Using Entourage with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 at Wesleyan

Managing Email

On the top left of the Entourage program window is the mode box.  Here, you choose what function you are looking to do in Entourage. 

To check or send your email, make sure you are working in Mail mode.  Do this by clicking on the icon for Mail.

Folder View

Under the Mode section, is a list of folders.  For most users, there will be two groups — a set of folders on the hard drive of your computer and a set of folders that are on the mail server. 

“Folders on My Computer” contains folders of messages that are on the hard drive of your computer.  If you check your email using WebMail from another computer, items you see will not appear when checking email from any other computer. 

The other folder may have a different name based on how Entourage was configured.  In the example to the right, it is called “Wesleyan Email Server”.  The email below that is kept on the mail server – it will be the same regardless of what program or location you use to access your email.  If you use webmail, this is the email you will see.

You can easily drag email between the two sections.  While email on the mail server is accessible anywhere, you may run into problems with quota if you have too much mail there.  You can have as much mail as you’d like on your computer, but it is not available everywhere.  You can drag folders as well as files. 

You should be aware that when you drag email from one section to the other, email is copied not moved.  Once it is copied, you should confirm it is available as you intended and then delete the old email.  To move it instead of copying it, use the Move button in the toolbar. 

The Toolbar and Messages

The Toolbar runs along the top of the Entourage window.  You can use that to control messages selected in the main email window and also to make new messages. Hold your arrow over the buttons for a moment to get a tip on what they do. 

The First icon is to create a new message.  If you click on the arrow slightly to the right of “New”, you can create other items such as a calendar event or contact.  If you have an email selected (by clicking on it), you can reply with the “Reply” button.  “Reply All” will send the reply to everyone involved in the original email (including those cc’d or other in the TO field). 

“Forward” will allow you to specify new recipients for the email.  Using the “Flag” button, you can specify a flag on messages.  This can help you organize your messages as you can sort the view on flags and remind yourself of followup.  “Print” and “Delete” will do as it says. 

“Junk” will help to train Entourage what is junk mail.  As junk mail filtering is pretty bad with Entourage, we strongly recommend you use SPAM Assassin in your E-Portfolio and disable Entourage junk mail scanning. The Send and Receive button will tell Entourage to send any messages it has prepared and to check for new messages.  It will check every few minutes on its own, but this button will force it to check. 

The “Move” button will move messages to a different folder – either on the server or to/from a local folder on your hard drive.  Move does not work for folders, however. 

“Categories” are like flags, but you can assign multiple categories to each message – allowing groupings such as “To-Do” and “Family”.  You can also search based on Categories so that you can more easily track and organize your email. 

Sending a New Message

If you click New on the toolbar to make a new message, a window like the one below will appear. Once you’ve typed your message, you can choose to send it immediately or send later.  The ‘Link’ button is used to link the message to another.  For example, if you are writing in reference to another message, can link the two— or you can link to a to-do item or calendar event.  Links are available to you (not the recipient) when reading a message so you can easily refer to older responses or other associated items. 

Just above the box where you type the body of the email, on the left side is a symbol of the letters ‘ab’.  Clicking this button will switch between flat text – readable on any email client – and fancy HTML formatted which allows formatting like bold, and font size. 

Making an Appointment         

On the Mode box, click on Calendar.  Notice that you have two calendars.  Like your email, you have one that is on your local computer and one that is on the server.  Almost exclusively, you should make sure to ignore the one that is “On My Computer”.  The one on the server is the one that will be used for Wesleyan meetings and appointments. 

To work on your Wesleyan calendar, select the calendar with the larger calendar icon.  It should also have your full name next to it. 

To create an appointment in your calendar, in the toolbar, click new.  A window like the one to the left will appear.  Fill in your information and then click Save or close the window.  It will be added to your calendar. 

Making a Meeting

To make a meeting, simply make an appointment and then click Invite to invite other users to your meeting.  Enter the email addresses of the people you’d like to invite.  An email will be sent to each of these people.  If you would like to reserve a conference room or other resource (such as a department projector), you should include it here.  The Location field next to the subjet is NOT used to reserve rooms – only an optional notice of a location. 

Are users Available?

When creating a meeting, before you send the invitation, you should see who is available.  Click the Scheduling button.  In the image to the right, it is circled. 

Light blue means the person is busy at that time, Dark blue means the person will not be in the office then.  The striped blue means the person has been offered an appointment that they have not yet accepted. 

Getting Meeting Invitations       

If you are invited to a meeting, you will receive an email with information about the meeting.  The email will have an icon of a calendar next to it which indicates it is a meeting event.  Open the meeting and click Accept, Decline, or Accept tentatively to send an email response to the organizer with your intentions.  

When replying to a meeting invitation, you’ll be asked if you’d like to send comments with your response or just send the response.