If your administrator has created shared mailboxes within Exchange Online on Office 365, and has delegated appropriate permissions to you, these mailboxes should automatically be connected within the Outlook interface. See the highlighted area in the screenshot below. You can open the trees for these mailboxes and see the folders within.
For each subscribed user on Office 365, there is an Exchange Online mailbox provisioned. You can connect to this mailbox using Microsoft Outlook.
This post will explain how to configure Microsoft Outlook for your Exchange Online mailbox. It assumes you have already installed the Office applications on your Windows desktop or laptop. Some familiarity with Windows is required in order to be able to follow the steps.
You will need your Office 365 Portal username and password in order to complete this tutorial. This will have been provided to you by Demotic. For example:
Username: joe.bloggs@demotic.co.uk
Password: ZzfnHp;u=.G5WH~%p71d
Due to an issue with the Autodiscover functionality in Microsoft Outlook, it is recommended that you add the following registry patch. This prevents Outlook trying to find autodiscover information at the root of the domain (for example, at example.com) but instead only at autodiscover.example.com.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover]
“ExcludeHttpsRootDomain”=dword:00000001
A .REG file can be downloaded here.
Download the file and double-click it to merge it into the registry. You will receive a User Account Control prompt from program “Registry Editor” and publisher “Microsoft Windows”. Click “Yes” to allow the change. Registry Editor will then warn you that merging files into the registry could be harmful. If you wish to continue, click “Yes”.
When you launch Microsoft Outlook for the first time, you will be presented with a wizard to help you set up your account. Click “Next”.
If you have already set up Outlook previously, you may not enter the first run wizard. In this case, click “FILE” at the top left of the Outlook window, then click “Add Account”.
Select “Yes” and click “Next” to set up a new email account.
Enter your name, your email address (your Office 365 Portal username) and password (your Office 365 Portal password) and click “Next”.
Wait for a few moments while Outlook connects to the server and retrieves your account settings.
When prompted, re-enter your Office 365 Portal username and password. Tick “Remember my credentials” to stop Outlook prompting you for the username and password every time you connect.
Your mailbox will be set up. Click “Finish”.
It may take Outlook a few moments to set up a local copy of your mailbox. In the tree on the left-hand side you will see your email address and the various mailbox folders underneath. If you have permissions to any shared mailboxes within your Exchange Online organisation, Outlook will have automatically set these up. In the example below there is a mailbox named “Info” in the tree. This can be expanded to see the folders underneath.
Your mailbox is now set up.
For each subscribed user on Office 365, you can install the Office applications on up to 5 devices. This post will explain how to install the Office applications on your Windows desktop or laptop. Some familiarity with Windows is required in order to be able to follow the steps. You will need your Office 365 Portal username and password in order to complete this tutorial. For example:
Username: joe.bloggs@demotic.co.uk
Password: ZzfnHp;u=.G5WH~%p71d
Using your web browser, go to https://portal.office.com/. Sign in to Office 365 using your username and password. Once successfully signed in you will see the Office 365 home page. Note the section at the bottom “Install Office on more devices”. Click the “Install” link following “On a PC or Mac:”.
The next screen is where you manage your installs of the Office applications. In this example, I have the applications installed on 2 PCs.
Further down the page, there is a drop-down box for “Language” and “Version”. Ensure that “English (United States)” and “32-bit (Recommended)” is selected. Select the 32-bit version even if you are running a 64-bit operating system, as there are compatibility issues with the 64-bit version. When you are ready, click “Install”.
You will then be prompted to download a small setup file. This will be different depending on which browser you use. For Internet Explorer 11, the prompt appears at the bottom of the browser like this:
If possible, click “Run”. Otherwise “Save” the file, locate it in your download location and double-click it to run it. Once the file has downloaded and executed, you will get a “User Account Control” dialog from program “Microsoft Office ClicktoRun”, published by “Microsoft Corporation”. Verify these details and if correct, click “Yes” to allow changes to your computer (this means allow the installation of the Office applications). You will then see the following screen:
You may notice this caption in the bottom right of your screen:
After a few moments you’ll see this screen. Click “Next” to continue.
A short presentation will be played. You can click “Next” to skip it.
The next screen tells you about OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud-based file sync application. Click “Next”.
If you are not already signed in with a Microsoft account, the installation will ask you to sign in to Office. If you don’t do this, the integration with OneDrive will not work. It is recommended to sign in for this reason. Use the same Office 365 Portal username and password as detailed above.
Select a background for Office if you require one, and click “Next”.
You can see a quick introduction of the new features in this version of Office, or click “No, thanks”.
Finally, you’ll see this screen. Office will continue to install in the background.
The applications will be available from the Start Menu in the “Microsoft Office 2013” folder.
When you first start one of the applications such as Word or Excel, you may be prompted to select “Default File Types”. Unless you have a particular reason for using “OpenDocument formats” (compatible with OpenOffice/LibreOffice), you should choose “Office Open XML formats”, which ensure that files are saved using the default Microsoft Office file formats (DOCX, XLSX, etc).
Once the installation is fully completed, you’ll see this screen:
Office 365 is now successfully installed.
This post will explain how to configure email signature(s) within Microsoft Outlook. It assumes you have already installed the Office applications on your Windows desktop or laptop, and connected them to a mailbox. Some familiarity with Windows is required in order to be able to follow the steps.
It is recommended that you prepare the signature first in Microsoft Word with all necessary formatting.
Please note that formatting will look different depending on the recipient’s email client. Therefore you should stick to standard fonts and a very basic layout in order to ensure as much compatibility as possible. It is NOT recommended to include images in an email signature, as these are actually transmitted as attachments. Some email clients will display them as attachments. Outlook does display images correctly however every email from you will have the attachment “paperclip” against it in Outlook which makes sorting email more difficult for the recipient. Additionally, most email gateways impose a size limit on messages, so why waste valuable bytes with an image!
From within Microsoft Outlook, click the “FILE” menu in the top-left corner, and select “Options” from the menu on the left.
Click “Mail” to select the mail options, and then click “Signatures…”.
Choose the email account for which you wish to create the signature.
Click “New” and type a name for the new signature.
Select to add the signature to “New messages” and “Replies/forwards”, then paste your prepared signature into the “Edit signature” text box.
Click “OK” on the “Signatures and Stationery” dialog, and “OK” on the “Outlook Options” dialog. Create a new mail item and verify that the signature has been added as expected.
