The following are best practices to keep in mind when using your WSU email and calendar. Unless otherwise noted, these apply to Microsoft Outlook 2010 for Windows and Outlook 2011 for the Mac. If you have questions about any of the topics presented here, please contact the Help Desk.
1) Always respond to each meeting request you receive.
When you receive a meeting request in your Inbox, you should decide what to do with that request and respond appropriately. By selecting 'Accept,' 'Tentative', 'Decline,' or 'Propose New Time,' you are letting the meeting organizer know your intentions about the meeting. If you delete the meeting request it will be removed from your calendar and the organizer will not be notified what you have decided. This will also prevent you from having to manage multiple requests for a meeting in case the organizer decides to change any information about the meeting.
2) Use the Outlook Web App or Microsoft Outlook clients to manage your email & calendar.
Outlook Web App gives you access to your email, calendar, and contacts from your web browser. Microsoft Outlook 2010 for Windows and Outlook 2011 for Mac give you the full functionality of your email, calendar, and contacts, and stores that information on a Microsoft Exchange server. Programs such as Thunderbird and Mac Mail do not provide full syncing functionality for your account. To learn more about Outlook 2010, including setup instructions see the Setting Up Microsoft Outlook 2010 website. For Outlook 2011, seeSetting Up Microsoft Outlook 2011.
3) Don’t use iCal to manage your calendar.
Using iCal to manage your calendar may cause issues with meetings on your calendar. The meetings may get deleted or outdated. CaTS highly recommends that you use Microsoft Outlook 2011 on a Mac for access to your email and calendar. If you want to use Mac Mail to access your email, we strongly suggest you use Outlook Web App to manage your calendar instead of iCal.
4) Remove any meeting cancellation you receive.
If you receive a meeting cancellation, click "Remove from Calendar" to remove the meeting from your calendar. Simply deleting the cancellation from your Inbox won't remove the meeting from your calendar.
5) Always send meeting updates.
If you modify one of your own meeting requests, you should always send invitees an update. To do so, click the "Send Update" button inside the meeting request window.
6) Let someone know if you give them permission to see your calendar.
After setting calendar permissions for someone to view your calendar, you should always let them know via email or phone that you have set those permissions for them. That person will then need to open your calendar using the instructions outlined on the following pages:
Viewing Another User's Calendar in Outlook 2010 for Windows
Viewing Another User's Calendar in Outlook 2011 for Macintosh
