The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on May 2, 2024.
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Today's Highlights »
- Send an Email when you open Outlook
- Rules for Plus Addressing
- Coming to Outlook web and new Outlook: Meeting Invitation Options
Send an Email when you open Outlook
Now and again, you need to do something fun and for me, fun is writing a simple Outlook macro. After a few days of working on stressful projects, it’s relaxing. I know, many of you are saying “that is not what I’d call fun!”, but I like the creativity of solving a problem.
A user asked if it was possible to send a message to their friends every time they opened Outlook…. letting the friends know they were still alive... because nothing will prove you are alive more than opening Outlook and checking email. You can giggle over the reason the user asked for the macro, but there are a lot of other reasons why you might want to send an automated message when you start Outlook. Plus, when you think about, it is a good idea. (I mentioned it to some friends and they want the macro for their older family members.)
While you can can send a message when you start Outlook using a simple Application_Startup macro, if Outlook crashes or you need to restart Outlook for another reason, the macro would fire every time. This may not be desirable and could annoy the friends.
The solution: write the time the last message was sent and only send a new message if it's the next day (or whatever period you choose). The date (or date and time) are stored in the registry in decimal format so it's easy to compare the values. You can send a simple message or use a template to send a longer message.
Get the macro and instructions at Send an Email when you open Outlook
You can also automate sending emails using a reminder, which is good if you need to send the message at the same time each time. See Send an Email When a Reminder Fires for the instructions and macro to send an email when a reminder fires.
Rules for Plus Addressing
Exchange online, including Outlook.com and work or School accounts support “plus addressing” (as do other mail services.) This allows to filter your mail and know who leaked your address to spammers (who are too stupid to remove the +keyword to hide where they got it from. :))
To use plus addressing, simply add +keyword to your alias - alias+outlook@ - when you sign up on websites or give out your address then use a rule to file or delete messages sent to that address. Note: you cannot send mail from a plus address, only send mail to it.
Because Outlook does not support wildcards in rules, you would need to add every plus address to rules to file by the address the message was sent to. This is not workable if you are a heavy user of plus addresses.
However, if you want to process all (or some) of the plus addresses using the same action, use a rule for words in the recipient address and use “alias+” as the condition in the rule.
Coming to Outlook web and new Outlook: Meeting Invitation Options
Outlook on the web and new Outlook for Windows will be getting new RSVP settings later this summer.
When the feature rolls out, users will be able to keep the invitation email in their Inbox after accepting or declining. This is a very popular request as currently, the invitation is deleted once the user responds. The other new setting is to auto decline if the time period has another event marked busy.
This feature will not be added to classic Outlook at this time. It is for Outlook on the web and new Outlook (which uses the same scripts as Outlook on the web.)
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
Print to PDF is blocked if Mandatory Labeling is enabled - Microsoft Support
Known issues with Outlook Desktop Shared Calendar Improvements - Microsoft Support
Other Resources
What’s new in Outlook for personal use – May 2024 - Microsoft Community Hub
Change Appointment Reminders using PowerShell
Use PowerShell to change the reminder times on Birthdays and other appointments in classic Outlook software.
Released: April 2024 Exchange Server Hotfix Updates - Microsoft Community Hub
Exchange Online to introduce External Recipient Rate Limit - Microsoft Community Hub