How to Track Down Missing Emails?

As communication technology has evolved over the years, email has rapidly grown in popularity and is now undoubtedly one of the most widely used methods of online communication. Although most people have a general understanding of how email services work and can perform the basics such as sending, forwarding, and replying with relative ease, there are still many features of email services that cause confusion. Today we will delve into some of these features, explaining how some of the different types of mailboxes work and where to look when you’re expecting an email but haven't received it.

Inbox

This is the main mailbox where all of your emails that haven’t been flagged as spam or junk end up. This mailbox primarily contains all of your important emails and should be the first place to look when checking your email. Unfortunately, some legitimate emails are accidentally marked as spam or junk by accident so they may not always end up in your inbox.

Junk/Spam

The junk mail folder or spam folder is used to store unwanted emails, preventing them from making it to the user’s main inbox. This helps decrease the volume of emails that a user has to look through, since some users may receive hundreds of emails on a daily basis with only a handful being legitimate. As previously mentioned, the systems used to detect junk mail are not always perfect so some legitimate emails may be marked as spam and on the other hand, some unwanted emails can slip through the cracks and enter your main inbox. Because of this, it is important to check your junk or spam folders on a regular basis, especially when you are expecting an email but can not find it in your inbox.

Clutter

Clutter is an email sorting system used by Microsoft Outlook. The main purpose of clutter is to distinguish between high and low priority emails so you can better identify important messages and reply to them sooner. Clutter uses an artificial intelligence system that analyzes your habits and behavior when using Outlook to get a better understanding of the types of emails you like to see and the ones you tend to ignore.

Unfortunately, the clutter feature has been discontinued by Outlook although some users may still have this feature. If you do have this feature, clutter is another place to check on a regular basis since important emails can also end up here by accident.

To enable the clutter folder within Outlook check "Separate items identified as clutter" and click “Save”.

Antispam

Antispam is a service similar to junk/spam and can be seen as another layer of defense, filtering out unwanted emails. Also similar to junk/spam, antispam is not always perfect and can filter out important emails by accident stopping them from reaching your main inbox. Because of this, it is very important to check your antispam on a regular basis to make sure you’re not missing any legitimate emails.

To access antispam head to antispam.emporia.edu and login with your ESU username and password.

Taylor Nelson
Student Media Producer
Web and Digital Strategies

Why Is Email Important?

Although many of us enjoyed the interaction between each other in the office, there has never been a better opportunity to utilize technologies like email. Email isn't new by any means, but utilizing it as a primary communication source might be for some people. It's also worth noting that email is the primary official means of communication for Emporia State University. In a world where no physical meetings are taking place, email usage has increased, and rightly so!

There are many benefits to emailing people for communication methods, especially if you're using Outlook for Office 365. Your emails between colleagues are documented and are readily available by a quick search for a word, person, or subject. This potentially eliminates any miscommunication issues that you could be having with colleagues. Because of this feature, it's important to remember to write well thought out emails. Be concise with what you are trying to convey and the digital workforce will be thankful! Another benefit is simply keeping everyone in the loop. Being able to CC your colleagues/boss into your emails gives them a way to keep track of what's going on with certain projects/tasks. One could also argue that email is more secure than the word of mouth communication method. Outlook for Office 365 allows you to 'Encrypt' an email with various options depending on the confidentiality of the email's content. Be sure to learn more about the 'Encrypt' feature by following this link.

Hopefully this blog provides some insight to why email has become so important in our everyday workflows. Although this blog post is generally targeted at faculty and staff, it also applies to students with their student Gmail accounts. Stay on top of your inbox and your colleagues will take notice!

Sam Derksen
Web Developer
Web and Digital Strategies

Outlook: Focused Inbox vs. Normal Inbox

Do you like having your inbox organized, clean, and know exactly where to find them?

Using your Outlook email is something that is an everyday task for employees and faculty of our university. Gmail and Outlook are both of the email providers that Emporia State uses, but the difference between the two stands out with Outlook.

Outlook has a bit different view when you get to your home screen on your email. Outlook offers different locations for your emails to go without having to leave your Inbox tab. While some users have "Clutter" as a folder choice instead of the normal options being "Focused" and "Other". Focused and Other are the two tabs that are going to be within your inbox tab when using Microsoft365, Exchange, and Outlook.com. The Focused tab is where your more important emails will be located, giving you fast access to your everyday interactions. The Other tab is where you can place your less necessary emails like subscriptions, shopping ads, donation banks, etc. This gives the user a more clean and organized user face for them to utilize. Leaving all of your emails organized but still keeping all of them easily accessible.

When using Outlook on a Windows device, you will need to select that you want your Focused inbox visible. From there you will be able to go through your emails and either move them to the Focused inbox or the Other inbox. 

Using Outlook.com on a device, you will need to go to settings and turn on the "Focused Inbox". This will refresh and you will be able to organize your emails into which category you want them to be in.

If you are using Outlook, Microsoft365, or Exchange, there are step-by-step instructions on how to get your email inbox looking clean and organized while still being user friendly found here.

Questions and concerns can also be answered by contacting the IT Help Desk.

Stay healthy Hornets!

Dakota Taylor
Social Media Student Assistant
Web & Digital Strategies

Getting To Zero On Your Outlook With Artificial Intelligence

In this digital age, we're moving closer towards a more impactful voice assistant. Someone that can change the room temperature, play music, turn the lights on/off, and now, even read your outlook emails + calendar!

Setup Process

Play My Emails user interface

On the Outlook for iOS app,  you now have a new feature called Play My Emails. This is available when connected to a bluetooth-enabled wireless or wired device (headphones, car audio etc). 

Once connected/paired, you will see the new option on your Outlook inbox screen, allow microphone permissions, a quick tutorial to walk you through the functionality and voila!

The voice assistant can now deliver you with an email + calendar summary for the day. After which you have the option to consume your emails on the go. 

You can easily reply, skip, flag, archive, delete or mark as read by just talking to the voice assistant.     

It's time to get more done and finally hit the magical number ZERO  on your Outlook inbox, with ease.

Check out this quick video from Microsoft to see it in action.

Saandhyarag Sasidhar
Web and Media Specialist
Web and Digital Strategies