Assigning Delegates and Working as an Assistant 836
Granting Access to Folders 842
Sharing Folders with Invitations 845
MICROSOFT Outlook 2010, when used with Microsoft Exchange Server, provides features that allow you to delegate certain responsibilities to an assistant. For example, you might want your assistant to manage your schedule, setting up appointments, meetings, and other events for you; or perhaps you want your assistant to send email messages on your behalf.
This chapter explains how to delegate access to your schedule, email messages, and other Outlook 2010 data, granting an assistant the ability to perform tasks in Outlook 2010 on your behalf. This chapter also explains how to access folders for which you’ve been granted delegate access.
Why delegate? You could simply give assistants your logon credentials and allow them to access your Exchange Server mailbox through a separate profile on their systems. The disadvantage to that approach, though, is that your assistants then have access to all your Outlook 2010 data. Plus, it surely violates at least one security policy at your company and gives your assistants access to everything else secured by your account, such as Microsoft SharePoint sites, line-of-business applications, and much more … clearly a horrible idea. By using the Outlook 2010 delegation features, however, you can restrict an assistant’s access to your data selectively.
You have two ways of delegating access in Outlook 2010. First, you can specify individuals as delegates for your account, which gives them send-on-behalf-of privileges. This means that the delegated individuals can perform such tasks as sending email messages and meeting requests for you. When an assistant sends a meeting request on your behalf, the request appears to the recipients to have come from you. You can also specify that delegates should receive copies of meeting-related messages that are sent to you, such as meeting invitations. This is required if you want an assistant to be able to handle your calendar.
The second way that you can delegate access is to configure permissions for individual folders, granting various levels of access within the folders as needed. This does not give other users send-on-behalf-of privileges but does give them access to the folders and their contents. The tasks that they can perform in the folders are subject to the permission levels that you grant them.
Note
When a message is sent on your behalf, the recipient sees these words in the From box: <delegate> on behalf of <owner>, where <delegate> and <owner> are replaced by the appropriate names. This designation appears in the header of the message form when the recipient opens the message but doesn’t appear in the header in the Inbox. The Inbox shows the message as coming from the owner, not the delegate.
You can assign multiple delegates, so that more than one individual can access your data with send-on-behalf-of privileges. You might have an assistant who manages your schedule and therefore has delegate access to your calendar and another delegate—your supervisor—who manages other aspects of your workday and therefore has access to your Tasks folder. In most cases, however, you’ll probably want to assign only one delegate.
You can add, remove, and configure delegates for all your Outlook 2010 folders through the same interface.
Follow these steps to delegate access to one or more of your Outlook 2010 folders:
Click File, Account Settings.
Choose Delegate Access to open the Delegates dialog box, as shown in Figure 34-1.
Click Add to open the Add Users dialog box.
Select one or more users, and then click Add.
Click OK. Outlook 2010 displays the Delegate Permissions dialog box, shown in Figure 34-2.
For each folder, select the level of access that you want to give the delegate based on the following list:
None The delegate has no access to the selected folder.
Reviewer The delegate can read existing items in the folder but can’t add, delete, or modify items. Essentially, this level gives the delegate read-only permission for the folder.
Author The delegate can read existing items and create new ones but can’t modify or delete existing items.
Editor The delegate can read existing items, create new ones, and modify existing ones, including deleting them.
Set the other options in the dialog box using the following list as a guide:
Automatically Send A Message To Delegate Summarizing These Permissions Sends an email message to the delegate informing him or her of the access permissions that you’ve assigned in your Outlook 2010 folders, as shown in Figure 34-3.
Delegate Can See My Private Items Allows the delegate to view items that you’ve marked as private. Clear this option to hide your private items.
Add and configure other delegates as you want, and then click OK.
If you need to modify the permissions for a delegate, open the Delegates dialog box, select the delegate in the list, and then click Permissions to open the Delegate Permissions dialog box. Change the settings as needed, just as you do when you add a delegate. If you need to remove a delegate, select the delegate on the Delegates tab, and then click Remove.
