Exchange Calendar Survival Tips 1/12/2009

Featured in this update:

* Using distribution lists to invite people to meetings
* Review who you have shared your calendar with
* Mail forwarding & calendaring
* Filtering meeting responses in Outlook
* Questions?

USING DISTRIBUTION LISTS TO INVITE PEOPLE TO MEETINGS

You may have created email distribution lists in Outlook or Entourage to easily send email to a group of individuals.  While you can use these distribution lists to invite people to meetings, you should ensure that you do the following to ensure optimum results.

1) Make sure that the addresses in your distribution list come from the GAL to ensure that indivuduals on the list will be added correctly.

2) Expand your distribution list prior to sending out the invitation so that individual users can be seen (as well as their individual free/busy times).

Not expanding the distribution list will show it as a one-line entry in the Scheduling Assistant with no free/busy information available.

REVIEW WHO YOU HAVE SHARED YOUR CALENDAR WITH

We want to remind you that it is a smart idea to review who you have allowed to view your calendar.  We've found that in a few cases, access rights from CorporateTime may have converted over, and they actually may have converted incorrectly.  So we recommend that you review who you have shared your calendar with and what permissions you have given them to ensure that things are configured the way you want.  Instructions on sharing your calendar and adjusting access rights are at: http://oit.nd.edu/exchange/shareyourcalendar.shtml

MAIL FORWARDING & CALENDARING

If you have chosen to forward your email to another account, please be aware that any meeting requests will also be forwarded to that address.  This means that others attempting to schedule you for a meeting will not be able to see what days and times you might be available.  We highly suggest not forwarding your email account elsewhere so that you can use Exchange calendaring with your colleagues.

FILTERING MEETING RESPONSES IN OUTLOOK

For those of you who invite people to meetings, you may find that those meeting responses are filling up your inbox.  You may find that creating a set of rules (or filters) to handle those responses is helpful.  We have posted instructions for Outlook users on how to do this at: http://oit.nd.edu/exchange/filtermtgresponse_outlook.shtml

Entourage and OWA users:  We will post similar instructions for you soon.

QUESTIONS?

Many questions can be answered by reviewing the information found on the OIT Exchange web site at http://oit.nd.edu/exchange. The OIT has also created Quick Reference Guides that will walk you through these types of questions, as well as many other common calendaring functions. Quick reference guides are available for Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Entourage 2008, OWA with IE, and OWA with other web browsers, and you can find them all at: http://oit.nd.edu/exchange/training.shtml#qrg

If you need further assistance, please contact your departmental IT support staff or the OIT Help Desk at 574-631-8111 or oithelp@nd.edu.