University of Ottawa E-mail Management System
- Access your uOttawa e-mail account from any Internet-connected browser
- E-mail Time Management
- Tips & Best Practices
- Netiquette
- Signatures
- Account Space Management
- Peak Periods - September & January
Access your uOttawa e-mail account from any Internet-connected browser
MS Exchange/Outlook Users (Employees only)MS Exchange is the University’s centrally managed email and calendaring server. |
Mailbox Users (Students, Alumni, Employees)Mailbox is the centrally managed email server intended for use by students and alumni. |
Outlook Web Access (OWA) for Employees |
uOttawa webmail |
Use OWA for Employees to:
And Outlook 2003 to:
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Use uOttawa’s E-mail Account Management system to:
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E-mail Time Management
- Schedule set times each day to check your e-mail. e.g., 9:00 a.m., noon, 3:00 p.m.
- Choose a time and place where you’ll have minimal interruptions.
- Set reasonable time limits for each session (1/2 hour min.)
- Filter spam by configuring the university’s anti-spam filter tool. (Mailbox users only. MS Exchange does this automatically.)
- Sort messages by:
- Separating personal e-mail from work e-mail through the use of filters. Only focus on work-related messages during your sessions.
- Scanning through the subject headings and sender tags to quickly determine what can be deleted immediately.
- Sorting the email by date starting with the most recent email (issues may already have been addressed; discussions may all be contained in one message, etc.) Also look for those with indicators of importance such as those with priority flags.
- Process remaining messages by performing one of the following actions:
- Delete it
- Archive it
- Defer it for later response
- Generate an action from it
- Respond to it immediately (only if it will take less than 2 minutes or is so earth-shattering that it just can’t wait)
Tips & Best Practices
- Don't put confidential, personal or emotional content when replying to an email.
- Use Forward instead of Reply. Many a person has rued replying personal comments to a listserv instead of to a person. When replying to an e-mail, always verify the To: field to ensure that you are replying to the intended recipient and not a list.
- Keep your address book up to date to easily track coordinates of clients and colleagues.
- Ensure your emails are grammatically correct by using the spell checker in your e-mail software and by copying and pasting your email into Word to perform a grammar check. Once done, paste the results back into your email.
- For information you send out repeatedly, consider making a template file that you can copy and paste into your emails, and then make small, personalized changes as required. This will reduce the likelihood of having grammatical or spelling errors.
- If you automatically add someone to a listserv (an email address that reaches many people), make sure you give instructions on how they can be removed.
Netiquette
- Include a clear and specific subject line.
- Edit any quoted text down to the minimum required.
- Read through your message 3 times before sending it.
- Think about how the recipient(s) might react to your message.
- Check spelling and grammar. Use your software’s spellchecker!
- Don’t curse, flame, spam or USE ALL CAPS.
- Don’t forward chain letters.
- Don’t use email for any illegal or unethical purpose.
- Don’t rely on the privacy of email, especially from work, but respect the privacy of others.
- When in doubt, save the message overnight and reread it in the light of dawn before pressing the "Send" button.
Signatures
End all your e-mails with a business card.
We suggest creating two separate signature files (one to be used for communications within the university and the other for external communications) in the following format:
Internal Format |
External Format |
Full name |
Full name |
Job title |
Job title |
Dept/Faculty |
Institution's name |
Dept/Faculty URL |
Institution’s URL and/or Dept/Faculty URL |
Email address |
Email address |
Telephone/cellular number (including area code) |
Telephone number (including area code) |
Fax number (including area code) |
Fax number (including area code) |
Building name |
Postal address |
Account Space Management
Keep track of the space being used in your MS Exchange account from within the Outlook 2003 client:
- Right-click on the “Mailbox – username” folder in the folder navigation pane
- Choose Properties for “Mailbox - username”
- Click the Folder Size button
- Look at Total Size (including subfolders). This number should not exceed 250,000 KB.
Conserve space by:
- Deleting any items that you are no longer using or move them to your Personal folder file (.pst).
- Cleaning up your Sent Items folder
- Searching for large email that can be moved or deleted
- Click on Search Folders in the folder navigation pane
- Choose New Search Folder
- Choose Large mail under the “Organizing Mail” header
- Choose your Mailbox account next to “Search mail in:”
- Click Ok
- Emptying the Deleted Items and Junk E-mail folders
Items in all of your mailbox folders including the Deleted Items and Sent Items folders count against your size limit.
Peak Periods - September & January
The university’s e-mail servers are designed to function optimally under normal conditions. However, twice a year, when classes start in the fall and again in the winter, conditions are abnormal and system performance may be affected.
During the first weeks of September and of January, you may experience longer than normal delivery times for e-mail and slow response times when logging on to read e-mail. These conditions are temporary.
To improve system performance during peak periods:
- Don’t resend an e-mail if the intended recipient does not receive it immediately
- Don’t send mail to large lists of recipients during the day. If you must send mail to a large list of people, do so after 5:00 p.m.
