NPHS E-Mail System

National Public Health Service for Wales / Email Beginners Guide

NPHS E-mail system

Beginners Guide
Author John Morley

To go directly to any numbered part of the document, hold down the control key (CTRL) and select the required topic with your left mouse button.

NPHS E-mail system

Table of Contents

1Introduction

1.1Background

1.2Information Governance

2General Guidelines

2.1Full Outlook client

2.2MS Outlook web access

2.3MS Outlook Navigation View

2.4MS Menu choices

2.5New Mail Messages

2.5.1Insert a file attachment

2.5.2Detach a file attachment

2.5.3Request an E-mail receipt

2.6New Folders

2.7New Calendar Appointments

2.8Recurring appointments

2.9New Meeting request

2.10New Group schedule

2.11New contacts

2.12New Distribution list ( group emails)

3Proxy Access

3.1Opening another persons Calendar

4E mail etiquette

4.1General issues.

4.2Addressing messages

4.3Managing dialogues

1Introduction

The year 2004/05 was a year of establishment and transition for the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS). A major part of this change will be for the NPHS to move to an all Wales email system, in 2005.

1.1Background

The NPHS all Wales email system has been installed at Mamhilad, and is controlled by BSC South & East. The new email service is provided through Microsoft (MS) Exchange with MS Outlook front ends. This document contains simple guidelines on how the system works in the background, explaining new features forming a beginners guide to its use.

1.2Information Governance

The NPHS email system has to comply with Information Governance rules, including the Velindre Email Policy, (available on the Velindre Trust Intranet). All Information Governance rules will be incorporated into a NPHS Email procedure, to be detailed by the NPHS Information governance Group (IGG), and will be published to the Information Governance Document Database.

2General Guidelines

Your MS Outlook email account is accessible from any NPHS site in Wales, and as part of the All Wales NPHS domain, you can log on to any NPHS computer and access your email account in two ways.

Full MS Outlook client on a PC
Microsoft Web access on any PC with appropriate access to the Intranet.

2.1Full Outlook client

Double click on the MS Outlook desktop icon, to open MS Outlook. If Outlook is being used for the first time on a computer, it will take some time to copy your user profile locally

2.2MS Outlook web access

At any PC in Waleswith HOWIS via the URL

Your domain will depend on your location but normally will be NPHS.
Your user name is your normal network and outlook login, and should follow the standard firstname.surname. e.g. nphs\firstname.surname
Some sites will use the prefix surname.firstname
Your password is your standard network password.
If you have any problems gaining access, please contact your local BSC IT department or NPHS Informatics.

2.3MS Outlook Navigation View

The standard Navigation View is show below, with a folder structure created under the inbox representing the users work.

2.4MS Menu choices

All the basic Outlook functions are available under the file – new menu choices:

New Mail message
New Folder
New Appointment
New Meeting request
New Group schedule
New Contact (personal address book item)
New Distribution list / Group emails
New Task
New Journal item
New Note item

2.5New Mail Messages

When the new mail message option is chosen, the screen above becomes visible. It contains a standard user signature, which is created by following the steps below.

From the Tools menu select Options
Click on the Mail Format tab
Click on Signatures
Select New
Type a name for the signature & click OK
Create your signature, using the standard NPHS format

Your Name

Job Title (optional)

Full Postal Address

Tel:

Fax:

E-mail:

Click Finish to save your signature

Click OK and apply your changes

2.5.1Insert a file attachment

Files are attached to emails via the paperclip icon. This takes you to a standard browse to find the required file and then click OK to attach.

