7. Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is probably the most used
Office application in the suite. Microsoft Word and Excel are certainly
popular, but business users look at their e-mail in Outlook most often.
It seems that Outlook is central to the world of the business user.
Despite this popularity, Microsoft is working
to break users from the practice of storing all their business
information in e-mails contained in Outlook. Storing multiple copies of
documents in Outlook burdens the e-mail server (typically Microsoft
Exchange), and users who maintain personal folders effectively retain
important data on their personal computers—not ideal for data
integrity. So, how does Microsoft release user cohesiveness with
Outlook and encourage these users to leverage SharePoint 2013 as a
centralized collaborative repository for their data? The short answer
is by making Outlook communicate with SharePoint, so users do not have
to leave the comfort of their favorite e-mail client.
Lists and Libraries
Users may connect many types of lists or
document libraries to Outlook. These lists and libraries then appear in
the hierarchy of folders with which users of Outlook are familiar.
Furthermore, the list type determines how Outlook displays the folder
and the types of items contained. The following steps demonstrate how
to connect a shared calendar in SharePoint with Outlook:
- 1. Open SharePoint and navigate to a shared calendar, default view.
- 2. Click the Calendar tab on the ribbon and then click the Connect
to Outlook icon in the Connect & Export section of the ribbon (Figure 23).
- 3. Outlook launches and displays a dialog asking you to confirm connecting the list to Outlook.
- 4. You may click the Advanced button to see additional options, such as to edit the name of the folder in Outlook.
- 5. Click the Yes button; Outlook displays the new calendar in the calendar area of the folder hierarchy.
- 6. If you have events in your SharePoint calendar, you should see
them in Outlook (after the next Send & Receive); you can also make
direct changes to the calendar in Outlook and see the changes reflected
in SharePoint.
Outlook allows users to connect the following
lists to Outlook in a similar process to the preceding steps: Document
Libraries, Calendars, Tasks, Contacts, Picture Libraries, Document Sets
(Individual Owned), Discussion Boards, and Project Tasks.
Outlook stores all connected list data in an offline PST file, called SharePoint Lists.pst. Readers should note that SharePoint downloads all
content to this PST file, so if you have a large document library
connected to Outlook, the combination of documents and metadata may
take up considerable space on the client machine (not the e-mail
server). Fortunately, administrators and list owners may prevent
download of list content with the following steps:
- Navigate to the list in SharePoint.
- Click the List or Library tab on the ribbon.
- Click the List or Library Settings on the ribbon.
- Click the Advanced Settings link.
- Change the setting for Offline Client Availability to No.
SharePoint then disables the Connect to Outlook icon on the ribbon.
Users with previous downloaded content still retain the offline copy in
Outlook but can no longer sync with SharePoint.
