Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Outlook

OUtlook deleted message folder

dougiedd — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:21:27 -0800

My Outlook deleted file is 17,000 messages. It runs off of a windows server for our organization I understand that is not the best idea. But i find that i return to even deleted messages with great frequency. What would be the best way to archive those messages so i can easily search them while improving the performance of outlook?

Annoying Facebook gets annoyinger

idiomatika — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:24:07 -0800

I'm getting lots (I mean lots - over 50 today alone) of phishing/Trojan spam purporting to be from Facebook, asking me to "update my facebook account". How do I stop it? I use Outlook. I've set up numerous rules designed to automatically delete these spam mails as they come in (based on key words in both the originating email addresses and in the message body), but these rules only seem to work intermittently.

It's getting annoying to have to delete them manually when the rules I set up should have worked.

I wouldn't care so much, but they're going to my always-running work address (self-employed, so no clever IT department to do this for me), and its getting quite bothersome.

Am I doing something wrong, or is Outlook just pants?

Looking for Outlook setting.

iconjack — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:33:07 -0800

Is there an Outlook setting to tell it to substitute a glyph from an alternate font if the current display font doesn't have a glyph for a particular character? For example, I send a message with left- and right-ceiling brackets (U+2308 and U+2309) to a colleague who uses Outlook. No font is specified in the message. Outlook uses Arial or whatever the default is to display the message. The stock Arial that comes with Windows does not contain a glyph for U+2308 and U+2309, so he can't see the bracket characters. Most e-mail programs will do the obvious thing and substitute a glyph from another font; however, Outlook does not, at least not out of the box. Is there a setting down in the bowels somewhere that will get Outlook to do this?

MS Outlook: scheduling VBA scripts?

pompomtom — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:45:38 -0800

Using Outlook 2007 on windows XP, how do I run a (VBA) script either daily, or on opening the application? In excel, I'd use something like an Auto_Open() sub, but I can't seem to find an analog for Outlook. Can I just refer to the script to a recurring appointment somehow?

How can I share mail with my team?

geoff. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:24:48 -0800

The team I'm working with is using Outlook 2007 and Exchange 2007. It seems like if there's a Project X we're all working on, there'd be an easy way to tag and share all e-mail related to the project. We thought of deploying Managed Folders, but it appears that you can only view your own managed folder. There must be a way of achieving this kind of functionality? We figured out how to deploy a managed folder selector so that we can choose what projects we want to be on. Hey this worked great, but we probably should have deployed a test managed folder first as we quickly learned that you can't view what people put into their managed folders.

It appears that the Microsoft recommended way is setting up a Sharepoint site and saving the e-mail to lists. These lists can then be attached in Outlook 2007 as a mailbox store, so you have the functionality to drag and drop mail messages within Outlook. This seems less than ideal because now there's an Exchange AND Sharepoint box to manage mail messages. No one is jumping at the chance to do this.

We were toying with creating a mailbox store for the individual projects and everyone on a particular project given access to this. The added functionality being that people could CC the project@domain.com and it'd automatically get copied to the store.

In any case, I don't want to be reinventing the wheel here. Surely someone else must be doing this, there must be a clever way of going about this?

Why no iPhone -> Outlook task sync?

Izzy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:14:27 -0800

Why no iPhone -> Outlook task sync? After two plus years there's still no elegant solution for users who want to sync Outlook tasks with their iPhone. There was some talk at one point of Apple releasing a native task app for the iPhone, but to date, this is vaporware. Task sync is a feature that is not deemed optional or a luxury on competing smartphone platforms--it's something that Blackberry users just take for granted. When I ask folks about this they either have no idea what I'm talking about or I get smug, unknowing responses like "just use the calendar!"

I've tried all of the various kludges that are available and they're so annoying (and also expose your personal data to uncertain security risks) that I just end up not using them. You mean to say I have to use the cloud to sync my local data? I do like my iPhone, but I've noticed that I'm just not as organized and as effective without having my tasks on my phone. I know that there are solutions for Exchange, but that's overkill for a single user who just wants to sync their tasks with their desktop.

