How to use Outlook
You can find information on how to use Outlook on the Microsoft Support Website.
Outlook settings on Hwb
There are 3 e-mail tenancy options for learners, which can now be applied at a school year group level by the Hwb administrator through the User Management Portal.
Unrestricted email
This setting allows learners to send and receive e-mails from all e-mail accounts (inside and outside the Hwb tenancy, such as world-wide).
Hwb restricted email
Learners may only send and receive e-mails from other @hwbcymru.net users (such as in school, school to school, across local authorities and across Wales). ‘Hwb closed tenant’ is the recommended setting for all secondary schools.
School restricted email
Once this is applied, learners in your school will only be able to send and receive e-mails from other @hwbcymru.net users in their school. ‘School closed tenant’ is the recommended setting for all non-secondary schools.
How to apply tenancy options on Hwb
Hwb Administrators can apply any one of these tenancy options for each individual year group. This will only affect learner accounts. Staff accounts will always be set to an open e-mail tenant.
- Log in to Hwb and go to User Management.
- Click Administration: Learner email settings.
- Select the button for each year group next to the tenancy option you would like to apply for that year group.
- Click Update Tenant.
- Are you sure? Click on cancel or confirm.
How to apply tenancy options to specific learners
Hwb administrators can prevent specific learners from sending or receiving any emails.
- Log in to Hwb and go to User Management.
- Click Administration: Learner email settings.
- Scroll down to the ‘Individual learner controls’ section and enter the Hwb username, such as email address of the learner into the ‘Enter username’ field.
- From the drop down list, select the appropriate restriction you wish to apply to the learner, for example unrestricted email, Hwb restricted email or school restricted email.
- Click the Set individual email setting button.
- Are you sure? Click on cancel or confirm.
- A list of restricted learners will appear enabling you to manage the restrictions applied.
How to block learners from sending messages
Hwb administrators can block specific learners from sending any emails. Applying this setting has no effect on the learner receiving emails (in accordance with the applied schools Outlook settings).
- Log in to Hwb and go to User Management.
- Click Administration: Learner email settings.
- Scroll down to the ‘Blocked senders’ section and enter the Hwb username i.e. email address of the learner into the ‘Enter username’ field.
- Click the Add learner to blocked senders list button.
- Are you sure? Click on cancel or confirm.
- A list of blocked learners will appear enabling you to manage the restrictions applied.
These change will take effect within 24 hours.
Recovering deleted items
When you delete an email message, contact, calendar item, or task, it's moved to the Deleted Items folder.
- Log in to Hwb and navigate to the Outlook application in Microsoft 365.
- Click on Deleted Items (in the left hand panel). All deleted items are listed.
- To restore an email message, do one of the following:
- to restore a message to your inbox: right-click the message: Move: Inbox
- to restore a message to a different folder: right-click the message: Move: Move to a different folder: choose a folder location: Move
To restore other types of items:
- restore a Contact: right-click on it: Move to Contacts
- restore a Calendar event: right-click on it: Move to Calendar
- restore a Task: right-click on it: Move to Tasks
Shared mailboxes
A shared mailbox allows a group of users to view and send e-mail from a common mailbox. A shared mailbox doesn't have a username and password, so users cannot log in to it directly. A user must sign in to their own mailbox and then open the shared mailbox using Send As permissions. In schools, a Hwb administrator is able to create shared mailboxes.
Shared mailboxes can be created with the format: DfESnumber_mailboxname@hwbcymru.net. For example: 6661234_ office@hwbcymru.net
- Log in to Hwb and click on User Management.
- Click Administration: View Shared Mailboxes. If there are existing shared mailboxes, they will be listed here.
- Click Add Shared Mailbox and the following message will appear:
“A shared mailbox allows a group of users to view and send e-mail from a common mailbox. A shared mailbox doesn't have a username and password, so users cannot log on to it directly. A user must sign in to his or her own mailbox and then open the shared mailbox using Send As permissions”. - In the Mailbox Name field, enter the name you would like to give this mailbox. Click Add +.
The e-mail address will appear as DfESnumber_mailboxname@hwbcymru.net. For example: 6661234_office@hwbcymru.net
Once you have created a shared mailbox, you will need to give relevant users in your school access to this mailbox.
- Click Manage Access: Add User to Mailbox.
