Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Published: July 2007
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Table of Contents Part 1 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: What’s New with Office Communicator 2007 .......................................................... 1 Contact Management ................................................................................................................ 1 Enhanced Presence and Presence Management ............................................................
Manually Change Your Presence Information .........................................................................25 Chapter 5: How to Contact Others ..............................................................................................27 Know If and When a Contact is Available ...............................................................................27 Get Additional Contact Details ................................................................................................
Part 4 Phone and Video ................................................................................................................53 Chapter 12: Getting Started with Office Communicator Phone and Video Capabilities ......55 About Phone and Video Capabilities .......................................................................................55 What You Should Do First .......................................................................................................56 About Phone Number Formats.
Part 1 Overview In this Part: Chapter 1: What’s New with Office Communicator Chapter 2: Getting Started
Chapter 1: What’s New with Office Communicator 2007 In this chapter, we will cover what’s new with: Contact Management Enhanced Presence and Presence Management Conferencing Phone and Video Contact Management Office Communicator 2007 offers new features that make it easier for you to manage your contacts and Contact List, as shown in Figure 1.1 below. New features include: Show Recent Contacts. A Recent Contacts group is now available in the Communicator Contact List.
2 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 1.1. The Office Communicator Contact List and Contact Card Enhanced Presence and Presence Management Office Communicator 2007 offers new presence states to more accurately reflect a person’s willingness and ability to communicate. In addition, Communicator now gives you more granular presence management, enabling you to control access to your presence information by assigning contacts to access levels, as shown below in Figure 1.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 3 Figure 1.2. Access levels determine the amount and type of presence information that is available to contacts Interrupt list. You can now assign a Team access level to your contacts to create a preferential list of contacts who are allowed to communicate with you, even when your Presence status is set to Do Not Disturb. Location setting configuration.
4 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Ability to start a conference call by selecting a group in the contact window. You can multi-select contacts in the Contact List or click a group in the Contact List, and then select a conference call option to start a conference. Improved connection in conference roster. New icons in the conference roster provide additional conference connection status, indicating whether a user’s status is Inviting, Connecting or Connected. Figure 1.3.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 5 Figure 1.4. Communicator Call in the Call options menu Call forwarding options. If your environment is configured for enterprise voice, you can forward calls to another number or contact, enabling you to receive calls on your mobile phone when you are not in the office.
6 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Office Communicator 2007 Documentation The following documentation is available for Communicator 2007. You can find the documents on your Office Communications Server 2007 TAP Web site. The Online Help is accessible directly from the Office Communicator 2007 client. Office Communicator 2007 Release Notes Covers product limitations and workarounds for the Public Beta release.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 7 Chapter 2: Getting Started In this chapter, we will cover: Software and hardware requirements for Office Communicator 2007. Installing Office Communicator 2007. Starting Office Communicator 2007 and signing in. Software Requirements This release of Communicator 2007 is compatible with the following environments, as shown below in Table 2.1. Table 2.1.
8 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide A half-duplex or full-duplex sound card. Half-duplex audio allows only one person to speak at a time. Full-duplex audio allows two people to speak simultaneously. Video Requirements To make video calls, you must have a webcam connected to your computer. Note that you can receive video calls without a webcam and view the caller’s video stream.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 9 Starting Communicator and Signing In Typically, Communicator is configured for you by your system administrator. The administrator may or may not have configured Communicator to start automatically when you log into Windows, so we will cover this option in this section. To start Communicator 1. Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. 2.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 11 Part 2 Contact Management, Presence and Instant Messaging In this Part: Chapter 3: Manage your Contact List Chapter 4: Customize your Presence Information Chapter 5: How to Contact Others Chapter 6: Send and Receive Instant Messages
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 13 Chapter 3: Manage Your Contact List Your Contact List is a list of co-workers, family, friends, and associates with whom you communicate most often. The Communicator Contact List shows the availability of your contacts and allows you to view additional contact details by clicking on the contact’s Presence button. The Contact List is your starting point for communicating with your contacts.
14 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 3.1 below shows the Office Communicator window, and points out the portions of the user interface that you use most often when managing your contacts and Contact List. Figure 3.1 The Office Communicator window and Contact List To add a contact or distribution group to your Contact List 1. In the Office Communicator window, type the display name or e-mail address of a person or distribution group in the Search box.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 15 3. You can drag existing contacts from the Contact List into the group or use the Communicator Search feature to find users and add them to the group. Add Public Instant Messaging Contacts If your organization is configured to support public instant messaging (IM) connectivity, you can add instant messaging contacts from AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and the Windows Live™ network of Internet services to your Office Communicator Contact List.
