folder uses, by right-clicking on the folder-name and following the above procedure.

Deleted Items Folder

When you delete an item in an Outlook folder, it is automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Outlook can be set to either delete items which have been placed in the Deleted Items folder when you close the program, or to keep them there. It is recommended that the Deleted Items folder be emptied when is shut down, to minimise unnecessary usage of your space on the Exchange server.

To set the Deleted Items folder to empty when you exit Outlook:

  1. From the Tools menu, select Options
  2. On the Other tab, check the Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting checkbox.
  3. Click OK.

Booking Resources (Staff)

To ensure that resources such as notebooks, meeting rooms, projectors, etc are booked correctly in Exchange, they must be added to a meeting as a Resource.

This procedure works only if you have been given permission to schedule this resource.

  1. In Calendar, on the Actions menu, click Plan a Meeting.
  2. Click Add Others, and then click Add from Address Book.
  3. In the Type name or select from list box, enter the name of a resource you want at the meeting.
  4. After you enter each resource, click Resources.
  5. Click OK, and then use the scroll bars to view the free/busy timefor invitees.

Adding a signature to outgoing email

Adding a signature to your outgoing email clearly identifies contact details to your intended recipients.

  1. From the main Microsoft Outlook window, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
  2. In the Compose in this message format list, click the message format that you want to use the signature with.
  3. Under Signature, click Signatures, and then click New.
  4. In the Enter a name for your new signature box, enter a name.
  5. Under Choose how to create your signature, select the option you want.
  6. Click Next.
  7. In the Signature text box, type the text you want to include in the signature.

    You can also paste text to this box from another document.

  8. To change the paragraph or font format, select the text, click Font or Paragraph, and then select the options you want. These options are not available if you use plain text as your message format.
  9. To add an electronic business card — vCard — to the signature, under vCard options, select a vCard from the list, or click New vCard from Contact.
  10. Click Finish when you are done editing the new signature.

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