Would someone please provide an explanation as to why Apple or a 3rd party developer cannot provide this seemingly modest bit of functionality? A functional spec would have to include at the very least a rudimentary iPhone task app that supports the core feature set of Outlook tasks, and also supports roundtrip task sync (desktop tasks sync to phone, phone tasks sync to desktop). Extra points for alerts on the phone (though Apple's prohibition on background tasks makes this a challenge).

How to disable Dismiss All button for Outlook reminders window?

RobinFiveWords — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:50:43 -0800

I'd like to find a hack that disables the "Dismiss All" button in my Microsoft Outlook reminders window. Windows XP. I maintain a to-do list at work by using Outlook reminders, for tasks and for messages in my Inbox. I prefer keyboard shortcuts over clicking mouse buttons, and one of my common keystrokes is [Alt]-A. When the reminders window is the active window, however, [Alt]-A is the command for "Dismiss All". As I hit [Alt]-A hundreds of times per day, I accidentally dismiss all reminders at least once per week. Then I have to go back through my Inbox and my tasks and reset the reminder in each of the dozens of items that was just dismissed.

[For your trouble: If anyone would like to resize the reminders window, I recommend ResizeEnable. Low-impact hack that is easy enough to turn on and off.]

Outlook Web Access calendar subscription

lake59 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:09:57 -0800

How to access two outlook exchange calendars from completely different domains side-by-side i work for two independent organizations. One of them has provided Outlook 2007 via Exchange 2003 and the other has provided OWA via Exchange 2003.

Each Organization provides a calendar. One is accessed as an exchange account in Outlook 2007 using and . The other is via OWA at https:///exchange//calendar.

I would like to access via outlook 2007 as well so I can easily compare the two calendars. I tried to subscribe to in Outlook using this address: webcals:///exchange//calendar but Outlook wants the subscription to include a specific file name like ical in order to work.

Any Ideas how i can get these two calendars side-by-side?

Thanks!

How to export AutoArchive e-mail exported & transferred from MS Outlook

willie11 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:40:40 -0800

Help me get my AutoArchived e-mail out of MS Outlook and the info from off Exchange server before work shuts it down tonight, please. I'm dumbfounded. Old job is shutting down my e-mail account today and I'd like to take all of my contacts, calender and saved e-mails for my own use. I know how to export the contacts as an excel file but I cannot find the "AutoArchive" folder on my hard disk.

The IT folks delete all messages from the sever after 9 weeks or so, but my desktop version of Outlook tells me that it autoarchives the messages. Where can I find these and how to I get them?

Also, what could I import them to? Gmail? My iPhone?

The iPhone (not synched with the server, which uses something called GOOD) seems to import contacts, calender etc from Outlook. Is there a way to upload the contacts, calender and ESPECIALLY the AutoArchived email to Gmail so I have them permanently? Or at least save the AutoArchived messages?

Many, many thanks for your help!

Lotus Notes and Outlook forwarding problem

paulyballs — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:55:39 -0800

I use Outlook 2003 in the office. If I receive an email from someone outside the company that uses Lotus Notes and I try to forward that email, the body of the email is stripped automatically when it is forwarded. Has anybody ever heard of this?

Endnote in Outlook 2007

cashman — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:12:25 -0800

Is there a way to use Endnote within Outlook 2007? In Outlook 2003, if you had Word set as your email editor, you could use Endnote within Outlook. Is there a way to do this in Outlook 2007?

Get Outlook to tell me how many emails I get in a month.

furtive — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:53:06 -0800

Get Outlook to tell me how many emails I receive in a month. I've got three folders with archived messages, separated by year.

I'd like to know how many emails I got each month in those folders, without having to do it manually (I have about 3800 emails in each folder).

I'm using Outlook 2003 and am willing to export things if necessary.

Outlook Attachment Filter:

Rad_Boy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:48:37 -0800

When I receive email through MS Outlook, pictures, links and objects like that appear as attachments to the email. When I open them with the email browser on my iTouch, these objects are present in the body of the email. Can this Outlook action be changed? I have tried every option I can find in Outlook to change this behavior, but so far nothing works. I'm beginning to wonder if this is just the way Outlook works. I don't like it.

