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Using Outlook 2000 Offline

If you are using a laptop or if you are connecting to the server over a slow dialin connection, you may want to add the ability for Outlook to work offline. The offline folders feature lets you copy the contents of a folder from the server to your computer, work with the contents while not connected to the network, and then automatically synchronize your changes when you reconnect to the server. You can synchronize a laptop at work using your network connection, work offline while you are traveling, then synchronize with the server when you return. If you have a slow Internet connection at home you can also work offline from home.

Things to keep in mind:

  • The Inbox, Outbox, Deleted Items, Sent Items, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Journal, Notes, and Drafts folders are automatically made available offline when you create offline folders. To synchronize additional folders follow the steps to make additional folders available offline.
  • Any messages you create while offline are stored in the Outbox. They are not sent out until you reconnect to the network.
  • Items changed while you are working offline will only be available on the machine you configured for offline use. You will not be able to access those items from any other location until you have synchronized with the server again.

Following are the basic steps involved in setting up Outlook for offline use. More information is available under the Help section in Outlook.

Offline Folder Setup

Using Offline Folders

Create an offline folder file

  1. Launch Outlook and login with your username and password.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Services.
  3. In the "The following information services are set up in this profile" box, click Microsoft Exchange Server.
  4. Click Properties, and then click the General tab.
  5. Choose one of the following options:
    • To always start Outlook offline, choose the Manually control connection state radio button, and then click the Work offline and use dial-up networking radio button under Default connection state.
    • To choose each time you start whether to work offline or online, choose the Manually control connection state radio button, and then select the Choose the connection type when starting check box.
    • To have Outlook automatically detect whether you are offline or not, click the Automatically detect connection state radio button.
  6. To specify the amount of time to wait for a response from the server, before being notified to retry or work offline, enter a number in the Seconds Until Server Connection Timeout box.Click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.
  7. Click Offline Folder File Settings.
  8. In the File box, type the path to the file you want to use as the offline folder file.
  9. Click OK.
  10. Ensure that the Enable offline use check box is checked.
  11. Click OK twice to return to your inbox.
  12. Quit and restart Outlook. You will notice that your folders now have a small blue icon on them indicating that they are available when you are working offline.

Make additional folders available offline

The Inbox, Outbox, Deleted Items, Sent Items, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Journal, Notes, and Drafts folders are automatically made available offline when you set up offline folders. To use any other folder offline, you must specifically enable it for offline use by following these steps.

  1. Click on the Inbox.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Services tab.
  3. Select the "Enable offline access" check box, and then click the options you want. For Help on an option, click the question mark and then click the option.
  4. Click Offline Folder Settings.
  5. Select the folders you want to use offline in addition to your default folders.
  6. If you want to apply a filter to a specific folder, click the folder and then click Filter Selected Folder.
  7. If you want to limit the size of messages to download when you synchronize folders, click Download Options, and then click the options that you want.
  8. Click the Quick Synchronization tab to select folders to synchronize as a group.
  9. Click OK twice, and then synchronize offline folders.

Working offline at home.

  1. Connect to the Internet.
  2. Launch Outlook and create an offline folder file.
  3. Enable any additional folders you want to make available offline.
  4. Go to Tools menu, select Synchronize folders and choose All Folders.
  5. Close Outlook.
  6. Launch Outlook and choose to work offline.
  7. When you are ready to synchronize your changes, close Outlook.and connect to the Internet.
  8. Launch Outlook and choose to work online.
  9. Changes made on your computer will be copied to the server and new items on the server will be copied to your computer.

Automatically synchronize offline folders

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Services tab.
  2. Select the "Enable offline access" check box.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • To synchronize all folders after every online Microsoft Outlook session, select the "When online, synchronize all folders upon exiting" check box. This is the option that most people will use.
    • To automatically synchronize all folders at specified intervals while you're online, select the" When online, automatically synchronize all offline folders every [n] minutes" check box, and then click a time interval.
    • To have Outlook automatically connect to the server and synchronize in the background while you’re working with your offline folders, select the "When offline, automatically synchronize" check box. Select a set of folders and a time interval.
  4. Click OK.

Note: If an error occurs during synchronization, you can view the synchronization log for more information. On the Outlook Bar, click Deleted Items. Double-click a message with the subject Synchronization Log.

Manually synchronize offline folders

You can choose to manually synchronize folders to update changes that have been made to your offline folders or on the server during the time you have been working offline at any time.

Synchronize one offline folder:
  1. Select the folder.
  2. From the Tools menu, choose Synchronize.
  3. Click This Folder.
Synchronize all your offline folders:
  1. From the Tools menu, choose Synchronize.
  2. Click All Folders.
Synchronize a group of folders:
  1. From the Tools menu, choose Synchronize.
  2. Click the name of the quick synchronization group.

Create a quick synchronization group

You can set up smaller groups of folders that take less time to synchronize. These groups will appear in the Tools menu under Synchronize allowing you automatically and/or manually synchronize them when needed.

  1. From the Tools menu, select Options.
  2. Click the Mail Services tab.
  3. Click the Offline Folder Settings… button at the bottom of the Options dialog box.
  4. In the Offline Folder Settings dialog box, click the Quick Synchronization tab.
  5. Click the New… button.
  6. Enter a name for the quick synchronization group and click OK.
  7. Under Settings for this group, click the Choose Folders… button.
  8. In the Choose Folders dialog box, click the checkbox in front of the names of the folders you would like to include in your new synchronization group.
  9. Click OK.
  10. The names of the folders you selected now appear in the Synchronize these folders: field indicating that they are in this group.
  11. Click OK twice.

Preventing large messages from downloading

You can stop large messages from downloading during synchronization by setting a message size limit.

  1. Click Inbox.
  2. From the Tools menu, point to Synchronize, and then click Offline Folder Settings.
  3. Click the Download Options… button.
  4. Under Message size limit, select the Don't download messages larger than check box, and then enter a number of kilobytes that is the maximum size of message you want to download. Messages larger than this size are moved to the Large Messages folder on your server.

    Note: This creates a new folder on your server called Large Messages and creates a rule in the Rules Wizard that diverts large messages to this folder. The Large Messages folder is not included when you synchronize your Inbox. But its contents are still available on the mail server, so you can see them the next time you're working online.

  5. You can also create exceptions to the Large Messages rule so that Outlook will download large messages that meet your specified criteria.
  6. To create exceptions that download large messages from a specified email address, click the checkbox next to From… and enter the address in the blank field.

    7. Note: You can also click From… to choose an address from the Global Address Book or your Contacts.

  7. To create exceptions that download large messages that are marked as high priority, click the checkbox next to Marked as high priority.
  8. To create exceptions that download large messages that are flagged, click the checkbox next to Flagged to: and choose the type of flag from the drop down menu.

    9. Note: You can create more complex exceptions by modifying the Large Messages Rule using the Rules Wizard. From the Tools menu, select Rules Wizard… and modify the Large Messages Rule.

  9. Click OK.