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
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:
|
Use uOttawa’s E-mail Account Management system to:
|
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 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.
