2.4 Outlook Plugin

Open Outlook and a new tab will appear on the ribbon called: Retain.

The first time you start Outlook after the installation of the plugin there will be a dialog box that appears asking for your login credentials.

2.4.1 Outlook Account Setup

If necessary, you may need to set your account information in the Download Settings|Account Settings section of the ribbon.

To enter your log-in credentials:

  1. Go to the Retain tab

  2. Select "Download settings"

  3. Then click the "Account settings" button

    1. Enter your Username which is your logon name from Active Directory (AD) for Exchange including the domain (George@gwava.com) or your username from GroupWise (George).

    2. Enter your password.

    3. Select the messaging system you wish to connect to.

  4. Then click Save.

NOTE:It is not recommended to exceed 3 months or 5000 messages, because the file becomes too large for Outlook to serve.

2.4.2 Retain Archive

The Retain Archive button is simply a portal to the Retain web interface.

A new folder called Retain Archive will also be created at the Inbox level of your local folder. This will allow you to Browse or Search your Retain archive mailbox.

2.4.3 Retain Download

Once the connection is made a new folder will show up in your left sidebar. It will be labeled "Retain Download" which gives you access to your Retain archive mailbox.

Outlook will download a copy your archived messages to your local drive, just like a normal Exchange archive mailbox. Depending on the settings you chose in the Download Settings (see Figure 1).

This can be very useful after a migration (for example, from GroupWise to Exchange). You can choose to download the messages Retain archived from the GroupWise system so you can see them in Outlook.

The Retain Download folder does not allow you to move messages between folders, an error dialog box will appear. Retain is not a email management system, it is only archiving.

Automatic download is useful for having easy access to past emails you have removed from Exchange to keep your inbox clean.

2.4.4 Retain Search

This is the main function of the Retain Outlook Plug-In, and what you use most often.

There are two ways to do a Retain search: Quick Search and the Retain Search button.

Quick Search

Quick Search will perform a search on the last 6 months of messages in your Retain Download Folder on your workstation. The results will be shown in the Retain search results folder. This is different from Outlook's search which only applies to messages that are on your local computer.

Retain Search Button Easy Search

With the Retain Search button the Easy search is as simple as it gets, you give it a keyword and a date range and it will search To:, From:, Subject:, and message contents fields for the keyword. By default "To date" will be today's date and the "From date" will be 6 months ago. Clicking on the calendar icon will allow you change the dates.

Retain Search Button Advanced Search

With the Retain Search button the Advanced search allows for more precision in how you search for a message. This is very useful if you know who it came from or where a particular keyword is or when it was sent.

You can use the various fields to narrow the search focus.

Search In

  • Content

  • Sender email

  • Sender name

  • Recipients

  • Subject

  • File name

Condition

  • Contains (exact)

  • Contains (fuzzy) (not recommended for use)

  • Starts with

  • Ends with

  • Does not contain

Keyword

  • This is the word you are looking for.

Connector

  • AND (returns messages that contain all of the keywords)

  • OR (returns messages that contain any of the keywords)

  • By default, the "To date" is be today's date and the "From date" will be 6 months ago. Clicking on the calendar icon will allow you change the dates.

2.4.5 Outlook Search

If you have used Retain Download and had your archived messages downloaded into Outlook. You can then use Outlook’s search to further refine your search. For example, if you remembered you received a spreadsheet at the end of last quarter, you could download items from the archive from that time period and then use Outlook’s built-in search capability to find the word “cook” because you remember that was part of the message.

Outlook Calendar

Retain archives calendar items and it can be shown side-by-side to your Exchange calendar.

Click the checkbox to enable the Retain Download calendar.

Outlook Tasks

Retain archives Tasks

Select the Retain Download Task list to see items stored in Retain.

Outlook Notes

Retain archives Notes.

Select the Retain Download Notes list to see items stored in Retain.

2.4.6 Other buttons under the Retain tab

The Retain ribbon has a number of available functions. These may be restricted by your System Administrator.

The other buttons under the Retain tab:

  • Retain Archive will open your Retain archive mailbox in your browser.

  • Retain download will manually download messages from Retain if you want to update right now.

  • Quick search will perform a search of the last 6 months of your downloaded messages.

  • Plugin settings is where you set the URL to the Retain Server and other settings like Language. Generally, only your system Administrator will need to change these settings.

  • Download settings allows you to customize how many and how often messages are downloaded.

  • About tells you which version of the plugin is installed.

Download Settings

From this dialog box you can set certain behaviors for the Retain Outlook Plugin.

Download: The number of Days, Weeks, Months, or Years of data to download can be set. Default, 5 Months

Messages Older than: How many days back that can be ignored can be set as well. For example, you might want to look back into the archive for 3 months of items but you don't need the last 30 days. Default, 0 Days.

Limit the Number of Messages to: How many messages to download to you workstation. Outlook does not like to deal with very large local storage files so it is best to keep this number small. Default, 50 messages.

Limit the Search Results to: This will limit the number of messages downloaded after a search. Default, 500 messages

Filter by the Type of the Message: You can restrict the plugin to Mail, Appointments, Notes, and/or Tasks. With this optioned checked, you will have to check which items are to be downloaded. Default, all unchecked, so all items will be downloaded.

Clear Local Archive: This will empty the local archive folder on your workstation of all items, and folders except the default set of folders. To remove all folders the plugin will need to be uninstalled.

Plugin Settings

This dialog box allows more general changes to the Retain Plugin.

Retain Server URL: This is the IP address or Host name of the Retain Server where the archive is stored. Your system administrator will provide or set this for you.

Retain Download: This allows the plugin to add the Retain Download folders to Outlook.

Retain archive: This enables the Retain Archive button that opens your Retain archive mailbox.

If Outlook Integration is enabled:

Synchronize on Startup: When Outlook starts up, the plugin will check for new items in the Retain Archive.

Auto-Synchronize Every "3" Hours: The plugin will check for new items in the Retain archive every 3 hours by default.

Language

You can select the following languages for display in the Outlook interface:

Czeck

German

English

Spanish

French

Dutch

2.4.7 Uninstall Retain Outlook client Plugin

To uninstall the plugin

  1. Go to right-click (Win7/8) Start | Control Panel | Programs | Uninstall a program or (Win10) Start | Apps and Features

  2. Select the Retain Outlook Plugin

  3. Choose Uninstall.