Grouping Outlook tasks into projects

tommasz — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:45:32 -0800

I'm looking to replace Shadow Plan on my Treo with something more robust. All I'm really looking for is a way to group individual Tasks into projects. I have a somewhat unique situation that's always been a problem for me in the past. My work computer is a PC running XP and Outlook 2003. I have a Mac at home. My Treo essentially bridges the two and Shadow has clients for all three platforms so it was a good choice for this. But my Treo 700p is starting to sputter and I'm probably going to end up with a Blackberry (Verizon) before the end of the year. Shadow is not available for Blackberry but I've been thinking about replacing Shadow anyway because it tends to lose linkages between itself and the Tasks app on the Treo.

Since I'm mostly concerned about projects at work, it could be something that works only in Outlook 2003. I've tried Agendus, but it caused Outlook to crash constantly (the Palm app was okay). I've looked at Jello Desktop, but I'm not really doing GTD and it just didn't do what I wanted. Action Project Manager also caused Outlook problems and some of it didn't seem finished. I don't have MS Project so anything that requires it is out of the question.

So, is there anything out there that groups Tasks, or am I stuck with Shadow?

How can I make downloadable HTML email files for Outlook 2007?

m_lazarus — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:03:21 -0800

What's the easiest way to offer downloadable HTML emails for people to forward to their friends from Outlook '07? It should be easy, but Outlook doesn't auto-open .msg or .eml files, at least within our organization. Is there a better way? So I work in the fundraising department of a large public university, and one major aspect of my job is making HTML e-mails and invitations for various constituent groups. We're really starting to ramp up emails so that we're not spending so much money on print invites, and so far our internal clients love them.

Most of our clients have large lists and so we set them up with mailers like MailChimp. However, we're starting to get requests from individual fundraisers to get the e-vites we've created in a format they can send to their prospects. Up to now, we've just been forwarding single copies of the emails we create on request, but as more and more requests start to come in it's getting onerous.

These fundraisers have their own private intranet-like website, and so what I'd like to do is offer a link that says "Download the suchandsuch evite here!" and have that pop right open in Outlook, which they all use.

When I save an e-mail from Entourage (I'm on a Mac), the file extension is .eml and when I click a link to it, it tells me right away that I can open it in Entourage. Cool. However, the Windows users are prompted to open it in Outlook -Express- (wtf?) which they don't even use. Most of them "can't computer good" so telling them to navigate through the "open with" dialogue probably won't fly.

I tried re-saving it as a .msg, which is what emails saved FROM Outlook '07 save as, but Outlook gives and error message that says it can't be opened, it might not exist, you don't have permissions to open it, etc. Ugh!

TL;DR - is there any way to provide a link to a file on a webserver that the average user could click on and have automatically open up in Outlook 2007? Is there another way to do this that doesn't involve setting up a bazillion accounts in a pro emailer program?

If it helps, we're a Microsoft shop and run IIS/.NET.

Fix an Outlook pst file for free?

ODiV — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:31:00 -0800

Corrupt PST file. How can I fix it for free? Microsoft's SCANPST.EXE recovers an empty file (which is still at 1GB, interestingly enough). I can find recovery programs online that have a free demo and will show me that they can recover the emails, but won't unless I shell out cash (Recovery Toolbox for Outlook, Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair, etc).

Are there free options that I'm failing to find? My Google searches are pretty useless for turning up anything of value lately.

Add Me To Your Favourites

eb98jdb — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:31:27 -0800

I need to send a link in an email which on the other end will create a favourite in in the recipients IE. I've googled around this and found lots of resources on adding a favourite from a website but they all seem to assume the recipient is on the right page already. I'm using Outlook 2007 if it's relevant. (Bit dull as a question I know but I've been wrestling with this all morning)

How do I search all my folders -- Archive too! -- in Outlook 2007?

zooropa — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:13:16 -0800

How can I search all my folders at once in Outlook 2007? I'm using Outlook 2007 at work and I have setup Auto Archive to ... duh ... archive my old e-mail. Simple enough, right?

Now I want to be able to do a one-click search of both my active e-mail folders and the Archive Folders. How do I do that?

And yes, I've tried selecting "search all Outlook folders." This doesn't seem to pull up anything from the Archive Folders (just the active).

Help!?

