Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 19, 22 Jan 2004 of Exchange Messaging Outlook,
a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft
Outlook.
Today's highlights:
Regular features:
ARE YOU MISSING GO, NEWS?A common complaint in every forum is the missing Go, News command in
Outlook 2003. By default, the News command was removed from the Go
menu and you need to customize the toolbar to add it back. It's a
simple job and the instructions are included in Outlook's Help file,
however, after adding it to their Go menu, many users discover the
News command is missing once they close and reopen Outlook. It's not
in the Commands dialog and resetting the toolbar or deleting
outcmd.dat doesn't help.
Through trial and error, we learned this happens after setting Outlook Express as the default newsreader, either by answering Yes to the command prompt that asks if you want to make Outlook Express your default or by changing the newsreader setting in the Internet Options, Programs tab. To get the News command back, open Control Panel, Internet Options and select the Programs tab, then change the default newsreader to Outlook Express. If OE prompts you to make it your default newsreader the next time you launch it, click the "Don't ask me again" box and then click the No button. You don't have to use the Go, News command to open Outlook Express
in news-only mode. You can create a shortcut to Outlook Express and
add the /outnews switch to the command line, like this: After you create a shortcut on your desktop, you can add it to the Quick Launch toolbar, drag it to the Outlook Bar or Shortcut pane (Outlook 2003). EXCHANGE 2000 AND 2003 - TECHNICAL ARTICLES AND BOOKS ONLINEAll of the white papers and books for Exchange 2000 and 2003 which
Microsoft previously published online are now available in one
download available at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5b7d2110-a322-4947-9eaf-3d6a9a99cb42&displaylang=en.
Included among the 60 or so documents in this 57 MB file is a
six-step guide for upgrading from Exchange 5.5, disaster recovery
information, troubleshooting, deployment and administration guides
for many features, including Outlook Web Access, instant messaging,
and mobile access, along many other articles administrators will
find useful.
Some of these articles are also available online individually at TechNet, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/default.asp. OUTLOOK, RSS, AND NTTPNewsGator, an RSS feed aggregator plug-in for Outlook has a "not
quite ready for prime time" NNTP posting plug-in that gives you the
ability to post replies and new messages to newsgroups from Outlook.
It's a very early beta and bugs are expected, but it shows a lot of
promise. If you're one of the millions of people who want NNTP
support in Outlook, you'll definitely want to keep an eye out for
this plug-in. NewsGator users can download the beta plug-in and
report bugs at
http://weblogs.asp.net/mhawley/archive/2004/01/21/61353.aspx.
If you haven't tried NewsGator yet, look for it at http://www.newsgator.com. SHIPPING UTILITIES FOR OUTLOOKSeveral applications are available that make it easier to send
postal mail and packages, send invoices or track packages, all from
within Outlook.
If you use Airborne as your shipper or receive tracking numbers for Airborne packages, you can use the free Tracking Tasks add-in from Airborne that creates a task and checks the status of the package at scheduled times. This add-in works with Outlook 2002 SP2 and Outlook 2003 on Windows 2000/XP. (http://www.airborne.com/TechTools/Downloads.asp) Once it's installed, just enter the tracking number into the tasks form, add simple task parameters and Tracking Tasks will do the rest. The tool retrieves updates for each shipment you enter, updating and saving the tracking information within Outlook, where you can review it at your convenience. All we need now is an add-in that tracks packages for all major shippers. Stamps.com doesn't offer the nifty integration Airborne Express does, but the newest version of the Stamps.com software works well with Outlook and Word. The stamps.com software automatically checks the validity of the address against the post office database, makes corrections as necessary and offers to save the corrected address back to your contacts. Add a delivery receipt and you can track the package yourself or send the tracking information by email from the Stamps.com software. If you aren't using Stamps.com, you can still validate and correct your Outlook contact addresses using Contacts Verifier (http://www.mapilab.com) or Contact Zone from (http://www.melissadata.com). Other useful contact utilities are available at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm. Since Outlook supports templates, anyone can create a template to use for emailed invoices, but PayPal made it easier for the many Outlook users who use PayPal to collect funds. Their free add-in creates an email message with PayPal buttons and links to invoice customers. The customer needs only to click a link in the message to begin the payment process. Look for the add-in in with the merchant tools at http://www.paypal.com. Look for other useful utilities at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail.htm. USING A QUOTE PREFIXOutlook has long suffered with a spell-check bug. When you use a
reply prefix, such as a ">", to mark lines of quoted text in a plain
text message, the quoted text is always spell-checked. It's annoying
enough that many people give up on the prefix and go with on of the
other reply options.
You do have another option if you really want to use a prefix. When using Word as your e-mail editor and the message default set to HTML, you can reply to plain text messages and the quoted text is not spell checked. While it makes no sense that the message format should affect whether spell check ignores the quoted text or not, it really works. For more information on this, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=179512. While this article specifically mentions it's for Outlook 98, it applies to all versions of Outlook. Change your quoting style at Tools, Options, Preferences, E-mail Options. |
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New Utilities |
CONTACTGENIE DATAPORTER 2.0 http://www.contactgenie.com/cg20dataporter.htm ContactGenie DataPorter is a contact import and automated distribution tool for Microsoft Outlook 2000/2003. Supports Outlook custom forms, user-defined fields, user-defined input record selection and contact updates/deletions with field update options. Supports all major file formats including Microsoft SQL, MySQL, XML, and Outlook contact folders. Can be run via command line for unattended scheduled operation. Available in Pro or Personal editions. EASY SURVEY EASY2SYNC GROUPCAL 1.0 OUTLOOK ATTACHMENT SNIFFER RELATIONSHIPSECURE |
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Updated utilities |
CALSHARE http://www.pagethink.com/calshare.asp Updated, now shares Contacts and Calendar. Online repository and software for copying Outlook appointments and contacts that you want to share to the online site. Users with appropriate permission can import appointments and contacts shared by other CalShare users. Free. CONTACT COMMUNICATIONS LOGGING CONTACTGENIE IMPORTER V1.3 WEBMAIL SMIME AGENT |
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Other resources |
CURING THE E-MAIL BLUES NEWSLETTER http://www.timeforresults.com/conqueringemail.htm Newsletter devoted to helping you manage your time wisely. Includes tips on using Outlook to organize and prioritize your messages and control email overload. EXCHANGE SERVER 2003 MESSAGE SECURITY GUIDE EXPORTWIZ MICROSOFT EXCHANGE TIPS MICROSOFT SECURITY BULLETIN MS04-002 - VULNERABILITY IN EXCHANGE
SERVER 2003 COULD LEAD TO PRIVILEGE ESCALATION (832759) MXCLAIM XITNOTES |
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More Information |
ISSN 1523-7990 |
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Updated Jul 11 2007
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