Managing E-mail In and Out of the Classroom

Managing E-mail In and Out of the Classroom

Electronic mail, or e-mail, is an important part of everyday life. E-mail is relied on increasingly for person-to-person communication, both at work and home. Not only does it allow the transfer of text messages, but also can be used to transport documents, graphics, and multimedia. E-mail makes it possible to efficiently communicate even in the hectic pace of campus life. E-mail is also an effective tool for the classroom. Microsoft® Outlook® has many features that can be used to ensure that e-mail is a productive tool for you.

In this hands-on session, you will learn to enhance the way you use email. You will create folders to organize your messages, configure Outlook to check e-mail from multiple accounts, setup rules to automate the handling of incoming messages, and use Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) to eliminate unnecessarily long mail headers. You will also create personal distribution lists to conveniently send messages to groups of people, such as en entire class of students. You will also learn to import existing lists of contacts into Outlook.

Before You Begin

Outlook is a desktop information management program that receives and organizes email, keeps track of appointments on a calendar, allows you to create a task list, and stores contact information. When used in conjunction with Microsoft exchange Server, Outlook includes workgroup tools that help you manage these messages, appointments, contacts, and tasks; track activities; open and view documents; and share information.

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Managing E-mail In and Out of the Classroom

Touring Outlook


Before you start communicating, become familiar with the features of Outlook. The following illustration shows Outlook displaying the Inbox view:

Using Folders

You probably receive email from several different groups of people including students, faculty, listservs, and personal mail. In Outlook, you can organize messages into appropriate folders to keep your mail more manageable. Folders provide a storage area for messages; the only thing you need to do is create them. This allows you to avoid using the inbox as a catch all for received e-mail.

This section describes how to create new folders and store messages in them.. Keep in mind that the folders you create are personal and are not accessible to anyone else on the network. If you want to give others access to particular messages, those messages should be placed in a public folder on the Exchange server.

The following illustration shows the folder list and the Create New Folder dialog box:

To create new folders

  1. Start Outlook and then click Maximize in the upper right hand corner of the window.
  2. If the list of folders isn’t visible to the right of the Views bar, choose Folder List from the View menu.
  3. Click Personal Folders to select it as the point to create a new subfolder.
  4. On the File menu, click New, and then select Folder.
  5. Type a name for the folder in the Name box and then click OK. For example, type the name of a class you teach from which students might send you email.

You should create folders for each class or area of responsibility. This allows easy retrieval of messages based on the topic of the message. Be reasonable with the number of folders you create, for example, you may find that one folder for each student may be a little much.

To place items into folders

Click on the message you want to move and, while holding down the mouse button drag the message to the destination folder until the folder is highlighted. Release the mouse button.

Using Rules

E-mail has become a crucial part of campus communication. More and more messages are received each day. How do you cope with the increased volume of messages and still keep your sanity? Setting up rules allows you to organize incoming messages that meet certain criteria. For example, you can quickly get rid of junk e-mail or organize mail automatically as it is received. The Outlook Rules Wizard leads you through three basic steps to create a rule to manage your messages: selecting a condition, applying an action to the items returned by the condition, and entering exceptions to the condition.

To create a rule

  1. On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard and then click New.
  1. Click Check messages when they arrive, and then click Next.
  2. Click Sent to people or distribution list, and then click the underlined words people or distribution list in the Rule description box to select the individuals or groups who you want the rule to affect.

  1. Double-click online learning, click OK, and then click Next.
  2. Click Move it to the specified folder, and then click the underlined word specified in the Rule description box to select the online learning folder.
  3. Click New to create the online learning folder and type online learning in the name box and then click OK.
  4. Click No when asked if you would like to create a shortcut.
  5. Click OK and then click Next to move to the next step.
  6. Click Next to move past the exceptions step and then click Finish. You can change the name of the rule if you like and you can have it apply to the existing messages in your Inbox.
  7. Click OK to close the Rules Wizard. At this point you can go through the Wizard again to create more rules.

Using Bcc

You have probably received e-mail messages with an extremely long list of names of the others who also received copies of the message in the header. The only way to read the message is to scroll past that long header to get to the message. When a recipient replies to the message by selecting Reply to all, that message is then sent to everyone on the list. Sometimes you may not want the recipients to know to whom you sent the message. Blind carbon copy (Bcc) allows you to “hide” the names of other recipients. When you send a message with names in the Bcc field, those names are hidden from view on the outgoing message to the recipients in the To and Cc fields. Bcc is a great way to simplify your messaging and keep e-mail a little more private.

To send e-mail by Bcc

  1. Click the New Message button on the toolbar to start a new message.
  1. On the View menu, click Bcc field to display it on your message.

  1. Click the To button and select users individually. Then click Bcc and select the users to whom you want to copy the message. Click OK.
  2. In the Subject box type Task force status report and then press Enter.
  3. Type in a message to the members of your group and then click Send.

