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The University of Illinois at Chicago

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Location
1940 W. Taylor
Chicago, IL 60612
Hours
8:30-5:00
Phone/Fax
312-413-0003 (phone)
312-413-0003 (fax)
Email
LANS Helpdesk

Exchange Email Services

Exchange Tips

These tips will make your use of our Exchange email system more efficient and will maximize the benefits you see from the advanced features that are available.
Viewing Mailbox Usage in Outlook (Entourage)

  1. You must have Outlook opened in the Mail view.
  2. Right-Click the top folder labeled "Exchange - Lastname, Firstname"
  3. Select Properties
  4. Click the button labeled Folder Size
  5. From this window, you will be able to see the folder size located on your computer as well as the Exchange server. The Exchange server size will be slightly larger than your local computer's folder size. This is because of the calendars, notes, contacts and rules/filters that are stored on the Exchange server.

NOTE: This is similar in Entourage. You will select the Folder Properties option when you Right-Click The Exchange folder in the Mail view of Entourage. Then click the Storage tab and the values will be calculated.

Consequences of a Large Outlook/Exchange Mailbox Size

Not only do you have a fixed amount of space for your mailbox, but a large amount of items in your mailbox can reduce the efficiency of your Outlook-Exchange connection. Individual folders can experience access problems with large amounts of emails stored. Keeping old email messages stored on your local computer can help speed up your Outlook-Exchange connection.

How to clean your Outlook 2003 Exchange Mailbox

The best way to keep your Exchange mailbox size to a manageable level is to move non-critical email out of your Exchange Mailbox and into your Personal Folders. While email residing in your mailbox is stored on the server, email that are saved on your Personal Folders are kept on your computer. To create your Personal Folders, follow these simple steps:
  1. From your Outlook session, click on the menu Tools and select Email Accounts
  2. Under Email click on View or change existing email accounts and click Next
  3. Click on New Outlook Data File and choose Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst) and click OK
  4. Select the file name and destination and click the OK button
  5. From the Create Microsoft Personal Folders dialogue window, you can select the Name to appear in your outlook session
  6. Choose No Encryption
  7. If you choose to set a password, keep in mind that there is no way to reset this password.
  8. Click OK to finish

You are now ready to sort and file away emails in this newly created Personal Folder This folder is available for viewing under Folder List

Setting up Auto-Archive in Outlook to Reduce Mailbox Size

Background

In order to automatically reduce the size of your mailbox, you can active an Auto-Archive feature to handle this for you. This feature automatically downloads and saves emails onto your local hard drive into its own Archive folder. This reduces the amount

Instructions

  1. Within Outlook, go to Tools, Options, the Other tab.
  2. Click on AutoArchive button.
  3. From this menu, you can set the preferences for which you want to base your Auto-Archive on.
  4. Select the Box to Run AutoArchve? every __ days and select a number of days you feel comfortable with. 7 or 14 are recommended choices.
  5. Under Default folder settings for archiving select either 3 or 6 months.
  6. You can click on Apply to enable these settings to all folders now, unless you know very well what you're using and would like to configure each folder individually (recommended for those who would like to fine tune further)
  7. OK all those windows and you're done.
  8. You may then need to Activate Auto-Archive on individual folders.
    1. Right-Click the Folder you wish to Auto-Archive.
    2. Select Properties from the menu
    3. Select the AutoArchive? tab in the folder Properties window.
    4. Select to either "Archive items in this folder using the default settings" or "Archive this folder using these settings:" and then configure specific settings for that folder.
    5. Click Apply. Then Click OK to close the window.
    6. This folder will be auto-archived the next time the process runs.

Note: You can also fine-tune specific folders within your mailbox. This can be important if there are some folders that you want to maintain emails for a longer period.

  1. Right clicking on each folder under the "Mailbox - your name" tree, clicking Properties and the AutoArchive tab gives you more fine-tuning power.
  2. By default, the choice "Archive items in this folder using the default settings" would be chosen. It is the settings we just configured from the previous section.
  3. Choose "Archive this folder using these settings:" if you want this folder to differ from the rest. Both retention and location can be changed individually.
Removing Attachments from an email - and keeping the email

Sometimes you will be sent an email with very large attachments. While there may be plenty of space on your hard drive (or server) the attachment can cause your Exchange Mailbox to grow in size very quickly. Luckily, there is a solution.

  1. Right click the attachment that you want to save.
  2. Choose "Save As".
  3. If there are multiple attachments, go to File >> Save Attachments >> Save All Attachments to save them all to your hard drive.
  4. Once saved to your hard drive, right click the attachment again and select "Remove".
  5. The file is removed from your email, but is saved to your hard drive.

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