by Steve Galloway | Mar 27, 2015
Office 365 help series – Outlook Web App
About OWA
Microsoft Outlook Web App (OWA) is a browser-based email client. OWA lets you access Your Office 365 Exchange Server mailbox from almost any browser. OWA is also available as an app for Android and iOS.
Not all Office subscriptions include desktop versions of Microsoft’s desktop versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. All business licenses (except Hosted Exchange) include online versions of these apps, however. OWA is perhaps the most widely used Office app, and its popularity can be pointed to its simplicity and reliability.
OWA is more than an email client. It provides functionality for calendars, contacts, and tasks. It works with both desktop and online versions of Office. Although OWA is a webmail client, it can even cache email for work in offline mode. Find out more about OWA in this 15 minute Microsoft webinar.
To open a client to follow along with, point your favourite web browser to mail.office365.com.
by Steve Galloway | Mar 24, 2015
Powershell provides highly scalable management utilities for managing bulk data and code deployment in single and simultaneous multiple server sessions.
To access the principle Powershell portal, see http://powershell.office.com/
To access the library, see https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office365
For security reasons, scripts are often “remote signed” which means that unless the author is “trusted”, you can review scripts in notepad, but the scripts cannot be executed. This is a security feature to prevent unwanted code being accidentally executed on machines. One way to make a script usable is to use the <unblock-file -verbose> command in Powershell 3.0 and higher to unlock scripts. Be sure to check code before adopting.
For help with scripting problems, visit the Powershell Community at:
http://pwershell.org
by Steve Galloway | Jan 14, 2015
Exchange Kiosk is a bolt-on for Office 365 Enterprise licenses. Exchange Kiosk suits mobile users who do not use permanent workstation services but need mobile access to email, and optionally Sharepoint. The service does not include Office applications, and although Kiosk connects to tablets and mobile phones with ActiveSync, workstation and laptop access via Outlook uses POP3 settings.
The service is a useful way to reduce licensing costs for small businesses who have a PC at home, but need enough licenses to provide two or three independant licenses. In this case, Kiosk can be added to an Office 365 tenancy, whereas Hosted Exchange licenses require their own tenancies.
Exchange Kiosk is not available to Small Business Premium or domestic Office 365 licenses. Kiosk is designed for Active Directory, and is only available to Enterprise licenses (E1, E3, etc.). These screenshots display Kiosk POP3 settings for Outlook:
by Steve Galloway | Jan 7, 2015
Delegated administrators do not usually have access to clients’ Office 365 front ends like Sharepoint and OneDrive. This is in keeping with conventional network administrator server room working practices. However, OneDrive and Sharepoint are collaborative tools, and clients may want delegated administrators to have access to OneDrive folders and Sharepoint libraries or lists.
Provided that Sharepoint permissions are established to share content to external users, site owners can invite delegated administrators to share OneDrive Folders, and when Sharepoint libraries are similarly shared, delegated administrators can add a link to their Sharepoint “Sites” home page which attaches to a tile. This is an alternative to saving the Sharepoint site in brower favourites, and is a more secure solution.
To add a site/tile to your Sharepoint home page:
1. Make a note of the target site that has already been shared to you. The url may be available in the invitation sent by the ite owner, or you can copy the url when you visit the target site by following through an invitation from your browser navigation bar.
2. Login to your instance of OWA, and go to Sites.
3. Above the tiles on the left margin of your browser on your Sites home page, you should see a link called “MANAGE the promoted sites below”. Click the link open.
4. Where a new tile appears, click “add a new site”, and complete the fields with the target site url and any customization you need. Tile images default to 150×150, and the tile size can be changed using css.
by Steve Galloway | Dec 30, 2014
If you have full privileges to a shared mailbox that appears in an Exchange address book, you can use Outlook Web App or a desktop version of Outlook (for example, Outlook 2013), to open that mailbox.
Shared mailboxes allow a group of people to monitor and send email from a public email alias, like info@contoso.com or contact@contoso.com. When a person in the group replies to a message sent to the shared mailbox, the email appears to be from the shared mailbox, not from the individual user. You can also use the shared mailbox as a shared team calendar.
The admin for your organization has to create the shared mailbox and add you to the group of users before you can use it.
Display a shared mailbox using OWA
Use this method to monitor email from your primary mailbox and the shared mailbox at the same time. After you complete this task, each time you open Outlook Web App, the shared mailbox and its folders will display in the left navigation in Outlook Web App.
- Sign in to your account in Outlook Web App.
- Right-click your primary mailbox in the Folder pane, and then click Add shared folder.
- In the Add shared folder dialog box, type the name of the shared mailbox, select the name, and then click Add.
The shared mailbox displays in your Folder list in OWA. The shared mailbox will appear there each time you access OWA. You can expand or collapse the shared mailbox folders like you can your with your primary mailbox. You can remove the shared mailbox if you no longer want to view the shared mailbox in your folder list. To remove it, right click the shared mailbox, and then click Delete.
Display a shared mailbox in standalone mode
Use this method if you want to view and manage email for a shared mailbox in a its own browser window, rather than rendering the shared mailbox folder in OWA’s navigation tree.
- Sign in to your account in Outlook Web App.
- In the Navigation bar on the top of the Outlook Web App screen, click on your name. A drop-down list will appear.
- Click Open another mailbox.
- Type the email address of the other mailbox that you want to open. Another Outlook Web App session will open in a different window allowing access to the other mailbox.
Tip If you mistype the email address of the mailbox, a second window will open up stating that the webpage can’t be found. Try retyping the email address again.
Note also that shared mailboxes also attach to a calendar function. A shared calendar is established when administrators create a shared mailbox so that group members have mutual access and privileges to a shared calendar.
