OL2000: Changing from Local Delivery to Server and Offline

When you use Microsoft Outlook with the Microsoft Exchange Server Information Service, you have the ability to work with folders "offline." That is, you can access the contents of a folder without a network connection. This article discusses how you can change from using Personal Folders to Offline Folders, and how to create, use, and synchronize offline folders.

Personal Folders are folders that you create to store mail messages on a hard disk other than your server mailbox. You add Personal Folders as a service to the user profile and give it a file name. Personal Folders have a .PST extension.

To uses offline folders you must first change you mail delivery from your personal folders to your server mailbox.

Changing Your Delivery Location

To change your delivery location, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Services and on the Delivery tab under "Deliver new mail to the following location," click to select your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox and then click OK.
2. On the File menu, click "Exit and Log Off" and then restart Outlook.

Copying Mail Items to the Mailbox

To copy messages from your Personal Folders Inbox to your Mailbox on the server, follow these steps:

1. In the Folder List, click to select the Inbox in your Personal Folders.
2. Click to select the messages you want to copy. If you want to copy all messages to the Inbox, click to select one message and on the Edit menu, click Select All.
3. On the Edit menu, click Copy to Folder.
4. Click to select the folder you want the messages copied into and then click OK.

To copy the items from your Calendar, Contact, Task, Notes or Journal folders to another folder, you must first display all of the items in a tabular view. To display the items in the folder in a tabular view you can use one of two methods:

Temporarily clear the filter from an existing tabular view. Define a new permanent, tabular view of all the items.

Clearing the Filter from an Existing View

To clear the filter from an existing tabular view of a folder, follow these steps:

1. On the View menu, point to Current View, and click to select one of the tabular views such as, By Category.
2. On the View menu, point to Current View, and click Customize Current View.
3. Click Filter, click Clear All, and then click OK and OK.

Defining a New Tabular View

To define a new, tabular view, follow these steps:

1. On the View menu, point to Current View, and click Define Views.
2. Click to select one of the Table views, and then click Copy.
3. Type a name for the new view, such as All Items and click OK.
4. In View Summary, click Filter, click Clear All, and click OK.
5. Click OK and then click Apply View.

Copying Other Items to the Mailbox

To copy the Calendar, Contact, Task, Notes or Journal items from your Personal Folders to your Mailbox on the server, follow these steps:

1. In the Personal Folders List, click to select the folder of the items you want to copy to the server.
2. Click to select the items you want to copy. If you want to copy all the items to the server, click to select one item and on the Edit menu, click Select All.
3. On the Edit menu, click Copy to Folder.
4. Click to select the folder you want the items copied into and then click OK.
   
   NOTE: To copy the items to a folder not listed, click New in the Copy Items dialog box, type a name for the new folder, click to select the type of items being copied click to select a location for the new folder, and then click OK and OK.

Copying Custom Folder Properties to New Folders

You can copy these personal folder design properties.

• Permissions, copies access permissions to the folder.
• Rules, copies any rules defined for special handling of messages.
• Description, copies any special description applied to the folder.
• Forms & Views, copies any custom forms and views for the folder.

To copy the custom folder properties, follow these steps:

1. Click to select the folder TO which you wish to copy custom properties.
2. On the File menu, point to Folder, and then click Copy Folder Design.
3. In the Copy Design From list, click the folder FROM which you wish to copy the custom properties.
4. Click to select the attributes you wish to copy and then click OK.
5. You will see the following message:
   If any of the folder design properties conflict, the existing properties will be replaced with the properties of the folder you are copying from. Do you want to continue?
   Click Yes to copy/replace the folder design properties.

Offline Folders

Offline folders are stored in an offline folder file (.OST); this file is located on your computer and is available even when the network is down. The default location for the OST is your current Windows folder. Like Personal Folders (.PST), the OST can be compacted to save space on your computer.

