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Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Welcome to Vol.
10, No. 12, Sep 16 2005, of Exchange
Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange
and Microsoft Outlook.
Today's highlights:
Regular features:
Looking Forward to Outlook 12After looking at the videos and screens shots of Office 12 that were
released this past week, I can't wait to get the Office 12 beta
later this fall. The user interface is undergoing major changes and
from all indications, it's going to result huge improvement in
productivity. According to Julie Larson Green, the new UI will be used only on the authoring side of Outlook - the calendar, mail notes and contacts - it won't be used in the main Outlook window. She also mentioned that Word will be the only email editor available in Outlook 12 - there won't be a separate "Outlook editor" as we've had the past 10 years. While I know many administrators are very opposed to using Word as the email editor, in part because Word as the editor was a horrible experience with Outlook 97, it has undergone major improvements since the Office 97 days. Word is now better than the native Outlook editor and I'm looking forward to supporting just one editor in the future. Outlook e-mail will use Live Preview to display attachments in the message, much like images now display in plain text messages in Outlook Express. This is an often-requested feature for images, but Outlook 12 takes it a step farther and previews Office documents and other file types as well. Customizing the Navigation pane is frequent request and we'll have to wait to see how much we can customize or disable features like the Favorites folder list. The Navigation pane docks as a toolbar to the left side of the Outlook window and expands when needed. This should eliminate many complaints users have about the screen space the Navigation pane takes up while keeping it one click away when it's needed. Other improvements and new features in Outlook 12 will include RSS support by picking up the RSS subscriptions from IE7 and a ToDo task pane, which will allow you to see your upcoming appointments and tasks while viewing your Inbox. Outlook 12 has an improved search engine that highlights the search keyword in the results. But will it search for newest items first? We'll have to wait for the beta to find out. What we know at this point about SharePoint and its integration with Outlook is that it will provide an offline storage for SharePoint documents. It's too soon to know how well data syncs with Outlook or if this version is going to be capable of replacing Exchange public folders for group calendaring and contacts. Many of the changes to the Office user interface are driven by the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) that tells Microsoft what features we use the most and how we work. If you aren't already participating in this program, you can enable it on the Help, Customer Feedback Options in any Office program and help guide feature changes in future versions. (It's too late to have much effect on Outlook 12.) Interview with Julie Larson Green (41 minute video): Bill Gates PDC keynote: Office 12 preview: Microsoft Presspass: Jensen Harris' blog on the new User Interface: The Customer Experience Improvement Program: Add New Addresses Using Exchange Recipient PolicyMark asked: "My users each have multiple SMTP addresses. One address was created on the Exch5.5 system and we need to keep it for legacy reasons. Later, I added firstname.lastname@domain.com and these were migrated over with the user accounts. For some reason, the primary SMTP addresses are being reset to the older username@ format. I'd love to be able to set the firstname.lastname@ addresses as default for everyone at once rather than changing the ADUC properties for each user." Jerry had this question: The answer to both questions: "You'll need to update the recipient policy." Open the Exchange System Manager and navigate to Recipients, Recipient Policy. Many sites have just the default policy, but you can add as many policies as needed. The policies are applied from the highest to lowest priority, with only one policy applying to any user or group. When a user or group meets the conditions of more than one policy, the highest policy is used. Mark will open his recipient policy and add the two address formats (if not already present in the policy), setting the firstname.lastname@ address as the primary address. Jerry will need to add his user@domain.com address to the recipient policy and set it as the primary SMTP address. Enter %m@domain.com to use the username for the alias and %g.%s@domain.com for firstname.lastname format. See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822447 for other SMTP generation address formats available for Exchange 2000 and 2003. A final question: "We have users in an OU and want these users to receive mail @abc.com. We want other users to have @xyz.com addresses. I set up a recipient policy but the addresses don't update properly when I select "apply this policy now". The recipient policy can't be based on OU. You need to make groups or use an attribute like Department to identify these users. The recipient policy will work once you do this. Toolbars Won't Stay PutA frequent complaint of Outlook 2003 users is that the toolbars
won't stay where they are put. Each time Outlook is closed and
reopened, the toolbars are rearranged. This is caused by some
Outlook add-ins, including Microsoft's own Business Contact Manager
(BCM). The culprits add a toolbar to Outlook using a method that
sets the toolbar in a specific position, so that each time Outlook
is opened, it overrides your toolbar settings and places the toolbar
where it wants it.
