About Outlook
Outlook comes with the Microsoft Office Suite for Windows. If you use Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, Outlook is probably already installed on your computer. See Configuring Your Email Program for instructions on how to configure Outlook for your @stanford.edu email.
Outlook offers more than just an email client. It also incorporates calendar, contacts, and task functions. It can be used alone to manage mail via IMAP or POP, or can be paired with the Outlook Connector for synchronization with the Zimbra Email and Calendar. The connector provides an integrated email and calendar experience similar to what you see in Webmail.
If you need some additional training, the University IT Technology Training group offers classes for Outlook. There are hands-on and online options available.
For additional information on Outlook see:
About the Outlook connector
The Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO) is software produced by Zimbra to provide real time two-way synchronization of mail, contacts, tasks, and calendar between Outlook and the Zimbra Email and Calendar server. ZCO supports Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013..
Important Notes
- Prior to installing the Outlook Connector, please submit a HelpSU request and consult with your local tech support to be sure that this is right for you. This is especially important if you are currently downloading mail via POP because you will need to understand how to effectively manage your quota of disk space in this new configuration.
- The Outlook Connector is not recommended for managing other calendars (e.g. other users' calendars or resource calendars). It can be used to access shared calendars for viewing purposes, but the web client is the recommended tool for those who need to manage other calendars.
- When using the Outlook Connector it is important that you do not delete calendar invitations (or updates to invitations) from your Inbox without first clicking Accept, Decline, or Tentative (which should then cause the email message to be deleted automatically). Deleting the message without taking this action will cause the appointment to be deleted.
Latest release
The latest release of the Outlook Connector is version 8.0.8. It was posted to the Installing the Outlook Connector page on May 20, 2014.
General information and notes
- When initially syncing historical calendar data (your own or a shared calendar you are linking to) it is not uncommon for the initial sync to take 1–2 hours.
- Existing Outlook users should expect some small degree of slowness they did not experience in Outlook prior to installing the Outlook Connector. This will be particularly true if you have not opened Outlook and had it sync to the server for several days or more.
- At installation time ZCO will create a new profile in Outlook and set Outlook to automatically use this new profile. Any mail you have saved in Outlook will not be immediately accessible. See Installing the Outlook Connector for more information and instructions on how to restore access to your old mail.
- There have been reports of problems with the Outlook Connector when Google Desktop is installed. If you encounter problems syncing and have Google Desktop installed it is recommended that you try removing or disabling Google Desktop to see if that clears the issue up.
- ZCO is regularly updated by the vendor. Users who install it should check monthly for new versions to make sure they are running the latest version University IT recommends. Users running Stanford Desktop Tools will be automatically notified when a new version of ZCO is available.
Instructions
Getting started
- Installing the Outlook Connector: Includes the download link for the software, installation instructions and instructions on accessing previous Outlook data after installation.
Doing more
Email documentation
Calendar documentation
- Creating a Meeting
- Sharing a Calendar
- Adding the Stanford Holidays Calendar
- Accessing the List of Resource Calendars