The difference between an Offline Folder file and a set of Personal Folders is the Offline Folder file starts as a mirror image of your folders on the Microsoft Exchange Server and works in conjunction with it during synchronization. A set of Personal Folders, on the other hand, is simply a storage location on your hard disk or a server other than the Microsoft Exchange Server.

When working offline, you can add, delete, and modify the contents of an offline folder exactly as you would with a folder on a server. For example, you can change and move items in your offline Inbox, send messages that are placed in your offline Outbox, and read your offline public folders. In the meantime, information on the server is still processing. You will continue to receive new messages in your Mailbox while other users can add, delete, and change items in public folders. However, you will not be aware of these changes on the server until you connect to the network.

When you need to update the contents of the Offline folder and its corresponding server folder so that they are identical, you synchronize the folders and then continue to work offline. The Synchronize command on the Tools menu connects to the server through Dial-Up Networking, copies the changes made in each folder to the other folder, and then disconnects. An item that you delete from either the offline folder or the corresponding server folder will be deleted from both after synchronization.

Creating an Offline Folder File

NOTE: You must be connected to the Microsoft Exchange Server for the initial creation and synchronization of the Offline Folder file.

To create an offline folder file, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Services.
2. Click to select Microsoft Exchange Server, and then click Properties.
3. On the Advanced tab, click "Offline Folder File Settings."
4. If you do not wish to use the default Offline Folder file, type a path and name for the file you wish to use.
5. If the message, "<path><filename>.ost could not be found. Would you like to create it?" appears, click OK.
6. On the Advanced tab, click the Enable offline use check box.
7. On the General tab, click to select "Manually control connection state" and click the "Choose the connection type when starting" check box.
8. Click OK and OK.

All of the standard Outlook folders (Inbox, Outbox, Deleted Items, Sent Items, Calendar, Contacts, Journal, Notes, and Tasks) on the Microsoft Exchange Server are now ready for offline use. You cannot selectively choose which will be available for offline use and which will not be available. The exceptions to this are Public Folders and any user-defined folders. To set Public Folders for offline use, see the "Working with Public Folders Offline" section.

To set any user-defined folders for offline use, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the user-defined folder and click Properties.
2. On the Synchronization tab click to select "When offline or online" from the "This folder is available" section.
3. Click OK.

NOTE: You cannot use an OST file that has previously been used with a different mailbox. Doing so produces the following error message:

Working with Public Folders Offline

To work with public folders offline, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the public folder that you want to work with, and click Copy "<FolderName>" on the shortcut menu.
2. In the Copy Folder dialog box, Click to select your Favorites Folder, and click OK.
3. From your Favorites Folder, right-click the newly copied folder, and click Properties on the shortcut menu.
4. Click the Synchronization Tab and select the "When Offline or online" option under "This folder is available."
5. Click OK.

Your Public Folders are now ready for offline use. Each folder that you copy to your Favorites Folder can now be selectively set for offline use.

Synchronizing a Specific Folder

To synchronize a specific folder, click to select the folder you want to synchronize, Point to Synchronize on the Tools menu, and then click This Folder.

Synchronizing All Folders

To synchronize all your offline folders, on the Tools Menu, point to Synchronize and then click All Folders.

NOTE: When you synchronize, a log file appears as a message in your Deleted Items folder. This log file contains information such as the time you synchronized, the names of the folders synchronized, and the number of items added.

Automatically Synchronizing All Folders When You Quit Outlook

To automatically synchronize all folders when you quit Outlook, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, Click Options.
2. On the Mail Services Tab click to select the Enable offline access check box and then click to select any of the desired online/offline processing check boxes. NOTE: More online/offline options are available by clicking Offline Folder Settings.
3. Click OK.

All folders that are set to be available while offline will now be automatically synchronized according to the options set above. It is important to synchronize and download the Address book before you log off your Microsoft Exchange Server when going on the road. This is particularly important when going on the road for the first time. This will ensure that all your offline folders will be updated before you leave.

To download your address book, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Synchronize and select Download Address Book.
2. Click to select the desired download options and then click OK.