Quick Tips for week 21This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;
Splitting a pst-file into yearly archives
Sorting order options for the Reminders Window
Quick Tip Highlights;
You may have been BCCed warning
Migrating Outlook pst-data to Outlook.com
Backing up the Address Book
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Quick Tips for week 20This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;
What is stored in the ost-file and why is it larger or smaller than my mailbox?
Outlook vs. Outlook.com vs. Outlook Web App
Quick Tip Highlights;
Do not automatically accept meeting as Tentative
Open Outlook search results in a new window
Week numbers in Calendar
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Display the member count of a Contact GroupIn Outlook, there is no direct way to find out how many members have been added to a Contact Group (also known as Distribution Lists in Outlook 2007 and previous).
Apparently, the Outlook Team doesn’t like to count things as Outlook also can’t display the amount of selected items.
A workaround is to save the Contact Group as a txt-file and get the line count. A more sophisticated way is to use a VBA macro as demonstrated in this guide.
Continue reading: Display the member count of a Contact Group
Outlook 2013 Update for May 2013An update has been released for Outlook 2013 and can be downloaded and installed manually, but is also being offered via Microsoft Update.
Update KB2738013 for Outlook 2013
This is a non-security update which solves 3 issues.
View: Download information for KB2810015
If you have Microsoft Update configured to also update other Microsoft applications, then this update will also also be offered via Microsoft Update or has already been updated automatically for you.
Junk E-mail Filter updates for May 2013New Junk E-mail Filter definitions have been made available for Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013.
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter (KB2817360)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Junk E-mail Filter (KB2817359)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 Junk Email Filter (KB982726)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2013 Junk Email Filter (KB982726)
If you have Microsoft Update configured to also update other Microsoft applications, then this update will also also be offered via Microsoft Update or has already been updated automatically for you.
Quick Tips for week 19This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;
Separate rules for Exchange and POP3 accounts
Collect external POP3 emails quicker on Outlook.com
Quick Tip Highlights;
Sent Items folder only shows my name
Can’t use multiple Signatures as message templates
Search and Replace for Contact fields
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Updated Guide: Using Outlook.com with your own or current email addressWith all the changes that came with the transformation of Hotmail to Outlook.com and the Live ID becoming a Microsoft Account, this guide wasn’t just up for a renaming but for a major rewrite!
The process for configuring Outlook.com to use your own address has been simplified a bit and wasn’t just a paintjob. For instance, the addition of detecting the SMTP server for your domain allows you to actually send out with your own address as well instead of “on behalf of” even when this is for instance a Gmail address.
Nevertheless, there are quite some pitfalls but this updated guide walks you through the entire process; from signing up to migrating over your data.
Continue reading: Using Outlook.com with your own or current email address
Quick Tips for week 18This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;
Send To Mail Recipient in HTML and with Signature
Forward, Reply All or Print in Outlook.com
Quick Tip Highlights;
Configure how many Search results are returned
Filling the AutoSuggest cache
Internet headers in Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
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Create a Contact Group from selected ContactsWhen you create a new Contact Group (also known as a Distribution List), Outlook doesn’t offer you much flexibility when it comes to finding and selecting contacts via the “Add Members” dialog.
For instance, there is no way to quickly add several people belonging to the same company or Category to your Contact Group.
The VBA macro from this article allows you to select your members directly from your Contacts folder. This enables you to first sort or filter your Contacts folder by a specific field such by Company or Category and/or do a search query and thus select your contact group members more conveniently.
Continue reading: Create a Contact Group from selected Contacts
Exchange 2013 CU1Cumulative Update 1 for Exchange 2013 is now available for direct download.
This is the long-awaited update which brings co-existence support with Exchange 2007 (SP3 RU10) and Exchange 2010 (SP3).
CU1 also adds the following new features and improvements to Exchange 2013
If you are monitoring your Exchange environment via SCOM, don’t get too excited yet; the release of the Exchange 2013 management packs for SCOM 2007 R2 and SCOM 2012 are still awaiting RTM status and will be released at a later date.
Download: Cumulative update 1 for Exchange Server 2013
View: Release Notes for Exchange 2013 CU1 (might not be live yet in your region)
View: Exchange Blog post about Exchange 2013 CU1
Making the Outlook 2013 interface less white and brightThere is no point denying it; Outlook 2013 is white, VERY white and for some, this can lead to problems.
