Microsoft Office Communicator 2007
The Office Communicator 2007 Environment
Office Communicator 2007 is an instant messaging (IM) program that allows you to directly contact other co-workers or students if they are online. IM is another form of communication (e.g., email) that can have great impact on your productivity and efficiency by letting you communicate with others more readily. The Office Communicator 2007 environment makes finding commands and tools easy. For example, many basic tasks (e.g., changing your Status Indicator) are conveniently placed on the interface instead of tucked away in a sub-menu. This document will explain the basic features of the Communicator 2007 environment.
The Communicator Window
The Communicator 2007 window consists of four main features: the Status Indicator, Notes, Contact List, and the Search box.
The following image shows where each feature is located on the Communicator window.
Description of Features
The Status Indicator, Notes, Contact List, and Search box are features of Communicator 2007 that can help you communicate more effectively with co-workers and students. The following are descriptions of the four features.
Status Indicator
The Status Indicator shows your availability and that of each contact on your Contact List. It also reflects your Outlook calendar. For example, if you have something scheduled on your calendar, your Status Indicator in Communicator will automatically change to Busy. However, you can manually set/change your status should you want your contacts to feel they can contact you via IM.
Your Status Indicator is the large colored icon in the top left corner of the Communicator window. The Status Indicator for each contact appears before their names in the Contact List.
The following are the available Status Indicators. For more information, refer to Using the Status Indicator.
NOTE: Some Status Indicators are set automatically by the program and cannot be manually selected (e.g., Offline).
| Status Indicator | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Available | The contact is online and is available for communication. |
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Busy | The contact is online but is preoccupied with another activity (e.g., a meeting) and is unavailable for communication. NOTE: During the times that you have meetings scheduled on Outlook, your Status Indicator will change to this icon. |
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Do Not Disturb | The contact has manually set their status to Do Not Disturb. |
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Be Right Back / Away | The contact is online but has not been active on his/her computer for a period of time so Communicator 2007 assumes that the contact is not present and automatically changes the Status Indicator from Available to Away. NOTE: This Status Indicator can also be set manually. |
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Inactive | The contact is online but has not been active on his/her computer for a period of time. The status is transitioning to Away. NOTE: This is automatically set by Communicator 2007. |
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Busy (Inactive) | The contact is scheduled for a meeting and has been inactive on his/her computer for a period of time. The status is transitioning to Away. NOTE: This is automatically set by Communicator 2007. |
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Offline | The contact is no longer online because he/she has signed off or shut down the program. NOTE: This is automatically set by Communicator 2007. |
Notes
The Notes function gives your contacts more information about your current availability. For example, if you are busy now but will be free in an hour, you can type "Free in one hour" in your note to let your contacts know. Also, your contact(s) may also have a note (e.g., displaying why they may or may not be free). Using and viewing Notes will help you more effectively communicate with others so that your productivity can be maximized. For more information, refer to Using Notes.
HINT: An effective note will be limited to 1 or 2 short sentences.
Contact List
The Contact List displays all the contacts that you have. It also displays any groups that you have created (e.g., Project Team). If you have groups, you can choose to expand or collapse them in the Contact List. For more information, refer to Managing Contacts.
Search Box
The Search box in Communicator 2007 can be used to find and add contacts from the Active Directory to your Contact List. Once a name has been typed and you have pressed [Enter], a Search Results pane will appear under the Search box with the matching results. For more information, refer to Using the Search Box.
