Customize Outlook Web Access to fit your culture

by Scott Lowe MCSE | Jun 09, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, Scott Lowe MCSE, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Outlook Web Access, E-mail Administration Tips Newsletter

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Takeaway: Here's how to customize Outlook Web Access to your corporate theme.

Every organization has its own branding. Nike uses the swoosh, Reese's (yum!) uses the familiar brown and orange package. In an era where image means everything and the "brand" transcends all, implementing a consistent image across systems can be considered important for some organizations. Where I work, for example, everything that can be purple is purple (including the soap in the bathrooms and the staples in our staplers).

For organizations that want to take it to the extreme, consider "skinning" your Outlook Web Access implementation. Microsoft uses the term "theme" rather than "skin," but it's the same thing.

Microsoft has actually made it really easy for you to create your own Outlook Web Access theme by making heavy use of style sheets and then by providing an entire guide devoted to the art of skinning OWA. Microsoft makes a sample OWA Xbox theme available for download so you can see what is possible with OWA skins.

Only the premium client (used with Internet Explorer 6 or later) can be fully skinned. The basic client does not support rich themes.

Among the items you can change are:

Background color
Border colors
"Outlook Web Access" logo
Fonts
Just about every other screen element you see in OWA

The design guide explains where to find everything on your OWA server in order to be able to modify it. This tip space is too short to be able to offer specific theme update information, but use the links above to learn more about something that just might take some of the tediousness out of your day.

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