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Exchange Messaging Outlook
Volume 12, Number 6
Issue Date June 21 2007
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Today's highlights:
Regular features:
Exchange 2007 Message Transport RulesIn Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 it was challenging
to manipulate e-mail messages as they were routed through the
organization or as they passed through the gateway to and from the
internet. In those versions, SMTP was managed by an extended
implementation of IIS SMTP. Controlling SMTP messages in simple
ways, such as archiving, appending a disclaimer or implementing a
catch-all mailbox, required coding (or borrowing code) SMTP
Transport event sinks and registering them on the appropriate
servers. While some functionality could be attained with VBScript,
many sinks required Visual Basic, C# or C++ to meet the goals of the
administrator. Exchange 2007 reverts to a proprietary SMTP
implementation that exposes some basic message control during
routing using a mechanism called Exchange 2007 Message Transport
Rules.
Hub Transport Role versus Edge Transport Role
There is a slightly different scope and interface available for
managing Transport Rules on the two roles that support them.
Transport Rules administered at the hub transport server role are
stored in the Exchange configuration container in Active Directory.
Hub Transport Rules are centrally configured at the organization
level. Transport Rules configured at the Edge Transport role are
local to the Edge server, stored in ADAM. Hub Transport Rules are
typically focused on compliance; whereas, Edge rules are often
concerned with message hygiene.
Creating and Administering Transport Rules
The GUI for managing Transport Rules exists within the Exchange
Management Console (EMC) and really resembles the Outlook Rules
Wizard making it rather easy to learn. On a Hub Transport server,
there is a Transport Rules tab in the Hub Transport properties of
the Exchange Organization folder, as shown in Figure 1. This basic
scenario shows 3 Transport Rules. The same 3 rules are visible
through the Exchange Management Shell seen in Figure 2.

Figure 1

Figure 2
Creating a rule through the EMC is very simple. Like the Outlook
Rules Wizard, message Transport Rules follow a logical creation
path. If certain conditions are present in the message, then perform
specific actions unless certain exceptions apply. Figure 3 shows an
example of subject line manipulation based on a sender domain.
Exchange Management Shell also has many Cmdlets for administering
Transport Rules. The ‘action’ portion of the commands are
self-explanatory:
- Get-TransportRule
- Set-TransportRule
- New-TransportRule
- Enable-TransportRule
- Disable-TransportRule
- Remove-TransportRule
Transport Rules can also be exported to XML and imported from the
command line. More information on composing proper Exchange
Management Shell cmdlets for Transport Rules can be found in Technet
at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125136.aspx.

Figure 3
Other Features
Rules can be based on a number of items, including internal versus
external messages, header items, message body content, and sender or
recipient information. The Hub Transport Rulesets are very valuable
for compliance. All messages must go through a hub transport server,
and therefore all messages can have rules applied to them. As such,
administrators can maintain solid control of messages for archiving
or establishing ethical walls internally (for example, the
accounting personnel may be prohibited from emailing the plant
workers or vice versa). There is a limit of 1000 Transport Rules in
an Exchange organization; however, this limitation is simply the
threshold Microsoft tested up to and therefore supports.
Message Transport Rules are one of the most relevant areas of
improvement for Exchange Server 2007. Tasks that were daunting in
previous versions, yet menial in competing products, now have a
quality solution with multiple interfaces and granular control.
-- William Lefkovics
A Bad Add-in with No SupportKen Slovak, a well respected Outlook developer, discovered a
problem with an Outlook toolbar add-in crashing Outlook and
blaming the crash on other add-ins but the company who released
the toolbar refuses to discuss it with him since he is not a
registered user.
The problem is with an Outlook add-in called the Telephony
Toolbar from Broadcom ( http://info.onvoip.net/toolbar/) When the
profile contains an Exchange account it crashes Outlook 2007 and
any VB 6 add-in that handles Application and NameSpace events.
As soon as Outlook starts even a simple two line add-in in VB6
that does this:
Private WithEvents ol As Outlook.Application
' in OnConnection
Set ol = Application
The telephony toolbar causes a crash but the events and error
dialogs place blame on other add-ins, not the toolbar. It came
to Ken's attention because the combination of the telephony
toolbar and Attachment Options caused a crash for a customer. He
later discovered other problems: declaring NameSpace or
Application WithEvents related to the toolbar add-in when
running on any OS with Outlook 2007 with an Exchange account
profile. The problems aren't limited to Ken's add-ins: as all
good testers do, he tested it with several popular commercial
Outlook add-ins and verified the crashes are not limited to his
add-ins.
While we're hoping this VoIP add-in never gains wide usage, if
you use it and have problems you'll know where the real problem
lies.
Bug: Plain Text Spell CheckWhen you use Outlook 2007 and your default message format is
plain text, beware of the spell check bug. When you use the
option to always check the spelling on sending, corrections
don't stick and the message is sent with the misspelled words.
