• Education forms get smart
• Why all the fuss about read receipts
• Exchange 2000 RC1

• Thanks to our sponsors
• New Slipstick site features
• New utilities
• Updated utilities

Long-time visitors to Microsoft's web site know that there are lots of great samples there that can help you start customizing your Outlook/Exchange Server installation. The latest batch of forms, designed for use in schools (see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mssampleapps.htm), is really outstanding not just for the usefulness of the forms and the developer concepts they cover, but for the presentation. If you need to document your forms on the company intranet, you can't do better than follow the example set by the Microsoft in Education crew. For each form, you'll see a screen shot, detailed requirements, installation instructions, end-user instructions, how to customize the form, and a description of the tools and techniques used to build the form.

These forms are not just for schools, of course. For example, the questionnaire and quick survey forms can help any organization.

Now that Windows 2000 has been released, Exchange 2000 Server is that much closer to being finished. Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is now available for download and in a four-CD Corporate Preview Program (CPP) kit at a nominal fee. You can order the kit in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish. The download is not available in Japanese. See http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/prodinfo/2000/OrderKit.htm for details.

Exchange 2000 Server RC1 requires Windows 2000 Advanced Server, either the full product or the evaluation edition, which is included in the CPP kit.

At least once a week, I get a message from someone wanting to know how to make sure that they get an accurate read receipt response from the people they send mail to. Forget it. Read receipts are so useless that it's hardly worth including them. Virtually every good mail program (Outlook included, as long as you're working with Internet mail) has a feature to suppress the sending of read receipts. There are even addins that allow you to spoof the receipt process -- avoid sending a receipt when you first read the item, but send one a few days later. Furthermore, since so many people read their mail through Outlook's preview pane, then delete it, there's a good chance that all you'll get is a "deleted without reading" receipt.

The improvements we've been making to the Slipstick Systems site would not be possible without our sponsors. These companies have been generous with their support, and we look forward to continuing our association for some time to come. Please check out the products and services they have to offer:

Microsoft Outlook Message Forms
http://www.slipstick.com/dev/messageform.htm
Quirks, limitations, samples, etc.

Disappearing Email
http://www.disappearing.com/service_overview.html
Outlook client component and hosted encryption service to allow companies to enforce an e-mail retention policy. Each message is encrypted with an individual key and can only be read by getting the key from the server. Once the message's time limit expires, the key is no longer available -- so neither is the message. Works with Exchange Server or SendMail.

Find Contacts
http://www.infoware.ca/content/contactx.html
Tool for Microsoft Word that allows you to search any Contacts folder , then insert the address into a Word Document.

JTech Product Wireless Secretary Server
http://www.jtechsoftware.com/WSSVR/WSSvr.htm
Paging and reminder application for Exchange Server. Free for a limited time. [No longer available as of 8/2002]

KnowledgeMail
http://www.tacit.com/products/index.html
Builds interest profiles while protecting privacy by analyzing e-mail messages, documents and other company resources. Profiles can do things like suggest people who would be interested in a message on a particular topic. Application includes server and both Outlook-compatible desktop client and browser thin client.

Metamail
http://www.metamail.com/products/metamail/
Send highly formatted messages with complex layouts from within Outlook. Free viewer available so recipients without Metamail can get all the content. Applications include messages with built-in reader-reply cards.

nMessage Form
http://victori.hypermart.net/nmessage.html
Custom Outlook message form that makes it easier to read the Internet headers. For Outlook 2000 only, because it requires you to make it the default form using the Forms Administrator tool.

OutSmart
http://www.outsmartsoftware.com/
Customer opportunity manager that integrates with Outlook Contacts and tracks your sales cycle. Uses Excel for reporting.

PABMerge
http://www.swinc.com/Products/pabmerge.htm
Merges two Personal Address Book files into one. Does not remove duplicates.

Phone Number Changer
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/gallery/index.htm#kenphone
Free Outlook 2000 COM add-in to update phone numbers in Contacts folders with new country code, area code, exchange or local number. By MVP Ken Slovak. Source code available.

ReDirector COM Addin
http://victori.hypermart.net/redirector.html
Allows you to resend an incoming message so the recipient gets it with the original sender's address. COM Addin for Outlook 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode.

The Big Number Wizard
http://www.msdl.co.uk/TheBigNumberWizard.htm
Free Outlook 98 and 2000 applications to update U.K. phone numbers. Background article and source code help you understand how it works.

DynDL
http://www.vision-info.com/vil/products/Dyndl.htm
Exchange Server custom agent that turns a mailbox into an automated administration tool and redistribution point for a mailing list, with standard subscribe and unsubscribe features. Version 2.1 adds a management console and more configuration options.

Relayer
http://www.tufans.com/Products/Relayer/index.html
Version 3.3 of this utility to retrieve mail from HTTP accounts adds support for mail.com accounts, an automatic upgrade feature and the ability for your POP mail program to receive messages from Relayer without being connected to the Internet.