Description of the Remote Mail feature, the Offline Folders feature, and the Working Offline feature in Outlook 2002

This article compares the remote features in Microsoft Outlook 2002. These features are as follows:

• Work Offline
• Offline Folders
• Remote Mail

To identify which feature best suits your needs, it is important to understand the differences between these features.

Mobile computing has become increasingly important. There are many common situations where you will want to use Microsoft Outlook when you do not have access to a network; for example, when you travel with a laptop, work at home, or work at a remote site.

Many users combine the working Offline and Remote Mail to reduce network use or to stay within Internet provider connection-time limits. While you run Outlook offline, you can compose, read and respond to messages. When you are finished making changes, you use a Send/Receive Group to connect to your e-mail account and send the message that you wrote while you were offline.

Working offline is available in most situations. Offline folders (.ost) files are available only when you are using Microsoft Exchange Server account. When you use .ost folders, you can update the default Exchange Server folders (Contacts, Calendar, etc.), folders that you have added to your Exchange mailbox, or to any Public Folders that you have selected to synchronize. The next time that you are connected to the network, these items are synchronized with the Exchange Server.

Remote Mail allows you to screen out the messages that you do not want to download by first downloading the message headers, and then only downloading the complete messages that you select. Remote Mail works with both Exchange Server and Internet e-mail accounts, but only for the Inbox folder. You also have the option of sending outgoing messages. You can configure Remote Mail with a Send/Receive Group or to manually process by using the Work With Headers menu actions.

Basics of how to work offline

To properly understand .ost folders and how to work with headers, you must first understand the basics of working offline. When you configure most services, Outlook gives you the option to work offline; when you work offline, you cannot send or receive information. Working offline does not require a network connection or modem.

If you choose to work offline and do not do a send/receive action, changes are maintained on your hard disk in your personal folders (.pst) file, or in your (.ost) file if you are an Exchange Server user. This means that you do not send or receive information from another location or computer.

In most cases, you work offline and use Remote Mail with a modem. Remote Mail enables you to connect remotely to your e-mail account. You can use it with both Internet e-mail and Microsoft Exchange accounts.

How to configure a Microsoft Exchange Server account to work offline

You must configure your Exchange Server account to use an offline folders (.ost) file for offline use. For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: After you configure the .ost file, set your Exchange Server account to work offline To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook if it is not currently running.
2. On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
3. Click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next
4. Double-click the Exchange Server account to access its properties.
5. Click the More Settings button.
6. On the General tab, click the Manually Control Connection State option.
7. Under When Starting, click the Work Offline and use dial-up Networking option. Click to select the Choose connection type when starting check box so that you work either offline or online.
8. Click the Remote Mail tab, and then set the options that you want for connection management and for remote transfer.
9. Click OK.
10. Click Next, and then click Finish.
11. Restart Outlook, and then select to work offline.

How to configure an Internet e-mail account to work offline

Use the following steps to configure Outlook to work offline and use Remote Mail with Internet E-mail accounts:

1. Start Outlook if it is not currently running.
2. On the File menu, click Work Offline.

Outlook continues in the Work Offline mode until you disable the option in the File menu.

General Remote Mail usage procedures

The purpose of Remote Mail is to transfer messages only. It does not transfer calendar appointments, contacts, or any other Outlook information. If you want to transfer this type of information, you must use offline folders and a Microsoft Exchange Server account.

How to configure Outlook to use Remote Mail automatically

Use the following steps to configure an Exchange Server account to use Remote Mail automatically:

1. Start Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
3. Double-click the All Accounts group name (or the name of another Send/Receive group that you will use while you are working offline).
4. In the Accounts bar, click Microsoft Exchange Server, and then click to clear the Include account in this Send/Receive Group check box.
5. In the Accounts bar, click Remote Mail, and then click to select the Include account in this Send/Receive Group check box.
6. Click Download item description only to have only the headers downloaded on send/receive.
7. After you set the other options as desired, click OK, and then click Close.

How to configure an Internet e-mail account to use Remote Mail automatically

1. Start Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
3. Double-click the All Accounts group name (or the name of another Send/Receive group that you will use while you are working offline).
4. Verify that the Include account in this Send/Receive Group check box is selected.
5. Click Download item description only to have only the headers downloaded on send/receive.
6. After you set the other options as desired, click OK, and then click Close.

How to work with downloaded headers

If you configure Outlook accounts to automatically use Remote Mail working with downloaded headers, headers are downloaded into the Inbox. If headers are manually downloaded by using the Work with Headers feature, the headers are also downloaded into the Inbox. You have following three options when you work with headers:

• Download the complete message from the server, which deletes it from the server after the download is complete
• Download a copy of the message from the server, which leaves the message on the server
• Delete the message from the server without downloading the complete message

Use the following steps to work with headers:

1. Start Outlook by using an offline option for the account that you are using, as configured in the preceding procedures.
2. In the Inbox, select the message header that you want to process.
3. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, click Work With Headers, click Mark/Unmark Messages, and then select the action to perform on the selected messages.
4. To perform the actions, click the Tools menu, click Work With Headers, and then click Process Marked Headers.

Outlook uses the connection specified in your e-mail account settings to connect to the server and completes the selected actions against the message on the e-mail server.