The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on March 14, 2019.
EMO is a weekly publication. To receive your own copy of EMO by email, subscribe here.
Support Exchange Messaging Outlook Sponsors
Increase Your Productivity!
ReliefJet Essentials for Outlook is a set of more than 160 tools for performing a wide range of tasks in Outlook: processing email messages, contacts, appointments, meetings, tasks and other Outlook items.
Today's Highlights:
- Outlook on the web shows dots, not appointments
- Updating Task Due Dates
- Delete duplicates using a macro
- The new Office icons are out
Outlook on the web shows dots, not appointments
Several users had a complaint: the appointments on their monthly Outlook calendar disappeared and were replaced by 3 dots. (Using the classic Calendar in Office 365 business accounts, users will see a number, not dots.)
I am no longer able to see events that I've saved to my Outlook calendar. No matter how many times I create and save an event, when I return to the calendar screen, all I see under the date is three dots. When I go back to February and January, I see all my events under the dates on which they occurred. Why can't I see them now?
This is caused by the number of calendar weeks March needs and the screen is too small to show everything. March covers 6 weeks, beginning on a Friday and ends on a Sunday. February needed 5 calendar weeks, so the cells are taller, leaving more room for events to display.
The height of the browser window also has an effect. If your monitor or window is larger, you'll see the events, if its smaller or you don't have the window full screen, you'll see the dots.
Setting the calendar week to start on Monday will solve the problem for March (and June), and only 2 months going forward will be affected: they start on Sunday and end on Tuesday.
Lowering the browser zoom % will also solve the problem.
Outlook desktop should show at least one event each day, unless your screen is really small (under 600 pixels high).
Updating Task Due Dates
For every project, I create a lot of tasks that should be done before the projects end date occurs. I set different tasks on different dates that is depending on the date on the last task (project finished) If I change the finish date on the last task, is there an easy way to update the due date on all tasks?
When you have a lot of tasks to update, you can use a macro to speed it up, but if you only have a few to update, enable in-cell editing in View settings > Other Settings then type the new date in the Due Date field. If you’re moving everything ahead by the same amount, such 2 weeks, you can type + 2w at the end of the current date: 3/14/2019 + 2w. When you tab out or click in another field, Outlook will move it ahead 2 weeks. (Use d for days: + 10d would move it ahead 10 days.)
Is there a way to quickly create the project tasks?
Sure. Export a tasks to a CSV file (to get the field names correct) to use as a template. Open the CSV in Excel and use formulas to set the date fields. When you need to create a new set of tasks, edit the project name and start date then Import into Outlook Tasks.
Or, you can use a macro. I have a macro example at Create a Series of Tasks using VBA but honestly, if you create a template in Excel, Importing is fast.
Delete duplicates using a macro
A client had many duplicates in one folder and while there are a number of duplicate remover utilities, any of which work great if you need to check multiple folders for duplicates, he just needed to check one folder. He didn't want to install a utility but there were too many duplicates to manually remove them.
The solution: a macro that moves duplicate messages to a subfolder for review.
This macro runs on the selected folder. When working with client’s data, I’d rather play it safe, so the macro creates a subfolder named Duplicates to move the duplicated messages to. Once you are confident it didn’t move a message that was not duplicated, delete the folder.
Get the macro at Delete duplicate messages using a macro
The new Office icons are out
The last update to my Office 365 installation included updated icons. While they have a more “modern” look, I’m not sure I like them – the older ones were easier to pick out on my taskbar. If you want to see what they look like, the icons are on my website at Office Icons
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
'Cannot get child of ADObjectId' error when you install the Edge Transport server role on a domain-joined Exchange server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/3205799
Exchange Server 2013 CU20 is displayed after you install Exchange CU22
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4492759
Can't send an email message when Full Access permission is granted to a shared mailbox in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/3045224
Cumulative Update 11 for Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4134118
Exchange Web Services notification events can sometimes return an UnreadCount of -1
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4490422
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
'Sorry, we cant connect to your account. Please try again later' error when you activate Office from Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/help/2745026
March 2019 updates for Microsoft Office
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4491754
Synchronization problems occur in Outlook and in Outlook Web App
https://support.microsoft.com/help/2526306
You can't sign in to Office 365 from multiple federated domains
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4493025
New & Updated Outlook KB Articles
Apply the latest Japanese holidays in Outlook 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4462188
Cannot set up Office 365 Exchange Online account in Outlook
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4493666
Can't send an email message when Full Access permission is granted to a shared mailbox in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/3045224
Disabling the Encrypt-Only feature in Outlook
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4493792
How to create a recurring e-mail message in Outlook
https://support.microsoft.com/help/239087
How to troubleshoot an Exchange Online Archive mailbox that is not displayed in Outlook
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4492055
Information about the Outlook AutoComplete list
https://support.microsoft.com/help/2199226
Other Resources
Can’t open Office apps?
I'm somewhat surprised that we are still seeing a number of users affected by this bug as it was fixed several days ago. The issue? Some users are receiving an error message when they try to open any Office application: "We're sorry, but Office App has run into an error that is preventing it from
Category shortcuts don’t work (Fixed)
Category shortcuts (Ctrl+Function key) that were broken in the Jan 2019 build are fixed in Office 365 Version 1902 Build 11328.20146, released March 5 2019.
Delete duplicate messages using a macro
Use a macro to clean up duplicates messages in an Outlook folder.
Outlook.com: Manage Subscriptions
View and manage all of your email your subscriptions in one place.
Resize images in an Outlook email
Use a VBA macro to resize large images in received email.
Update Folder Permissions using VBA
How to assign, change, or remove folder permissions in an Exchange mailbox using Outlook VBA and Redemption.
Outlook Mobile Webinar Series
Microsoft has scheduled webinars to highlight cool tips and tricks to save you time and effort using the Outlook mobile apps. You’ll also be able to questions and share feedback with the Outlook mobile team directly.
March 2019 Office Update Release
The March 2019 Public Update releases for Office are available. There are 6 security updates and 28 non-security updates. .A new version of Office 2013 Click-To-Run is available: 15.0.5119.1000. A new version of Office 2010 Click-To-Run is available: 14.0.7230.5000