Using Office 365 Webmail
Introduction
This is the Purple Computing guide to using Office 365 Webmail. Our business IT helpdesk receive many calls about this subject each week.
There is an assumption that your email service provider is Microsoft Office 365.
The Microsoft Outlook app is available to use via your web browser (“Webmail”) and in many cases will perform better than the desktop application.
Using Webmail has several advantages including:
- Reducing disk space usage on your computer
- No need to maintain or update the email software
- No ambiguity about whether your email program is syncing correctly
- Improved search performance and results
- Additional convenience features
Method
Accessing Office 365 Webmail
1. Accessing Webmail
You can get to webmail using any regular web browser at the following address:
Depending on your browser it may be possible to pin the tab or create a bookmark for quick, convenient access.
2. Logging In
You will need to log in with your username (typically this will be your full email address) and corresponding password.
Adjusting Your Office 365 Webmail Preferences
Everyone has different preferences and customisations including email signatures. Here are a couple of common things we recommend that you adjust when you first use Webmail:
3. Displaying All My Subfolders
Some people will set up custom email subfolders for filing purposes. These can sometimes appear hidden in webmail, which by default only shows the Inbox, Sent and Trash. To reveal them:
- Log into Webmail
- If you haven’t already, click the More button in the left sidebar to reveal your full folder listing. If you can’t see this button then you have probably already clicked it.
- Your custom folders are likely to be under Inbox, you may need to click the arrow to the left of Inbox to expand the full menu
4. Focussed Inbox (Turning It Off)
By default, Focussed Inbox is enabled. This is intended to hide clutter from your inbox and draw attention to the most important emails. However this rarely works as intended so you may wish to turn it off.
- After logging in, click the Cog Wheel icon at the top right
- Click Mail under Your App Settings
- Click Focused Inbox under Layout
- Select Don’t Sort Messages then click Save at the top
5. Email Signature
Your email signature may be automatically set up when you draft an email in Office 365 Webmail.
In case of a problem, to set up an email signature manually:
- After logging in, click the Cog Wheel icon at the top right
- Click Mail under Your App Settings
- Under Layout click Email Signature
Prepare your email signature in the style you require. You may find it easier to copy and paste your signature from an existing sent email.
Make sure to tick the boxes if you want a signature to always be added to new emails and/or replies.
6. Setting Default Text Format And Size
When composing a new email you may want to control the default text size and format.
- After logging in, click the Cog Wheel icon at the top right
- Click Mail under Your App Settings
- Under Layout click Message Format
Adding Project / Shared Mailboxes
7. Adding Project / Shared Mailboxes
If you routinely access multiple mailboxes, such as project mailboxes, you can easily add them to your sidebar in Webmail.
To Add A Shared Mailbox To Outlook’s Left Sidebar
- If you haven’t already, click “More” in the left sidebar of your emails to display all folders and subfolders
- Right-click your name in the sidebar then choose Add Shared Folder – see screenshot
- For Mac users without right-clicking enabled, hold Ctrl while clicking the mouse button
- In the Add Shared Folder popup, search for the user or mailbox you want to add, then select it
- You will often need to click Search Directory for the right mailbox to appear
- The mailbox will appear in your left sidebar if you have permission to view it
- Don’t forget to click the little arrow to show the mailbox’s subfolders, after you’ve added it
Sending From An Alias Or Another Mailbox
8. To Send “From” An Alias or Another Shared Mailbox
Sometimes it’s preferable to send an email from a generic email address, or on behalf of somebody else.
By default when sending a new email, it will come from your personal address. To change this, so that your email appears to come from a different email address:
- Begin drafting a new message, or reply to an existing one
- Click the … icon at the top of the message drafting window > Show From
- In the From field, right-click the default email address then click Remove
- Type in your preferred “From” address – note that you must have permission to be able to send from this address otherwise the email will not be dispatched – generally speaking, if you are allowed to add that mailbox, you will be allowed to send from that email address too
Requesting Permission To View Other Mailboxes
9. Requesting Permission For Other Mailboxes
It is possible to open and interact with colleagues’ email accounts for example if they go on holiday, or to collaborate on emails. There may also be shared mailboxes (such as info@, sales@) which multiple people can potentially access and work on.
