Introducing Outlook Live Answers

We are pleased to announce the release of Outlook Live Answers.  This forum and blog site provides Live@edu Outlook Live administrators and end-users with a friendly “Q&A” forum to quickly find answers to their questions and for administrators to get dynamic information about their Outlook Live service.

The site complements our help.outlook.com product documentation and will extend and replace our chalktalk DL. Instead of dispersing information in DLs, use of the forum by you and your student, faculty, and alumni end users will enable us to build a knowledge base that is available 24 hours a day.  There is also an administrator section, so you can continue to connect with your peers on administrative issues just as you do today on chalktalk. 

One particular exciting feature is a new Status and Alert system used to notify Outlook Live customers of service issues.   This update, located at http://outlookliveanswers.com/servicestatus.aspx, replaces the manual external blog approach we have previously used and allows us deliver targeted service information about your specific account

How does it work?

The Outlook live answers site provides end-users with a “Q&A” interface into the forums:

As you start typing, we look for answers in the forums. If you want to ask a question, just click the “Ask” link. Users can share solutions by clicking on “Share” to find unanswered forum threads where they can share their knowledge with the community!           

The Status and Alert System provides you with information on your account.  To use it, simply sign in to Outlook Live Answers with your Live@edu LiveID and if there is an issue, you will see an alert notification at the top of the home page as well as more detailed information on the dedicated Service Status page.  By signing in with your Live@edu Admin LiveID, you will see additional details that aren’t relevant to your end users.

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How to participate

Visit our site at www.outlookliveanswers.com sign in with your LiveID, create a site account name (this will be used as your display name) and explore! If you are your school’s Live@edu administrator, then please sign in using your Live@edu Admin LiveID to take full advantage of the Status and Alerts system.  Also, don’t forget to visit the specific forums section for Outlook Live administrators where you can post questions exactly as you ask them today using the chalktalk DL.

We’ll keep the chalktalk DL alive for a short period of time to enable the transition, and send reminders regarding the new site regularly.