Hide Outlook taskbar buttons

Sunday, March 30, 2008

By default, all minimized Microsoft Outlook windows and items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) display on the taskbar. However, you can hide the Outlook window taskbar buttons to conserve space on your taskbar. When you hide the Outlook window taskbar buttons, the Outlook icon displays only in the notification area, at the far right end of the taskbar.

• Right-click the Outlook icon in the notification area, and then on the shortcut menu (shortcut menu: A menu that shows a list of commands relevant to a particular item. To display a shortcut menu, right-click an item or press SHIFT+F10.), click Hide When Minimized.

Tips

• If you have hidden the Outlook window taskbar buttons or minimized Outlook, you can right-click the Outlook icon in the notification area to restore Outlook. After right-clicking the Outlook icon in the notification area, on the shortcut menu, clicks Open Outlook.
• If you are using Microsoft Windows XP, you can also hide the Outlook icon in the notification area. For more information on customizing notifications, see Windows Help.

Automatically reply to incoming messages

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

This feature requires you to use a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account. Most personal e-mail accounts through an Internet service provider (ISP) (ISP: A business that provides access to the Internet for such things as electronic mail, chat rooms, or use of the World Wide Web. Some ISPs are multinational, offering access in many locations, while others are limited to a specific region.) are POP3 accounts and do not support this feature.

1. In Mail, on the Tools menu, click Out of Office Assistant.

I don't see the Out of Office Assistant command

The Out of Office Assistant command does not appear unless you are using an Exchange Server e-mail account and you are in the Mail view.

2. Click I am currently Out of the Office.
3. In the AutoReply only once to each sender with the following text box, type the message that you want to send to others while you are out.
4. If you want, create rule to manage your incoming mail.

Steps

1. On the Tools menu, click Out of Office Assistant.

Note The Out of Office Assistant command does not appear unless you are using an Exchange Server e-mail account.

2. Click Add Rule.
3. Under When a message arrives that meets the following conditions, specify the conditions of the rule that the message must meet for the action to occur.
4. To specify more conditions, click Advanced, select the options that you want, and then click OK.
5. To specify that this rule must be the last one applied, select the Do not process subsequent rules check box.
6. Under Perform these actions, select the options that you want. You can select more than one option.

Note If you specify that a message must be deleted, rules that follow the delete rule in the list of rules in the Out of Office Assistant dialog box do not affect the message.

Create a task

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Create a task from scratch

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Task.
2. In the Subject box, type a task (task: A personal or work-related duty or errand that you want to track through completion.) name.
3. Complete any other boxes on the Task and Details tabs for information you want to record for the task.
4. To make the task recur, click Recurrence, click the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) at which you want the task to recur, and then do one of the following:

Make the task recur at regular intervals

Select options for that frequency. Do not click Regenerate new task, or the task will not recur at regular intervals.

Make the task recur based on completion date

Click Regenerate new task, and then type a time frequency in the box.

5. If you want, set start and end dates for the task.
6. Click OK, and then click Save and Close.

Create a task from an existing task

1. In task list, select the task (task: A personal or work-related duty or errand that you want to track through completion.) you want to copy.
• To select adjacent items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.), click the first item, and then hold down SHIFT and click the last item.
• To select nonadjacent items, click the first item, and then hold down CTRL and click additional items.
• To select all items, click the Edit menu, and then click Select All.

Note Changing the view (view: Views give you different ways to look at the same information in a folder by putting it in different arrangements and formats. There are standard views for each folder. You can also create custom views.) for items can make selecting specific items easier. For instance, if you want to select all messages that have the same subject, in the folder containing the messages, on the View menu, point to Arrange By, and then click Subject. Select the messages you want from the view.

2. On the Edit menu, click Copy. If the Copy command is not available, click the check mark in the task's Icon column, and then try again.
3. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
4. As appropriate, open the task and change its options.

Get more information click->Microsoft Outlook

Repair Outlook

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Automatically repair Outlook programs

Caution Choosing the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings option will set the following back to the state they appeared in when you first installed Outlook:

• The Assistant character selection
• Most-recently-used entries on the File menu will be removed
• The size of the application window for all applications
• Menu and toolbar position and any customizations
• The security level for each application
• View settings within the application, such as the Calendar view in Outlook

Your User Name and Initials will also need to be re-entered when you restart your Outlook applications.

1. On the Help menu, click Detect and Repair.

To restore the program shortcuts to the Windows Start menu, make sure the Restore my shortcuts while repairing check box is selected.

2. Click Start.

Notes

• This procedure detects and repairs problems such as missing files and registry settings associated with all installed Microsoft Outlook programs. It will not repair personal files, such as spreadsheets or documents.
• If the Detect and Repair command does not fix the problem, you might need to reinstall Microsoft Outlook.
  

source microsoft.office.com

Outlook Notes

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Notes are the electronic equivalent of paper sticky notes. Use notes to jot down questions, ideas, reminders, and anything you would write on note paper. You can leave notes open on the screen while you work. This is especially convenient when you're using notes for storing bits of information you may need later, such as directions or text you want to reuse in other items or documents.