Even though white is the base color for all Office 2013 applications, interestingly enough, most complaints are targeted towards Outlook. This could be because the other applications are more like sheets of paper and white feels more natural then. In Outlook, there is a whole lot more interface as well where too little contrast can be more confusing.
I’m no expert in that field though, but luckily Outlook is more my playing field. Let’s look at the options available to make Outlook 2013 less white and bright or otherwise give it a more “classic” look!
Continue reading: Making the Outlook 2013 interface less white and bright
Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 is now availableThe eagerly awaited Service Pack 3 for Exchange 2010 is now available.
Its main new feature is of course support for coexistence with Exchange 2013 so an upgrade scenario is now finally supported. Well… almost, as you need to wait for Cumulative Update 1 (CU1) for Exchange 2013 which is due this quarter as well.
Once that is available, you are free to keep versions mixed as well in case you only want to add or replace Exchange servers when needed. You can now also install Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2012
A cool new end-user feature is control over in which folder “Sent As” and “On Behalf Of” messages should be stored; the mailbox owner or the mail sender. You can control this via OWA. PowerShell support for this was already added to Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4.
View: What’s New in Exchange 2010 SP3
View: Description of Exchange Server 2010 SP3 (KB2808208)
Download: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Upgrading to Outlook 2013
Planning to upgrade to Outlook 2013? This guide contains a lot of preparation and other information to get yourself ready before you double click on that setup.exe file.
Aside from the preparation steps, this guide informs you about what to expect when you start Outlook 2013 for the first time after you upgraded and how to troubleshoot several issues you may encounter during or after the installation.
Furthermore, for those of you who need some transition time, you’ll find a Ribbon-Customization-file in this guide to make the Outlook interface look similar to the one found in Outlook 2007.
Live Tiles for Outlook on Windows 8
One thing in Windows 8 which is impossible to overlook is the new Start Screen and its support for displaying real-time application information on its “Live Tiles”. For instance, it could show your upcoming appointments on the Start Screen or Lock Screen.
Sadly, these “Live Tiles” only work for the new Modern Apps and not for the classic Desktop applications. Since Outlook is a classic Desktop application, it doesn’t offer support for these Live Tiles either. This even applies to Outlook 2013.
However, with a small workaround, you can still display live Mail, Calendar and Contact/People data on the Windows 8 Start Screen and Lock Screen while using Outlook as the source.
Windows 8 and Outlook
Thinking about upgrading your computer to Windows 8 or are you using Outlook on a Windows 8 computer already? The process is quite streamlined and trouble free for most configurations, especially when upgrading from Windows 7, but there are still a couple of attention points before you start.
This guide contains not only upgrade preparation and troubleshooting steps but also various tips about the changes that you could encounter involving Outlook after upgrading to Windows 8.
Always Reply in HTML
While you can configure a default message format for composing new messages, Outlook will always reply in the same format as the original message.
From a compatibility and layout maintaining point of view, this makes sense. However, on some occasions, it makes sense to “upgrade” the message format from Plain Text to HTML.
While you can manually change the message format after pressing Reply, you could be left with the wrong font settings and your Plain Text signature would have been added rather than your HTML signature.
The macro in this guide will let you reply in the HTML format as easy as pressing a “Reply in HTML” button.
30 Short questions and tips for Outlook 2013This guide discusses the main changes and new features of Outlook 2013 and provides several tips on how to work with or around them.
If you want to give Office 2013 a try yourself, you can sign up for a free 1 month trial for Office 365 Home Premium or a 60 day trial of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013.
While both suites give you a different set of options and applications, the version of Outlook 2013 included in either suite is exactly the same.
Continue reading: 30 Short questions and tips for Outlook 2013
Creating, using and managing SignaturesCreating and selecting a signature is not that difficult in Outlook. However creating the signature you want with for example a company logo in it can be quite of a hassle. This guide will cover both the basics and advanced examples for creating, using and managing signatures in Outlook.
Backup and Restore all Outlook dataWith today’s use of e-mail you almost can’t afford to lose a single e-mail so let alone your entire mail archive, Calendar items and Contacts.
This guide is all about backing up and restoring your Outlook Data. It describes various methods and explains which method is best to be used in which scenarios.
Quick Tips for week 17This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;
Creating a distribution list from an Excel document
Outlook and Two-Step Authentication for Outlook.com and Hotmail accounts
Quick Tip Highlights;
Out of Office Assistant not replying
Convert from a POP3 account to IMAP
Single key reading; what is that?
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