- Search for relevant users by username and add them one at a time.
Shared mailbox users can be school staff or local authority staff with Hwb administrator or Administrator privileges for that school.
Adding the shared mailbox to desktop Outlook client
- Launch the Outlook app.
- Click File: Account Settings: New.
- Add the shared mailbox name in the e-mail field example@example.com
- When you are asked to sign in, choose sign in with different account.
- Sign in with your Hwb username and password, for example bloggsj@hwbcymru.net
- Click Ok.
- Restart Outlook.
Domain name masking
Domain name masking enables schools to purchase a domain name of their choice (for example villageprimaryschool.cymru) and use this to mask their @hwbcymru.net e-mails.
For example, bloggsj@hwbcymru.net would be masked as bloggsj@villageprimaryschool.cymru.
There are 4 domain name masking options available to schools for staff accounts and shared mailboxes:
- hwbusername@yourschooldomain, for example: BloggsJ@schooldomain.cymru
- firstname.lastname@yourschooldomain, for example: Joe.Bloggs@schooldomain.cymru
- Firstnameinitial.lastname@yourschooldomain, for example: J.Bloggs@schooldomain.cymru
- Shared mailboxes only, domain name masking will only be applied to shared mailboxes created via the User Management Portal.
There is no option to add domain name masking to learner accounts.
How to apply for domain name masking
Contact the Hwb Service Desk by emailing support@hwbcymru.net or calling 03000 25 25 25.
- If you haven’t yet purchased a domain, the Service Desk will refer you to your local authority IT support, who will assist you with purchasing a domain.
- Once you have purchased the domain, the Service Desk will work with your local authority IT support to apply this domain to your school’s @hwbcymru.net e-mails.
- If you have already purchased a domain, the Service Desk will advise you on the necessary changes that will need to be made to your MX Records. These changes can either be made by a Network Manager in your school or by the local authority.
Mail distribution lists
A mail distribution list can be used to send emails to a group of people without having to enter each recipient’s individual address in the email ‘To’ list.
Examples of distribution lists
- Headteacher could email all of the staff in a school.
- Head of year could email all year 9 pupils in a school.
- Hwb administrator could email all the administrators in a school.
- Local authority representative could email all governors in the authority.
School Hwb administrators and admins can create mail distribution lists in the user management portal. The administrators can:
- create a mail distribution list (from a pre-defined list)
- manage who owns the mail distribution list
- manage the list of users who are approved to send emails to the mail distribution list
- remove the mail distribution list
Careful consideration should be given to who has permission to send emails to each mail distribution list, as the number of recipients could be large.
The Owner or 'Approved Senders' can be any school staff or local authority staff with Hwb administrator privileges for that school.
Types of mail distribution lists that can be created
School administrators: distribution list options
School Hwb administrators can create the following mail distribution lists.
| School list type | Email address (example) |
|---|---|
| School Staff | 6771234_School_Staff@hwbcymru.net |
| School Hwb administrators | 6771234_Digital_Champions@hwbcymru.net |
| School governors | 6771234_School_Governors@hwbcymru.net |
| School teaching staff | 6771234_Teachers@hwbcymru.net |
| School teaching assistants | 6771234_Teaching_Assistants@hwbcymru.net |
| School office administrators | 6771234_Office_Administrators@hwbcymru.net |
| Learner year group | 6771234_Year_10@hwbcymru.net |
If the school has a custom domain name, then this will replace @hwbcymru.net and the School ID prefix will not be used.
Local authoritity administrators: distribution list options
Local authority admins can create the following mail distribution lists:
| LA list type | Email address (example) |
|---|---|
| All LA School Staff | LA_School_Staff@hwbcymru.net |
| All LA Hwb administrators | LA_Digital_Champions@hwbcymru.net |
| All LA Governors | LA_Governors@hwbcymru.net |
| All LA Headteachers | LA_Headteachers@hwbcymru.net |
| All LA teachers | LA_Teachers@hwbcymru.net |
| All LA Office Admins | LA_Office_Admins@hwbcymru.net |
| All LA Office Admins | LA_Teaching_Assistants@hwbcymru.net |
Creating and managing distribution lists
How to create a mail distribution list
- Login to Hwb and go to User Management.
- Select View Mail Distribution Lists from the administration drop-down.
