How do I get basic tooltips and AutoArchive working in Outlook 2003?

March 2, 2006 5:38 PM

I would like to get basic tooltips and AutoArchive working in Outlook 2003. Can you help?

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2 and I have administrative rights on this machine. You see I recently formatted my computer and thus had to reinstall all of my programs. And I've almost got Outlook back to the way I had it before, but there's still a few things I haven't managed to sort out.

Tooltips
I don't see tooltips when I hover over any of the available fields (e.g. From, Subject, and so on). I would like to turn this setting back on if possible. I believe it was on by default with my last installation.



AutoArchive
I tried unsuccessfully to set up AutoArchive before. I failed then and I continue to fail now. What am I doing wrong? With my sent mail, for example, I've instructed Outlook to delete posts older than one day.



And here are my global settings (e.g. via Tools -> Options -> AutoArchive).



The thing I'm most cautious about is accidentally deleting messages I want to keep. Anyway, I think that's everything. Cheers.

posted by sjvilla79 to computers & internet (6 comments total)

You've got AutoArchive set to run every day, but you haven't told it to actually do anything.

In the global Auto Archive settings, check the box labeled "Archive or delete old items." I'd change your default away from "Permanently delete" as well, otherwise it'll delete everything in every folder that's older than six months.
posted by CrayDrygu at 5:47 PM on March 2, 2006

(Oh, and if you really want to be sure you don't delete anything you want to keep, just use an Archive Folder instead. It's the "move old items to" option. You'll want to check "Show archive folder in folder list" option too.)
posted by CrayDrygu at 5:48 PM on March 2, 2006

Sorry, but I don't think the above answer helps me a great deal. I'm basically specifying AutoArchive settings for an individual folder. Microsoft says it shouldn't work any differently. Perhaps I'm missing something though.
posted by sjvilla79 at 7:25 PM on March 2, 2006

Well I can help with the ToolTips: Tools>Customize: Select Options and Check - Show ScreenTips on toolbars
posted by clarkie666 at 8:27 PM on March 2, 2006

Not that it is any help - but I think you are right sjvilla - the archive settings should work. Is your mail running in Cached Exchange mode?

Have you tried asking it to prompt before it runs - you then could at least see if it is doing anything?
posted by clarkie666 at 8:42 PM on March 2, 2006

Well I can help with the ToolTip...

No, that's not working for me. It does give me tooltips to toolbar items though. But again not the tooltips I seek.

Is your mail running in Cached Exchange mode?

Nope.

Have you tried asking it to prompt before it runs...

Yes, I did try that. Nothing happened. The sent mail wasn't trashed as per my individual folder settings.
posted by sjvilla79 at 10:17 PM on March 2, 2006