15. 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.

15.1. 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 symbol at the top right of the screen.
At the top right of the screen, next to the "Find Someone" search box, is a small address book icon - click this to open the Global Address Book
Figure 36. Open Global Address Book
To find someone in the Global Address List, start typing their name in the empty box under the alphabet buttons (first name first, space(s) between first and last names). The list of names displayed will change as you type. When you see the name you are looking for, click on it to display the details. You can also browse the list (click on the button with first letter of their name and browse the list that appears).
Global Address Book - displaying details
Figure 37. Global Address Book - displaying details
The Advanced Search button opens up a window where you can make different kinds of searches, such as searching for first or last name only, username (here called alias), department or a combination of these.

15.2. 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.

Shows the Contacts view, with no entries
Figure 38. Contacts view before any contacts are added

To view your contacts, click on Contacts in the Navigation Pane on the left-hand side of your browser. If you have not used Contacts before, this will be empty: Figure 38, Contacts view before any contacts are added

15.2.1. Adding Contacts

Pop-up screen allows you to enter details about the new contact such as name, job title, telephone number, and email address
Figure 39. Create New Contact

To add a new contact, click New. Enter their details, particularly their email address, and then click Save and Close (at the top of the screen). See Figure 39, Create New Contact

The contacts view now contains one entry, and details are shown in the Preview Pane
Figure 40. Contacts view with new entry

The newly created contact should now be visible in your contacts: Figure 40, Contacts view with new entry

Right-click on the sender's name and choose "Add to Contacts..." from the resulting menu
Figure 41. Add sender to contacts

If someone has sent you a message, you can add them to your contacts directly. Right-click on their name in the preview pane and choose Add to Contacts... (see Figure 41, Add sender to contacts).

15.2.2. 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 same screen as when you add a new contact, but already filled in with their information. You can add, change, and delete information as needed and then 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.

15.2.3. Using Contacts

Once you have created a contact, you may want to send an email or meeting request to them.

Right-click on a contact and choose "New Message" to compose a message
Figure 42. Compose a message to a contact

To send an email to one of your contacts, you can either select them in Contacts, right-click, and choose New Message (see Figure 42, Compose a message to a contact), or simply add them to the To: field of any message (see 15.2.5. Message recipients).

For more information about address books, including details of how to import your existing address book, please see Contacts.

15.2.4. Distribution Lists

A distribution list 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 - see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/maillists for more information.

Click on drop-down menu next to "New" and choose "Distribution List"
Figure 43. Create new Distribution List

To create a new distribution list, click on the small down-arrow next to the New button at the top of your contacts list (see Figure 43, Create new Distribution List) and click [Distribution List].

In the resulting screen (Figure 44, Create Distribution List), enter a name in the List 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.

Shows the distribution list window where you can choose a list name, add members, and add notes.
Figure 44. Create Distribution List

Click Add to List 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 distribution list.

15.2.5. 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 distribution list aliases in your To: field, as long as they are separated by semi-colons.

If OWA cannot resolve a name, it offers you a selection to choose from
Figure 45. Check Names

You can check how OWA will interpret your aliases by clicking the Check Names icon in the toolbar (see Figure 45, Check Names). 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.

15.2.6. 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://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 or Entourage 2008. Further information is available at Nexus Contacts.

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