Using Personal Distribution Lists

You probably send e-mail messages to groups of people, like students, department peers, or research associates. Sometimes these groups can be quite large and it becomes a burden to individually select all of the people to whom you want to send the message. Setting up personal distribution lists allows you to consolidate a list of users into one easy to use group name. The list is personal, meaning that it is not available for others to use. The distribution list for online learning that you used above was an Exchange distribution list and is created by an individual with appropriate permissions on the Exchange server. Anyone can create a personal distribution list to establish groupings of individuals. Distribution lists make sending e-mail to groups quick and easy.

To create a personal distribution list

  1. On the Tools menu, click Address Book.
  1. Add a personal distribution list by clicking File and New entry. Click New distribution list and then click OK. Type Lunch Group in the Name box.
  2. Click Select Members and then double-click the individuals you want to add to the list.

  1. Click OK, click Save and Close, and then close the address book by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the address book window.
  2. To use this list , open the address book, and click Contacts in the Show names from the drop down list.

Multiple names may be selected by using the standard Windows file selection techniques. The contacts are also accessible by clicking Contacts on the Views bar.

Using External Contact Lists

Everyone has had contacts in the past. You have met people and established relationships and will probably want to continue to work with these individuals. You should place them in your contact list. You may also be involved in a new task where a list of names has been provided for you. Do you hand-key this information into your contacts? No, you can import it from the file given to you. Chances are that it is a spreadsheet, a text file, or an export file from some other messaging system. Outlook has a Wizard that will help you through this process.

To import a text file

  1. From the File menu, click Import/Export to start the Wizard. Click Import from another program or file and then click Next.
  1. Click Comma Separated Values (Windows) and then click Next.
  2. Type in the name and path of the file that you want to import and then click Next(online experts.txt for the lab).
    -or-
    Click Browse and find the file, click OK once you have selected the file and then click Next.
  3. Select Contacts as the destination folder and then click Next.

  1. Select the check box to the left of the import description and click MapCustom Fields.
  2. Click the + next to Name to expand the list and then drag and drop Jones onto Last Name. Drag Andrew onto the First Name. Drag the phone number onto Business Phone. Drag the e-mail address onto Email.

  1. Click OK and then click Finish to start the import. A progress meter will show the status.
  2. Click the Contacts folder to verify that your import was successful.

As you have seen in the Wizard, Outlook accepts quite a few types of import files. Just follow the steps in the Wizard and it will guide you.

Additional E-mail Accounts

Because individuals often have to wear several hats for different responsibilities, there is a need for several email addresses as well. You may even have a home e-mail address in addition to your office e-mail address. For example, a person in the admissions department may have to respond to e-mail that is addressed not only to her but also to . Outlook can accommodate additional mail accounts by adding mail services.

To configure additional e-mail accounts

  1. On the Tools menu, click Services and then click Add.
  1. Select Internet E-mail from Available information services and then click OK.
  2. Type the name you want for this account. (This is just for display purposes.)
  3. Type your name in the Name box and your Organization in the appropriate box.
  1. Type your full e-mail address in both the e-mail and the reply addresses and then click the Servers tab.
  2. Type the name of your incoming mail server. For MSN customers, it is pop3.email.msn.com. Your university or department probably has a mail server. See your network administrator if you don’t know this information.
  3. Type the name of your outgoing mail server. For MSN customers, it is smtp.email.msn.com.
  4. Type your e-mail account name and password.
    -or-
    Select Log on using Secure Password Authentication.

  1. Click the Connection tab and select the appropriate means of connecting to your mail server and then click OK. On campus this will most commonly be the Local Area Network (LAN).
  2. Click OK to restart Outlook for the changes to take effect and then click OK to close the services dialog.

Getting Help

You can get help from the online Helpat any time while you are using Outlook. To open the online Help, click Microsoft Outlook Help on the Help menu. If you have an Internet connection, you can also point to Office on the Web on the Help menu and choose from several resources that may be of interest to you such as Product News, Frequently Asked Questions, andOnline Support. You can also go to for all the latest information.

Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice.Companies, names and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted.

© 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft Corporation retains sole ownership of all published In and Out of the Classroom materials. Microsoft grants permission for educational institutions and Microsoft OEMS and Solution Partners to reproduce these materials for staff development purposes (only). Altering materials or reselling materials is strictly prohibited.

Microsoft, BackOffice, FrontPage, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the Microsoft Internet Explorer logo, the Microsoft Office logo, NetMeeting, Outlook, PowerPoint, Where do you want to go today?, Windows NT, Windows, the Windows logo, and the Windows Start logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Acknowledgments

This workshop was created in partnership with Scott Sample and S&T Consulting, an information design and development firm:

S&T Consulting project team: Sara Bosarge, Blake W. Bratt, Beth Harmon, Carolyn Emory, Amy Krzysiek, and Tonya Stumphauzer.

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