Most calendars are shared in Outlook by default. While you may not see the details of each event, you can view the availability of most individuals and resource calendars.
Using the Scheduling Assistant is ideal for booking one-off meetings with a group. If you need to check a colleague’s availability, you can map their calendar to view their free times. Similarly, mapping a room’s calendars allows you to see availability, upcoming reservations, and the status of your bookings.
Note 1: As of Outlook 16.89 on macOS (New Outlook on macOS), these instructions do not work. You will have to use Outlook on the Web to map shared calendars.
Note 2: The instructions below are are new Outlook on the Web and for new Outlook in Windows. The instructions are the same for both.
Steps to map and view a shared calendar.
Launch the Outlook client or Outlook on the Web and go into the calendar view.
Show the Navigation Pane (if not visible) – If you don’t see the left Navigation pane, click on the “Show navigation pane” icon (three horizontal lines) on the upper left corner.
Create a new Calendar Group (Optional but Recommended) – The steps are briefly outlined in Figure 1 below. Right-click on the ellipses next to any existing calendar group(2) and then select “New Calendar Group”
Figure 1.
4. Then click on the “Add Calendar” towards the top of the left Navigation pane. This brings up the Add Calendar dialog.
5. Add a Calendar: The steps are outlined in Figure 2, select “Add from directory”(1), select your login(2) as the account to search the directory from, search for the calendar you wish you view(3)**, and finally select the calendar group you list to list this calendar under(4).
Figure 2
** – If you are unable to find the room calendar, enter it exactly as shown in our Drop-In Spaces & Reservations list, including with the “iSchool.” prefix.
This page includes detailed directions to add a supplemental, Shared NetID email account to Outlook.
These instructions are for shared mailboxes you have been provided access to. A shared mailbox means the owner of the other mailbox has granted you access and you will use your own credentials to access the shared mailbox. You will not need the remote account’s password to access the mailbox. This is how most shared mailboxes are setup in the iSchool.
The following directions assume you have been granted permissions to access a Shared NetID’s email account. If these instructions dont work, or if you need permissions to access a Shared NetID’s email account contact the iSchool IT Help Desk.
1. In the Outlook application, click File, click Add Account
2. Type in the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example), click Connect
3. Click Sign in with another account, enter your personal @uw.edu email address, click Next.
4. Use your UWNetID@uw.edu credentials at the “Sign in” prompt.
5. You should receive a “successful” message. Quit Outlook, wait a few seconds, start Outlook.
6. The Shared NetID email account will be added to Outlook. You should receive emails to the Shared NetID email account. You should be able to send emails from the Shared NetID email account.
New Outlook Instructions
Make sure your mailboxes are visible in Outlook, if not click on the three vertical bars on the upper right to display your list of mailboxes. Then expand your loign@uw.edu account by clicking on the arrow next to your account.
2. Next Scroll down the folder list to the “Shared with me” folder.
3. “Expand” the Shared with me folder to see if the shared mailbox is listed here.
4. If you do not see any shared email accounts here, right-click the Shared with me folder. Click Add shared folder or mailbox. Type in the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example). Click Add.
Note: If you don’t have a “Shared with me” in your list of folders, right-click on the ellipses next to your <email>@uw.edu at the top of the folder list. You will find a “Add Shared folder of mailbox” as an option there as well and follow the same instructions.
macOS Instructions
1. In the Outlook application, click File, mouse-over Open, click Shared Mailbox….
2. Type in the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example). Click Add.
3. After a few seconds the Shared NetID email account should appear in Outlook. You should receive emails to the Shared NetID email account. You should be able to send emails from the Shared NetID email account.
Outlook on the web
There are two ways to add a shared mailbox. The first opens the mailbox within your account, preserving your personal settings. This has the other mailbox appear in your account.
The other will open the mailbox in a new window and keep and its specific settings (categories/tags). This is better suited if you are interacting with a high volume shared mailbox. In a sense, this drops you into the other account.
To open a mailbox in your account, preserving your personal settings:
In this view, the other mailbox and calendar appear under your account, when you send an email or make a calendar reservation, you will need to select the appropriate from address or calendar.
2. Right-click the word Folders, click Add shared folder or mailbox.
3. Search for the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example), click Open.
4. The Shared NetID mailbox will be available on the left as a new account as in the image below. You should receive emails to the Shared NetID email account. You should be able to send emails from the Shared NetID email account.
To open another mailbox in a new window, preserving its specific settings:
This is ideal for users interactive with high volume shared mailboxes where there is not ambiguity wich mailbox is being read, which account the mail is being sent from and under which account an event is being reserved.
You may have noticed that the “Room Finder” feature in the Scheduling Assistant doesn’t show any building lists or rooms at UW. This feature is currently unsupported.
Find a room by adding them as Optional Attendees in Scheduling Assistant.
There are a few ways to find available meeting spaces, but using the Scheduling Assistant is the most versatile, especially when considering multiple spaces, multiple attendees, recurring events, etc.
