Category Archives: MS Outlook

Calendar Permissions

Posted by on April 23rd, 2013
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Question: Why can someone see my calendar entries when I didn’t give them permission? I have only given a few people permission to edit my calendar.

Answer: More than likely you have inadvertently given access to everyone to view or edit your calendar. To check this from the calendar view, right click on your calendar and click Properties> Permissions (or click Calendar Permissions in the ribbon). You will see Default listed first, followed by those you gave permissions. Default is what anyone in the global address book can see. If  Default lists something other than Free/Busy time, you probably accidentally selected permissions when having Default selected. To change permissions, click the name (or Default) and click the permission level desired (normally it is Free/Busy time for Default). Free/busy is convenient for scheduling meetings and finding freetime of people across campus without allowing others to see your entries. You can also customize permissions by selecting various options in the Read, Write, Delete Items and Other categories.

Tiny text/large text in Outlook

Posted by on March 28th, 2013
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Question: This week we had some say their text when typing email messages was very tiny. Then another said their Outlook web mail was large.

Answer:  More than likely you accidentally touched the roller on your mouse when holding your control key which zooms text in and out. To zoom larger, hold the Ctrl key and move the roller on the mouse to get the desired size. If you have a Mac, press Ctrl and + or – keys to zoom in and out.

Rules and Tools to Manage your Outlook Mail

Posted by on March 26th, 2013
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Question: I am getting a message that my email is full and I need to delete things.  I usually delete 80% of all email I receive. Some things, however, I have to keep regarding funding, etc. from other colleagues, etc.  Is there a way I can get more space in my email, or can you help me with reorganizing things.  I would appreciate any help/suggestions regarding this matter.

Answer: There are a number of things you can do to manage your mail and clear space.

  1. First, check what part of your mail is taking up the most space. In Outlook 2010 you can go to File > Info > Mailbox Cleanup and click View Mailbox size. You’ll see the various parts of your email to determine which folder is taking up the most space. In most cases it is the inbox or sent folders.
  2. Then go to those folders and sort by size. You’ll see the largest messages (usually with attachments) listed at the top. To get the most space quickly, you can delete those messages, or just remove the attachments from the message if the attachment is no longer needed, or you can save the attachment first into a folder on your computer and then delete the message or attachment. Doing this for very large messages will save you much space.
  3. You can also move messages to a computer network folder and then delete the messages from your email. You are unable to move folders to the network, but you can create a folder on the network drive and then move several messages to it (by sleecting messages using Shift or Ctrl when clicking). If you need to refer to the message at a later time, you would need to have the Outlook client on your computer in order to open those messages from the network drive. After deleting those “enormous” messages from your Mail, it can significantly reduce the size of your mailbox. (Gotcha: when you move messages to the network drive, the dates associated with the file is the date you moved the messages, so you won’t be able to sort by date of the message). You can, however, still search for dates or other text in the messages.
  4. An even better option is to convert messages to PDF. This saves messages on individual pages of a PDF, along with any attachments. It does not require the Outlook client to open the messages. You must have Adobe Acrobat X installed (not Adobe Reader). Once the messages are converted to PDF, you can delete the messages from your email.

For more cleanup and management tips, come to ITS’ Outlook Tools and Rules on April Fools, 4/1 from 1-2 p.m. Click here to register or email csttrain@unmc.edu or 402-559-7284. You can find more tips here.

All Outlook objects open at once

Posted by on March 26th, 2013
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Question: Is there a way to have the outlook Mail, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks all open at once? I have two monitors and keep my mail open on the left and my tasks, calendar and contacts open on the right.  Each has a designated corner to which I drag them so that a piece of each window is always open and easy to click.

Answer: What a great question! A lot of people don’t realize you can have more than one window open at once. You can do this by right clicking on Calendar (or Contacts or Tasks) and select Open in New Window. but then you have to move the windows where you want. We discovered that if you first arrange the windows as you desire, and then instead of clicking on the X in the upper right to close Outlook, you instead select File > Exit. It will reopen the windows as you intended.

For these and more Outlook tips, come to our Outlook Rules and Tools on April Fools, 4/1 from 1-2 in the ITS training room, 8011 Wittson Hall. To register, click here or email csttrain@unmc.edu or call 402-559-7284.

Outlook Groups

Posted by on February 21st, 2013
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Question of the Week - Several questions have come up recently about Outlook groups:

Question: How can I create a group from of my Outlook contacts?

Answer: Create a new contact group (or distribution list in Outlook 2007) and select Add Members > From Outlook Contacts and select from your list.

Question: How can I create a group from an Excel spreadsheet? I tried copying and pasting into the group but it didn’t work.

Answer: You can copy and paste, but you paste into the Members section after selecting New Contact Group > From Address Book and at the bottom of that screen, press Ctrl V to paste. Then click OK.