If you use spell check as you type, corrections appear seem to
stick. HTML message format is not affected.
Printing Problems in Outlook 2007 Outlook's printing abilities have always fell under the category
of "leaves much to be desired" and Outlook 2007 shows little
improvement. While Outlook does okay at printing emails (but
could do better), contact images and business card views are not
supported by the printer templates and calendar printing
capabilities seem to get worse with each version.
The printing bugs in Outlook 2007 include broken line wrapping
in the calendar. Daily events and locations are truncated
instead of wrapping to the next line, while multi-day events
that extend into the next week print into the margin at the end
of the first week instead of wrapping into the next week.
Fortunately there is a workaround: the calendar printing
assistant. It offers a number of templates and customizations,
wraps lines as expected, and uses the traditional last month and
next month thumbnail calendars.
Calendar Printing Assistant for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101687211033.aspx
Printing HintsCalendar:
You'll have better options if you use a Word template to create
the calendar. You can add clip art and background colors before
printing or save it as HTML and email the document to others.
The templates use last month and next month thumbnail calendars.
The Calendar Printing assistant for Outlook 2007 also uses last
month and next month for the small calendars.
Contacts:
Contact pictures are not included in printouts.
Email:
While you can't change the layout to avoid the user name in
large letters at the top of the printout, if you use Word as the
editor with Outlook 2003 or previous, you can hit forward then
Print and you'll get just the To/From/Date/Subject header. Close
the forward when finished. This doesn't work in Outlook 2007.
You can open HTML messages in the browser to print, although
this method removes both the username and the email header.
When you want to print just part of an email message, you can
use the same methods above: print after hitting Forward if Word
is the editor or view in Browser. You'll have the much better
print dialog in Word or IE. Unfortunately, Outlook 2007 doesn't
use Word's better print engine, it sticks with the old Outlook
print engine.
Attachment names aren't included in the printouts in all
versions of Outlook. If you need the attachment name and your
version doesn't support it switch the message format to RTF.
(Open the message, Edit, Edit message menu then change the
format.)
If these workarounds don't meet your needs, there are Word
templates and other printing tools available, including two
commercial add-ins offering many print options.
Blueprint for Outlook
http://www.savvisoft.com/
Outlook Printer
http://www.outlookprinter.com/
Calendar Printing Tools for Outlook
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/calendar_print.asp
Ordering Category ColorsAn Outlook 2007
user asks: "When I label an event with multiple categories,
I would like to choose which category color the event takes on
the day/week/month view. For instance, I have an event, two
categories, Category A and Category B, each with different
colors, but I would like to have the event in the view take the
color of Category B, not Category A. "
Items in Outlook 2007 use the color of the last category you
apply, so select Category B last.
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New Utilities
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C2OutlookExport
http://www.codetwo.eu/pages/freeware/outlook_export.php
C2OutlookExport is an easy to use free tool for exporting data
from Microsoft Outlook to CSV text files. It can export much
more data, than build-in export functionality in Outlook. It
allows also for exporting user-defined properties from Outlook
items, it is faster and easier to use. The program supports data
export from all types of folders: Contact, Calendar, E-mail,
Post, Task, Journal, Notes.
Category Organizer
http://www.software-solutions.co.nz/aladdins_co/alcoabout.asp
Category Organizer adds a sidebar to Outlook allowing instant
access to your categories. Select a contact and instantly see
the categories assigned, need to make changes, easy just use the
checkboxes. Set filters to show only the items in specific
categories.
CodeTwo Attach Unblocker
http://www.codetwo.eu/pages/freeware/attach_unblocker.php
Use CodeTwo Attach Unblocker to configure Microsoft Outlook to
allow the opening of the attachments blocked by default (for
example, .exe, .url, .reg). The program is an Outlook extension;
its settings are available at the property sheet in the Outlook
options, which ensures quick and convenient editing.
Exporter for Outlook
http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/addins.htm
Exporter for Outlook extracts and saves messages (and
attachments) from Outlook mailfolders to text files, in raw or
RFC822 format, and to standard UNIX-type mailboxes (RFC822
format). Version 1.1
Ninja Disclaimers
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Business/Ninja-Disclaimers/
A plug-in for Ninja Email Security, Ninja disclaimer provides
includes global and user-based disclaimers for all outbound
email for Exchange 2000 and 2003. Administrators have the
ability to configure policy-based disclaimers based on specific
users, groups, domains, or public folders. User-based
disclaimers enable users to adjust their disclaimer statements
according to a specific user or department. Ninja also prevents
multiple disclaimers when replying or forwarding and gives
administrators the ability to allow users to bypass the
disclaimer on a per email basis. Disclaimer templates are
included to allow easy set up of disclaimers using HTML or plain
text. Template samples include legal disclaimers, virus warning
disclaimers, copyright disclaimers, and more. New reports are
also available that provide detailed information on the use of
disclaimers within the organization.
