Appendix A. Get connected
By using Outlook 2016, you can easily manage one or more email accounts. You can configure Outlook to connect to many different types of business and personal email accounts. If your organization uses Microsoft Exchange Server or Exchange Online, you can use Outlook to work with all the features of your Exchange account, including email, calendaring, contact tracking, task tracking, and notes. If your organization also uses Microsoft Skype for Business, you can initiate audio and video calls, instant messaging sessions, online meetings, and more from Outlook 2016.
A default installation of Outlook 2016 supports the following types of email accounts:
Exchange You can configure Outlook 2016 to connect to an Exchange account hosted on Exchange Online, Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2013, and Exchange Server 2010. If your organization uses any of these versions of Exchange Server, you can send mail within or outside of your organization’s network. Messages are stored centrally on the Exchange server. They are also stored locally in a data file on your computer. Outlook synchronizes with the server when you’re connected to it either over a corporate network or over the Internet, so you can work with existing Outlook items and create new items while working offline.
Using Outlook 2016, you can connect to a corporate Exchange account without connecting your computer directly to the corporate network. Recent versions of Exchange automatically route all Outlook client access through protocols that bypass the requirement for a direct corporate network connection.
Exchange ActiveSync–compatible service Although this sounds quite technical, it’s simply a description for an Internet-based email service such as Hotmail or Outlook.com. It is not necessary to install a separate connector in order to configure Outlook 2016 to connect to an account of this type.
Post Office Protocol (POP) When connected to a POP account, Outlook downloads messages from your email server to your computer, and removes the original messages from the server after a specified length of time. You read and manage messages on your computer, and Outlook synchronizes with the server when it is connected.
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) When connected to an IMAP account, Outlook stores copies of messages on your computer, but leaves the originals on the email server. You read and manage messages locally, and Outlook synchronizes with the server when it is connected.
You can add one or more email accounts of any supported type to your Outlook profile, either during the initial setup procedure or at any time thereafter. You don’t have to connect Outlook to an email account, but it’s customary to do so. When you use Outlook without connecting to an email account, you can’t send or receive messages, or synchronize your calendar, contacts, and tasks with Outlook installations on other computers. After you configure Outlook to connect to an email account, you can easily manage the information stored with that account by using the Outlook features specifically designed for each type of information.
The wizard provides an easy-to-follow interface for connecting to an account
Configuring Outlook creates an Outlook Data File for each email account and an Outlook profile, which stores information about you and your email accounts. You can work with your profile from within Outlook or from the Mail control panel in Windows. Your profile includes information about your email account such as the user name, display name, server name, password, and the local data storage location.
Outlook profile properties
You can connect to more than one email account per profile, to seamlessly manage all your email communications through Outlook. If you want to, you can create multiple profiles that link to different email accounts or to different sets of email accounts, but when using Outlook 2016, it is not necessary to create multiple profiles to manage multiple accounts.
Start the connection process
Before you can use Outlook to manage an email account, you must configure the app to connect to the account. When you start Outlook for the first time (or if Outlook hasn’t yet connected to an email account in your computer user profile), the Microsoft Outlook Account Setup wizard guides you through the connection process.
Start a connection to any supported email account
To start the email account connection process for the first time
1. Start Outlook. If you haven’t yet completed the Outlook setup process, the Welcome To Microsoft Outlook 2016 splash page appears.
2. On the Welcome to Outlook 2016 page, click Next to start the Microsoft Outlook Account Setup wizard.
3. On the Add an Email Account page of the wizard, click Yes, and then click Next to display the Auto Account Setup page of the Add Account wizard.
To start the email account connection process from within Outlook
1. Click the File tab to display the Info page of the Backstage view.
2. On the Info page of the Backstage view, click the Add Account button to display the Auto Account Setup page of the Add Account wizard.
Tip
You control Outlook app settings from the Backstage view. For detailed information, see “Configure general Office and Outlook options” in Chapter 13, “Customize Outlook options.”
To start using Outlook without connecting to an email account
1. Start Outlook. On the Welcome to Outlook 2016 page, click Next to start the Microsoft Outlook Account Setup wizard.
2. On the Add an Email Account page of the wizard, click No, and then click Next. Outlook displays a warning that its functionality is limited when not connected to an email account.
You can continue without connecting to an account, or go back
3. On the Don’t Add an Email Account page, select the Use Outlook without an email account check box, and then click Finish. Outlook starts, and displays the Outlook Today page.
Outlook Today is the default home page when you’re not connected to an email account
See Also
For information about configuring the Outlook Today page, see the sidebar “Outlook Today” in Chapter 11, “Track tasks.”
Troubleshoot connection problems
Server certificate does not match site If Outlook encounters security issues associated with the electronic file (digital certificate) that validates the mail server’s identity—for example, if the digital certificate does not match the name of your domain—Outlook notifies you of this problem and lets you choose whether to proceed.
