HowTo-Outlook

Updating the Offline Address Book in Exchange and Outlook

When you have Cached Exchange Mode enabled, Outlook by will by default cache the main Global Address List as well. This is called the Offline Address Book and is being generated on the Exchange server.

Due to various synching schedules, it can take up to 48 hours before you could actually see a change in Outlook after a modification has been made on the Exchange server or in Active Directory.

In this guide, the relevant timings are explained and instructions are given in how you can directly force an update and resync, which can be very handy when troubleshooting or when you work in an Exchange environment which sees a lot of user mailbox mutations.

Continue reading: Updating the Offline Address Book in Exchange and Outlook

Quick Tips for week 24

This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;

Deleted Calendar and Contacts folders not showing in the Deleted Items folder
Instant spell check for Outlook Web App (OWA)

Quick Tip Highlights;
Adding Search Folders to Outlook Today
Reply/Reply to All with original attachments
Adding an Outlook.com account to Outlook

These tips and other headlines can also be followed via

Junk E-mail Filter updates for June 2013

New Junk E-mail Filter definitions have been made available but interestingly enough only for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 are skipping this month.

Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter (KB2817473)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Junk E-mail Filter (KB2817327)

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.

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Quick Tips for week 23

This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;

Drag & drop to add attachment no longer works
Month view doesn’t show all my appointments

Quick Tip Highlights;
OOF on additional mailbox
Leave messages on mail server
Quickly set dates with formulas and natural text

These tips and other headlines can also be followed via

Outlook 2013 RT for Windows RT and Surface RT

If you have a Windows RT tablet such as the Surface RT or are holding off from buying one because it doesn’t come with Outlook… Great news! The upcoming Windows 8.1 Update for Windows RT will also include Outlook 2013 RT.

Currently, Windows RT already ships with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote but the request to include Outlook was strong enough to get it included in the package now as well.

The Office RT family of applications are exclusive to Windows RT devices (tablets). This version is visually the same when compared with the regular Office 2013 applications but is optimized for the ARM processor, has Touch Mode enabled by default and contains various other battery life increasing and disk space usage reducing changes.

View: Outlook 2013 RT Coming to Windows RT Tablets as part of Windows 8.1 Update

Quick Tips for week 22

This week, the following Quick Tips were posted at HowTo-Outlook’s Q&A blog MSOutlook.info;

Multiple Contact Folders vs. Groups vs. Categories
Setting the Reading Pane at the bottom and other display options in Outlook Web App

Quick Tip Highlights;
Mail Merge with attachment
Convert from a POP3 account to IMAP
Starting clean or resetting parts of Outlook

These tips and other headlines can also be followed via

Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 1

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 is now available for direct download. It contains a total of 26 documented fixes.

The Exchange Team highlights the following ones:

KB2561346 Mailbox storage limit error when a delegate uses the manager’s mailbox to send an email message in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
KB2756460 You cannot open a mailbox that is located in a different site by using Outlook Anywhere in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
KB2802569 Mailbox synchronization fails on an Exchange ActiveSync device in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
KB2814847 Rapid growth in transaction logs, CPU use, and memory consumption in Exchange Server 2010 when a user syncs a mailbox by using an iOS 6.1 or 6.1.1-based device
KB2822208 Unable to soft delete some messages after installing Exchange 2010 SP2 RU6 or SP3

View: Description of Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3
Download: Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (KB2803727)

Display the member count of a Contact Group

In 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 2013

An 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.

Some items that are displayed in the Inbox on Outlook.com are not displayed in the Inbox in Outlook 2013.
After you enable Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) logging in Outlook 2013, you cannot use the log files to determine which version of Outlook 2013 is installed.
When you add certain holidays to a calendar in the French version of Outlook 2013, the names of the holidays are displayed in Vietnamese.

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.

Updated Guide: Using Outlook.com with your own or current email address

With 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

Create a Contact Group from selected Contacts

When 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

Making the Outlook 2013 interface less white and bright

There 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

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.

Continue reading: Upgrading to Outlook 2013

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.

Continue reading: Live Tiles for Outlook on Windows 8

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.

Continue reading: Windows 8 and Outlook

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.

Continue reading: Always Reply in HTML

30 Short questions and tips for Outlook 2013

This 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 Signatures

Creating 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.

Continue reading: Creating, using and managing Signatures

Backup and Restore all Outlook data

With 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.

Continue reading: Backup and Restore all Outlook data