Greetings! Welcome to issue #16 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.
Today's highlights:
Regular features:
Internet Mail Enhancement Patch for Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft posted a controversial update for Outlook this week. The Internet Mail Enhancement Patch (IMEP) adds much demanded features like leaving messages on the server, multiple POP3 accounts and Internet-style quoting. It also fixes more than a few bugs with the Internet Mail transport.
However, it doesn't work for everyone. And, when Microsoft giveth, sometimes it taketh away. For example, IMEP doesn't support scheduled e-mail sessions for modem connections or Remote Mail sessions for LAN connections.
Still, my recommendation is that, if you want some of the standard Internet mailer features that the Internet Mail service doesn't support, give IMEP a try. Before you do, though, get all the details from our page at http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/olimep1.htm. You will be able to uninstall it and go back to Internet Mail, as long as you have an Office 97 or Outlook CD or you back up your old Minet32.dll file. There are workarounds for most of the problems, and Microsoft is aware of the need to get fixes out fast.
I am going to get on the soapbox a moment and say that Microsoft dropped the ball with IMEP. Testing before its public release should have turned up the problems tied to specific types of SMTP servers. Also, it was labeled as a "preview," which is supposed to mean that it's even earlier than a beta. Well, that's a new term to me, and probably to you, too. (The MSKB articles, by the way, all call IMEP "beta" software.)
I'm hoping that the rushed release is a side effect of the consolidaton of Exchange, Outlook and Internet Mail and News (now Outlook Express) development under one roof in Redmond and that they'll learn from the experience and do better next time. David Goodhand, Microsoft Outlook group product planning manager, has already said in the newsgroups that they want to put together a solid team of beta testers for Outlook and do a survey to find out what add-ons people are using and would like to have. Watch this space for further developments.
More network faxing for everyone
Last week, we told you about LanFax 5.0 (http://www.alcom.com/products/50/download.htm), an NT Server application that includes a MAPI transport for Exchange. As is often the case, we've found another application that does the same thing and even more. Active Voice has released ViewMail, a MAPI transport for its Repartee voice mail and fax server (http://www.activevoice.com/avhome/avsolut/product/vmm.htm) . I haven't been able to track down pricing for ViewMail/Repartee or find a demo version, so it's not easy to compare the two. But I'm always glad to see alternative products, especially in this area of network faxing.
How to change the Outlook reply format
Widget wizard Ben Goetter, author of Developing Microsoft Exchange Applications with C++, has cracked the secret of how to change the font in the IMEP reply header and quote marks and both the font and layout of Outlook's regular reply format.
The secret is in the Headers folder, under \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office. You'll find several pairs of .rtf and .usa files there. (Do non-English versions have something other than .usa files, we wonder?) Make backups of Reply.rtf and Reply.usa before you start.
Now, open Reply.rtf in Word or WordPad. It looks like this:
Look familiar? To change the font for IMEP's quoting from 8pt Arial to something else, just change the font of the "...Original Message..." line. If you don't use IMEP, feel free to experiment even more -- changing the order of the fields, formatting, and so on. (You did make a backup, didn't you?)
Once you've made changes, use File | Save to save Reply.rtf, then File | Save As to save it again as Reply.usa. You'll see the new look the very next time you reply to a message.
You'll find similar editable header documents for folder posts, forwarded messages, appointments and tasks.
Staxx for Office 97 links documents and scanned items to Microsoft Outlook Contacts records.
Outlook Agenda Sync 0.2b for Psion PDAs adds calendar synchronization and fixes the "silent alarm" bug.
We have partial info on several new voice mail, security, PDA sync, conversion and other tools that we hope to be able to share with you soon. Also, more books have come in for review, including Que's hot off the presses Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 97, by Gordon Padwick. I was very excited to see Helen Feddema as the contributor of three chapters on developing Outlook applications with forms, Visual Basic Script and the Outlook Object Model. You'll find a number of Helen's sample applications at the Outlook Resource Site at U.S. East, , which has become the top Outlook design site.
Get the answers from the Microsoft Exchange, Windows Messaging and Microsoft Outlook FAQs at http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/faqs.htm.
The Microsoft Outlook FAQ has been updated with a new Table of Contents to help you find answers faster. New and updated items are at the bottom of the page.
Ask new questions and provide other feedback for the Slipstick Systems Exchange Center FAQs at http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/faqfdbk.htm.
ISSN 1523-7990
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