Bring up the event details, by clicking on “More options” when creating an event.
Click on the “Scheduling assistant” tab as shown on the image on the right.
Click on “Add Optional Attendee” in the left pane in Scheduling Assistant.
Type the building name or room number to search for the desired meeting room.
Select one or more rooms from the drop-down list.
This method allows you to identify one or more rooms available at the same time as your meeting attendees.
Using the Scheduling Assistant to find meeting rooms.
Notes:
The semi-opaque window shows your meeting time and it overlaps over all attendees.
A red window shows a conflict, either in your calendar, one of the other attendees, or the room.
A green window therefore means everyone and the room are available.
For recurring events – Sorry but the Scheduling Assistant will show a time as available – even if there is a conflict on a different day. You have to manually check all the recurring dates. (See the section on Confirming your reservation below).
Important Reminder – Once you find a room that works for you, remove all other rooms from the optional attendee list.
Failing to do so will likely result in you reserving multiple spaces for the same event.
Bonus-Room Reservation
Adding a room as an optional attendee also reserves it for your meeting. Provided you have the authority to reserve the room, and it is available, you will receive an email confirming your reservation.
Confirming your reservation
Sometimes, you just need to be sure that you did reserve a room and/or that your reservation was actually accepted. This is especially true of recurring reservations, where a conflict might be far in the future and easy to miss.
An event appearing on your calendar doesn’t guarantee the meeting room is reserved for you.
For recurring events, if there is a conflict on any date, the entire reservation is declined.
Ways to confirm your reservation:
Pay attention to your email: Confirm that you got an email saying, “Your meeting request was accepted.”-If you are making multiple reservations at the same time, pay attention to the date and location in the email.
Check the event details: On your calendar, make sure the room is listed as an attendee AND is shown as either attending the meeting or accepting your meeting invitation.-If it states that the room has not yet responded, check again after a few more minutes. This process can take five or more minutes for your mail client to receive the email and integrate the response into your calendar.
When you need to be 100% certain: Check the room calendar, not your calendar.Use the “Add Calendar” button in the calendar view in Outlook and search for and add the room calendar to your list of calendars. Then actually view and check the room calendar to confirm that your event is listed in the room’s calendar.
If something does not look right, email ihelp@uw.edu with your reservation questions, and we’ll assist.
Many iSchool staff have supplemental/additional accounts in Outlook. At times it is useful to be able to send email using the Mail Merge feature from a supplemental account so that replies go to the supplemental account instead of to your personal account. This is also useful as the recipients might not recognize or be expecting an email from you but they do recognize the supplemental account.
Here is how to perform a Mail Merge using a supplemental Account running on Windows.
Be sure you have the proper access to the supplemental Account. If you do not or you do not know, ask iSchool IT.
The supplemental Account needs to be added to Outlook as an additional/separate account, not under the Advanced settings of your personal Account.
You need to set the supplemental Account as the Default Account in Outlook.
Classic Outlook: Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Click on the supplemental Account to select it and then click on “Set as Default”.
New Outlook: Settings -> Accounts -> Email Accounts -> Click on “Manage” on supplemental Account -> “Set as primary Account”
Set send messages as:
In Outlook Classis, go to File > Options > Mail > Send messages, and make sure that the “Always use the default account when composing new messages” is checked.
New Outlook : N/A
Once you are finished using Mail Merge, be sure to uncheck “Always use the default…” (classic only) and set your personal Account as the Default Account in Outlook.
Sorting email into folders automatically can be a huge time saver and can keep you focused on the messages that demand your immediate attention. You can create rules to let Outlook or OWA (Outlook Web App) sort them into the folder of your choice. Rules can sort messages based on the sender, the subject, the recipient or a combination of various characteristics. When you are creating a rule for Outlook, make sure that:
RULES
If you have a UW Spam Gauge rule applied, always move the Spam rule to the top of your list of rules so that it is processed first.
All your rules are server-side unless you are creating rules for client only actions, such as coloring your emails or otherwise personalizing your email. You can make your rules on OWA to ensure it’s server-side.
Here is an article from Microsoft about how to make rules in Outlook:
Sometimes we delete things accidentally and sometimes we even empty the Deleted Items folder before we figure out what we did. Fortunately, if you realize what you have done within a few days, there is a recourse.
Before you proceed, note that by default everyone at the iSchool (and everyone else at the UW that uses the UW Microsoft 365/Office 365 service) can already see the default free/busy info of everyone else. This means people can already see when you are free, when you are busy, what your working hours are and when you are out of the office.
“Advanced” sharing options are possible if you want to give someone access to more details. This could be allowing someone outside of UW the chance to view to your calendar, or if you want to give someone “delegate” (edit) rights to your calendar.
Microsoft Outlook stores data (E-mail, Calendar items, Contacts, etc.) in a file. If you use Outlook at home and like many users are not connected to an Exchange server, the file is called a PST (Personal Storage) file and is stored on your computer. If you are employed as a faculty or staff member at the iSchool or another business and connect to an Exchange server, the file is called an OST (Offline Storage) file. It contains copies of all the data, which is subsequently stored on the server.