Outlook Attachment Remover Add-in
http://www.kopf.com.br/outlook/
Free Outlook add-in for saving and extracting attachments,
decreasing the size of your Outlook files.
Outlook Printer
http://www.outlookprinter.com/
Print your Outlook Emails the way you want. Outlook Printer
allows you ro customize the printing of your Outlook mails with
an easy to use interface. Prints incoming e-mails automatically.
PST Creator
http://www.programmers.com/ppi_us/Product.aspx?Sku=DD1%200000
PST Creator a programming add in which allows you to create PST
files on the fly and hook them into your profile. It will also
allow you to copy profiles and work with them. Features include
the ability to copy an existing profile to another, remove
profile information, create PST files as needed, and attach or
remove PST files from profiles.
Softalk Share Server
http://www.softalkltd.com/products/softalkshareserver/
Softalk Share Server is an alternative to the collaboration
features of Exchange. It provides sharing of private and public
folders in Outlook, with full access control. Softalk Share
Server works in a similar fashion to Exchange Server. There is
no synchronization involved. All versions of Outlook supported
from Outlook 2000 through 2007.
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Updated Utilities
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Genie Outlook Backup
http://www.genie-soft.com/products/olb/default.html
Backup utility for Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003 handling folder data and
key user options, including toolbar and Outlook bar settings,
signatures, stationery, and Internet account information. Version 6.
MAPIViewer
http://www.daveswebsite.com/software/mapiviewer/
MAPIViewer is a free simple to use Windows NT/2000/XP utility that
provides an Explorer-like interface for browsing MAPI stores
accessible via the win32 MAPI API's, including MAPI stores, folders,
and message item properties, and hierarchy.
NNTP for Outlook
http://slipstick.com/redirect.asp?id=nntp
Fully-functional NNTP transport for the MAPI subsystem. Use it with
Outlook 2000 (Corporate/Workgroup mode) and Outlook 2002/2003/2007
to read and post to UseNet servers. Provides support of MIME, RTF
and HTML. Features include dial-up support and an articles cache to
optimize the downloading from several accounts. Version 1.5.
Supports Outlook 2007.
OutBack Plus
http://www.ajsystems.com/obp.html
Backup your Outlook Personal Folders (.pst files) in a compressed,
zip compatible, archive for a smaller and more easily managed file.
All of your critical Outlook control files are included in the
backup - Signatures, Stationery, Wizard Rules, etc are preserved for
easy recovery. OutBack Plus allows you to restore the backup data to
the same or another machine. Automatic reminder to backup after a
set number of days. Also backs up Documents and Desktop folders,
Internet Explorer Favorites, Cookies, offline folders and Firefox
Browser data. Works with Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 (XP), 2000, and
98, on Windows Vista, XP, Media Center, 2003, Windows 2000, Windows
ME, and Windows 98. Version 6.
OutSource-XP
http://www.totalidea.com/content/index.html
OutSource-XP automatically collects all important Outlook 2002/2003
files and lists them so you can choose the files (and settings) you
want to backup. The unregistered version of OutSource-XP v2 saves
the files into a pre-selected backup-folder, but does not compress
the files. The registered version compresses the backup into one
single file, and offers a Quick-Backup feature which creates a
backup just with a single mouse-click. Version 2. Supports Outlook
2007.
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Other Resources
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Support WebCast: Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 integration with Microsoft
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) version 3 Contact Lists and Document Libraries
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=939015
Support WebCast: Introduction to RSS in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=939017
Support WebCast: Introduction to security features and changes in Microsoft
Office Outlook 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=939016 |
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NNew Exchange Knowledge Base Articles
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Database resources are not brought online when you use a "HRESERestoreComplete"
function to restore a cluster database programmatically in Exchange Server 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938442
POP3 and IMAP4 clients cannot connect to a server that is running Exchange
Server 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937359 |
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New Outlook Knowledge Base Articles
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Description of the Outlook 2007 hotfix package: June 11, 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938534
Description of the Outlook 2007 hotfix package: June 12, 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937494
FIX: A table in a report that is delivered by SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
with Service Pack 2 appears to be compressed when the report is opened in
Outlook 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=935399
No progress occurs in the "Installation Progress" dialog box when you install
the 2007 Office system or a stand-alone 2007 Office product
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937680
Description of the Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter update: June 12, 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936030
Error message when you try to create an IMAP profile in Outlook 2003: "The IMAP
store could not be created"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937761
A rule that is based on the "through the specified account" option in Outlook
2003 works for two e-mail accounts, even though you specify only one e-mail
account
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937762
Delivery status notifications are unexpectedly generated in your personal
folders (.pst) file after you install security updates 925938 and 929969 for
Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938104
The Mail icon is missing from Control Panel after you upgrade to Office 2003 by
using a custom transform (.mst) file that contains an Office Profile Settings
(.ops) file
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937763 |
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More Information/h3>
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ISSN 1523-7990
Copyright 1996-2006, Slipstick Systems and CDOLive LLC. All rights reserved.
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