Information Systems Services Outlook
Content Managing your Email... 3 Dealing with Junk Mail... 4 Going on Holiday... 4 Adhering to Mail quotas... 4 Recovering deleted items... 4 Offsite access to Exchange Mailbox... 5 Outlook Web Access (OWA)... 5 Logging On to OWA... 5 Out of Office Assistant... 5 Netiquette... 6 Why do you need email etiquette?... 6 Why is email different?... 6 Formatting... 6 Messages... 7 To, Cc and Bcc... 7 Reply To All... 7 Attachments... 7 Too much punctuation!!!... 7 Avoid Flamming... 8 Abbreviations... 8 Smilies... 8 Salutations and Signatures... 8 Threads... 8 Printing... 8 Privacy... 8 Information Systems Services Page 2 of 8
This document is intended to offer guidance to users of Outlook and the Exchange Server at Leeds University. This is not a how to document, but rather a document that offers advice on best practice. Managing your Email More and more people are using email as their preferred method of communication, sending emails in place of letters, memos, phone calls and face-to-face meetings. It's an ideal medium for rapidly distributing information to lots of people, and we often copy extra people in to emails just to keep them informed. All this means that the volume of email arriving in your Inbox can rapidly fill it, leaving you wondering how you will ever catch up. There are, however, a number of things you can do to keep on top of your email: Prioritise - If you have a lot of email to deal with, prioritise it first. Mail can be sorted under the different headings (more headings can be added by right-clicking in the grey heading box - e.g. subject, sender or date received) and any mail that needs to be dealt with later can be marked as un-read or flagged for follow up. Be organised - Create a folder for every major topic you are currently receiving emails about, including sub-folders if necessary. Once you've dealt with an email, move it in to its appropriate folder if you need to keep it. Set up filtering rules You can set up rules which automatically act on your email messages as you receive them. For example, all messages with a certain words in the subject could be automatically moved to another folder. Keep your Inbox clean - Don't leave messages sitting in your Inbox for more than a few days. Once you've read an email, file it or delete it. If you end up with hundreds of messages in your Inbox you are less likely to want to deal with them and important messages could easily get lost. Set up Auto-Archiving to ensure your mailbox size remains low you can access archived mails in the same way as normal ones and ensure your archive location is on the network not on your computer s C:\ drive. Remember if you exceed your disk quota you won't be able to receive any new messages until you have created some space. If you receive a file with an attachment, save the attachment, then delete the email message. Delete it (and empty the trash) - You can often tell by the subject line of a message whether you need to read it or not. If it's obviously junk mail or an email you're not interested in delete it. If the email is from someone you don't know, or has a suspect subject line and has an attachment, always delete it without opening it Periodically empty your deleted mail folder and sent items folder, particularly if you regularly send files with attachments. Unsubscribe - It is very tempting to subscribe to any list that looks interesting. However, if you find yourself regularly deleting messages from those lists without reading them, unsubscribe Replying - You don't have to reply to every email, unnecessary replies just waste your time and clutter other peoples' Inboxes Information Systems Services Page 3 of 8
Dealing with Junk Mail The best and simplest way to deal with junk email is to delete it. Never reply to junk mail, especially if it asks you to reply to be removed from their mailing list. If you reply you are saying your email address is active, and you will receive a lot more junk email Outlook allows you to collect incoming mail together into folders according to sender and/or subject these are called Rules (see the Rules Wizard on the Tools menu). In the Rules Wizard there is an option to act on suspected junk email, using a list of pre-determined rules. These rules include words in the subject line such as for free!', 100% satisfied', $$' and similar phrases. Particular items of junk email may also be considered offensive by some of its recipients. ISS always takes seriously any complaints from users about offensive or harassing email. We follow up any incidents, identifying the sender and dealing with them an appropriate manner. Given that the definition of 'junk' lies with the receiver, and that much of it will come from sites that are also sources of legitimate email, it is not possible to filter out junk email at the system level. Don't reply to chain mail. Going on Holiday When you go away, your email can quickly mount up. To avoid coming back to a mountain of mail: Switch on the Out of Office Assistant tool. Set up an Out of Office reply in Outlook telling people when you will be back and who they should contact (a manager or colleague) if it is urgent. What about setting up an auto forward to a colleague if a message is received from a certain person or with a particular word in the subject? Unsubscribe from any mailing lists or set your options to 'no mail'. Adhering to Mail quotas Initially, your mailbox limit will be 100MB. When you reach 90MB you will start receiving email warnings. At 95MB you will be able to send, but unable to receive mail. Once you reach the 100MB limit, you will be prevented from sending and receiving mail until you have completed sufficient housekeeping to bring your mail below the 100MB limit. To avoid reaching this limit, please ensure that you delete emails which are no longer required on a regular basis. If you feel you need a larger quota, you can apply for more space by contacting the ISS Help Desk. To check the size of your mailbox, click 'tools', 'mailbox cleanup', then view mailbox size' to see the size of your Mailbox. Recovering deleted items While in your 'Deleted items' folder, click on 'tools', then 'recover deleted items'; you can recover anything you've deleted in the last 30 days. Information Systems Services Page 4 of 8
Offsite access to Exchange Mailbox Outlook Web Access (OWA) Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server gives you secure access to your inbox, personal Calendar, group scheduling, and public folders by using a Web browser. If you are away from your computer, or if you share a computer with other people, you can use Outlook Web Access to gain access to your Microsoft Exchange Server information securely from any browser. Outlook Web Access does not download messages to your client computer, so there is no risk of accidentally copying messages to another person's hard disk. Logging On to OWA Open your Web Browser and type in outlook.leeds.ac.uk In the Outlook Web Access Login window choose either Public or Private computer from the Security section. Enter your User Name and Password and click the Log On button. Out of Office Assistant You can switch on the Out of Office Assistant using OWA. This is good practice if you are off sick and you can access OWA from home. Information Systems Services Page 5 of 8
