Microsoft 365 - Glossary of Terms

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ActiveSync Protocol - A service similar to Exchange, IMAP, and POP3 which sends email and calendar information from an Microsoft 365 account to mobile devices.

Alternate Address - In Microsoft 365, any email address associated with your account that is not your primary address.

Automatic Reply - Also known as a vacation message or an out of office message. Automatic reply is a rule that can be set in your Office 365 account that will automatically reply to incoming emails with a preset response for a preset amount of time.

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Categories - An Outlook feature which allows you to assign a keyword or phrase (and color) to help you keep track of items/events. Using this feature you can easily find, sort, filter, or group different items/events located across your different folders/calendars.

Cloud Service - Services made available to users on demand via the Internet from a cloud computing provider's servers as opposed to being provided from a company's own on-premises servers. Cloud services are designed to provide easy, scalable access to applications, resources and services, and are fully managed by a cloud services provider.

Collaboration Space - Collaboration Space is a type of notebook in Office 365's Class Notebook app. It is a notebook for all students and the teacher in the class to share, organize, and collaborate.

Contact - Contacts are like electronic cards that store a person's information. A contact can be as basic as a name and email address, or include more information like a street address, multiple phone numbers, and a photo. 

Contact group - A contact group -- formerly called "distribution list" -- is a group of contacts that you can send messages, meeting requests and tasks requests.

Contact Group/List - A contact group/list is a personal group which is stored in your Contacts folder and can contain entries from your personal Contacts and from the Global Address List (GAL).

Content Library - A Content Library is a type of notebook in Office 365's Class Notebook app. It is a notebook for teachers to share course materials with students. Teachers can add and edit its materials, but for students, the notebook is read-only.

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Delegate - Someone granted permission to interact with another person's Microsoft 365 account (email, calendar, address book, etc). This can include reading, writing, modifying, and deleting items.

Domain  - In email addresses, the domain is the part of an email address comes after the @ symbol. For example, for the email address of "epanther@uwm.edu", the domain is "uwm.edu".

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Email Address - An email address identifies the account to which messages should be delivered (e.g., ppounce@uwm.edu). An account can have multiple email addresses. Each account in Microsoft 365 has only one primary address, but an account can have multiple alternate addresses. An account will accept email for any email address on the account.

Exchange Protocol - A service similar to IMAP, POP3, and ActiveSync which works to transfer and synchronize email/calendar information between the server and the end user's user.

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Free/Busy

Free/busy is a determination of whether there is a calendar event in a given time slot. Free designates time slots without events and busy designates time slots that are taken up in a person's calendar. Any account within Office 365 will have the ability to view free/busy information against any other Office 365 account.

Full Access - In Microsoft 365, this permission allows a delegate to open the mailbox as well as create and modify items in it. The Send As permission allows anyone other than the mailbox owner to send email from this shared mailbox. Both permissions are required for successful shared mailbox operation. 

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Global Address List (GAL) - The Global Address List (GAL) is the address look up feature in Microsoft 365. It contains email addresses for individuals and resources, excluding those that are hidden. Microsoft 365 uses the Global Address List to supply email addresses when you are composing a message or inviting individuals to meetings.

Group - A group is a shared workspace for email, conversations, files, and calendar events where group members can conveniently collaborate and quickly get stuff done. 

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Hyperlink - Highlighted text or picture in a data file or Web page that you can click on with a computer mouse to go to another place in the same or a different document or Web page.

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IMAP Protocol - Internet Message Access Protocol is a protocol for e-mail retrieval and storage (IMAP).

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Linked Accounts - A 'linked' account is an account that your ePanther ID has been provided access to.  An ePanther ID can be "linked" to any number of other accounts, simplifying the login process for users and providing much needed affiliation between accounts. Linked access to an account also provides other privileges such as consolidating. 

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Microsoft 365 (Email and Calendaring System) - Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based service provided by Microsoft. Currently, UW-Madison's implementation includes email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and more collaboration apps. 

Microsoft 365 Account - The location in the Microsoft 365 system where your email, calendar, task list, and address book are stored. Each Microsoft 365 account has one primary address, but can have many alternate addresses.

