17. Contacts and the Address Book
Outlook Web Access offers two places to look up email addresses:
Contacts and the shared Global Address Book. All
university members are listed in the Global Address Book, unless they
have opted out. Contacts is a private list where you can store other
contacts and distribution lists.
17.1. The Global Address Book
Nexus provides a directory containing the email address and department/college of
each current University member. This is available through the Global
Address Book. To access the global address book, click on the
small book icon at the top right of the screen.
To find someone in the Global Address List, type their name (first
name or family name) in the search box and click the magnifying glass
icon or press enter. When you see the name you are looking for, click on it to
display the details. The reading pane icon is above the search box
and can be toggled on/off by clicking the icon.
17.2. Contacts
Contacts is your personal list of people you might want to contact. As well as email addresses, Outlook can store their postal address, telephone number, notes etc.
To view click on [Contacts] in the Navigation Pane. If
you have not used Contacts before, the view will be empty:
17.2.1. Adding Contacts
To add a new contact, click New. Enter their details,
particularly their email address, and then click Save and
Close.
The newly created contact should now be visible in your contacts:
If someone has sent you a message, you can add them to your contacts directly.
Right-click on their name in the Reading Pane and choose
[Add to Contacts...]
17.2.2. Editing and Deleting Contacts
To add extra details, or to change existing information about a contact,
double-click on their name in your contacts list. This opens up the contact
details screen where you can add, update, and delete information as needed.
Click Save and Close to store the information.
To delete a contact, select them in your contacts list and click the
Delete button (a black cross) at the top of the list. The
contact will be moved to your Deleted Items folder.
17.2.3. Using Contacts
Once you have created a contact, you may want to send an email or meeting request to them.
To send an email to one of your contacts, you can either select them in
Contacts, right-click, and
choose [New Message],
or simply add them to the To: field of any message.
For more information about address books, including details of how to import your existing address book, please see Contacts.
17.2.4. Groups
A Group is a way of grouping contacts together so that you can send messages to a number of people at the same time, such as a small research group. If you want to email a large group of people at once, it is better to create a special mailing list instead.
To create a new Group, select [Group] from the
New dropdown menu.
In the next screen, enter a name in the Group Name box, and then
enter the email addresses of the group members (click Members
to choose them from your contacts and/or the global address list). These should
be separated by semi-colons.
Click Add to Group to move the new member(s) into the list.
When you have finished adding members, click Save and Close at
the top of the screen to return to your contacts list. You can always add and
remove members later by double-clicking on the name of the Group.
17.2.5. Message recipients
When you compose a message (or meeting request etc), you can use any
combination of full email addresses, Nexus user names, individual aliases, and
Group aliases in your To: field, as long as they are separated
by semi-colons.
You can check how OWA will interpret your aliases by clicking the Check
Names icon in the toolbar. Where more than one possibility is found,
you will be presented with a list of options to choose from. The same applies
to the CC: and BCC: fields.
17.2.6. Shared contacts
If someone has shared their contacts with you, you can view them through
Outlook Web Access, but only by manually entering the following address (URL)
into your Internet Explorer address bar:
https://owa.nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa/firstname.surname@dept.ox.ac.uk/?cmd=contents&module=contacts,
replacing firstname.surname@dept.ox.ac.uk with the
university email address of the person who has shared their contacts with
you.
To share your own contacts, you will need to log in to your Nexus account using Outlook 2003/7/10 or Entourage 2008. Further information is available at Nexus Contacts.
It is possible to share contacts and Groups by selecting and clicking
Forward
17.2.7. Exporting Contacts
OWA does not directly have a system for exporting Contacts out of it's system. However there is a simple way to transfer your contacts into .vcard files that are supported by a wide range of systems.
Switch to contacts. Select the top contact by left clicking on it once. Then hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard at the same time as the DOWN cursor key, which will scroll down and select all of the contacts.
Right click on any of the selected contacts, and select Forward as Attachment. This will open up a new email message with the contacts attached, which you can then send either to yourself or to another email address.
17.3. Adding an appointment to your calendar
To add an appointment, double-click on the calendar in the position where you want the new appointment to appear. For example, if you are viewing by month, double-click on the day on which the appointment begins.
The level of detail you want to add to the appointment will depend on the specific circumstances. If the appointment is merely to act as a reminder to yourself, you will probably just want to put a suitable subject, and perhaps a location. You can use the free text area for any notes or comments, and can even attach files. This is most useful when the appointment or meeting is to be shared with others.
By default, OWA will remind you 15 minutes before each appointment by popping up a reminder window. However, you may wish to be reminded earlier or later. You can set the reminder time for your appointment to be one of a range of intervals between 0 minutes and two weeks before the scheduled start time.
You can also choose whether to mark the duration of the new appointment as
Free, Busy, Tentative, or
Away in your calendar. Other people can use this information to
help them to schedule meetings with you.
17.4. Choosing Attendees and Scheduling
To invite people to the meeting or event, open the event screen by double-clicking
on it in your calendar (or create a new event). Go to the [Scheduling
Assistant] tab and enter the name of those you would like to invite.
You can search for people in the global address book by typing in part of their
name and pressing
<Enter>. You can also select people from your contacts,
or type in email addresses directly. Separate multiple entries using semi-colons.
You might also want to add a shared resource such as a meeting room or a piece of
equipment, if these have been set up in Nexus. In this case, add them to the Add a
room section. You do not need to add yourself, as the meeting organiser is
automatically included.
Once you have finished adding attendees, click Save and Close to
continue.
You will now see your selected attendees listed on the left of the screen, and in the centre is a line for each one showing their free and busy times. Where no information is available, e.g. for people who are not Nexus users, this is shown with a grey stripy bar. You can now click anywhere along the time-line to set the beginning of your meeting, or choose from the suggestions on the right.
You can also choose whether or not your attendees are automatically prompted to
send a response, by checking or unchecking the box labelled Request a
response to this invitation, on the Appointment tab.
Once you have finished, click Send at the top of the screen to
send the invitations.
Responses from your invitees will appear in your Inbox, unless the attendee chooses not to send a response.
If you need to make any changes to the meeting, you can do so and then click
Send Update to inform the other attendees.
17.5. Creating a recurring event
If you have an event that occurs regularly, you can add the whole series at once, by using the recurrence options.
To add or edit recurrence options, open the event by double clicking on it in your
calendar, and click the Recurrence icon as shown below:
Use the buttons to select from a range of frequencies, and to set the date of the
first occurrence, and if desired, the end date. Click OK when
finished.
17.6. Responding to a meeting request
When you receive a meeting request, it appears in your Inbox just like an email message and will be displayed in the reading pane.
Within the message are buttons allowing you to Accept,
Tentatively Accept, or Decline the request.
OWA will inform you if the meeting time conflicts with (or is adjacent to) another
appointment in your Nexus calendar.
Whichever response you choose (Accept, Tentative, or Decline), when you click the
appropriate button you will be offered three options: [Edit the response
before sending], [Send the response now], or [Do not send
a response]. If you choose to send the response now, OWA will send an
automated response which appears in the organiser's Inbox, telling them whether
you can attend. If you choose to edit the response, an email message will be
created which you can add your own text to. Finally, if you choose not to send a
response, the meeting organiser will still be able to tell whether you have
accepted or not, by looking at the meeting in their calendar. However, they will
not get a message in their Inbox informing them of your decision.
When you respond, the meeting request message will be automatically moved to your deleted items folder. If you accept (even tentatively) the meeting request, the event will be saved in your calendar. If you want to change your response later, open the event by double clicking on it, and you can send a new response.
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