Greetings! Welcome to issue #11 of Exchange Messaging Outlook (formerly Exchange Center Update), an occasional newsletter about Microsoft Exchange, Windows Messaging and Microsoft Outlook, both for users of Windows 95 and NT 4.0 and for organizations using Exchange Server.

If you're a regular reader, you'll probably shocked to get #11 so soon after #10, but several exciting things have happened in the past few days that I just couldn't wait to share.

Apologies for the lack of RTF in last couple of issues. I’m sending to everyone in RTF, but it’s getting turned off somewhere along the line and I can’t figure out why. Perhaps it’s an Outlook quirk.

Today's highlights: 

Regular features:

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 RTMs

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 was released to manufacturing this week. It should be in the boxes ready for shipping in about 3 weeks. In the meantime, you'll be able to download a 120-day promotional version from the Microsoft web site, possibly by the end of next week.

Watch for new stuff at the Microsoft Exchange Server Community site to help get things going.

Internet Mail Enhancement Patch for Microsoft Outlook

In our last issue, we told you about the changes coming for the Internet Mail service, thanks in part to convergence at work between the Microsoft Outlook crew and the developers of the standalone Internet Mail and News program. The plan is to include these improvements:

  1. Support for multiple POP3 accounts in one profile
  2. Improved support for storing messages on POP3 servers
  3. Standard reply-ticking with "|" or ">" characters
  4. Easier viewing of full message headers
  5. Improved interoperability with other MIME e-mail products. Specifically, improving MIME support so that other products do not show an "=" at the end of every line, or do not show the entire message as a single line.
  6. Correct icons in the message view list for messages that you have read.
  7. Remove erroneous sending of WINMAIL.DAT attachment.

There will be a public beta. My big question is whether this update willl be for Microsoft Outloook users only, or whether users of Microsoft Exchange/Windows Messaging can also benefit. I'll post additional information at http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/olimep1.htm as we find out more.

Shared Address Book from AltaVista!

About a year ago, I predicted that someone would develop a robust shared address book for Microsoft Exchange, especially for organizations that aren't planning to move to Microsoft Exchange Server. It took longer than I expected, but there finally is such a product -- AltaVista Directory 97.

I'm downloading the demo version (8-10mb) even as I type this, so I can't give you any firsthand experience yet, but the feature list is impressive. A few highlights:

This is not shareware. The price (which took quite a few clicks on the Digital web site to locate) is listed as $495 for a 250-user license and $3995 for an unlimited user license.

Worldwide Exchange and Outlook Users Party

With so much to celebrate -- RTM for Exchange Server 5.0 and the release of my book, The Microsoft Exchange User's Handbook -- it's time for a party! Join me March 7-9 at http://www.slipstick.com/handbook for the Worldwide Exchange and Outlook Users Party. We'll have fun discussions (no tech support allowed) and a guest book for you to sign. I'll give away a couple of copies of my book for the best stories posted.

Using Outlook to Extract a Distribution List

The Microsoft Outlook Contacts folder cannot contain distribution lists. You may want to keep the Personal Address Book installed in your profile and maintain personal distribution lists there. The members of your distribution list can be added from either the Outlook Address Book or Personal Address Book or as one-time addresses.

Alternatively, you can use the Microsoft Outlook filter function for managing lists. Create a category for each list, then assign that category to every contact that you want to be on a particular list. To send to the list, filter the Contacts folder to show only the names with the list's category, then select all those contacts and drag them to the Inbox icon to create a message to the list. The main problem with this method is that, if a contact has more than one e-mail address (or e-mail and fax numbers), you have no opportunity to select which one to use. All the recipient's addresses are added to the message; it's up to you to delete the duplicates.

Here's a somewhat tedious method for moving a distribution list from a Personal Address Book to the Outlook Contacts folder:

  1. Make a copy of the .pab file.
  2. Create a new profile using a fresh, empty Personal Folders file and the copy of the PAB. You don't need any transports.
  3. Open the Address Book to view the PAB.
  4. Delete everything in the PAB except the distribution list.
  5. Use File | Import and Export to import the PAB into the Contacts folder. Each DL member should appear as a separate contact entry.
  6. Select all entries in the Contacts folder and assign a category to them.
  7. Use File | Open Special Folder to open the Contacts folder from your mailbox or main Personal Folders file, then move the contacts from the distribution list to it.

FAQ review

Get the answers from the Microsoft Exchange, Windows Messaging and Microsoft Outlook FAQs at http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/faqs.htm. I'm adding to the Outlook FAQ several times a week.

Other FAQs of note:

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