Outlook Tips

We're seeing complaints about Outlook adding (or subtracting) 2 - 8 minutes to new appointments. For example, if an appointment is created for 10:00 to 11:00 AM, it's changed to 10:02 to 11:02 AM. Users may also receive an error message that the message is not recurring and they need to close all open items.  This is not a bug in Outlook, its caused by the anti-spam module from CA Security Suite 2008. Disabling or uninstalling the anti-spam module will fix it....

If you’re told to type a command in the “Start, Run dialog” and its not on your Vista start menu, you can type                                         run in the Start Search field to bring up the Run command - or just type the command you want to run in the Start Search field. You can use the start search...

If you show the Advanced toolbar (View, Toolbars) you can easily change views on Outlook’s folders. You can even save new views by typing over the name of the current view in the Current View field. After you hit Enter or tab out of the field, Outlook will ask you if the new view is for this folder only, all folders, or shared. To delete views from the list, scroll to the bottom and select Define views. This opens the define views dialog, where you can reset default views or delete custom views....

If you sync with a handheld device and some appointments don’t show in the month view but are visible in table views like By Category, a fix is available. Your exchange admin will need to install it. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;958781...

Following up on yesterday’s calendar tip, here are couple of frequent calendar questions: Older versions of Outlook compress the weekend days into one cell, spreading the week across 6 columns. To change the option for compressed weekends, right click on the calendar and choose Other settings. This puts the week into seven columns.  What if you want to show just the workweek days on the screen? Outlook 2007 has a week/work week selection to the right of the Day/Week/Month tabs when in week...

Every now and again this question comes up: “My work week runs from Sunday to Thursday and I want to change the shared column to contain Friday and Saturday.” It is possible to share any two consecutive days in the compressed weekend position. You’ll need to install a right-to-left language on your computer (Hebrew, Arabic, or any other right-to-left language will work) and set your work days for Sun - Thurs. The first day of the work week needs to be set as the first day of the week for the 2 non-working...

If you have a lot of messages with attachments and you need to save the attachments to your hard drive, it can take a lot of time to go to File, Save Attachments, Save all for each message. While there are several commercial add-ins that can automate the process, you can use VBA to make the process a bit faster.  Since anti-spam filters don’t care much for VBA code, I won’t put the code in this email. Instead, the code and instructions at http://www.outlook-tips.net/code/saveatt2.htm  A...

If you use the Outlook Connector and its not connecting, check your Outlook add-ins and security software. It’s reported PGP software will interfere with the connection, other software may affect it as well. To test, disable all addins except the connector. ...

Want to backup (or delete) the custom.dic, signatures, templates, Outlook’s nickname cache, or stationery? Paste this command in the address bar of Windows Explorer:%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft These files, and more, are stored in subfolders in this path....

The easiest way to backup your email, calendar, and contacts is to copy the PST but finding it is a problem for many people, in part because it’s in a hidden folder. From Outlook, go to File, Data File Management. Select the default PST and click Open folder. This PST will be selected in the Explorer window. You’ll need to close Outlook and wait a few minutes before you can copy the PST as Outlook keeps it locked. If Outlook isn’t open, you can paste this line into the address bar of Windows Explorer...