Create a note

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Note.
2. Type the text of the note.
3. To close the note, click the note icon in the upper-left corner of the Note window, and then click Close.

Note You can leave the note open while you work. When you change the note, the changes are saved automatically.

You Can Create Fastest Notes

The fastest way to create a Note, regardless of where you are in Outlook, is by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N.

Change how a note looks

Change the default color, font, and size for new notes you create

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click Note Options.
3. Select the options you want.

Change the color of the current note

1. In the upper-left corner of the Note window, click the Note icon .
2. Point to Color, and then click the color you want.

Show or hide the time and date on new and existing notes

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab.
2. Click Advanced Options.
3. Under Appearance options, select or clear the When viewing Notes, show time and date check box.

Mange File

Monday, March 10, 2008

Place to save file

You can save the file you're working on, whether it's new or has been saved before, and you can also save a copy of the file with a different name or in a different location. You can save any file as a Single File Web Page (MHTML) (Single File Web Page (MHTML): An HTML document saved in MHTML format, which integrates inline graphics, applets, linked documents, and other supporting items referenced in the document.) so that it can be viewed and used on the Internet.

My Documents

When you open the Open and Save As dialog boxes after starting a Microsoft Office program, the My Documents folder appears by default. The My Documents folder is a good place to save files you're working on, such as documents, worksheets, or databases.

My Network Places

My Network Places, which is located on the My Places bar (Places bar: The bar on the left side of certain dialog boxes (such as Open, Save As, or Insert Picture) that contains shortcuts to the My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Documents, My Computer, and My Network Places folders.) in the Open and Save As dialog boxes, is a good place to save files you want to copy or publish (publish: To save a copy of a file in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format to a Web server.) to folders on network file servers or Web servers. Saving files to a server (server: On a local area network, a computer that controls access to all or part of the network and its resources, such as printers. On the World Wide Web, a computer running Web server software that responds to HTTP protocol requests. Also called a host.) allows others easy access to them.

The difference between a fast save and a full save

With a fast save, your Microsoft Office program saves only the changes to a file. Saving only the changes takes less time than a full save, in which the complete, revised file is saved. A full save, however, requires less disk space than a fast save. You should do a full save when you finish working in a file and save it for the last time. Save Options are available in the Save As dialog (Tools menu) that allow you to enable or disable fast saves, as well as select other options.

Note The Allow fast saves option is only available for Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Outlook Enable Login

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

For diagnostic purposes, Outlook contains an option that turns on the logging of certain Outlook features, including the following with the release of Outlook.

• Calendar modifications
• Free/busy time “free/busy time: In Calendar, time status and user defined labels are indicated by colors and patterns.” changes
• Reminders
• Offline Address Book
• Transactions for the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), which is used with Microsoft Exchange Server, Post Office Protocol (POP3) “POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.” Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) “(IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): Unlike Internet e-mail protocols such as POP3, IMAP creates folders on a server to store/organize messages for retrieval by other computers. You can read message headers only and select which messages to download.)”, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) “(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): A common protocol that is used to send e-mail messages across the Internet.”, and LDAP “Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): A protocol that provides access to Internet Directories.”

Microsoft Services uses the diagnostic information to help identify issues. E-mail server administrators can use some of the diagnostic data to troubleshoot problems with e-mail messages.

Logging

E-mail logging

Outlook supports the logging of the communications that occur between Outlook and various types of e-mail servers. These logs can be helpful when you are troubleshooting problems with the transfer of messages between Outlook and the e-mail server. Outlook can log the communications with Exchange, POP3 version 3, SMTP, IMAP, and MSN Hotmail servers.

The logging of transports, such as POP3 and IMAP, can be read by anyone.

Calendar logging

Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1 introduced a new feature that logs Calendar transactions. Because of the new Calendar logging feature, Calendar transactions that are generated by Outlook features, by user actions, by the object model, or by the MAPI Calendar Table are written to a log file. The log file contains information for the following items:

• Sniffer (Inbox autoprocessing)
• Free/busy publishing
• Reminders
• Calendar item actions (creation, modification, or deletion)
• Resource booking

The primary purpose of the Calendar logging feature is to quickly identify situations where, for example, meetings are inexplicably deleted from a Calendar folder. To help protect customer data, the Calendar log file is a binary file that cannot be read without a conversion process. You should contact Microsoft Services for additional information about this procedure.

Turn on logging

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Other tab, click Advanced Options.
3. Select the Enable logging (troubleshooting) check box, and then click OK two times.
4. Restart Outlook.

After you restart Outlook, the words (Logging Enabled) in the title bar indicate that the logging feature is turned on. From this point, every time Outlook sends or receives messages, the communication that occurs between Outlook and the e-mail server is written to a log file. In addition, Calendar transactions that are generated by Outlook features, by user actions, by the Outlook object model, or by the MAPI Calendar Table are written to a log file. The log file contains information for the following items:

• Sniffer (Inbox auto-processing)
• Free/busy publishing
• Reminders
• Calendar item actions (creation, modification, or deletion)
• Resource booking

Important It is very important that you turn off logging after you complete your troubleshooting. If you do not turn off logging, the log files continue to increase in size.