If a Security Alert message box appears, you can click the View Certificate button to display the digital certificate of the mail server and verify that you know and trust the company that issued the certificate. If you want, you can install the certificate on your computer by clicking the Install Certificate button and following the steps in the Certificate Import wizard.
See Also
For more information about digital certificates, see “Increase email security” in Chapter 5, “Manage email security.”
Encrypted connection not available This message might appear if your Exchange account is with a hosted service provider. Outlook first tries to establish an encrypted connection to the server. If this attempt is not successful, Outlook notifies you of this problem and asks whether you want to try to establish an unencrypted connection.
If you click Next to establish an unencrypted connection, Outlook might inadvertently configure the connection to your Exchange account as it would a connection to an IMAP or POP account. This configuration can result in a loss of functionality related to information, such as appointments and tasks, stored on the Exchange server. The more likely solution to this issue is to click the Back button, click the Manual Setup Or Additional Server Types option, click Next, and then manually enter the server and connection information for your account.
Configure a connection automatically
The automatic connection process is a significant improvement over the manual account setup processes of the past, which required you to know and provide specific information about your email account, incoming and outgoing mail servers, and the ports to use for incoming and outgoing messages. For many accounts, you need to supply only three pieces of information—your name, your email address, and your email account password—and the Outlook Account Setup wizard handles the rest of the connection process for you.
Starting an automatic connection from the wizard
To connect to an email account that supports automatic connections
1. Display the Auto Account Setup page of the Add Account wizard.
2. Enter your name, email address, and email account password in the text boxes provided. Then click Next to search your available networks and the Internet for the specified domain.
Tip
The password characters you enter are hidden, so take care that the Caps Lock key is not inadvertently active when you enter the password.
If the wizard locates an account matching the email address you entered, it attempts to log on by using the password you entered. If the connection is successful, a confirmation appears, along with additional account configuration options.
You can begin using the account now, or connect to additional accounts
3. Do either of the following:
• Click Finish to start using the account.
• Click Add another account to restart the wizard.
Important
If the wizard is unable to complete the connection without further information, an error page appears. If this happens, click Back to return to the Auto Account Setup page. Then follow the procedure in “Configure a connection manually,” next in this appendix.
Configure a connection manually
When manually configuring a connection to a POP or IMAP account, you must provide your name and email address, and the following information, which you can obtain from your email service provider:
Account type Choose POP3 or IMAP from the drop-down list.
Incoming and outgoing mail servers Server addresses are usually entered in the format server.domain.com.
Account user name Many providers require that you enter the entire email address for this parameter rather than only the name before the @ symbol.
Account password Outlook disguises the password characters as asterisks.
Logon authentication requirements Some mail servers require that you log on by using secure password authentication.
The default account settings are for unencrypted connections. Your mail account provider might require that you use encrypted connections for your incoming server, outgoing server, or both.
It is important to note that when connecting to a POP account, you can control the retention of messages on the email server. By default, messages downloaded from a POP server to your computer are removed from the server after 14 days. You can choose to leave the messages on the server permanently, leave them there for a specified amount of time, or leave them there until you delete them from Outlook.
Tip
If you configure Outlook to connect to a POP account from a portable computer and experience difficulty sending email messages when connected to a public network (such as a hotel network), it might be because the network has blocked traffic on the default outgoing server port, port 25. If so, you can likely resolve the issue by changing the outgoing server port on the Advanced page of the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box for the account to port 80, 465, or 587.
After supplying the connection information for your email account, you can test the account settings to ensure that Outlook successfully connects to your incoming and outgoing servers.
To connect manually to an email account
1. Display the Auto Account Setup page of the Add Account wizard, click Manual setup or additional server types, and then click Next to display the Choose Service page.
Connection processes vary by account type
2. Select your account type, and then click Next to display the Account Settings page for that type of account.
3. On the Account Settings page, enter or select the requested information.
Settings for a POP account
Important
In this procedure, the images depict the settings for a POP account. The process of completing the wizard is similar for IMAP accounts. Less information is required for Exchange ActiveSync accounts.
4. When configuring a POP or IMAP account, click the More Settings button to open the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box in which you can enter additional information, such as the name by which you want to identify the account, the email address you want to appear when you reply to a message, and outgoing server authentication information.
5. In the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box, review the settings on each tab and configure any that are necessary. Then click OK to close the dialog box and return to the Account Settings page.
6. On the Account Settings page, click Next to test the connection.
Testing confirms that you can send and receive messages with the current settings
7. Close the Test Account Settings dialog box, and then click Finish to start using the account.
Manage existing connections
You can manage Outlook settings for all the email accounts, RSS feeds, SharePoint lists, calendars, and address books you connect to from the Account Settings window.
You can temporarily modify account settings if necessary for your current connection
To open the Account Settings window
1. Click the File tab to display the Info page of the Backstage view.
2. On the Info page of the Backstage view, click the Account Settings button, and then click Account Settings.
