2. Recalling a Sent Message Before It Is Read
There are many reasons why you might want to recall a message.
For example, perhaps the message contains a mistake or is now
obsolete. You can recall a message that you have sent so long as the
recipient has not read it and the message is still stored on a
computer running Exchange Server. Messages sent to recipients using
other mail servers cannot be recalled.
To recall a sent message, double-click the message in the Sent
Items folder to open it. Click Actions in the Move group on the
ribbon, and then click Recall This Message to open the dialog box
shown in Figure 4.
Select whether you want to simply delete all unread copies of the
message or delete them and replace them with another message. You can
also receive a response reporting the success or failure of each
recall attempt.
Caution
For a number of reasons, unread messages often cannot be
recalled. You should always take the time to verify the content of a
message before sending it.
3. Copying Global Addresses to Your Contacts Folder
On occasion, you might want to copy addresses from the GAL to
your personal Contacts folder. For example, maybe you use a Personal
Digital Assistant (PDA) or smartphone that synchronizes your Contacts
folder to your mobile device, and that device does not support
Exchange Server directly. The device would not synchronize the GAL,
but you might want a few entries available on your mobile device. You
can copy those items to the Contacts folder, and from there, they can
be synchronized to your mobile device.
You can copy addresses from the GAL to your Contacts folder
easily by following these steps:
-
Click Address Book on the Home tab on the ribbon. -
Click the address that you want to add to your Contacts
folder. You can also select multiple addresses using the Shift and
Ctrl keys. -
Choose File, Add To Contacts. The entry from the GAL opens
in a contact form. -
Make any necessary changes. -
Click Save & Close. The contact information is now
stored in your Contacts folder.
The Outlook 2010 voting feature is useful when you want to
solicit input from a group of message recipients. Perhaps you are
looking for approval on a proposal, you are holding an informal
election in your organization, or you just want to get the group's
input on an issue.
You can use Outlook's voting feature with non–Exchange Server
accounts as well as with Exchange Server accounts.
Tip
The Voting feature supported by Outlook is certainly
useful, but it isn't a substitute for a formal approval process. If
you have Microsoft SharePoint deployed in your organization,
consider using workflows in SharePoint to automate approval processes for documents and other
items.
With the voting feature, you solicit and tally votes from the
group. Outlook 2010 provides predefined voting responses, but you can
also create your own. In this section, you'll learn how to include
voting buttons in messages, tally returned votes, and
configure voting options.
Here's how voting works in general: You create a message
containing the question or document on which the group will be voting.
Next, you add voting buttons to the message. Next, you send the
message. Recipients cast their vote by clicking the appropriate
button. Outlook 2010 prompts them to confirm the vote and then sends
the reply back to you.
Sending a Message for a Vote
Sending a message for a vote is simple. In fact, so long as
you want to use one of the Outlook 2010 default sets of voting
options, the process takes only a few clicks.
Using the Default Voting Responses
Use the following steps to create a message and add voting
buttons to it:
-
Start Outlook 2010, and then open a new message or open
an existing message from your Drafts folder. -
On the Options tab, in the More Options group, click
Message Options to open the Properties dialog box. -
In the Voting And Tracking Options area, select the Use
Voting Buttons check box. In the drop-down list, select the
group of voting buttons that you want to include, as shown in
Figure 5.
-
Click Close. -
Edit your message. Include any message attachments and
configure message options, such as importance level, if
needed. -
Click Send to send the message.
Outlook 2010 doesn't limit you to the default sets of
voting options (such as Accept/Reject). You can
create your own set that includes the responses that you need for
any situation. For example, suppose that you're planning a company
appreciation banquet and need to finalize the menu. You want to
give everyone a choice of entree and collect those responses for
the caterer. What better way to do that than electronically,
through Outlook 2010?
Here's how:
-
Compose your message. -
On the Options tab, in the More Options group, click
Message Options to open the Properties dialog box. -
Select the Use Voting Buttons check box. -
Click the text field in the Use Voting Buttons drop-down
list. Delete the existing text. Type your custom vote options
separated by semicolons, as shown in Figure 6.
-
Click Close. -
Make any final adjustments to the message as
needed. -
Click Send.
When you receive a message that includes voting buttons, Outlook 2010 displays a message in the
InfoBar to indicate that you can vote. Click the InfoBar and then
choose an item, as shown in Figure 7.
Voting is easy: Just select an option to cast your
vote. Outlook 2010 displays a simple dialog box asking whether you
want to send the vote now or edit your response. To send the message
without modification, select Send The Response Now. To cast your
vote and open the message as a reply so that you can include text in
your response, select Edit The Response Before Sending.
Note
Outlook 2010 changes the prompt in the InfoBar to indicate
that you responded to the voting request, removing your ability to
click the InfoBar link and vote again.
When you cast a vote, Outlook 2010 changes the subject of the
message to include your vote. For example, if the original subject
is Choose An Entree and you click the Broiled Chicken option, the
subject of the reply returned to the sender is Broiled Chicken:
Choose An Entree.
Viewing and Sorting Votes
Votes come back to you in the form of messages. You
can view the vote summary in a few ways. If the Reading pane is
displayed, you can click the message header, click the summary
message in the InfoBar, and then choose View Voting Responses, as shown in Figure 8.
Alternatively, you can open the Sent Items folder, open the original
message, and then click the Tracking button in the Show group on the ribbon.
Either method displays the Tracking results, as shown in Figure 9.
The Tracking page summarizes the votes, with individual responses displayed one per
line. The responses are also totaled in the InfoBar. If you want a
printout of the vote responses, print the messages with the Tracking
page visible.
Unfortunately, Outlook 2010 doesn't give you a way to sort the
vote tally. You can, however, copy the data to Microsoft Excel 2010
to sort it.
To copy voting data to Excel 2010, follow these steps:
-
Select the rows that you want to copy. (Select a row,
and then hold down the Shift key to select
contiguous responses or hold down the Ctrl key to select
noncontiguous ones.) -
Press Ctrl+C to copy the data to the Clipboard. -
Start Excel. -
Select a cell in the worksheet and then press Ctrl+V to
paste the data. -
Choose Data, Sort to open the Sort dialog box, and then
click OK to accept the default settings and sort the
spreadsheet.
Setting Options for Voting
You can set options in Outlook 2010 to configure how it
handles voting. To configure these settings, follow these
steps:
-
Start Outlook 2010 (if necessary), and then click File,
Options. -
Click Mail in the left pane. -
Scroll down to the Tracking group, shown in Figure 10.
The Tracking group includes the following options that
relate to voting:
-
Automatically Process Meeting
Requests And Responses To Meeting Requests And
Polls Outlook 2010 processes and tallies responses
when they arrive. If you clear this check box, you must open
each response to have Outlook 2010 tally it. -
Update Tracking Information, And
Then Delete Responses That Don't Contain Comments
Outlook 2010 deletes voting responses that have no
additional comments added to them.
-
Select the options that you want to use, and then click OK
to close the Outlook Options dialog box.
Troubleshooting
Votes aren't being tallied automatically
The Outlook 2010 capability to tally votes automatically,
without the user having to open each message, might not be
apparent at first. Even on a completely idle system, Outlook 2010
can take several minutes to process the messages. If you need to
process the responses more quickly, select all the responses,
right-click the selection, and then choose Open Selected Items to
open them all at once. Keep in mind, however, that you'll end up
with an open message form for each response, which you'll then
have to close.
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