Complaints about Instant Search and Contacts keep surfacing:
"How do you search Contacts on fields other than the ones that
are supported by default? If I expand the Instant Search box, it
gives me a handful of common Contact fields, but there doesn't
seem to be a way to add/get at a lot of the other Contact fields
to search on, and apparently the indexer doesn't index the
fields I'm interested in, like notes."
Find in older versions of Outlook had an option to include
frequently used fields and the notes field was one of those
fields. The basic Instant Search doesn't appear to search in the
notes field at all. However, the problem isn't that Instant
Search doesn't search those fields (it does), only that there is
something wrong with the search index and the fields aren't
indexed or not returned in search. In some cases, the only
results that are returned belong to newly saved contacts. In
other cases, you need to search All Contacts to get any results.
When problems with Instant Search surface you should rebuild the
search index. This usually corrects the problem. To do this, go
to the Control Panel, System and Maintenance category, Indexing
Options. From the Indexing options dialog, choose Advanced, and
then Rebuild. This will rebuild the instant search index and fix
most problems.
Since indexing tends to take a long time and slow the system
down, you might want to wait to start it when you can walk away
for a couple of hours (or overnight). You can use Advanced Find
(Shift+Ctrl+F) in the interim.
" I am wondering if anybody can tell me whether or not this is
possible, and if it is, how would I do so? We are going to have
about six different meetings scheduled soon. We therefore need
to send an invitation out to a group of people for those
meetings. However, each of them only needs to select one of the
six meetings. Is there any way to send a calendar invite that
will allow them to choose one of the six meetings and thereby
automatically update the sender's calendar AND the responders
calendar?"
This frequent request often comes from users looking for a way
to send out meeting requests for training sessions or benefits
meetings with HR, where each employee can pick the session that
fits their schedule. The selected meeting date needs to be added
to the recipient's calendar and the sender needs to have a list
of the attendees for each scheduled session, so you can't just
send appointments for the recipient to save to their calendar.
Read complete article...
by Michael B. Smith MCSE/Exchange MVP
In the early days of Microsoft Exchange (Exchange 5.5 and
earlier), Exchange Server maintained its own directory database,
separate from Active Directory - because there was no Active
Directory. In the Exchange directory, you found mailboxes,
contacts, and distribution lists. And that was pretty much it.
In the 'Windows NT directory', you found user accounts and
names. And that was pretty much it.
The separation of the directories necessitated that the Exchange
directory (dir.edb) be maintained and managed separately from
the Windows NT directory (SAM - the Security Accounts Manager).
For Exchange Server, we had EXADMIN - the Exchange Administrator
program. For the Windows NT directory, we had USRMGR - the User
Manager. (Note that there was also a Server Manager tool -
SRVMGR for administering servers, domain controllers, and member
computers.)
Beginning with Windows Server 2000, Active Directory was
introduced. Beginning with Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange Server
was fully integrated with Active Directory and Exchange did not
require (and would not use) a separate directory database. All
Exchange objects (mailboxes, contacts, and distribution lists)
mapped directly to an Active Directory object.
This caused some interesting changes. One of the changes that
affected many companies was that, suddenly, a user account could
only own a single mailbox. In earlier versions of Exchange, a
user account could own many mailboxes. It was common to see the
Administrator user owning dozens of service account mailboxes.
With Exchange 2000 Server, all of those mailboxes required a
new, separate user account.
In Exchange 2000 Server, the Exchange Administrator program was
renamed Exchange System Manager (ESM).
Perhaps the most noticeable change for Exchange administrators
was that per-user mailbox administration was no longer done in
ESM, it was now done in the Active Directory Users and Computers
(ADUC) console. Only 'infrastructure' (virtual servers,
administrative groups, mailbox databases, etc.) was maintained
in the ESM.
Small companies complained about this change -it was going to
complicate their lives to have to manage their users in two
programs. Big companies complained about this change - they
didn't want their Exchange administrators messing around in
Active Directory. But it stayed that way in Exchange 2000 Server
and in Exchange Server 2003. It seemed that Microsoft wanted it
this way and it was going to stay this way.
But now, in Exchange Server 2007 - what was old is new again!
Per-user mailbox management has been removed from ADUC and been
moved back into EMC (Exchange Management Console is the new name
of the administration console for Exchange Server 2007) as has
distribution list management and contact management.
Microsoft is telling us that this improves security. Again.
J
This change, however, isn't as disruptive a change as the 5.5 ->
2000 move. In the EMC for Exchange Server 2007, you can (given
the proper permissions) create users, create distribution lists
(distribution and security groups), mail-enable a security
group, and other things that you did in ADUC. So, while the
mailbox management capabilities are definitely gone from ADUC -
a typical administrator will often be able to do most of what
she needs to do within the EMC.
Give it a try - you mind find that you like it.
An Outlook 2007 user asked the following question in the
Microsoft newsgroups: "I have my outlook to-do bar customized
only to list only one category. I would like to be able to enter
in tasks I need to make and have them show up. The problem is,
when entering the task there's no way (that I can see) to
specify a category. So I have to turn off my filter, find the
new task I entered in my list of a million tasks and change the
category. How can I specify the category initially when I enter
my task into the to-do bar?"
The 'Click here to add' field is limited to the fields showing
in the view, in the compact view this is just the subject field.
If you drag the edge of the to-do bar inward and make it wider,
more fields will display, including the categories field. You
can change the order of the fields so categories is after the
subject and/or remove any fields you don't need from the view,
so the fields are larger. When you have fewer fields to display,
you can reduce the size setting for the compact view and still
have decent sized fields for typing. To change the compact view
setting, look in the Other settings.
As with any view, the view used for the task list is fully
customizable but you are limited to just one view for the To-do
bar. To access the view options, right click on the field
header, such as "Arrange By: field_name" and choose Custom...
Click Fields button to remove or rearrange the fields and Other
settings to change the maximum width of the compact view.
Now, if for some reason you need to see another field or edit
the tasks, don't turn off the filter; go to the Tasks module and
select the Tasks folder (not To-do list) to look for the task or
use Instant Search. Unlike the task list in the To-do bar, the
folder supports multiple views.
RSS