Until the add-in is fixed, you'll either need to live with it, hide
the offending toolbar, or uninstall the add-in. Outlook's Autocomplete CacheA popular
feature request prior to Outlook 2002 was the ability to
remember previously used addresses so that you could type a few
letters in the To field and select an address from the drop
down. All addresses used for new messages or replies are stored
in an autocomplete cache file, at C:\Documents and
Settings\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\profile_name.NK2. For most people, the autocomplete cache works great. A small percentage of users have problems with the file being deleted and recreated each time they close and reopen Outlook. While this should be no more than an annoyance, a growing number of users are relying on the autocomplete cache as a replacement for their address book and when the cache file is recreated, they lose the addresses stored in it. Try a new Outlook profile and if it still gets cleared each time you close Outlook, you'll need to stop using the NK2 as an address book. If you need to save the addresses you reply to, use an add-in that adds address to the contacts folder automatically instead. Mapilab's Add Contacts, Sperry Software's Add Email Address are two of the many add-ins listed at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm#data that will create contacts for addresses you send email to or receive email from. If you are using it as an address book, get Ingressor (http://www.ingressor.com) so that you can view and export the contents of the NK2 file daily. Exporting the contents frequently is important because the NK2 holds 1000 addresses. When it reaches 1000, the oldest, less used addresses are replaced. Do You Have Too Many Folders?Many people use folders to organize their email. Too many people use
too many folders, nested too deeply - then later they can't remember
which set of folders a particular folder is under. Advanced Find is
no help in locating the folders as it only finds messages or other
Outlook items, not folders. While you can see which folder the
message is in, it won't show you the full folder path.
Another complaint from people using nested subfolders is the unread mail count - the top level folders only show their own unread count. There isn't a good solution to this problem in older versions of Outlook, short of not using subfolders, but Outlook 2003's Search folders can help. You'll need to create an unread search folder for each top level folder. If you have too many sets of nested folders for this to be a solution, then you have too many folders. A large number of folders, especially nested folders, are bad message management. Use just a few top level folders and categories and custom views instead. If you have Outlook 2003, use Search folders instead of moving messages to other folders. How many folders are too many? If you don't nest them more than one or two folders deep you can use more folders, but I recommend keeping the folder count under 20 or so. Don't replace Outlook folders with large number pst's. Personal folders are an excellent way to archive project data but unless you have an excellent filing system, you'll have a harder time finding the items you need because Outlook's search tools don't work across multiple message stores. If you are currently using too many folders and have a hard time finding your messages, there are a number of search tools that offer more features than available in Outlook. Some will search across multiple pst's too. You'll find a list of these applications at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/search.htm. For better ways to organize your mail, look at programs like NEO and ClearContext. You find a list of programs at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail.htm#other. |
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New Utilities |
CORTEGE EXCHANGE SELF SERVICE ADMINISTRATION INFIMAIL ISPROJECT MS PROJECT ADD-ON KERIO MAILSERVER MAPCONTACTS
MAPILAB GROUPWARE SERVER FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK NOSPAMPROXY PERSONAL BACKUP FOR OUTLOOK |
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Updated Utilities |
ATTACHMENT SAVE http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook/Attachment-Save.asp Attachment Save (for Outlook 2000 or better) from Sperry Software has been upgraded to remove and delete specifically from your sent items folder, where a copy of your attachments are sitting around wasting space. You can now also filter by the size of the attachments as well as use the email subject, received time, or sender email address as the name of the saved file. AUTO PRINT EXTENDED MAPI IN DELPHI IMI CONTACTS EXPORTER |
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Other Resources |