Regardless of what type of file you have, the size of this file is limited if you want good performance and reliability. Although the absolute maximum size of OST files keeps growing (at the UW the limit is currently 100GB), for optimal performance we recommend you keep your OST file much smaller, less than 10GB is ideal.
These instructions will explain some best practices so that your mail store (read: Mailbox size) never grows too much and shows you how to determine the size of your mail store.
NOTE – this process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete (depending on the size of your Mailbox), so please allow enough time.
General Best Practices
Regularly empty your Junk E-Mail and Deleted Items folders.
Don’t save attachments in Outlook. Instead, save the files to your cloud storage, your computer (or some other media), and then delete the message. At the iSchool your computer is backed up so all the files saved locally will be safe.
Do not send messages to yourself.
Do not send large (read: bigger than a couple of MB) attachments via email, instead put the file in the cloud and send a link to the location so the recipient can view or download it.
If you do forward a message with a large attachment, delete the item from your Sent Items. There is no need to keep the file in your Inbox and your Sent Items folder.
Outlook Microsoft 365
1) Check to see how big your mail store is.
– In the left pane of Outlook, right-click your account and select Data File Properties.
– Under the General tab click Folder Size.
2) Sort mail by size.
– In the left pane of Outlook expand Search Folders.
– Click on Large Mail to activate it. By default, your large mail items will be sorted by size with the largest on top. Since large items always contain attachments now you can easily save the files and delete the messages.
3) Using the Mailbox Cleanup tool.
– Click the File menu > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup
– We recommend all the options in the Mailbox Cleanup tool except AutoArchive. We do not ever recommend archiving your email and instead always recommend keeping all of it in your Exchange Mailbox.
– The Cleanup tool can remove redundant messages in any folder or any conversation. Cleaning up redundant items in conversations is a great way to free up space. Here is a video demo of the Cleanup tool, the “Clean Up Conversation” feature is mentioned at 5:12:
Outlook on the web
1) Check to see how big your mail store is.
– Click the gear icon (Settings) > View all Outlook settings > General > Storage
2) Clean up your Mailbox.
– While in Storage, empty your Deleted Items folder.
3) Apply Retention Policies.
– Right click every top level/parent folder and select Assign policy. We recommend choosing 6 Month or 1 Year.
Note: These instructions are deprecated and for Classic Outlook on Windows and MacOS. If you are using New Outlook please refer to this document instead: How to Find and Book an Available Meeting Room
iSchool faculty, staff, and PhD students have access to several physical rooms, for meeting purposes. Some rooms have Exchange Mailboxes and Calendars. These rooms can be scheduled/reserved directly via an Outlook Meeting Request, similar to scheduling a meeting with a person. A list of rooms and information about the rooms can be found on this webpage: https://uwnetid.sharepoint.com/sites/ischoolnew/sites/ServicesSupport/DropInSpacesReservations . Detailed instructions for scheduling rooms via Outlook/Exchange are below.
1) Click the arrow button next to New Email , click Meeting. (“1” in the screenshot below).
2) Click Meeting (“2” in the screenshot below).
3) Click Required (“3” in the screenshot below).
4) Search for the room you want to reserve/schedule. The most accurate way to search for a room is by using either the email address or the “display name” from the list above. (“4″ in the screenshot below).
5) Add the room you wish to schedule/reserve to ” Required “; double-click the room from the list or click “Required.” Click OK (“5” in the screenshot below).
6) Click Scheduling Assistant to see when the room is available, add other attendees’ NetIDs as necessary, and adjust meeting times.
7) Click Appointment , add meeting information as necessary, click Send. All attendees will receive the meeting request including the room itself. The request for the room will be accepted or rejected based on room availability.
Outlook for macOS
01) Click New Items, click Meeting.
02) In the “To:” field, the most accurate way to search for a room is using either the email address or the “display name” from the list above. Then, select the desired room.
3) Click Scheduling to see when the room is available and adjust meeting times.
4) Click Appointment , add other attendees’ NetIDs in the To: field as necessary, click Send.
All attendees will receive the meeting request including the room itself. The request for the room will be accepted or rejected based on room availability.
Outlook for the Web
1) Sign into the Outlook Web App , use your @uw.edu email address and UW NetID credentials when prompted.
2) Click the Calendar icon in the bottom-left corner.
3) Click New event.
4) In the Invite attendees field, add desired room using email address from the list above. Add other @uw.edu email addresses as necessary. Use the Scheduling Assistant to confirm all attendees, including the room itself, are available. Click Send once all other meeting details are finalized.
All attendees will receive the meeting request including the room itself. The request for the room will be accepted or rejected based on room availability.
If you have any questions after reading this article or if you need any help, please don't hesitate to contact the iSchool IT Help Desk.
https://ischool.uw.edu/help
(206) 616-3086