TROUBLESHOOTING
If the Permissions button appears dimmed or you are unable to assign delegate permissions for some other reason, the problem could be that you have designated a local .pst file as the default delivery location for your profile. Make sure that you configure your profile to deliver mail to your Exchange Server mailbox instead. See the section Configuring Online and Offline Data Storage, on page 57, for details.
If your assistant has full responsibility for managing your calendar, you might want all meeting request messages to go to the assistant rather than to you. That way, meeting request messages won’t clog your Inbox.
Taking yourself out of the request loop is easy. Here’s how:
If you are acting as a delegate for another person, you can open the folders to which you’ve been given delegate access and use them as if they were your own folders, subject to the permissions applied by the owner. For example, suppose that you’ve been given delegate access to your manager’s schedule. You can open his or her Calendar folder and create appointments, generate meeting requests, and perform the same tasks that you can perform in your own Calendar folder. However, you might find a few restrictions. For example, you won’t be able to view the contents of personal items unless your manager has configured permissions to give you that ability.
Follow these steps to open another person’s folder:
Start Outlook 2010 with your own profile.
Choose File, Open, and Other User’s Folder to display the Open Other User’s Folder dialog box, as shown in Figure 34-4.
Type the person’s name in the dialog box, or click Name to browse the address list, and then select a name.
In the Folder Type drop-down list, select the folder that you want to open, and then click OK. Outlook 2010 generates an error message if you don’t have the necessary permissions for the folder; otherwise, the folder opens in a new window.
Depending on the permissions set for the other person’s folder, you might be able to open the folder but not see anything in it. If someone grants you Folder Visible permission, you can open the folder but not necessarily view its contents. For example, if you are granted Folder Visible permission for a Calendar folder, you can view the other person’s calendar. If you are granted Folder Visible permission for the Inbox folder, you can open the folder, but you can’t see any headers. Obviously, this latter scenario isn’t useful, so you might need to fine-tune the permissions to get the effect you need.
When you’ve finished working with another person’s folder, close it as you would any other window.
If you’ve been given delegate privileges for another person’s calendar, you can schedule meetings and other appointments on behalf of that person.
To do so, follow these steps:
Start Outlook 2010 with your own profile.
Click File, Open, and then select Other User’s Folder. Type the user name into the text box, or click Name and select the user name from the Global Address List (GAL). From the Folder Type drop-down list, select Calendar, and then click OK.
In the other person’s Calendar folder, create the meeting request, appointment, or other item as you normally would for your own calendar.
As mentioned earlier, a meeting request recipient sees the request as coming from the calendar’s owner, not the delegate. When the recipient opens the message, however, the header indicates that the message was sent by the delegate on behalf of the owner. Responses to the meeting request come back to the delegate and a copy goes to the owner unless the owner has removed himself or herself from the meeting request loop.
Note
For details about how to have meeting request messages go to the delegate rather than to the owner, see the section Taking Yourself Out of the Meeting Request Loop, on page 839.
If you’ve been given Author or Editor permission for another person’s Inbox, you can send messages on behalf of that person. For example, as someone’s assistant, you might need to send notices, requests for comments, report reminders, or similar messages.
To send a message on behalf of another person, follow these steps:
Start Outlook 2010 with your own profile.
Start a new message.
Click From and choose Other Email Address to open the Send From Other Email Address dialog box.
In the From field, type the name of the person on whose behalf you’re sending the message, or click From to select an address from the GAL. Then click OK.
Complete the message as you would any other, and then send it.
You can configure your folders to provide varying levels of access to other users according to the types of tasks that those users need to perform within the folders. For example, you might grant access to your Contacts folder to allow others to see and use your contacts list.
Granting permissions for folders is different from granting delegate access. Users with delegate access to your folders can send messages on your behalf, as explained in earlier sections of this chapter. Users with access permissions for your folders do not have that ability. Use access permissions for your folders when you want to grant others certain levels of access to your folders but not the ability to send messages on your behalf.
Several levels of permissions control what a user can and cannot do in your folders. These permissions include the following:
Create Items Users can post items to the folder.
Create Subfolders Users can create additional folders inside the folder.
Edit Own Users can edit those items that they have created and own.
Edit All Users can edit all items, including those that they do not own.
Folder Owner The owner has all permissions for the folder.
