Thursday, May 24, 2007

Searching for a colleague in Cougar e-mail

Searching for your colleagues' e-mail address?

You'll probably want to print this, it's a bit long:

-Open a new e-mail form by clicking on compose
-Note that next to the first blank area on top there is the word "To", click on that
-This opens your personal address book (other hints regarding filling that will follow), note that the fourth button down the middle says "search", click on it
-a new window opens allowing you to search your personal directory (which after a time becomes extensive, so it does become helpful) but if you click on the drop down menu the next choice is "corporate", meaning all of addresses in the 'cougar' used system at Kean
-for the most part it is easy to search if you know the person's full name "maria perez" yields 3 entries, I'm the first. A problem is created if I had included my middle initial and you didn't know what it was. Just typing in 'maria perez' would not have given you the correct entry for 'maria c perez', thus for some it's easier to do last name only if not sure and scroll. If your last name is 'delloiacono', as is Rob's few entries will appear.
-note that if assigned correctly (or as is the norm) all faculty/staff is listed as first initial-last name, but only up to 8 letters long. And of course, that rule is made to be broken when too many with the same name combinations begin to be placed into the system.
-students usually are the opposite of ours, they are last name then first letter of first name

it follows that if you do find me (for example), then you place a check mark in front of my name (and did you know that bcc means 'blind copy', that name will not show up on the e-mail received by others, only shows on your 'sent', I use it when sending messages to a large group of individuals). if you only meant to e-mail me, then hit 'ok', if you want to do multiple searched, then hit 'apply' and go back to the search window (that seems to hide under the other one! I tend to separate them either to the left or right to do multiples) and do your other searches. Once you have everyone, then click 'ok'

Another option if not sure, is to go to the online phone directory (http://web4.kean.edu/keandir/) and search either by last name, first name or department. Once you find 'maria perez' note that under the 'options' column on the right some of us have envelope icons, if you mouse over the icon see that my e-mail account address appears on your window, bottom left hand corner. I think if you hit the envelope icon, it will trigger Outlook to open and if you have not set it up, it can be a 'pain'. But, this way you are sure you have the right 'maria perez', since you can see the department designation. And of course, this works once they update that directory ;)

Happy searching, Maria