Search results matching tag 'Office'

Outlook 2007 Time Zones

daniel.nerenberg — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:18:00 GMT

Here is a really great example of how Microsoft office improved usability of features. When scheduling meetings it's often a pain when you have to take into account time zones. If you click on the Time Zone button on the Ribbon bar in Outlook 2007 you can specify the time zone that your meeting starts. Outlook will automatically publish the meeting at the correct time on your calendar.

Now when we go back to Calendar view we see the meeting is scheduled at the correct time in Easter Standard Time (1:00pm):

If I change my time Zone as always all my appointments are adjusted:

Unzip Office 2007 Files

rodney.buike — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:49:00 GMT

DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, some of the new extensions used by Office 2007 applications. They are all based on OpenXML and in reality are just a set of compressed XML files. Want to see the guts of any of these files simply rename the file and change the extension to .ZIP and then unzip it! You'll see a directory structure

...and you can drill into the folders to find the different XML files that make up the file. In this case it is a Word 2007 file and you can see XML files for the document, the footer, endnotes etc... The media folder holds all the images located in the file.

Nifty :)

Want to know more? See this post on the MSDN blogs.

View Message Source in Outlook 2003

rodney.buike — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 12:51:00 GMT

The other day I wrote how to view message headers in OWA, and recieved a lot of mail asking if this can be done it Outlook as well. If you have ever used Outlook Express, you might be familiar with the View --> Source option. In Outlook this feature does not exist.

Outlook gives you the option to View --> Options which will display the e-mail header. To enable the View --> Source functionality in Outlook 2003 open up regedit and drill down to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail

Create a new Reg_DWORD called SaveAllMIMENotJustHeaders and give it a value of 1. This will enalbe the View --> Source option in Outlook 2003 but there are a few exceptions. It will only work for messages received after the change has been made and will not work with MAPI connections (i.e. Exchange mailboxes). You will only have this option for mail received from Internet transports (i.e. POP3)

Display SenderID Data in Outlook

rodney.buike — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:24:00 GMT

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 adds SenderID (aka SPF) support to Exchange. By adding the ability to view SenderID data in Outlook, you can troubleshoot issues easier, as well as create better rules to filter email in your inbox.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a type of DNS record created to help stop Spam. A lot of anti-spam filters include a filter to look for SPF records and if they are forged, block the messages. The easiest way to describe SPF is to call it a reverse MX record. Microsoft has provided a script, which you can download at the end of this article, called SenderID.CFG which can be loaded in Outlook 2003, which will extract the SenderID data. Save the script and place it in the

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\forms\language

Note: If you do not have a languages folder, place it into the 1033 folder.

Next Open Outlook and select Tools -> Options. Choose the Other tab and click on the Advanced Options button. Next click on the Custom Forms button and then the Manage Forms button. Now click the Install button to install the SenderID.CFG file into your forms library. Click OK until you exit to the main Outlook view then right-click on a column heading and select the Field Chooser command. In the Field Chooser dialog box, scroll through the dropdown list and find the Forms option and then select the SenderID extension and drag it onto the column headings. You will now see the SenderID status for each message.

These status codes indicate each of the SenderID status codes:

1 = Neutral - The domain provided no information about the sender
2 = Pass - The message was sent from an authorized server for that domain
3 = Fail - The message was sent from a spoofed server for that domain
4 = Soft Fail - The message maybe spoofed, but cannot be verified
5 = None - There is no SPF record for the domain
6 = Temp
7 = Temp Error - Non-specific error received
8 = Perm Error - Error in senders SPF record

For more information see:

SenderID.CFG Script

Outlook Recovery Mode and Exchange DR

rodney.buike — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:31:00 GMT

A while back I went over using a "dialtone" method to restore Exchange from a corrupt store. I received a few emails about a lingering issue that will occur with Outlook 2003 regarding Outlook Recovery Mode.

After restoring Exchange using the dialtone method, everytime you open Outlook 2003, you will be notified that Outlook is running in recovery mode. Older versions of Outlook may also startup normally but then go into Offline mode.

The problem occurs because Outlook creates a cache that holds copies of all messages. If the Exchange server is ever unavailable the user will still have access to their messages. The cache is located in a file with the .OST extension. The OST is an encrypted file that is linked to the users mailbox. When you perform the dialtone resotre, you are in fact creating a new database, with new mailboxes however, the OST is still linked to the old mailbox. To resolve this issue, we must get rid of the old OST and create a new one. To do this begin by opening Outlook and then select Tools | E-Mail Accounts.

