Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 3, No. 7, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, 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 Microsoft Exchange Server.
This issue is way, way overdue. The past few weeks have flown by, but the work in my lab has been very rewarding. I have been working with Outlook Web Access, the Outlook HTML Forms Converter, the Exchange Event Service and VBA in Outlook 2000, as well as standard Outlook forms design. Too many tools -- not enough time!
Today's highlights:
Here's my holiday gift for you -- a new Outlook form to help make sure that everyone in your organization knows when the holidays and other important events will take place next year. Using a comma-delimited line for each event (which you can create by exporting from Outlook or by following our sample), you send a message to everyone who needs the dates. When the users receive the form, they just click the Add Holidays button to create new appointment/event items in their own Calendar folder. No need to send around a new Outlook.txt file or to distribute a .pst file for the users to import. Unlike the Outlook.txt holiday technique, you can use this form to make appointments, not just all-day events, and can determine whether each appointment or event is listed as Free, Busy, Tentative or Out of Office.
You can get the Add Holidays form from http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/olforms/holiday.htm.
Enhanced resource autoaccept script
If you're perplexed about how to manage resources like conference rooms in Outlook, take a look at our new Scheduling Resources for Microsoft Outlook page at http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/skedresource.htm. Featured there is an enhanced version of the autoaccept script, originally distributed with Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5. Robert Strong has done a lot of work to make this script meet the needs of virtually any organization that needs to automate the scheduling of conference rooms and other resources. It now handles schedule changes and cancellations and allows you to restrict access to the resource with either custom attributes or the Contacts folder for the resource's mailbox.
Microsoft is offering previews of Office 2000 to both consumers and information technology professionals. See http://www.microsoft.com/office/2000/office/cpp/default.htm for all the details. Note that these preview programs have their own support newsgroups. Ask your questions there, not in the regular Outlook microsoft.public.outlook* newsgroups.
Outlook 98's "stealth" OST files
From the little known facts department, Outlook 98 installs an offline folders (OST) file by default, even if you use the profile setup wizard and specify that you do not travel with this computer. The Calendar folder is set to synchronize in this situation, but the properties for the Calendar folder will still say that it is set for online use only. This will explain why you may see multiple Outlook*.ost files on a machine used by several users. Each profile will have its own OST file, created in the <windir>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook directory under Windows 95/98 or in the <windir>\profiles\user\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook directory under Windows NT.
The idea behind this "stealth" OST file is to speed up the display of a user's Calendar folder. Appointments and events are loaded from the local OST file, rather than from the server. Outlook 98's background synchronization feature kicks in to update the server after the user makes a change in the offline calendar or after a delegate or other authorized user makes a change on the server copy. According to Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q189310, Outlook 8.5 Speed Enhancements for Calendar Folder Access, at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/3/10.asp, the background update should take place within a few seconds after any change to the calendar.
A registry setting controls whether the stealth OST file is used and whether the user can add activate the OST file for regular use in keeping a local copy of key folders. For details, see MSKB article Q192981, OL98: (CW) Outlook Slow to Start While Downloading Calendar at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q192/9/81.asp.
New and updated utilities
Workgroup Overview
Visual Basic program that copies items in Exchange Server calendars to one master calendar in a public folder.
http://www.omaha.org/~adamh/projects.htmOutlook 98 Mailing List Genie
Uses Outlook Contacts to create mailing lists in Microsoft Word or Publisher. Freeware.
http://www.mindspring.com/~paulcilwa/mailing.htmLunabar 98
Not really an Outlook or Exchange application, but a utility to track phases of the moon. You can export them to a text or vCalendar file that Outlook can import.
http://www.clysmic.com/lunabar/Outlook Automator
Schedules Outlook 98 Internet Mail Only sessions.
http://www.the-shack.demon.co.uk/intrinsic/products/index.htm#olaRVS-COM
MAPI transport that supports fax, voicemail, direct PC-to-PC mail, OCR of faxes, caller ID and many other features. Includes ISDN support. Does not work with Outlook 98 in Internet Mail Only mode. Professional version includes a fax server.
http://www.rvscom.com/indexe.htmAdd Holidays Form
Custom form to help you distribute company holidays and other events or appointments to employees, who click just one button to add them to their Calendar folder.
http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/olforms/holiday.htmMicrosoft Outlook Roving Client Utility
Utility designed to make it easy to implement Outlook in schools and universities where students need to be able to get their mail from any computer.
http://www.redfox.co.uk/olclient/Rover for Microsoft Exchange
Another utility for logging on from any workstation.
http://www.compressmail.com/erwhite.htmlEasy Suite
Software for a LabelWriter XL printer that lets you print a label directly from Outlook using any of six different label templates.
http://www.costar.com/products/printers/easy_suite.htmCleanMail
Helps control the storage space needed for Exchange/Outlook messages by removing attachments, reminding you to clean up folders and other techniques.
http://www.madsolutions.com/cleanmai.htmEasyMerge
Outlook 97/98 utility for easy creation of letters, faxes, mailing labels and envelopes from Outlook Contacts records. Automatically creates related Journal entries.
http://www.intersoft.bc.ca/easymerge/easymergeintro.htmlVisto Briefcase
Web storage service for Outlook mail, contacts and calendar that synchronizes with your computer (or, in fact, with any computer, so you can use it to keep updated no matter where in the world you are, as long as you have Internet access and a browser.
http://www.visto.com/products/products_premium.htmlGroup Schedule
New version adds customization of colors.
http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/gallery.htm#groupscheduleProfile Maker
Adds several much-demanded features including profiles for users who don't use separate Windows logins and incremental changes to update, add or delete services while preserving a user's other settings.
http://www.desktopstandard.com/home.htmExchange Templates
New version adds more functionality to the et command and adds a defer command. Check the Ideas and Extensions section for more ideas on how to use it to automatically process Outlook or Exchange messages.
http://www.nsoftware.com/ReddFish ListServer
Bug fixes, support for multiple languages and other enhancements for this Exchange Server-based mailing list manager.
http://www.reddfish.co.nz/reddfish/listserver/
For more information
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