Did you notice some downtime? (25 September, 2007)

Well, I hope not! Today I changed the backend of my website, or in less technical terms; the stuff that keeps my website running

After years and years of managing separate htm-files, everything is now finally in a database and managed by a lot less template files. I’ve taken much care in making sure all the ‘old’ links still work and will continue to work since they are the ‘new’ links as well. However, there were a few links for which it wasn’t possible to transfer them but you should be automatically redirected for those. One of those links is for the RSS Feed of my website. If your RSS application is advanced enough, it will probably automatically update the subscription link and otherwise you’ll have to do it manually. If you come across some issues with my website, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Which reminds me; I have to update my About page! Last month I got my degree of “Master of Science in ICT in Business”. My thesis research was titled; “Bridging the gap between intra-organizational mobile collaboration scenarios and tools.”

I know things have been quiet on this website for a while but with the graduation and this backend change, I can finally focus again on the content part of this website. I’ve got a big list of ideas to write guides on but if you have some ideas too on things you want to see covered on this website you can contacts me.

I’ll also frequently post small tips and tricks on Outlook on my other Outlook website MSOutlook.info.

See you soon!

     Office 2003 Service Pack 3 Released! (25 September, 2007)

Today Office 2003 SP3 got released. In true Office tradition you can expect this to be the final Service Pack that we’ll see for Office 2003 (but I’m sure we’ll see some additional Hotfixes though). You can download Service Pack 3 here or of course use Microsoft Update or Office Update.

I’ve also updated the guide on how to create an Office 2003 CD (or installation point) with Service Pack 3 slipstreamed into it.

     Sorting Outgoing E-mails (22 September, 2007)

When you use rules to sort your outgoing e-mails into folders you’ll notice that you can actually only “move a copy” to that folder. This rule is quite unclear and actualy contradicts itself; does it move or does it copy? Well it copies and when you use the rule by default you’ll end up with duplicates which is probably not what you want; you want it to move! This is still possible but it involves modifying another options and carefully craft your e-mail rules.

     Creating Signatures (22 September, 2007)

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 on creating a signature in Outlook.

     Send Word Document As Email (22 September, 2007)

In previous versions of Word (pre-Office 2007) you had the ability to send the contents of your current document as the contents of your email. In Word 2007 you only have the option to send it as an attachment.

This guide will explain how you can recreate that functionality with a macro.

     Signing your own macros with SelfCert.exe (22 September, 2007)

When you create a macro and are running Outlook with the default security settings you are not able to run the macro unless you either tamper with the default security settings or sign your own code with a digital certificate. Since it is not very common to have your own digital certificate you probably set your macro security to a lower level to be able to run your macro. There is no need for that; you can sign your own macros with SelfCert.exe so there is no more need to lower your security settings.

     Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format (22 September, 2007)

You’ve probably come across this at least once; You receive a nicely HTML formatted message with embedded pictures so the sender can tell the story with the pictures and when you try to save the pictures you can only save them as a bmp-file. Or; you receive a fun e-mail with an animated gif-file and when you try to save it you can only save or copy it as a bmp-file which will of course break the animation.

This How To article explains how you can save the embedded pictures in their original file format.

     Open link from Outlook in new window (22 September, 2007)

Ever had that when you are reading a webpage a new mail arrives that has a link in it and when you click on it it opens in the window you were just reading? Very annoying if you ask me. Follow these instructions to change this behavior and let the link open in a new window.

     Restore Deleted Items from an Outlook PST-file (22 September, 2007)

This guide will instruct you how to recover all your deleted messages since the last time you ran “Compact Now” on a PST-file.

When you haven’t closed and opened Outlook in between you’ll have the best results. If you have restarted Outlook in between the results are unpredictable.

     Remove the Outlook icon from your desktop (22 September, 2007)

In Windows XP all icons are removed from your desktop by default except for the Recycle Bin (see the “Other Programs” section on how to remove that one). When you install Outlook 97, 98, 2000 or 2002 there will also be and Outlook icon placed on your desktop still not allowing you to go for that extremely clean desktop policy. You can’t just delete it as you will delete a part of the program when you do. So, what to do?