You need to be granted permission to open shared mailboxes and other colleagues’ mailboxes.
To gain permission to a Project / Shared Mailbox:
- Speak to an email administrator
- The administrator should log into portal.office.com
- Click Groups > Shared Mailboxes in the left sidebar
- Add the relevant users as Members of the shared mailbox to grant them access permission
- The user should then follow the steps above for Adding Additional Mailboxes
Be patient as sometimes it takes up to 15 minutes for the permissions to take effect – it can help to log out and log back in again before adding the shared mailbox
To grant another person permission to your entire mailbox:
- Speak to an email administrator
- The administrator should log into portal.office.com
- Click Users > Active Users in the left sidebar and click the account which is granting permission
- Select Mail Settings > Mailbox Permissions > Edit and add the name(s) of the users who are to be allowed to interact with this email account; add the user to the “View And Manage” box if they are to be ‘read only’. Additionally, add them to the “Send As” box to allow them to both view and send email on behalf of this account
- The end user should then follow the steps above for Adding Additional Mailboxes
Be patient as sometimes it takes up to 15 minutes for the permissions to take effect – it can help to log out and log back in again before adding the shared mailbox
To grant another person permission to a specific folder within your mailbox:
- If you haven’t already, click “More” in the left sidebar of your emails to display all folders and subfolders
- Right-click your name (or the name of the email account) in the sidebar then choose Permissions
- For Mac users without right-clicking enabled, hold Ctrl while clicking the mouse button
- Search for and add the name of the person you want to be able to view your mailbox, then set their access according to your requirements
- Repeat the process for each subfolder you want to share by right-clicking each folder in turn, e.g Inbox, then choosing Permissions
Very Important: If you want to share a specific folder which is several levels down in the folder hierarchy, you need to share each parent folder in the same manner.
Email On Your Phone or Tablet
10. Setting up Email On Phone / Tablet
These instructions will be fairly generic to accommodate Android, iPhone etc.
- In your device settings, go to add a new email account
- Specify the type of account as Exchange and/or ActiveSync (watch out for Outlook being an available option, often Exchange is separate)
- Enter your email address and corresponding password
- The device should auto-configure. If not, there may well be a problem and you should contact an administrator
You may be prompted/advised by the device that adding the account will allow an administrator to remote-wipe and otherwise admnister some functions of your device. This is normal and part of the added security functions of Exchange. It does not reveal any personal data stored on your device to an administrator but it does enable remote-wiping of your phone in the event of loss.
Devices Which Don’t Support Exchange ActiveSync
For devices which do not support Exchange, you can also use IMAP:
This will apply to both inbound and outbound servers
Port (OUT): 587
SSL: ON
Password will be the same as your Office 365 email account login
Quirks Of Webmail
There are a handful of behaviours which are slightly different in Office 365 Webmail.
Ordering Project/Shared Mailboxes
The order of shared mailboxes in your Outlook Webmail sidebar will be the order you add them. They will not self-organise in alphabetical order.
If you desperately want them in alphabetical order you will need to remove and re-add your shared mailboxes in alphabetical order. In most cases this takes no more than a couple of minutes.
Filing Attachments On Server
When you receive an attachment and wish to save it to the file server, you will have to click to download the file first, and then move it to the file server subsequently. You cannot drag and drop an attachment icon directly into a file browser window.
You can however attach files to emails by dragging and dropping into the web browser window. This problem only exists when saving and filing attachments that have been sent to you.
We hope you have found our guide to using Office 365 Webmail useful. If you would like to find out more please contact us.
Sources
Internal Document