How big are my web mail messages?

I know that we don’t all use Outlook for managing our emails so I thought it only fair to offer web mail client users some information on message sizes.

The Size of each of your messages is displayed in the last column alongside the From, Subject and Received headings above your mail entries. To sort your messages by their size just click on the Size link. This will place your largest messages at the top of your mail, and you can then quickly decide which messages to keep or delete to reduce your mail usage quota.

How big are my Outlook email folders?

Looking to weed your Outlook email? Wondering how much space your email folders are taking? It is easy to find out the total size of your emails or size of individual folders. All you have to do is:

  1. Right click on your Inbox
  2. Select Properties from the context menu
  3. On the General tab click on the Folder size button
  4. Outlook will generate details on total and sub folder sizes

This information might help you to decide which folders to target for a good clearout.

Out of Office email

If you are lucky enough to be away from the office for a length of time you might, or might not want to let people know that you are away and the date you return. So, in Outlook 2010 select the File tab and click the Automatic Replies (Out of Office) button. Enter your message for people Inside My Organization (Loughborough University Exchange Email – not students) and repeat for people Outside My Organization (including Students and Alumni). Note the additional options for My Contacts only or Anyone outside my organization when setting an out of office reply to people outside Loughborough University.

When to attach?

When should you attach a file to your email and when not? This is usually dependant on how many people you are emailing and whether they are internal to the University or external. The below table provides some basic guidelines:

1-3 recipients 4+ recipients
Internal audience Yes No*
External audience Yes Yes

*In such cases it is always better to put the file on the staff filestore (i.e. Y drive) under the appropriate folder (e.g. “store – interim”) and then email people saying where they can find it.