The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on December 2, 2021.
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Today's Highlights
Edit Outlook’s Attach File list
A user ask how to remove files from the Insert > Attach File menu in Outlook email.
The Attach File list comes from a mix of sources: the Recent folder in Windows, plus the Recent files in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
To remove Office files from the list, you need to remove the files from the File > Open page in each Office app. Right-click on the files and choose “Remove from list” to remove a specific file or “Clear unpinned items” to clear all the files on the screen. (If you have a lot of files, you may need to use Clear unpinned items several times to remove all.)
If files remain on Outlook's Attach File list but are not in the Office apps, open File Explorer, go to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\Recent and delete the shortcuts you want removed from the Attach File list.
Non-Office file types, including PDF and images, are pulled from the Quick Access list in Windows. If you want to remove these files from Outlook’s Attach File list you need to delete the items from the Recent folder at C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent.
You can control how many recent files are listed in the Attach File menu by adding the MaxAttachmentMenuItems registry value. If you don’t want any files on the Attach File list, set the value to 0. The maximum value is 20 items, but more than 14 items is likely to require scrolling to see all.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
REG_DWORD: MaxAttachmentMenuItems
Value: 0 (no files) to 20 (Maximum)
If you want to limit the number of Recent items you see on the Open sidebar in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, look for the option in those programs at File > Options > Advanced. “Show this number of Recent Documents” is under the Display section. The maximum value here is 50.
Screenshots and more information are in this article:
Office 365 Coming soon “visual refresh”
Microsoft released the new visual refresh to Current Channel. The refresh adds a “Use system setting” theme, which sets the office theme to automatically match the Windows theme setting.
Unfortunately, it defaults to use Office White theme if Windows is set to Light theme, and Office Black theme if Windows is set to use the Dark theme. Anyone using the Colorful theme will have their theme set to “Use system setting.” They need to change it back to Colorful. Note the Dark theme is darker, to meet accessibility contrast requirements.
If you don’t like the changes, you can turn the "new experience" off in the Office apps. In Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote, click the Upcoming Features button (bullhorn icon) in the title bar then slide “Try the new experience” off. But be forewarned: eventually these changes will be in Office, with no ability to turn them off.
Quick Tip: Sorting
A user grouped contacts by category, but they were sorted in a random order, not alphabetical. She wanted to know how to get them properly sorted.
The fix: Hold Shift and click on the name field. This adds that field to the sort order. You can add up to four fields to sort by.
You can use this trick in any Outlook folder that uses the old Single Line view, not compact view.
If you prefer doing it thorough the View settings dialog, open View Settings > Sort and add the field.
New & Updated Exchange Server KB Articles
You experience issues in Outlook when you try to configure free/busy information or when you try to delegate information
Describes the issues that you may experience in Outlook because a mailbox property does not correctly reference a hidden message in the mailbox. Provides a resolution.
Other Resources
Don't "Allow my organization to manage my device"
How to stop the "Stay signed in to all your apps" dialog from coming up when signing into Microsoft Office 365 applications and prevent your organization from managing your device.
Office 365: Send using Mailbox Alias Addresses
How to send using secondary addresses on Office 365 Exchange accounts, using Outlook on Windows, Outlook on the web, or Outlook mobile.