16 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide contacts, but you can make calls to the contact’s home, business, and or mobile phone numbers. For more information about adding public IM contacts to your Contact List, see the Communicator online Help. Add Federated Contacts Office Communicator and Office Communications Server 2007 support the ability to federate (connect) with other organizations, enabling you to add contacts from those organizations.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 17 When you add a public instant messaging contact using the Outlook Contacts folder, you can add home, mobile, and other phone numbers for the contact, so you can use the click-to-call feature in Communicator to call the contact on his or her home, mobile, or work phone number.
18 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide View a Person’s Contact Card A person’s contact card provides details about the contact’s availability and activity. Depending on the access level that a contact granted you, you can see a contact’s schedule, as well as any personal note the contact has written.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 19 To change the way you view contacts Click the Change View button from the menu. , as shown below in Figure 3.3, and then select a view Figure 3.3. The Office Communicator window and Contact List For more information about access levels, see Chapter 3, ―Manage Your Contact List.‖ For more information about tagging contacts, see Chapter 5, ―How to Contact Others.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 21 Chapter 4: Customize Your Presence Information Communicator provides a full set of personal presence attributes that you can make available to other contacts to help them get in touch with you. Presence attributes include information about you, such as your work phone, mobile phone, and home phone, along with additional information, such as your work schedule and personal notes.
22 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Meeting Subject X Free Busy X X X Working Hours X X X X X Endpoint Location Notes (Out of Office Note) X X X Notes (Personal) X X X X X Last Active *If these attributes are defined in Microsoft Active Directory, they are visible to all contacts in your company, regardless of access level. They are also visible to federated contacts, depending on the assigned access level.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 23 Control Access to Your Presence Information with Access Levels With Communicator, you use Access Levels to control the level of your presence information that others see. For example, you probably have a short list of co-workers who you want to have access to your mobile and home phone numbers. To expose these alternate phone numbers to a contact, you need to assign that contact to the Personal or Team access level.
24 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Assign Access Levels when someone adds you to their Contact List When a person adds you to his or her Contact List, you receive an alert, as shown below in Figure 4.1. The alert enables you to add the contact to your Contact List and allows you to set the person’s level of access to your presence information. Figure 4.1.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 25 Home Phone number Other Phone number Team Work Phone number Mobile Phone number Company Work Phone number Public None Blocked None Manually Change Your Presence Information Your Presence information is constantly being updated by Communicator and Office Communications Server, based on a variety of factors, including your Outlook Calendar, whether you are in a call, an instant messaging session, or conference.
26 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide For example, a person with a Team access level to your presence information can interrupt you and sees this status in their Contact List: A person with a Company or lower access level to your presence information cannot interrupt you with an instant message or phone call and sees this status in their Contact List: For more information about setting Access Levels to control interruptions, see the Office Communicator online Help.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 27 Chapter 5: How to Contact Others Each contact in your Contact List has a Presence button that reflects his or her current state of availability. You can use a contact’s presence status to decide which mode of communication is best suited for successful communication that contact. For example, if a contact’s status is Available, you can send her an instant message or place a call to her.
28 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 5.1.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 29 Table 5.1 below describes each Presence button and the accompanying status text. Table 5.1. Presence states set by the user or by Communicator Presence button Contact status Description Available The contact is online and can participate in conversations. This status can be set manually by the user. Busy In a Call In a Conference In a Meeting The contact is available but engaged in another activity.
30 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Presence button Contact status Description Blocked This indicator is displayed in your Contact List next to the name you have blocked. To the person you have blocked, you appear to be offline. Get Additional Contact Details If a contact’s status is not available, you can open his or her Contact Card to get additional details to determine when the contact will be available, assuming that you have been granted Company access level or higher.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 31 Get Notified When a Contact’s Status Changes Communicator can notify you of changes in a contact’s status by displaying an alert whenever the contact’s status changes to Available or Offline. The alert shows the contact’s name, title, instant messaging address, and new presence status. You can click the alert to start an instant messaging session with that person.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 33 Chapter 6: Send and Receive Instant Messages With Communicator, you can start an instant messaging session with a single contact or multiple contacts. After you start an instant messaging session, you can invite other contacts to the session and seamlessly add audio and video to the session without opening a new Conversation window. In this chapter we will show you how to: Start an instant messaging session.
