Home >  > Exchange Hosting > Outlook 2003 > Delegate Permissions

Delegate Permissions

Why delegate? You could simply give assistants your logon credentials and allow them to access your Exchange Server mailbox through a separate profile on their systems. The disad€ vantage to that approach is that your assistants then have access to all your Outlook data. By using Outlook’s delegation features, however, you can selectively restrict an assistant’s access to your data.

You can assign multiple delegates so that more than one individual can access your data with send-on-behalf-of privileges. You might have an assistant who manages your schedule and therefore has delegate access to your calendar and another delegate — your supervisor — who manages other aspects of your work day and therefore has access to your Tasks folder. In most cases, however, you’ll probably want to assign only one delegate.

Adding and removing delegates

You can add, remove, and configure delegates for all your Outlook folders through the same interface.

Follow these steps to delegate access to one or more of your Outlook folders:

1. Choose Tools, Options to open the Options dialog box.
2. Click the Delegates tab.

The Delegates tab shows the current delegates and lets you add, remove, and configure delegates.

3. Click Add to open the Add Users dialog box.
4. Select one or more users and click Add.
5. Click OK. Outlook displays the Delegate Permissions dialog box.

Configure delegate permissions in this dialog box.

6. For each folder, select the level of access you want to give the delegate based on the following list:

• None. The delegate has no access to the selected folder.
• Reviewer. The delegate can read existing items in the folder but can’t add, delete, or modify items. Essentially, this level gives the delegate read-only permission for the folder.
• Author. The delegate can read existing items and create new ones but can’t modify or delete items.
• Editor. The delegate can read existing items, create new ones, and modify existing ones, including deleting them.

7. Set the other options in the dialog box using the following list as a guide:

• Automatically Send A Message To Delegate Summarizing These Permissions. Sends an e-mail message to the delegate informing him or her of the access permissions you’ve assigned in your Outlook folders.
• Delegate Can See My Private Items. Allows the delegate to view items you’ve marked as private. Clear this option to hide your private items.

Outlook sends a message to delegates informing them of their access privileges.

8. Click OK to close the Delegate Permissions dialog box.
9. Add and configure other delegates as you want, and then click OK.

If you need to modify the permissions for a delegate, open the Delegates tab, select the delegate in the list, and click Permissions to open the Delegate Permissions dialog box. Then adjust the settings as needed, just as you do when you add a delegate. If you need to remove a delegate, select the delegate on the Delegates tab and click Remove.

If the Permissions button appears dimmed or you are unable to assign delegate permissions for some other reason, the problem could be that you have designated a local PST as the default delivery location for your profile. Make sure you configure your profile to deliver mail to your Exchange Server mailbox instead.

Taking Yourself Out of the Meeting Request Loop

If your assistant has full responsibility for managing your calendar, you might want all meeting request messages to go to the assistant rather than to you. That way, meeting request messages won’t clog your Inbox.

Taking yourself out of the request loop is easy. Here’s how:

1. With any folder open, choose Tools, Options.
2. Click the Delegates tab.
3. Select the option Send Meeting Requests And Responses Only To My Delegates, Not To Me.
4. Click OK.

This option appears dimmed if you haven’t assigned a delegate.

Opening Folders Delegated to You

If you are acting as a delegate for another person, you can open the folders to which you’ve been given delegate access and use them as if they were your own folders, subject to the permissions applied by the owner. For example, suppose that you’ve been given delegate access to your manager’s schedule. You can open his or her Calendar folder and create appointments, generate meeting requests, and perform the same tasks you can perform in your own Calendar folder. However, you might find a few restrictions. For example, you won’t be able to view the contents of personal items unless your manager has configured permissions to give you that ability.

Follow these steps to open another person’s folder:

1. Open Outlook with your own profile.
2. Choose File, Open, Other User’s Folder to display the Open Other User’s Folder dialog box.

Use the Open Other User’s Folder dialog box to open another person’s Outlook folder.

3. Type the person’s name or click Name to browse the address list and select a name.
4. In the Folder drop-down list, select the folder you want to open, and then click OK. Outlook generates an error message if you don’t have the necessary permissions for the folder. Otherwise, the folder opens in a new window.

Depending on the permissions set for the other person’s folder, you might be able to open the folder but not see anything in it. If someone grants you Folder Visible permission, you can open the folder but not necessarily view its contents. For example, if you are granted Folder Visible permission for a Calendar folder, you can view the other person’s calendar. If you are granted Folder Visible permission for the Inbox folder, you can open the folder, but you can’t see any headers. Obviously, this latter scenario isn’t useful. So you might need to fine-tune the permissions to get the effect you need.

When you click File, Open, the menu lists other users’ folders that you’ve recently opened. You can select a folder from the list to open it.

When you’ve finished working with another person’s folder, close it as you would any other window.

Scheduling on Behalf of Another Person

If you’ve been given delegate privileges for another person’s calendar, you can schedule meetings and other appointments on behalf of that person.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook with your own profile.
2. Choose File, Open and open the other person’s Calendar folder.
3. In the other person’s Calendar folder, create the meeting request, appointment, or other item as you normally would for your own calendar.

As mentioned, the recipient of a meeting request sees the message as coming from the calendar’s owner, not the delegate. When the recipient opens the message, however, the header indicates that the message was sent by the delegate on behalf of the owner. Responses to the meeting request come back to the delegate and a copy goes to the owner, unless the owner has removed himself or herself from the meeting request loop.

Sending E-Mail on Behalf of Another Person

If you’ve been given delegate permission for another person’s Inbox, you can send messages on behalf of that person. For example, as someone’s assistant, you might need to send notices, requests for comments, report reminders, or similar messages.

To send a message on behalf of another person, follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook with your own profile.
2. Start a new message. If the From box isn’t displayed, choose View, From Field.
3. In the From box, type the name of the person on whose behalf you’re sending the message.
4. Complete the message as you would any other, and then send it.

TIP

Microsoft recommends that you use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor and even set it as the default editor. However, in this instance, Outlook actually works better as the editor. With Word as your editor, you can’t display the From box directly. Instead, you must configure Outlook as your e-mail editor, display the From box, and then switch back to Word as your editor. The From box will then appear in Word.

Granting Send-on-Behalf-of Privileges to a Distribution List

In some situations, you might want to grant a distribution list send-on-behalf-of privileges. For example, you might want all members of the sales department to be able to broadcast messages to customers about promotions. Or perhaps a small team is working on a project and needs to funnel messages through a specific mailbox to communicate with others about the project. Granting delegate permission to the distribution group gives group members the ability to send messages on behalf of the specified mailbox. You could grant delegate permissions to individual users, but using the distribution list to assign permissions takes less time.

To allow a distribution list to send on behalf of a mailbox, you first need to set up the distribution group. Then you grant users delegate permissions for that group as needed.

Follow these steps:

1. Login to the DataGate Control Panel for Microsoft Exchange http://cp.exchange.datagate.net ) with your credentials and go to ‘Distribution Lists’ page to create the distribution list.
2. Open Outlook and log on to the mailbox for which you want to grant delegate access.
3. Choose Tools, Options.
4. Click the Delegates tab.
5. Click Add.
6. Select the distribution list and then click Add.
7. Click OK.
8. Configure delegate permissions for the Inbox to either Author or Editor. Fine-tune the permissions as necessary and then click OK.
9. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

Members of the distribution list can send messages on behalf of the mailbox just as they would when they have individual delegate access. Start a new message, specify the mailbox name in the From box, and send the message as you normally would. As long as you are a member of the distribution list, Exchange Server allows you to send the message.