Select to View or Change an Existing Account, then select the Microsoft Exchange account and select Change. Press the More Settings button and then go to the Advanced tab. Uncheck Use Cached Exchange Mode.

Upon clicking Next, you will be promted with the following error.

Click OK, but DO NOT restart Outlook like it tells you too! Instead Click the Offline Folder File Settings button and press the Disable Offline Use button.

You will be warned that your OST file will be removed from the profile, click Yes to proceed. Now close Outlook and re-open it again. Again, go to Tools | E-Mail Accounts and select View or Change an Existing Account. Click the More Settings button and under the Advanced tab, check the box next to Use Cached Exchange Mode. Press the Offile Folder File Settings button and enter a new name for the OST file.

You cannot use the old OST file, so use a different name. Outlook will tell you that the OST file cannot be found and ask you if you wish to create a new one, select Yes and finish the wizard. The next time you restart Outlook a new OST will be created and linked to the new mailbox.

Outlook Command Line Switches

rodney.buike — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:30:00 GMT

Outlook can be started from the command line simply by typing Outlook.exe. There are many command line switches that can be used to perform specific tasks, or open Outlook to specific windows.

Many of these command line switches can be very useful in performing everyday tasks more effeciently. Here are my top 10 Outlook command line switches in no particular order.

/sniff - Locates and new appointments in your inbox and adds them to your calendar.
/profile profilename - Loads Outlook with the specified profile. /cleanreminders - Dismisses any old reminders to prevent them from reappearing.
/rpcdiag - Displays RPC connection status, very useful when troubleshooting RPC over HTTPs issues.
/cleanviews - Restores the Outlook views to default which is very useful when a user has customized the menus and is now lost.
/nocustomize - Simlar to /cleanviews, but only resets the view to default for the current instance.
/nopreview - Opens Outlook with all preview panes closed. This is handy when you suspect the Inbox contains a virus.
/cleanrules - Removes all client-side and server-side rules for the mail profile.
/checkclient - Checks if Outlook is the default mail/contacts/calendar client and prompts you if it is not.

Now I did say top 10, but number 10 performs multiple functions. The /safe switch can perform 5 different tasks and is very useful for troubleshooting Outlook issues.

/safe - Opens Outlook without any add-ins, Reading Pane closed and toolbar customizations removed.
/safe:1 - Opens Outlook with the Reading Pane turned off.
/safe:2 - Opens Outlook normally but does not check mail at startup.
/safe:3 - Opens Outlook with all add-ins turned off, however they will still be listed in the Add-In Manager.
/safe:4 - Opens Outlook without loading the Outcmd.dat and *.fav file.

There are many more Outlook command line switches to make working with and troublshooting Outlook more efficient.

Outlook 2003 Automatic PST Backup

rodney.buike — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:30:00 GMT

If you are using POP3 for email, your email messages get stored in a PST file on the local computer. A .pst file contains all of your Outlook folders, like the Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts and any other folders you have created. There is no automatic backing up of this PST file in Outlook 2003, however Microsoft has released an Outlook 2003 Add-in that can add this functionality.

After downloading and installing the Personal Folders Backup Add-in, select File | Backup to bring up the backup dialog box.

Press Options to specify how often to remind you to backup and where to save the backups to. This can be a local drive or a mapped network drive. You can also specify which PST files to backup if you have more than one.

With the Add-in setup every 7 days you will recieve a small popup reminding you to backup your Personal Folders. Press the button labeled Save Backup and your PST will be backed up automatically the next time you close Outlook!

For more information see:

Download Details: Outlook 2003 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup

Quick Tip: Clear Outlook Name Cache

rodney.buike — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 13:41:00 GMT

Microsoft Outlook creates a nickname list that is for name checking and auto completion. When you use Outlook it automatically creates the nickname list. The nickname list can become corrupted and when it does Outlook may not identify recipients, may suggest the wrong recipients with automatic completion or it might just send the message to the wrong person!

To fix this, close Outlook and then open up Explorer. Select Tools | Folder Options and click on the View tab. Select Advanced View and check the boxes next to Show Hidden Files and Folders. Next, open up the Search applet (don't forget to say hi to Search Puppy!) and search for *.NK2 files. There will be a NK2 file for each Outlook profile on the computer and it will be named profilename.NK2. Rename the file to profilename.bak or delete the file. When you open up Outlook, it will create a new NK2 file and start a new nickname list.