Outlook/Exchange mailbox assistant

paulyballs — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:10:36 -0800

Does anyone know of any third party add-ons or software for Outlook/Exchange that works as type of a "assistant". What I'm looking for is software that will scan incoming messages based on a list of approved contacts. If a message from one of these approved contacts hits the mailbox, the message will continue to the inbox. If it does not, it will be routed to another folder in the mailbox that the person's admin will have access to. The admin will then have the option to click a link in the email (after review of the message) that will release it into the executive's mailbox and also have the option to add the address to the approved contacts list. Also, if the executive replies to the message, it will also be automatically added to the approved contacts list. I'm hoping there is something out there that we can use to help manage an executive's mailbox.

Move my inbox from Thunderbird to Outlook

Sifter — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:57:41 -0800

Long time Thunderbird user, I'm trying to switch to Outlook as it works better with my iPhone, but I can't find a way to accurately move the contents of my inbox. Help! I've used several free programs (imapsize and tbird2oe) and neither transfers the date and sender of each message correctly - all the messages get given the same sender and date. Does anyone have any handy tips about how I can get round this?

Sync Outlook calendar and Google - with only generic blocks of busy/free time?

VeniceGlass — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:34:02 -0800

Sync Outlook calendar and Google - with only generic blocks of busy/free time? I've seen the utils out there, but can't see which, if any, would offer a way to publish an Outlook calendar without the actual appointment details. Just want to be able to list busy/free times from Outlook into a Google Cal.

Outlook 2007 and Delete Keys

niteHawk — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:11:14 -0800

Help out a Penguin User with Outlook2007? Delete Key behavior has changed - all of a sudden, the delete key is permanently deleting messages, no more going to the deleted items folder - I just get the warning message about perm deleting, and if I click yes, it goes bye-bye I use linux almost exclusively, and haven't used Outlook in years. My company just moved to outlook, so I am running it under Crossover Office. It has been working fine for >2mo and then today the delete key changed on me. This happens for both my Exchange mailbox, as well as POP) and imap accounts I have in outlook.

Help?

Outlook Mobile not so good.

mad bomber what bombs at midnight — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:47:31 -0800

I would like tips on working well with Outlook Mobile and gmail. My primary concern is getting Outlook to download all messages, not just the inbox. I have a WM6 phone and use Outlook Mobile to read my gmail via IMAP. Most advice online says this setup is best. There is a java gmail app, but it isn't integrated and is said to be lacking in features.

However, it just doesn't work ... smoothly. Any tips?

1. Outlook will only download messages in the inbox. If gmail filters a message so that it skips the inbox, it will never reach my phone.

2. If I move a message to a folder in Outlook, then on the next update gmail will tag it, move it out of the inbox, and then it will disappear from my phone. This is a huge problem.

3. In Outlook, I have folders for each of my tags, and [Gmail] folders for things like Sent Mail, Drafts, and Starred, but there is nothing in any of them.

Now that I typed it all out, I can see the root of my problem is getting Outlook Mobile to download all messages, not just the inbox. Any other tips are greatly appreciated.

How do I enable print layout when opening attached .docs in Outlook 2003?

stevedee — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:51:39 -0800

Outlook 2003 user here-- is there a way to open .doc attachments in print layout, instead of (what I consider useless) reading layout?

How do I properly sync Outlook with Google?

mr_silver — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:58:51 -0800

I'm trying to find a way to synchronize Outlook Calendar (on Windows) with Google Calendar that actually works - as my current solution doesn't. Bonus points if I can sync contacts as well. I want to synchronize Outlook with Google and then use Google's Exchange support so that I can get this information on whatever phone I'm using at the time.

At present I use Google Calendar Sync and a periodic export and import of a CSV containing my contacts.

This sucks for several reasons but the main one is that the Google application is buggy and has a habit of randomly deleting appointments. This is a well known bug and no fix seems to be coming any time soon. It's happened enough times for me to want to get away from the application.

The second major one is that exporting a CSV from Outlook and then importing it into Google isn't really syncing, a pain in the backside and prevents me from making any changes on the go because they'll just get lost.

I've done a search on the internet and there seems to be quite a few options - none of which appear to be free and several of which that want you to pay a monthly fee.

So, my question is - can you recommend any Windows applications which are free and sync calendar and contacts with Google?