SOFTALK SHARE SERVER - Using Outlook 2000, 2002(XP) and 2003 to download all email to Softalk Share Server inboxes

Practical Examples

Using Outlook 2000, 2002(XP) and 2003 to download all email to Softalk Share Server inboxes

This document explains how to use a single copy of Outlook 2000, 2002 or 2003 installed on the server to provide server-side delivery of users' email straight into their Outlook inbox.

The server may be a Windows Server, Windows XP or Vista computer. There is a separate document that covers how to do this using Outlook 2007.

It is assumed that the Softalk Share server software has been installed on the server computer and that the client software has already been installed on each client computer.

Server-side delivery of email is achieved by using Outlook rules to look at incoming emails and move each email to the relevant user's inbox according to the account used to receive the email. All delivery of email is handled by the one server computer, logged into a special "server" Softalk Share Server user.

The first step is to create the "server" user in the Softalk Share Server administrator.

Once you have created the "Server" user, give it permissions to have access to all the users' inboxes that you want it to collect mail for.

The example below shows we have given the "Server" user Read/Create/Edit/Delete access to Mark's, Simon's and Wayne's inbox.

You must now install the Softalk Share Server client software on the server computer (running Outlook 2000, 2002 or 2003) and give it the credentials of the user "Server" that you created above.

You will also need to configure email accounts to collect mail for each user within Outlook on the server computer.

As shown in the adjacent picture, the "Server" user has access in Outlook to the inboxes of Mark, Simon and Wayne.

On receiving a message through one of its email accounts, Outlook will identify the intended recipient user and move the message to the corresponding Inbox folder.

We do this by creating an Outlook rule for each of the email accounts you created earlier.

In Outlook, open the Rules or Rules and Alerts dialog.

In Outlook 2003 it looks like the image on the right.

Just click the "New Rule�" button and a wizard will pop up. Start from a blank rule and click "Next".

Click on the checkbox for "through the specified account".

This condition will appear at the bottom of the wizard. Click on the underlined word "specified" and select the relevant email account for the first user and click OK.

You have now created the condition for the rule. Now you need to create the action for the rule. Click "Next".

Click on the checkbox for "move it to the specified folder".

This action will appear at the bottom of the wizard. Click on the underlined word "specified", select the corresponding inbox folder for this user and click "OK", "Finish" and "OK".

You have now created the action for this rule and completed it.

This copy of Outlook on the server will now receive email messages for Wayne Jones and will put them into his Inbox folder in the Softalk Share Server store.

You will need to do this for each user.

From now on, Outlook on the server computer will receive everyone's email and deliver it to each user's inbox in Softalk Share Server.

However, when each user sends a message, it should still be sent directly from that user's Outlook, rather than being routed through the "Server" Outlook. So each user should have an email account configured to send messages, but not receive.

This can be achieved in Outlook 2002 and 2003 by configuring the email account as normal, however once the account is configured, select Tools | Options from the Outlook menu, then select the Mail Setup tab and press the Send/Receive� button. Select All Accounts from the list of accounts and press the Edit button. Then, in the Send/Receive Settings dialog box, ensure that the Receive mail items check box is unchecked.

Outlook 2000 users will see a tab called "Mail Services" instead of "Mail Setup".

For Outlook 2007, please see the Practical Example document named Using Outlook 2000, 2002 and 2003 to download all email to Softalk Share Server inboxes

Definitions
personal folder - your own Outlook folders such as Calendar, Contacts and Tasks. Outlook calls these "personal folders".
public folder - an Outlook folder created in Softalk Share Server which is not owned by a specific user.
shared folder - a personal or public folder that has been shared to a user or group of users.