34 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 6.1. The Office Communicator window and the Conversation window To start an instant messaging session with a single contact In the Contact List, double-click a contact name, type a message, and then press ENTER. If the contact is not in the Contact List, type the person’s name in the Search box, and then double-click the name in the Search Results box.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 35 Add Emoticons to Instant Messages Emoticons are graphic images that you can use in your instant messages to convey feelings and emotions, as shown below in Figure 6.2. Figure 6.2. An emoticon is inserted into an instant message To add an emoticon to an instant message 1. In the Conversation window, in the message area, place the cursor where you want to insert the emoticon. 2. Click the Emoticon button, and then select an emoticon.
36 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Format Instant Messages With Communicator, you can change the font, font size, and color, or format text with additional attributes such as bold, italic, or underlining. To format instant message text for a single message 1. In the Office Communicator window, double-click a contact name in the Contact List to start an instant message. 2.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 37 Figure 6.3. The instant message invitation alert To accept an instant message invitation 1. In the instant message invitation alert, click anywhere in the left pane of the invitation. 2. In the Conversation window, type your response in the message area, and then press ENTER. To decline an invitation In the instant message invitation alert, click the Close conversation button.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 39 Part 3 Conferencing and Collaboration In this Part: Chapter 8: Getting Started with Unified Communications Conferencing Chapter 9: Conferencing with Communicator Chapter 10: Moving Seamlessly Between Communication Modes Chapter 11: Scheduling a Conference Call or Live Meeting
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 41 Chapter 8: Getting Started with Unified Communications Conferencing With Office Communicator 2007, you can easily start a conference from a one-to-one IM session. You can also seamlessly add communication modes to conference sessions, including phone, video, and even full Web conferencing and data sharing with Live Meeting.
42 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide By default, Office Communicator detects your audio and video devices so that you do not need to perform and special setup procedures. However, before you schedule a conference call, you may want to run the Set Up Audio and Video wizard to ensure your devices are properly adjusted. To set up audio and video In the Title bar of the Office Communicator window, click the Menu button , point to Tools, and then click Set Up Audio and Video.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 43 Chapter 9: Conferencing with Communicator Office Communicator 2007 is designed to support the natural, typically unstructured way that you communicate with others. For example, with Office Communicator, you might start an IM conversation with somebody and then decide you need to invite another person to the conversation to make a decision. When you invite a third person to the IM conversation—you create an ad-hoc conference.
44 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 9.1. A contact group is selected to start an IM conference In the Conversation window that appears, you see the Inviting status for each contact, as the contact is sent the IM invitation. When the contact accepts the call and joins the conference, you see the phone indicator to the right of the contact name, as shown above in Figure 9.1.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 45 2. Select multiple contacts by holding down CTRL as you click the contacts that you want to invite to the conference, right-click the last contact, and then point to Start a Conference Call. Right-click a contact group, and then point to Start a Conference Call. Click one of the following options: Start Conference Now Using.
46 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Join a Conference Call When you place a conference call, the recipients of the call see a conference call invitation, as shown below in Figure 9.4. Figure 9.4. Conference call invitation alert To join a conference call Click the left pane of the Conference invitation alert.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 47 Chapter 10: Move Seamlessly Between Communication Modes One of the great new features in Office Communicator 2007 is the ability to move seamlessly between communication modes during a session. For example, you can start a simple IM ―you there?‖ session with a co-worker. After a couple of IM exchanges, you might decide you need a third person, so you can invite another person to the session.
48 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 10.1. The Conversation window during a conference call with instant messaging, audio, and video Escalate a Conference Call to a Live Meeting Web Conference Note The Live Meeting menu options are only enabled for conference participants who have Live Meeting installed and configured on their computers.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 49 Share Information Using Live Meeting to send an application-sharing invitation to conference participants, who will receive the invitation request in the message area of their Conversation window. When the invitation is accepted, application-sharing will be conducted using a Live Meeting session that is connected to the same Office Communications Server that is hosting the conference call.