Microsoft Online - Office Online (previously Office Web Apps) is an online office suite offered by Microsoft, which allows users to create and edit files using lightweight, web browser-based versions of Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. The offering also includes Outlook, People, Calendar and OneDrive for Business, all of which are accessible from a unified app switcher (Outlook on the web).

Offline Data File (OST) - Typically, when you use a Microsoft Exchange Server account (Microsoft 365 account), your email messages, calendar, and other items are delivered to and saved on the server. You can configure Outlook to keep a local copy of your items on your computer in an Outlook data file that is named an offline Outlook Data File (.ost). This allows you to use Cached Exchange Mode or to work offline when a connection to the Microsoft 365 (Exchange) computer may not be possible or wanted. The .ost file is synchronized with the Microsoft 365 (Exchange) computer when a connection is available.

OneDrive - OneDrive (previously SkyDrive, Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Folders) is a file hosting service that allows users to upload and sync files to a cloud storage and then access them from a Web browser or their local device.

OneNote - OneNote is a digital note-taking app that allows users to upload and sync files to a cloud storage and then access them from a Web browser or their local device

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Outlook 2016 for Windows - Microsoft Outlook 2013 is an e-mail user and personal information manager (PIM) that's available as part of Microsoft's Office suite. It is part of the Office suite for Windows and can be used to view email, calendar, contacts, and more.

Outlook 2016 for Mac - Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Mac is an e-mail user and personal information manager (PIM) that's available as part of Microsoft's Office suite. It is the latest version of Outlook for the Mac OS and can be used to view email, calendar, contacts, and more.

Outlook Data File (PST)  - A Personal Folders file (.pst) is an Outlook data file that stores your messages and other items on your computer. This is the most common file in which information in Outlook is saved by home users or in small organizations. The most common types of accounts are referred to by their Internet protocol names -- POP3 and IMAP. Another type of account is an HTTP or web-based account that works similar to IMAP email accounts. All three account types use a .pst file.

Outlook Profile - A profile is what Outlook uses to remember the e-mail accounts and the settings that tell Outlook where your e-mail is stored.

Outlook Web App - Service for accessing your Microsoft 365 account via web browser.

 

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Permissions - In Microsoft 365, permissions allow access to another individual's mail, calendars, and contacts. For example, if User A wanted the ability to modify events in User B's calendar, User B would need to assign read/write/modify permissions to User A.

POP3/POP - Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail users to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.

Primary Address - In Microsoft 365, your primary address is the email address associated with your Microsoft 365 account that will appear as your "From" address on emails and calendar invites. It will also appear as a result in the address look up feature in Office 365. For further information, click here.

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Resource account - In Outlook Calendar, a resource account is a non-person account that can be classified as either "room" or "equipment". Examples can include meeting/conference rooms, audio-visual equipment, or vacation calendars. Individuals must be granted permissions to interact with a resource account.

Rules - A feature in Outlook  which allows you to take some action when a message arrives into your account or when you are sending a message. Examples of potential actions include move/copy/delete, mark with a category/read/importance, or forward/redirect.

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Send As - In Office 365, this permission allows users other than the mailbox owner to use the mailbox to send messages. After this permission is assigned to a delegate, any message that a delegate sends from this mailbox will appear as if it was sent by the mailbox owner. However, this permission doesn't allow a delegate to sign in to the user's mailbox.

Send on Behalf - In Office 365, this permission allows a delegate to use this mailbox to send messages. However, after this permission is assigned to a delegate, the From address in any message sent by the delegate indicates that the message was sent by the delegate on behalf of the mailbox owner.

Service Account - Office 365 accounts that are intended to be used for shared/changing roles (info, secretary, webmaster, newsletter, feedback, etc.) or service/programmatic access (printers, copiers, mailers). These accounts can be accessed via a linked NetID or by using the service account's direct username/password. More information about the types of accounts available in Office 365 can be found here

SharePoint - SharePoint is a web application framework and platform which integrates intranet, content management, and document management. You can use it as a secure place to store, organize, share, and access information from almost any device. SharePoint is currently not available within UW-Madison's implementation of Office 365.