Getting Started with Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003

                     Guidance for students, staff, and faculty use of the new OWA 2003 email system.....

Accessing OWA 2003

• Access your new OWA2003 email by clicking HERE. This will bring you to the log-in page below...
  
  The full path to access your new email is https://mail.bsc.edu/exchange
  (Note: If you have problems connecting to OWA from off-campus, please try to connect using https://137.220.1.147/exchange)
  
   

At this point you will enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD to access your OWA2003 email account.

Note: There are several options that you may choose when accessing your account. Choosing Basic limits some of the features available but speeds up access when using a slow "dial-up" connection. Choosing Premium gives you access to all of the features available in OWA2003.
Also, the Public or Shared Computer option listed under "Security" will automatically log you out of OWA2003 after 15 minutes of inactivity to prevent someone from accessing your email if you step away from your desk or if you are accessing your email from a "public" place such as a library. Choose the Private option if you want your email to stay open and not automatically log you out of OWA2003.

Sending An Email

• Make sure you have the Inbox displayed then click on the   button.

• The New Message window will appear and the cursor will be in the To: field.

• Type the email address of the person you want to send the email to. You may send a message to many people at once by separating the addresses with a semi-colon.

• If you do not know the person's email address, click on the To box, then put in their last and/or first name, and click Find to find them in the Address Book . Highlight the one you want, then click at the bottom of the screen to Add recipient to …
  (Note: You may hear the Address Book referred to as the 'GAL'. This stands for Global Address List.

• Cc (carbon copy): will send a copy to the address you put in this box, and Bcc (Blind carbon copy): will send a copy to the address, but the other recipients will not know that you have sent a copy to this person.

• Click in the Subject area and enter a title for your message.

• Click in the main area of blank white space and type your email.

• Click the   button to deliver your message. (If there is a problem delivering your email, you will get an error message. If you do not receive an error message and assuming you've entered the correct email address, then your message has been delivered correctly). All sent messages go in your Sent Items folder.

• You can click on the Save icon to save your message to the Drafts folder if you do not have time to complete it, then open it again from the Drafts folder to finish it later.

 

Including an Attachment

An attachment is a file, such as a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet, which you can include with your message.

When you are writing your email, click on the attach icon -   , which produces the attach dialogue box. Click on Browse to find the file that you want to include with your message, highlight it, then click Open. Click Attach to add the file to the attachments list, and then Close to return to your message. You can attach more than one file, and you can mix file types, e.g. you can attach Word and Excel files to the same message.

Reading/Opening Your Mail

All new messages are delivered to the Inbox folder.

• To open it, simply click on Inbox on the left of the screen.

• Double-click on any message to read it.

• Close a message by clicking on the   in the upper right corner of the message window.

• Delete a message by clicking on the slightly larger   in the upper center of the window.

• To show or hide the Reading (Preview) pane, which displays the text of the message, click on the Show/Hide Reading Pane button.
• Select Right or Bottom to display it, or Hide to remove it.

• If your message contains an Attachment, click on the attached document and "save" it to a location on your computer where it can be opened(such as the desktop or "My Documents". Do not "open" the attachment within the email application itself.

  Tip: If you don’t see any messages, check your Inbox ‘View’ . If it says ‘Unread Messages’, change it to ‘Messages’.

   

  Replying to a Message

  When a message is open or highlighted, there are several options for replying to it:

  

  • Click on Reply to reply only to the person that sent the message.
  • Click on Reply to all to reply to the sender and everyone else that received the message.
  • Click on Forward to send the message on to a new recipient.
  • Type in the text of your reply message.
  • The text of the original message is included by default, but you can delete it if desired.
  • Click on the   button.
  
  

  Create a Distribution List

  If you regularly send e-mail messages to a group of people, you can create a distribution list to simplify addressing messages and meeting requests. After a distribution list is created, you can send a message or meeting request to multiple recipients at the same time. Distribution lists can include anyone with a valid e-mail address.

  1. On the main toolbar, click the arrow next to New and then click Distribution List. 
  2. In the new distribution list window, in the List Name text box, type the name of your new distribution list.
  3. To add a member of your organization to your distribution list, click Find Names. Use the Find Names dialog box to locate the person in your organization's global address list or your contacts, and then click Add recipient to...Distribution List. Repeat this step for each person you want to add.

  Note  You can also type the e-mail addresses or aliases for the people you want to add in the Add to Distribution List text box.

  4. To add a personal contact or person outside of your organization to your distribution list, type the contact's name or the person's e-mail address in the Add to Distribution List text box, and then click Add. Repeat this step for each person you want to add.

  Tip  To delete the distribution list from your address book in the new distribution list window, click Delete on the toolbar. To send a message to all the members of the distribution list, click Send mail to list .

   

  Help

  You can access context sensitive help at any time by clicking

   

  Other Useful Utilities

  You may want to have a look at:

  • Calendar – for listing your important dates, appointments, etc.
  • Contacts – for storing information about people that you communicate with regularly.
  • Folders – you can create folders for your messages, so you can organize them by topic, subject, etc. Right click on your name (mailbox), and select New Folder.
  • Message Receipts – to confirm that your message has been delivered and/or read. When you are composing your message, click on Options to set this.
  • Rules - to automatically perform actions on certain messages, such as forwarding them to a particular folder. Find out how to set up a folder for your Spam emails HERE.
  • Signature - set up your own signature to be included on outgoing messages. Set this up under Options.
    
    OWA may be set to automatically include your signature each time you send a message or you may choose to enter the signature manually by placing the cursor where you want the signature to be and clicking the "insert signature" button. 
    
    Tip If you don't find the font that you would like to use for your signature within OWA, you may create a signature using Microsoft Word and then copy and paste your signature into the signature box in OWA.

   

  Closing OWA

  • Click on Log off, then close the browser window.