Technically speaking…

Assigning delegate access to your mailbox or parts of your mailbox can be a great way to make sure your email is watched or meetings managed while you are out of the office.  It can also be useful to those with assistants and very busy schedules allowing the assistant to manage incoming mail and meeting requests.

It is important to note that while delegation within Outlook is useful in many situations, the access should not be taken lightly.  Sending email on behalf of another user can be a very powerful thing, use it very carefully and be sure that you are considering both your own and the other user’s best interests.

How do I delegate access?

To delegate access to your mailbox to other users complete the following steps:

1.   In Outlook select Options from the Tools menu

2.   In the Options Dialog box click the Delegates tab (shown below)

Figure A

Adding delegates

3.   Click the Add button to select the users who will receive access to your mailbox

4.   Enter the name(s) or select users from the list

a.   Ctrl+Click will select multiple users

5.   Click the Add ->button to include the selected users

Once all of the accounts have been added, click the OK button on the add users dialog box

This will display the Delegate Permissions dialog for your mailbox.  On this dialog you can specify access for the user or group of users you selected previously.

Note: When selecting multiple users to provide delegate access, all of the users you select at once will receive the same access rights to your mailbox.  To assign different access to users you will need to complete the steps presented here for each user or group of users.

6.    On the Delegate Permissions dialog (shown in figure B below) you can specify the degree of access the selected user(s) will have for each section of your mailbox.  The access types are available:

• Editor - users with this permission can read, create, and modify items in the selected mailbox folder
• Reviewer - users with this permission can read items in the selected mailbox folder
• Author - users with this permission can read and create items in the selected mailbox folder

Each folder listed on the delegate permissions dialog can have different permission and these are configured separately by choosing a permission level for each in the dialog box for the folder.

Figure B

Configure delegate permissions by choosing the access level for each folder listed

For the calendar folder, you can also check a box to send meeting requests to your delegate as well as to yourself.  This will speed up the response process by delegates because a copy of the item will arrive in their mailbox as well.

For the delegate user or group as a whole, you can select one or both of the following checkboxes at the bottom of the permissions dialog:

• Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions - emails the delegates you selected to let them know that they have been assigned access to your mailbox. The email will summarize the level of access the user(s) have as well.
• Delegate can see my private items - this allows delegates to view calendar and other items marked as private

7.   Click OK on the Delegate Permissions dialog box to save the permissions

8.   Click OK on the Options dialog box to alert the chosen delegates of their access rights

Note: Some folders may not appear as soon as access is assigned for the delegates, there may be a need for them to logon again to see these items.  Also it may be a requirement to have the delegates open calendar items as a shared resource if they do not appear.  This should not affect their delegate access.

Assigning delegates is a great way for managers and supervisors or departments with multiple staff members to get help managing their email and meetings.  It can also help keep things flowing during periods of extended time away from the office.

Managing outlook delegation effectively can make everyone’s day a bit easier and remove some of the burden from your organizations IT staff when others need access to your resources.