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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 7, No. 6, 28 Aug 2002, of Exchange Messaging
Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and
Microsoft Outlook.
Today's highlights:
- Office XP Service Pack 2
- Office XP SP2 changes for Outlook developers
- Level1Remove for Outlook 2000?
- New IE security rollup
- Outlook connections improved in ACT! 6.0
- Learn Outlook programming from Sue Mosher
Office XP Service Pack 2
Microsoft has released Service Pack 2 for Office XP,
incorporating previous post-SP1 updates and hotfixes and resolving
various other problems, including some newly revealed security
issues with the Office Web Components. For details on how to get SP2
and all the known Outlook fixes, check our page at
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2002sp2.htm.
The most important pre-setup issue is that SP2 requires prior
installation of SP1. This is a departure from the usual service pack
behavior; most other Microsoft service packs are cumulative. If you
don't have SP1 already, one option is to use the administrative
download for SP2, which includes all the files for both versions.
For Internet mail users, the best news about this update is that
it fixes two nagging rules issues. Rules now apparently work OK when
downloading from POP accounts when Outlook starts; previously they
often wouldn't fire on that initial retrieval session. Also, you can
now set rules on outgoing messages with an IMAP account (for
example, to move messages into the IMAP account's Sent Items
folder). You do, of course, have to be working online with the IMAP
account for such rules to work. If you're offline, Rules Wizard will
alert you to an error and turn off the rule.
For Exchange administrators, the big news in SP2 is that it
includes new registry values that can block users from adding
Personal Folders .pst files or new mail accounts to their Outlook
profiles. The MSKB articles at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q317819
and
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q323244
provide details. Those registry changes are the only new Outlook
features we've been able to find in SP2, although there are several
other new registry values to address particular problems.
The Outlook newsgroups have carried a few messages about problems
using Outlook after applying SP2. Most seem to be resolved simply by
renaming the Outcmd.dat file that holds toolbar customizations or by
creating and using a new mail profile.
Office XP SP2 changes for Outlook developers
For Outlook developers, SP2 offers various fixes. The one with
the greatest impact is that using the Previous and Next buttons to
view a different item in the same window now fires a NewInspector
event; see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q321326
for details. Developers who have used other methods to detect when a
user reuses the window to display an item may need to revise their
code to change their detection scheme and operate differently on
pre-SP2 and post-SP2 systems.
SP2 also adds functionality that was missing from the new
View.XML property that allows developers to design Outlook views.
Setting a filter using the XML for the view should now work.
Previously, you could set the filter, but Outlook ignored the
change.
SP2 also resolves a problem with setting MailItem.BodyFormat to
olFormatPlain on a message sent through a POP account. The
BodyFormat property is one of the nicer additions in Outlook 2002,
making it possible to specify the format of a new message.
Level1Remove for Outlook 2000?
Serious students of the Microsoft Knowledgebase have noticed that
the key article on attachment security for Outlook 2000 at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318515
was recently updated to indicate that a hotfix is available from
Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) to add the same attachment
customization that Outlook 2002 has. The fix adds a Level1Remove
registry key to allow users to decide for themselves what
potentially virus-carrying files should not be blocked.
Given the date on the key Outllib.dll file, it looks like this
fix has been available since February 2002. However, you may not
need to rush off and pester PSS about it. At the bottom of the
article, you'll see among the keywords " kbOffice2000preSP3fix." I
found 10 other Outlook articles with this keyword, all detailing
fixes released after Service Pack 2. Hopefully, that "preSP3fix"
designation means that Service Pack 3 is on its way, combining the
attachment blocking fix with other fixes into a new public update.
Since Microsoft has issued at least 19 Outlook hotfixes since SP2
(see
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2000.htm#versions), a new
service pack to incorporate those would be most welcome.
New IE security rollup
Microsoft has issued another cumulative patch for Internet
Explorer 5.01 (Windows 2000 only), 5.5, and 6.0. Since it includes
fixes for some potential HTML mail vulnerabilities, we recommend
that all Outlook users apply it.
You can read about the details in security bulletin MS02-047 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-047.asp.
If you have a version of IE earlier than those listed above, we
recommend that you upgrade, since Microsoft will not provide
security patches for earlier versions.
Outlook connections improved in ACT! 6.0
ACT! (http://www.act.com) has
long been one of the more popular contact managers, so much so that
I hear the refrain, "Why can't Outlook do <fill in the blank> just
like ACT!" at least once a week. Maybe the solution is to use both.
A new version, ACT! 6.0, was released last week with more Outlook
integration than ever, including these features: --
HTML-format mail merge from ACT! contact data to Outlook mail
messages, with the option of attaching files -- History details on
mail merges kept in ACT! -- Ability to access up to three ACT!
address books from within Outlook -- Ability to link Outlook notes,
appointments, tasks, journal entries to ACT! contacts
We're trying to get a copy to test - there was no trial download yet
when we last checked- so we can report in more detail in a future
EMO issue.
Learn Outlook programming from Sue Mosher
I'm delighted to report that my new book for novice to
intermediate Outlook programmers -- "Microsoft Outlook Programming:
Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers" - went to
the printer last week and should be available in time for the MEC
conference in Anaheim in October. You can check out the full table
of contents at
http://www.slipstick.com/books/jumpstart.htm. On that page,
you'll also find a link to the ordering page at Amazon.com. Amazon
just dropped their free shipping price threshold to $25, so you
won't pay any shipping charge if you pre-order the book now for
delivery as soon as it's released.
I'll definitely be at MEC, speaking on Outlook view programming
and possibly also on the Office XP Web Services Toolkit, so be sure
to stop by and say hi! MEC registration is under way at
http://www.microsoft.com/corpevents/MEC2002/default.asp. |
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