CONFIGURING MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2003 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555583261/cdolivthepremier/102-5217038-0616928 Sue Mosher's newest book, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003, will assist administrators in organizations in deploying and managing settings for Microsoft Outlook 2003. It covers configuration for Microsoft Exchange as well as IMAP4 and POP3 servers. It includes undocumented settings for Microsoft Exchange Server you can use to deploy or modify Outlook mail profiles. Learn how to use tools such as MFCMAPI and Outlook Spy to explore Outlooks data and settings and scripts to handle challenging configuration tasks such as granting Reviewer access to a Calendar folder, or adding a second Exchange mailbox to an Outlook profile TECHNET SUPPORT WEBCAST: OVERVIEW OF MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER 2003 SERVICE PACK
2 ANTISPAM FEATURES TECHNET SUPPORT WEBCAST: OVERVIEW OF MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER 2003 SERVICE PACK
2 MOBILITY FEATURES TECHNET SUPPORT WEBCAST: OVERVIEW OF NEW ADMINISTRATION FEATURES IN EXCHANGE
SERVER 2003 SERVICE PACK 2 TECHNET SUPPORT WEBCAST: TROUBLESHOOTING PUBLIC FOLDER REPLICATION |
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New Exchange Knowledge Base Articles |
You receive an error message when you create a new directory replication
connector that has a Site Replication Service server as the source server or the
target bridgehead server in Exchange Server 2003 or in Exchange 2000 Server http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=906153 The attendee list contains incorrect names for an Exchange 2000 Server meeting
when a delegate views the attendee list with a WebDAV client You receive an 0x8004010F error message when you try to synchronize the offline
address list on an Exchange Server 2003 server in Outlook 20033 Outlook Mobile Access devices cannot connect to an Exchange Server 2003 server
by using the WAP gateway of a telephone carrier You may receive an error message in the ADClean.log file when you use the Active
Directory Cleanup Wizard to merge two accounts by their SIDhistory attributes in
Exchange Server 2003 A private e-mail message is sent to the primary recipient and the alternate
recipient in Exchange Server 2003 and in Exchange 2000 Server The Virus Scan API 2.0 returns the wrong code page when you use Outlook 2003 to
send a plain text e-mail message to an Exchange 2000 Server mailbox You receive a "Microsoft Exchange Installation Wizard Setup failed" error
message when you try to install Exchange Server 2003 How to obtain technical support for FrontBridge client services The Lsntsmex.exe process crashes when an Exchange Server 2003 user replies to an
e-mail message that contains a Lotus Notes DocLink Some e-mail messages that are sent by Outlook 2003 users are not delivered after
you enable the Sender Filtering feature in Exchange Server 2003, and message
senders may receive a non-delivery report message An attached e-mail message is blank when you view the message in Outlook in an
Exchange Server 2003 organization or in an Exchange 2000 Server organization The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes when an Internet
Message Access Protocol, Version 4rev1 user tries to list public folders from a
server that is running Exchange Server 2003 The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service may not come online if the
RootVer registry value is invalid on a server that is running Exchange Server
2003 In Exchange 2000 Server, the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service stops
responding, and a Dr. Watson access violation error is generated in the
EcParseTransferSD function The default rule in Out of Office Assistant does not work when you use ExMerge
to import a .pst file in an Exchange 2000 Server organization |
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New Outlook Knowledge Base Articles |
You receive a "500 5.5.0 Syntax error - line too long" non-delivery report when
you send an e-mail activity by using the Microsoft CRM Web client or Microsoft
CRM Sales for Outlook http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896997 Outlook users experience poor performance when they work with a folder that
contains many items on a server that is running Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange
2000 Server Issues that are fixed in Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager Update
Service Pack 1 Description of Service Pack 1 for Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager
Update and for Small Business Accounting 2006 |
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More Information |
ISSN 1523-7990 |