2.5.2Detach a file attachment

The image below shows an incoming email, with a required attachment, the attachment is saved by following steps:

Select File Save attachments
Select Location via Save in: and select a relevant server area
Accept original file name or change it for a more suitable one
Save as type .MSG, this stores the email and attachment in a MS Outlook format, preserving the attachment and the relevant emails message body

2.5.3Request an E-mailreceipt

In the new message window, click on the Options button on the toolbar.
Select request a read receipt for this message
Click on Close

2.6New Folders

From the menu choose

File
New Folder

Name the folder and select where you want the folder to be stored.
These folders should form part of your local records management system, and reflect your teams’ needs.
Users should also consider creating folders under the sent box and move

2.7New Calendar Appointments

The Calendar navigational view is shown below. Its colours and default appearance are changed by selecting:

Tools
Options
Calendar Options

The calendar toolbar is show below

New appointments are selected here, giving the screen below

Select your Appointment Subject
Select your appointment location (a smart list that can be built up over time)
Select your start and end times
Attach relevant files to the appointment via the paperclip
Select appointment importance via the red exclamation mark
Save and close

2.8Recurring appointments

Recurring appointments are created by the following steps

Select file new appointment
Select recurrence
Select time scale, daily, weekly, monthly
Select start and end dates
Click OK

2.9New Meeting request

Meetings are created by the follow steps

Select file new meeting request
Select attendees by clicking the “ To :” button
Select time scale, daily, weekly, monthly
Select start and end dates
Attach meeting minutes and agendas via the paperclip
Click Send
The recipient will then have the choice of accepting the meeting, if yes, it is added to his calendar. The sender will receive a reply of acceptance.
Declining, system sends a rejection back to sender
You can amend the time and date before accepting

2.10New Group schedule

Group schedules are aimed at team members and can be used to view multiple diaries at one time for planning meetings etc.

On the calendar toolbar, click on the View Group Schedules button.

Click on New and type a name for the group, click OK
Select the Add Othersbutton and then Add From Address Book
Select the members of the group and then OK
Click on Save & Close
To view the group, click on Schedules then Open

From the Group Schedule, you can plan meetings and appointments

2.11New contacts

The diagram above shows the Outlook contacts page

On the contacts toolbar, click on the New button

Enter the contactsrelevant details, e.g. name, job title, address, telephone number and the contacts email address.
Click on Save & Close.
This contact is now stored to your personal contacts list and is totally separate from the global address book, that holds the NPHS contact details

2.12New Distribution list ( group emails)

On the contacts toolbar, click on the New button.

Select Distribution list and type a name for the list
Select Members and then From Address Book
Select the members of the list and then Save & Close

3Proxy Access

All individual features of an Outlook account can be shared or delegated to other users

Email
Calendars
Contacts
To Do List

These features can be delegated in the individual areas or from the initial navigational page, by selecting Tools Options

Permissions for varying access levels can be granted by selecting the drop down arrows

The default is none
Reviewer can read only
Author, can read and create
Editor, can read create and modify

3.1Opening another persons Calendar

In your own Calendar, select open a shared Calendar
Select their name form the global address book
Click OK
The Calendar will appear in a split screen with your own
The individual name will then be added to the Other Calendars List

4E mail etiquette

4.1General issues.

Subject line should give a clear indication of the message content and if the subject matter is sensitive.
Users should be aware that subject lines should if possible associate the record with manual or electronically held files on the same subject.
Personal messages should be clearly marked as such in the subject line.
Users should not forward chain e-mails, e.g. jokes and other trivia.

4.2Addressing messages

Example of rules for addressing messages

Consider whether e-mail is the appropriate channel to communicate this message. If it is that important, a phone call will get an immediate response.
Limit main recipients to those who are expected to take action or decisions based on the message content.
Add c.c. recipients for information only.
Use the ‘reply to all’ function with care.
Do Not send global messages to all users – post on an Intranet or Public Folders instead.

4.3Managing dialogues

E-mail messaging is an unstructured medium which will tend to become disorderly and tangled unless guided by disciplined procedures. Confused e-mail threads and much repetition of previous message text in dialogues will produce confused and repetitious records. Disjointed replies and the use of embedded messages are also sources of poor structure that are difficult to manage.

Examples of rules for managing dialogues

Use clear and descriptive subject lines
Indicate if no reply is needed
Do not re-send attachments with a reply unless necessary.
Do not reply by annotating the original text at various points – it is better to group all reply text together in one place.

Version: 1.0 / Date: / Status:Draft Working Document
04/10/2018
Author: John Morley / Page: 1 of 19