Exchange 2003 always resolves addresses on messages to the native Exchange format by looking them up in the directory, but only if the sender is authenticated. This includes messages sent from other Exchange servers or using OWA. Normally, messages that are received from the Internet use anonymous submission and are not resolved to the Exchange address, retaining the senders SMTP address on the message, in the format of “Display Name” <alias@our_domain.com>.

While you need to accept messages sent by unauthenticated (anonymous) users if you want to receive Internet email, messages sent from addresses found in the global address list won't resolve to the sender's native Exchange address. In most cases, this is good, because spoofed senders addresses aren't resolved. However, there are some situations where you'll want to resolve addresses to their native Exchange address and you can easily enable this option on the SMTP server.

From Exchange System manager, locate the SMTP virtual sever and right-click then choose Properties. Go to the Access tab and click on the Authentication button. It's recommended that you leave this setting unchecked, to avoid resolving messages sent by spammers using From addresses with your organization. Don’t change this setting unless you have a legitimate business reason to do so.

For more information, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828770 

Recently a reader asked how to find out who assigned a task to a user, as the user said she never accepted it, yet it was on her task list.

The Owner field on an open Task tells you who is responsible for completing a task, which is not the person who created task request. To find out who sent the task request, add the From or Organizer field to the view. You can do this easily by right clicking on the row of field names in folder and select Field Chooser. Drag the Organizer and Owner fields to the row of field names and close the dialog.

When a task is assigned by another user, the task icon has two hands holding the task. The recipient is listed as the owner in the recipient’s mailbox, and the organizer is the person who assigned the task. These tasks need to be accepted, however, just selecting the task and displaying it will add it to the task list, as an unread item with bold font formatting. Once accepted, the message is removed from the Inbox and the task is marked as read.

A reader asks "I have an issue, and I am wondering if any of your software will solve it. I have an email message that has several images that are embedded in the body of the message. I want to extract all of these images and save them into a folder on my hard disk, and rename each of them. Note that they are not attached to the message, rather they appear directly in the body of the message, so I am unable to use the save attachments feature. I can save each file to disk individually; however, it takes a very long time do to for each image when I have 30 images attached to an email. I want to save all of the images to a folder on my hard drive in one swift operation. Does any of your software do that?"

Yes, we have several applications listed that will do exactly what you need. Look for them at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/housekeeping.htm#user. Many of these add-ins will save your attachments as you receive the email or at a later time, filing the attachments to different folders based on rules. Some even go so far as removing only certain attachments and deleting the attachments or replacing them with shortcuts to the file. Many of the programs can rename the files uniformly, including using the message subject or sender's name as the file name. All recent versions should avoid Outlook security prompts and work with Outlook's default security settings.

Or you can use VBA to save attachments. While this simple VBA procedure doesn't come close to offering all of the features the addins do, it's usefulness and simplicity makes it a nice introduction to Outlook programming.

The routine saves the attachments on the selected message(s) to an attachments folder. If you'd like to save the attachments and remove them from the message, the code sample at http://www.outlook-tips.net/saveatt.htm deletes the attachments and adds the file path to the message.

Before entering the VBA code, you'll need to create a folder in your My Documents folder called "OLAttachments". You'll also need to set Macro security on Medium or use selfcert to sign your macros. (Tools, Macros, Security.)

Select one or more messages with attachments then open the VBA editor by pressing Alt+F11. Expand the Project folder on the left side and double click on ThisOutlookSession. Copy and paste the following code in to the editor and press F5 or the Run button to test it.

Public Sub SaveAttachments()
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem 'Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolderpath As String
Dim strDeletedFiles As String

' Get the path to your My Documents folder
strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)

On Error Resume Next

' Instantiate an Outlook Application object.
Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
' Get the collection of selected objects.
Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection

' Set the Attachment folder. You need to use an existing folder.
strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"

' Check each selected item for attachments.
For Each objMsg In objSelection
Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
lngCount = objAttachments.Count

If lngCount > 0 Then
For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
' Get the file name.
strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName
' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
' Save the attachment as a file.
objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
Next i

End If
Next

ExitSub:
Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub

If you want to learn more about programming in Outlook, be sure to visit http://www.outlookcode.com.

We have a few books in our prize vault left over from last years contest and to clear it out, we're going to ask a question in each of the next several issues of EMO. This week's prize is a copy of Digital Press's Monitoring and Managing Microsoft Exchange server 2003 by Mike Daugherty.

The question for May 12 2005:
How can you easily find out which DC the Exchange System Manager is talking to?

Send your answer to answers@slipstick.com before Wednesday May 25, 2005 and we'll select a winner from all entries.

We aren't saving contestant’s names or email addresses and only the winner will hear from us. All entries (and their email addresses) will be deleted from the mailbox when the winner is selected before the next issue is sent out.

Good luck!

If you'd like to make a suggestion or feature request for Outlook (or any of the Office family of applications), point your browser (it works best with IE) to http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx, select the application and a newsgroup. Sign in using your passport and click on the New button then select Suggestion for Microsoft.

When you write a suggestion, take the time to write a clear and concise message so the person reading it doesn't have to try and guess what you are talking about, but don't make it too long and complicated that it's hard to follow. If you don't use the latest version of the software you probably shouldn't be making wishes, but if you do, include the version number you use. This will help others understand why you are asking for features similar to what's in the latest version.

Once a suggestion is posted, anyone can vote for (or against) the suggestion by clicking on the link included in the post, signing in with a passport and choosing the "I Agree" or "I Disagree" button at the bottom of the post. Because the Office teams take into consideration the number of votes each suggestion gets, you should always take the time to vote for suggestions you agree with.

SharePoint, Live Communications, and Live Meeting servers accept suggestions using the Office Community interface but at this time, the only way to make suggestions for future versions of Exchange server is by sending an email to exwish@microsoft.com. Since it's by email and you won't have feedback from others asking for clarification, it's very important to be clear in your suggestion. While you shouldn't expect a reply, be assured that someone takes the time to read the messages.