Folder Contact The folder contact receives automated messages from the folder such as replication conflict messages, requests from users for additional permissions, and other changes to the folder status.
Folder Visible Users can see the folder and its items.
Delete Items Depending on the setting that you choose, users can delete all items, only those items they own, or no items.
Free/Busy Time In the calendar, users can see your free/busy time.
Free/Busy Time, Subject, Location In the calendar, users can see your free/busy time, as well as the subject and location of calendar items.
Full Details In the calendar, users can see all details of items.
Outlook 2010 groups these permissions into several predefined levels, as follows:
Owner The owner has all permissions and can edit and delete all items, including those that he or she doesn’t own.
Publishing Editor The publishing editor has all permissions and can edit and delete all items but does not own the folder.
Editor Users are granted all permissions except the ability to create subfolders or act as the folder’s owner. Editors can edit and delete all items.
Publishing Author Users are granted all permissions except the ability to edit or delete items belonging to others and the ability to act as the folder’s owner.
Author This level is the same as the Publishing Author level, except that authors can’t create subfolders.
Nonediting Author Users can create and read items and delete items they own, but they can’t delete others’ items or create subfolders.
Reviewer Users can view items but can’t modify or delete items or create subfolders.
Contributor Users can create items but can’t view or modify existing items.
Free/Busy Time Users can see your free/busy time.
Free/Busy Time, Subject, Location Users can see your free/busy time, as well as the subject and location for items on your calendar.
None The folder is visible, but users can’t read, create, or modify any items in the folder.
Follow these steps to grant permissions for a specific folder:
Start Outlook 2010, open the Folder List, right-click the folder, and then choose Share, Folder Permissions to display the Permissions tab of the folder, shown in Figure 34-5.
Select Default, and then set the permissions that you want users to have if they are not explicitly assigned permissions (that is, if their names don’t appear in the Name list).
Click Add to add a user with explicit permissions. Select the name in the Add Users list, click Add, and then click OK.
From the Name list, select the user that you just added, and then set specific permissions for the user.
Click OK to close the folder’s Contacts Properties dialog box.
As you can see in Figure 34-5, you can remove the explicit permissions you have given a user by simply removing the user. Just select the user, and then click Remove.
To view (but not modify) a user’s address book properties, as shown in Figure 34-6, select the user, and then click Properties.
After you’ve been granted the necessary permissions for another user’s folder, you can open the folder and perform actions according to your permissions. For example, if you have only read permission, you can read items but not add new ones. If you’ve been granted create permission, you can create items.
To open another user’s folder, choose File, Open, and Other User’s Folder. Type the user’s name into the text box, or click Name, select the user in the GAL, and then click OK. Select the folder that you want to open in the Folder Type drop-down list, and then click OK.
Note
For more information about opening and using another person’s folder, see the section Opening Folders Delegated to You, on page 839.
In addition to the method described in the previous section, you can use email invitations to suggest or request folder sharing. However, this option applies only to non-mail folders, including the Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, and Journal folders. You cannot share email folders using this method.
To share these types of folders using an email invitation, or to request access to someone else’s folder, follow these steps:
Click the Folder List icon in the Navigation pane.
Right-click the folder that you want to share or request access to in the other person’s mailbox, and choose Share, <folder>, where <folder> is the name of the folder. For example, choose Share, Calendar to share the Calendar folder.
Outlook opens a request form, as shown in Figure 34-7.
Enter an email address or click To and select one. This is the email address of the person with whom you are sharing your folder, or for whose folder you want to request access.
Choose options based on the following list:
Request Permission To View Recipient’s Calendar Choose this item if you are requesting access to the other person’s folder.
Allow Recipient To View Your Calendar Choose this option if you want to share your own calendar.
Details This option applies only to Calendar folders. From the Details drop-down list, choose the level of access you want to grant to the other person to your Calendar folder. You can allow them to see only your free/busy (availability) information, availability and item subjects, or all details.
When you click Send, if you have specified that you are sharing your own folder, Outlook asks you to verify that you want to share it and then sends the message to the specified recipient. When the request arrives, the person receiving the request can click either Allow or Deny in the Respond group on the ribbon (or in the message header if the Reading pane is open) to allow or deny the request. Figure 34-8 shows an example.