- Click blue Add Mail Distribution List button.
- Select the required List Type from the drop-down.
- Change the Owner to the required Hwb User (NB default will be the requestor’s user id).
- Click Add List.
- Check the details and click Confirm (or go back).
The status of the request is shown on the next screen (Pending). It can take up to 24 hours for the mail distribution list to be available for use.
How to manage owners and approved senders for a mail distribution list
The owner of a distribution list will automatically be added to the list of approved senders.
- Login to Hwb and go to User Management.
- Select View Mail Distribution Lists from the administration drop-down.
- Click Manage next to the appropriate mail distribution list.
Remove an approved sender
- Click the red x next to the user name, click OK.
Add an approved sender
- Click Add, input full or partial username in the search box.
- Click Search, double click username from search results.
Change owner
- Click Change.
- Input full or partial username in the search box, click Search.
- Double click username from search results.
- click Update, then OK.
The status of the request is shown on the next screen (Pending Update).
It can take up to 24 hours for the provisioning service to pick this request up and for the mail distribution list to be amended.
How to add an external approved sender for a mail distribution list
This functionality is only available to local authority wide distribution lists.
- Login to Hwb and go to User Management.
- Select View Mail Distribution Lists from the administration drop-down.
- Click Manage next to the appropriate Mail Distribution List.
- To add an external approved sender, check the external sender box.
- Input the full email address of the external sender in the box provided and press enter.
- Repeat the above step to add more approved external senders.
- Click Update, then OK.
The status of the request is shown on the next screen (Pending Update). It can take up to 24 hours for the provisioning service to pick this request up and for the mail distribution list to be amended.
Sending an email to distribution lists
How to send an email to a mail distribution list which allows recipients to reply to the sender.
This method will allow recipients of the email to reply back to your email address but will block them from replying to the whole mail distribution list. This is useful if you want feedback or a response from recipients or the distribution list is small.
- Click New Message (or New Email from Desktop).
- Type the full Mail Distribution List email address in to the 'Bcc’ panel (or search for the Mail Distribution List in your contacts / address list).
- Type your message and click Send.
For all mail distribution lists it is recommended to use the ‘Bcc’ panel instead of the ‘To’ panel. This prevents the recipients from being able to see the full list of recipients.
How to send an email to a Mail Distribution List which prevents recipients from replying to the sender
This method uses “send on behalf” of the mail distribution list functionality. This will block recipients of the email from replying back to your email address and will block them from replying to the whole mail distribution list.
This is useful for large distribution lists as multiple responses to your personal Hwb email account can be frustrating.
- Click New Message (or New Email from Desktop).
- Web Outlook: click the 3 dots “…” on the email tool bar next to Discard.
- Select Show From (the From panel should appear above To panel).
- Click From, and select Other email addresses.
- Type the full Mail Distribution List email address in to the ‘From’ panel (or search for the Mail Distribution List in your contacts / address list).
- Type the full Mail Distribution List email address in to the ‘Bcc’ panel (or search for the Mail Distribution List in your contacts / address list).
- Type your message and click Send.
For all mail distribution lists it is recommended to use the ‘Bcc’ panel instead of the ‘To’ panel. This prevents the recipients from being able to see the full list of recipients.
School timetable sync
How to synchronise your timetable from your school’s MIS (SIMS) data to your users’ (staff and learners) Hwb Outlook calendar or Hwb Google calendar
Your Hwb administrator can enable this through the User Management Portal.
Once enabled, this will apply to all MIS staff and learners in your school. Timetable events from your MIS (SIMS) data will be synced for a rolling period of 6 weeks for staff and 3 weeks for learners.
These events will be updated every time the provisioning service runs for your school.
Hwb administrators in secondary schools can enable this for your school, they will need to follow these steps to enable.
- Login to to Hwb, go to User Management.
- Select Timetable Sync in the Administration dropdown.
- Select to Sync timetable events to Hwb Outlook Calendar or Hwb Google Calendar.
- Select Welsh or English for the preferred language of event details for your school.
- Click Enable Sync.
Once set, the timetable will sync events into your staff and learners’ personal Hwb calendars, the next time the provisioning client runs for your school.
Please note once configured, you should contact Support@hwbcymru.net if you need to change any of these settings.