50 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide After you log into signed in to Live Meeting, you can begin sharing slides, applications, or collaborate on a Text Page, as shown below in Figure 10.3. Figure 10.3. A text page is shared between participants of a Live Meeting session When you send a Live Meeting invitation, the recipients of the invitation see a Live Meeting invitation in the Communicator Conversation window, shown below in Figure 10.4. Figure 10.4.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 51 Chapter 11: Schedule a Communicator Conference Call or a Live Meeting Conference Note If you have not installed the Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook, contact your system administrator. Microsoft Unified Communications offers you a Conferencing Add-In for Microsoft Office Outlook that you can use to schedule Communicator phone conferences and Live Meeting Web conferences.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 53 Part 4 Phone and Video In this Part: Chapter 12: Getting Started with Office Communicator Phone and Video Capabilities Chapter 13: Make and Receive Phone Calls Chapter 14: Make and Receive Video Calls Chapter 15: Call Forwarding and Call Handling
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 55 Chapter 12: Getting Started with Office Communicator Phone and Video Capabilities Office Communicator 2007 offers phone and video capabilities to improve your everyday communication. Now with Office Communicator 2007, you can: Make one-click phone calls by clicking a contact in your contact list. Make group conference calls by right-clicking a group name, pointing to Start a Conference Call, and then selecting a conference calling option.
56 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide What You Should Do First Before you get started, make sure you should have a USB audio device, headset, or speakers and microphone connected to your computer. Make a Few Phone Calls With the phone capabilities of Communicator, you can make outbound calls to traditional PSTN/PBX phones or mobile phones and receive inbound calls from these phones. In short, you can do everything you can do today with your traditional desktop phone—and then some.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 57 About Setting Up Voice Mail If your system is configured for Enterprise Voice (you can easily determine by clicking the arrow to the right Call button , and if you do not see a Preferred Calling Device option, you are configured for Enterprise Voice) you will continue to receive your missed calls and Voice Mail notifications in Outlook.
58 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide After the call is connected, the dial pad is available in the Call Control area, as shown below in Figure 12.3. Figure 12.3.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 59 Chapter 13: Make and Receive Phone Calls Communicator enables you to contact others using a variety of communication methods. You might start a conversation with another person using instant messaging, for example, and then add audio (by using a phone call) to the conversation as needed. Communicator offers a rich phone communication experience that extends beyond traditional phone capabilities.
60 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 13.1. The Call button in the Contact List To make a one-click audio call In the Contact List, click the Call button to the right of the contact you want to call. Call Additional Numbers Communicator users can publish additional phone numbers, such as their mobile or home phone numbers and give you Team or Personal access level so you can view the numbers and use them for ―click-to-call.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 61 Figure 13.2. Call options for a contact To view call options for a contact 5. In the Contact List, click the arrow to the right of the Call button associated with the contact. 6. In the Call options menu, click the name or number you want to call or click New Number and then enter the number you want to call. What is a Communicator Call? Office Communicator 2007 provides a Communicator Call option, as shown in the preceding Figure 13.
62 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 13.3. Phone number entered in the Search box To type a new number and call it 1. In the Office Communicator window, enter the number you want to call in the Search box. Use the International Phone number format. Enter the country code, followed by the local phone number. For example, for a United States number: 15555555555. For example, (011) in the United States and (00) in Europe.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 63 Using Call Controls When you answer a phone call from a Communicator contact, the Conversation window opens. The Conversation window offers a variety of call controls that you can use to transfer a call, put a call on hold, or adjust your speaker or microphone volume. Table 13.4 below shows the call controls and gives a brief description of what each one does. Table 13.4. Call controls Control Function End Call. Put call on hold.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide | 65 Chapter 14: Place and Receive Video Calls You can use Office Communicator to communicate with your contacts using audio and video. For example, if you have a webcam connected to your computer, you can place a video call to a contact. When the contact answers the call, she can see your video feed, even if she does not have a webcam.
66 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide To receive an audio/video call Click the left pane of the Video Call invitation alert, as shown below in Figure 14.2. Figure 14.2. The Video Call invitation alert When you accept a Video Call invitation, the Communicator Conversation window opens and shows the caller’s video stream, as shown below in Figure 14.3. Figure 14.3.
Chapter 15: Call Forwarding and Voice Mail Office Communicator 2007 provides call handling options that enable you to forward calls to another phone number or contact, to ring an additional number at the same time your default device rings, and to redirect unanswered calls to another number, contact, or voice mail. In this chapter we will show you how to: Forward incoming calls to another number, contact, or voice mail.
68 | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide Figure 15.1. Call forwarding options are set to forward calls to another number To forward a call to your voice mail, another person, or phone number In the Office Communicator window, click the Call Forwarding button to Forward Calls To, and then do one of the following: , point Click Voice mail to automatically forward all incoming calls to your voice mail. Click a phone number to automatically forward calls to that number.
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Getting Started Guide 69 1. In the Office Communicator window, click the Call Control button click Call Voice Mail. 2. When prompted, use the Dial Pad in the Conversation window to enter your PIN number. Your PIN number is provided by your system administrator and is typically sent to you in an e-mail.
