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Controlling Synchronisation

Outlook uses send/receive groups to control when messages are sent and received for specific e-mail accounts. You can also use send/receive groups to define the types of items that Outlook synchronizes.

Synchronisation is the process in which Outlook synchronizes the local copy of your folders with your message store on the Exchange Server. For example, assume that while you've been working offline you have created several new e-mail messages and scheduled a few events. You connect to the Exchange Server and perform a synchronisation. Outlook uploads to your DataGate Exchange Server the changes you made locally and also downloads changes from the server to your local store, such as downloading messages that have been delivered to your Inbox on the server.

Setting up Send/Receive Groups

To set up or modify send/receive groups in Outlook, choose Tools, Send/Receive Settings, Define Send/Receive Groups. Outlook displays the Send/Receive Groups dialog box, shown bellow. By default, Outlook sets up one group named All Accounts and configures it to send and receive when online and offline. You can modify or remove that group, add others, and configure other send/receive behavior in the Send/Receive Groups dialog box.

When you select a group from the Group Name list, Outlook displays the associated settings in the Setting For Group area of the dialog box:

• Include This Group In Send/Receive. Select this option to have Outlook process accounts in the selected group when you click Send/Receive on the message form toolbar or press F9. Outlook provides this option for both online and offline behavior.

• Schedule An Automatic Send/Receive Every n Minutes. Select this option to have Outlook check the accounts in the selected group every n minutes. The default is 5 minutes. Outlook provides this option for both online and offline behavior.

• Perform An Automatic Send/Receive When Exiting. Select this option to have Outlook process the accounts in the selected group when you exit Outlook from an online session.

Scheduling Send/Receive Synchronisation

You can schedule Synchronisation for each send/receive group separately, giving you quite a bit of control over when Outlook processes your Inbox, Outbox, and other folders for Synchronisation. You can configure Outlook to process each send/receive group on a periodic basis as well as to process specific groups when you exit Outlook.

Configuring Send/Receive Schedules

Follow these steps to configure Synchronisation for each send/receive group:

• Choose Tools, Send/Receive Settings, Define Send/Receive Groups.

• In the Send/Receive Groups dialog box, select the group whose schedule you want to modify.

• In the Setting For Group area, select Schedule An Automatic Send/Receive Every n Minutes, and then specify the number of minutes that should elapse between send/receive events for the selected group. Set this option for both online and offline behavior.

• If you want the group to be processed when you exit Outlook, select Perform An Automatic Send/Receive When Exiting.

You can use a combination of scheduled and manually initiated send/receive events to process messages and accounts. For example, you can specify in the Send/Receive Group dialog box that a given group (such as All Accounts) must be included when you click Send/Receive or press F9 and then configure other accounts to process as scheduled. Thus some accounts might process only when you manually initiate the send/receive event, and others might process only by automatic execution. In addition, you can provide an overlap so that a specific account processes manually as well as by schedule-simply include the account in multiple groups with the appropriate settings for each group.

Disabling Scheduled Send/Receive Processing

To disable scheduled send/receive processing, choose Tools, Send/Receive Settings, Disable Scheduled Send/Receive. Select this command again to enable the scheduled processing.