Netiquette Why do you need email etiquette? A company needs to implement etiquette rules for the following three reasons: Professionalism: by using proper email language your company will convey a professional image. Efficiency: emails that get to the point are much more effective than poorly worded emails. Protection from liability: employee awareness of email risks will protect your company from costly law suits. Why is email different? Electronic communication, because of its speed and broadcasting ability, is fundamentally different from paper-based communication. Because the turnaround time can be so fast, email is more conversational than traditional paper communications. In a paper document, it is absolutely essential to make everything completely clear and unambiguous because your audience may not have a chance to ask for clarification. With email documents, your recipient can ask questions immediately. Email thus tends, like conversational speech, to be much sloppier and more ambiguous. Formatting The recommended formats for emails are HTML or plain text. Rich Text format emails may not display properly on all email clients as it is designed for MS Outlook. HTML will work with all email clients and also allows clickable hyperlinks in the mail (e.g. www.leeds.ac.uk or N:\Academic-Services\ISS\IS-Programme\) as well as coloured and formatted text. There are some accessibility software packages (e.g. screen readers) that do not recognise HTML and so although it is more universally acceptable that Rich Text it is not 100% accessible. Plain text doesn t allow formatting but will work with all email clients. You should use this format if you are unsure. In most cases, you do not need to change the message format. When you send an HTML message to others whose mail program doesn't understand HTML, their mail program should automatically display a plain text version in the message body. Do not use Word as your Editor. There are lots of e-mail clients (and some servers) which cannot handle messages in these formats. The message will come in as gibberish. If you want to use hyperlinks use HTML otherwise the links do not work. Make you links clickable. Plain text will wrap when character limit is reached (72) Put double spaces between paragraphs, and don't indent. Let lines break naturally. Multiple exclamation marks are bad!!!! The occasional smiley face is good Pictures are okay Information Systems Services Page 6 of 8
Messages Messages should be concise and to the point. Subject lines are critical to proper email etiquette. Grammar and punctuation are important use Spellchecker etc. Add an Auto Signature. This should include your job title, department, University phone and web address and it should be formatted to look like an address rather than being on one line e.g. John Smith IT Trainer Information Systems Services 6.33a E C Stoner Building The University of Leeds LS2 9JT Tel: +44 (0) 113 3431396 http://www.leeds.ac.uk/iss/training One should not use all UPPERCASE letters in an email. Uppercase letters imply SHOUTING and may be considered rude. A work e-mail account should not be used for personal correspondence. To, Cc and Bcc Reply to All The addresses in the 'To' are for the people you are directly addressing. The addresses in the 'Cc' are for the people you are indirectly addressing. Copy only those who need to be copied; not your entire universe of contacts. The addresses in the 'Bcc' are like 'Cc' except that the addresses in 'To' and 'Cc' do not know that the addresses in the 'Bcc' are included in the conversation. Bcc is also useful for long address lists that you do not wish to appear in the To section and also if you want to protect the email identities of people on the list. This can be useful when sending to large groups (e.g. students) Use of the 'Bcc' can be somewhat unethical and therefore its use is discouraged. The 'Reply to All' button can generate tons of unnecessary e-mails. Use with care. Attachments When sending emails, internally, send a link to the attachment, not the attachment itself. When attachments arrive in an email, they sit in a Temporary Internet folder. It is important that you first, save the attachments into a logical place and then work on them. If you do not, you may not be able to find them later. Remember to save the attachment into a correct folder. No files that are executable can be sent as attachments, e.g..mdb,.exe files Zip files if necessary Attachments should be no more than 4/5 MB in size. Too much punctuation!!! If something is important it should be reflected in your text, not in your punctuation. Information Systems Services Page 7 of 8
Avoid Flaming Flaming is the act of telling somebody off using an e-mail and it should never be done. If you have a gripe with someone contact them over the phone or face to face but never through an e-mail. The big danger with e-mail is that it can be read over and over again. If you use e-mail to dress someone down they will read it once, then again, and again until they become enraged. And then they flame you with an equally or even more vitriolic email. And guess what you ll do yep, respond with yet another. Abbreviations The following are acceptable: FYI for your information KWIM Know what I mean? ASAP as soon as possible ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing 2L8 too late TIA thanks in advance AAMOF as a matter of fact TTYL talk to you later AFAIK as far as I know BTW by the way B4N bye for now :) happy CMIIW correct me if I'm wrong :( sad CUL see you later :o very surprised FWIW for what its worth ;) wink IKWUM I know what you mean ;* kiss IMHO in my humble opinion :& tongue-tied Smilies They are simple strings of characters. The most common example is: :-). Salutations and Signatures Threads Printing Privacy In a non-business situation: "Dear Virgil" or just "Virgil". In the business situation (where you don t know the person to whom you are writing) normally address a person as Miss/Mrs./Ms./Mr. In a university situation the common salutation among academics is Dr. Or, when replying to an email, take your lead from the salutation that they have used to address you. Always include a signature e.g. Name, Position, Name of Dept., Tel No. and Website. Include the link (thread) when responding to emails. Without the link, it is difficult for the users on each end to follow the sequence of messages. Think before you print. Use double-sided setting There is no such thing as a private e-mail as the e-mail administrator has the ability to read any and all e-mail messages. Personal e-mails sent from the office are regarded as official university communications regardless of content and could possibly expose you and the university to unnecessary risks. If you have a Personal folder, the university cannot look at the folder without permission, the Head of Department who has to approve it. Information Systems Services Page 8 of 8