Additionally, in Outlook 2003, you can track failures in the application log by editing the registry. Use the following steps:

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate and then select the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\

4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
5. Type CancelRPC and then press ENTER to name the key.
6. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
7. Type EnablePerfTracking and then press ENTER to name the DWORD.
8. In the right pane, right-click EnablePerfTracking, and then click Modify.
9. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Hexadecimal, and then type 1b under Value data.
10. Click OK.
11. Exit Registry Editor.

Note The following is the default location of the log files: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Temp.

Turn off logging

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Other tab, click Advanced Options.
3. Clear the Enable logging (troubleshooting) check box, and then click OK two times.

Log file locations

MAPI (Exchange), POP3, and SMTP transports

• On Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows 2000: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Temp\Opmlog.log
• On Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me): C:\Windows\Temp\Opmlog.log

IMAP transport

• Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Temp\Outlook Logging\name Of IMAP server\IMAP0.log, IMAP1.log, and so on.
• On Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition: C:\Windows\Temp\Outlook Logging\name Of IMAP server\IMAP0.log, IMAP1.log, and so on.

Hotmail (DAV) transport

• Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Temp\Outlook Logging\Hotmail\http0.log, http1.log, and so on

On Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition: C:\Windows\Temp\Outlook Logging\Hotmail\htt

Notes

• IMAP and Hotmail accounts generate one log for each Send/Receive action that you perform on these accounts. (The log files are named http0.log, http1.log, and so on.)
• If you have multiple Hotmail accounts configured, the folders where the logs are placed are named Hotmail, Hotmail 1, Hotmail 2, and so on.
• You might need to close Outlook for the logs to be written to the log file

Administrator information

Additionally, you can use the Custom Installation Wizard (CIW), the Custom Maintenance Wizard (CMW), or a system policy to deploy the setting for the logging feature. The following registry data is applied when you use these methods to deploy the setting for the logging feature:

System policy

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
Value: EnableLogging

Type: DWORD
Data: 0=disabled (default, if registry data does not exist); 1=enabled

CIW or CMW

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
Value: EnableLogging
Type: DWORD
Data: 0=disabled (default, if registry data does not exist); 1=enabled

Because of performance and security reasons, we do not recommend that you deploy the logging feature. You should turn on the Calendar logging feature only when you need it.

source microsoft.office.com

Calender

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The Microsoft Outlook Calendar is the calendar and scheduling component of Outlook, and is fully integrated with e-mail, contacts, and other features. You can view a day, week, or month at once. With Calendar you can:

Create Appointments and Events

Just as you would write in a paper-based organizer, you can click on any time slot in the Outlook Calendar and begin typing. New gradient colors makes it easy to quickly see the current day and time. The current time is highlighted with color only in the Day and Work Week views. You can opt to have a sound or message remind you of appointments, meetings, and events, and you can color items for at-a-glance identification

Organize Meeting

Simply select a time on your Calendar, create an appointment, and select people to invite. Outlook will help you find the earliest time at which all the people are free. When the meeting notice is sent to invitees by e-mail, each will receive a meeting request in Inbox. When they open it, Outlook notifies them if the meeting conflicts with an existing item in their Calendar, and they can accept, tentatively accept, or decline your meeting by clicking a single button. If allowed by you, as meeting organizer, invitees can counter-propose an alternate meeting time. As organizer, you can track who has accepted, declined, or counter-proposed times, simply by opening the meeting.

View Group Schedules

You can create calendars that show the schedules of a group of people or resources simultaneously. For example, you can view the schedules of all people in your department, or all resources, such as conference rooms, in your building, to more quickly schedule meetings.

View Calendar Side by Side

You can view multiple calendars that you have created as well as those shared by other Outlook users side-by-side. For example, if you have created a separate calendar for your personal appointments, you can view both your work and personal calendars side-by-side.

You can also copy or move appointments between the displayed calendars. Use the Navigation Pane to quickly share your own calendar and open other shared calendars. Depending on the permissions granted by the calendar owner, you can create or modify appointments on shared calendars.

Navigation Pane: “The column on the left side of the Outlook window that includes panes such as Shortcuts or Mail and the shortcuts or folders within each pane. Click a folder to show the items in the folder.”

Link to calendars on Windows SharePoint Services sites

If you have access to a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services site, you can view the events lists from that site in your Outlook Calendar. These items will be kept up-to-date and can be viewed side-by-side with other personal or shared calendars.

Manage another user's calendar

With the delegate access feature, one person can use his or her own copy of Outlook to easily manage another person's Calendar. For example, an administrative assistant can manage the Calendar of a manager. When the manager designates the assistant as a delegate, the assistant can create, move, or delete appointments and can organize meetings on the manager’s behalf.