Outlook posers

[agibsonsw]

I hope I'm not too much of a pain but I have a few quick Outlook questions pl.

1) If someone Exchange Server (Outlook 2007) creates a Distribution List, how can this list be made available to a Word e-mail mail-merge? I believe there is a tick-option somewhere, but can't recall where.
2) How can this distribution be treated as "contacts" so that fields such as Address, Phone Number, etc., can be added?
3) (Outlook 2007) Does having other's mailboxes listed impact on someone's mailbox limit? A lady keeps being requested to archive but she doesn't have that many emails herself.
4) I assume that dragging and dropping onto an Archive folder is, effectively, archiving? How can I check that it is, actually, an archived folder, and what makes it so different to any other folder?
5) If someone is the owner of a calendar how can she see who has been given permissions for this calendar? The permissions tab (Outlook 2003) just says Default/None and Anonymous/None even though (I am advised) some people do currently have permissions to view and/or edit appointments.

Sorry again for being a pain, but I don't use Outlook that often. Andy.

[Rudi]

1.

It is not possible to do this directly as a Mail Merge option but with only a few additional clicks you can easily use a Distribution List or Contact group as the source for a mail merge.

Saving the Distribution List as a txt-file
The trick here lies in saving your Distribution List as a txt-file. This will create a tabs delimited file with all the names and address of the contacts that were added.
Once you have the txt-file, you can start the Mail Merge from Word and instead of selecting and Outlook Contacts folder as the source, you can select the saved txt-file. Word will automatically recognize the tab separation as columns with the first column named “Distribution_List_Name” or “Contact_Group_Name” and the second column is named after the actual Distribution List or Contact group name as it showed in Outlook.

Tip: If some of the records in the txt-file also hold the email address for the name or another error, you can quickly modify them without leaving Word by selecting the txt-file in the “Data Source” field and press the “Edit…” button in the bottom left corner.

[Rudi]

5.

AFAIK, the only place to view/edit calendar permissions is in the permissions tab of that calendars properties. I have always worked with it here.
See: http://blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/the-mos ... -calendar/

[HansV]

4) Yes, dragging a message to a folder in an archive .pst file is the same as archiving it. An archive .pst file is no different from any other .pst file. You can in fact specify different target files for AutoArchive.
What matters is that a message moved out of the Exchange mailbox into ANY .pst file won't count towards the size limit for the Exchange mailbox.

5) You have to look at the list of names in the Permissions tab.

[HansV]

2) I don't understand this one. A distribution list itself doesn't have an e-mail address, phone number etc.

3) As far as I know, Exchange only looks at the size of your own mailbox, not at the size of any other mailbox that you open.

[agibsonsw]

Thank you very much both @Hans & @Rudi

2) Yes, as I recall now, to add other details (Address, Boss, etc.) requires what is now called a "Contact Group"; Outlook 2007 uses this in place of what used to be called a distribution list(?).

2) I was assuming that having others mailboxes and calendars must impact the overall size of the current users' mailbox - otherwise, how could they work like any other folder and why would she keep receiving prompts to archive (she has a very limited number of emails herself). But I defer to Hans.

However, people often get an error message when attempting to open (activate) another's calendar or mailbox, saying the server is not available, but when they attempt it again it works. So presumably there is an amount of work that the server has to do when switching between mailboxes..?

Thanks again, Andy.

[HansV]

It depends on the size of the organization and the capacity of the server(s).

I work in a large organization. Although Exchange presents a single interface to the users, we actually have multiple Exchange servers. Permissions etc. have to be synchronized between these servers. If I open another mailbox than my own, I may experience a delay if the other user's mailbox is stored on a different Exchange server.

There are two ways of opening another user's mailbox. One is through your own Exchange account > Change... > More Settings... > Advanced > Open these additional mailboxes, and the other is by adding an additional e-mail account to your e-mail profile. The mail boxes behave differently depending on the method - if you add an account, it behaves like your own mailbox: you receive notifications and reminders for the extra account, for example, whereas if you open it through your own mailbox, you don't receive notifications and reminders.

[agibsonsw]

Thanks again @Hans

I try not to get too involved in Outlook. Not that I don't know it well (from a users perspective - despite my recent deluge of questions!). It's just that it is difficult to distinguish what the user can do for themselves, and what must be configured centrally. Also, depending on how the Exchange Server has been configured, a number of options or tabs simply disappear: I can spend a frustrating time trying to see them when they are not there.

Best Wishes, Andy.