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Outlook 2010 tortures my poor corporate soul

amazingstill — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:10:17 -0800

Outlook 2010 Filter - Why oh why do the changes I make to body portion of .oft email templates not save correctly? Woah not all at once now! This has been driving me crazy for a while now and I have no clue what is going on. My company used to have Outlook 2007 and I did not have this problem, but about 2 months ago we upgraded to Outlook 2010 and I have been banging my head since.

Okay here I go. The problem: I have an email template saved on a network drive shared amongst the company as a .oft file. There have been several revisions of this email template throughout the year, but it is currently saved as the most recent version. I can open the template which has a subject, recipients, body text, etc etc just fine and it shows as the most current version as I can tell by the dates and such. But for some reason, it will not save any changes I make to the body portion of the email and instead show old text that belonged to a long previous version of the .oft template. It will save changes I make to the subject line, recipients, and attachments just not the body text.

This is especially annoying after editing an email that has lots of numbers, calendar date updates, etc only to see it not save correctly.

The kicker is, if I open the .oft, save it to the draft folder, and re-open it from there and then modify the body portion of the email, and save it again, it WILL save the changes! From my draft folder = good, directly from the shared company drive = bad???

If someone has any idea how I can stop this madness I will high five a stranger. Thank you all.

How do I sync Outlook 2007 calendar and contacts to my Mac?

arcticseal — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:55:57 -0800

How do I get my Work Outlook 2007 calendar/contacts to sync with my MacBook Air? So I've finally treated myself and taken the plunge on a 13" MacBook Air. It's very sweet and I love it, so much so that Mrs arcticseal has nicknamed it First Wife.

What I'd like to do is have it take my calendar and contact from MS Exchange and sync it without automatically downloading my work email (which is what happened last night, I've taken the mailbox offline in Mail). Except for when I'm travelling, I plan to keep my work email on my crappy work Dell.

I usually use my Outlook calendar for entry, but would sometimes like to be able to sync back to Exchange. I'd like to avoid duplicate entries piling up too.

For bonus points, please give me your recommendations on your must have software for Macs and any shortcuts you rely on. It's been 10 years since I've used a Mac seriously, so I have some catching up to do.

I downloaded Albert last night to give it a whirl as I try and avoid the mouse wherever possible, love hotkeys! I've also heard good things about Quicksilver, but I see it's been discontinued?
I have Dropbox so I can keep files synced between the PC and the Mac.
I use KeePass on the PC for password management, and was wondering if the 1.x OSX version is compatible with the WinXP 2.x database I have. Or should I consider something like 1Password?

Are there any other gems I'm missing?

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 do I syncronize my contacts and calendar between BlackBerry and Google without using Outlook?

esolo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:11:46 -0800

After using Outlook + PDA as my organization tools for at least 5 years, I got sick of all the bugs, and decided to fully migrate to Google Apps and BlackBerry. I have imported my Outlook contacts and calendar into Google. My email has been in Gmail for a while now. Now how do I maintain that on my BlackBerry, given that the BlackBerry uses Outlook. For example, if I need to add a new contact on my BlackBerry, I want it to be synchronized with Google Contacts, not Outlook. Any suggestions?

Microsoft Exchange Hates Me

Zeker — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:15:45 -0800

We have Microsoft Outlook set to send emails via a POP3 service, but our old Exchange 5.5 server keeps trying to take over when we don't want it to. First the setup:

Our company's Exchange 5.5 server is having too many issues shaking hands with other email servers and has been blacklisted too many times, so we're deciding to take it down and set all our employees on POP3 mail, managed with Outlook (some on 2k2(xp), others on 2000) as a client.

We can't get rid of Exchange 100% as of now (though we will eventually) since a lot of our employees rely on the Global Address contacts, and some use the calendar for scheduling meetings and such. Until we devise a method for scheduling meetings/reminders and possibly keeping a centralized contacts list sans Exchange, we'll get rid of it. But as of now, this is the setup:

~Exchange 5.5 with internet email services disabled (but internal email enabled).
~100+ employees on Outlook 2000-XP(2002?)
~Outlook is set to retrieve internal mail and global contacts via Exchange
~Outlook is also set to send/receive POP3 mail as the primary send/receive source
~User's *.PST file is saved offsite their machine into another server
~Some OFFSITE employees were deleted from Exchange's Global Address list and placed instead on the user's local Contacts list. So all contacts in the local Contacts lists are offsite people.
~Our POP3 service provider allows us to keep the same domain name (***@company.com) on our POP3 that our Exchange server uses.

Now the problem:

Exchange is giving us hell by constantly trying to intervene on how the mail is sent. Even though we set Outlook to use POP3 as the primary send/receive account, AND even though we disabled the internet mail service on Exchange, Exchange tries to take over and send the email like a disgruntled mother-in-law, resulting in an "undeliverable" message from Exchange.

Now we realize that the Global Address list contains headers within the contacts that pertain to Exchange that would override our settings... but the local Contacts lists -created by yours truly- only contain the contact name and email address, and theoretically should not contain any exchange headers or reason for exchange to intercept our POP3's precious assignment.

Outlook 2002(xp) has an auto suggest feature that whimsically fills in the name of the contact you're typing. So the user is typing in Nancy (for example) and auto suggest returns "Nancy (e-mail)". Yay? Not so fast. Double click that entry and you find that it's got EXCHANGE all over the headers. So I deleted the auto-suggest cache file (*.nk2) from the user's local profile and the problem has disappeared. I can tell because auto suggest now gives us "Nancy (nancy@company.com)" instead of "Nancy (email)". So this issue is fixed... but only on people using Outlook XP(2002?).

I still have a ton of people on Outlook 2000 with a similar issue. This is a weird beast. There is no cache file I can delete (*.nk2) from what I know. Say we want to send something to Nancy again. We click the "To:..." button which brings us to our contacts selection screen. We go to the local contacts list, add Nancy, click ok, and now we're back at the main message screen, the "To:" field displaying "Nancy (email)". A double-click on this field takes me directly to the contact editor, which shows her name and email address correctly with no Exchange headers to be found. All good, right? But if I hit "Send" I get an "Undeliverable!" message with EXCHANGE ALL OVER IT OH GOD!!...

Now, we try again. We open up a new message, hit the "To:..." button. Get ready, this one's weird.... we go to the local Contacts list, select Nancy and hit the "To ->" button to add her as a recipient. If we double click her name in the "Recipients" box, (you ready for this?) instead of taking me to the contact editor like it did on the main message window, we see a window with bloody EXCHANGE all over the place, scrawled everywhere like blood in a
damned murder scene! I have NO IDEA where outlook is getting this info from or how to erase it.

Now, if I manually type in the recipient's email (nancy@company.com), POP3 happily does its thing without molestation. I really need help. If anybody can offer help and rescue me from a company lynching, it would be greatly appreciated.

BlackBerry Curve: How do i get rid of glitches in syncronization?

esolo — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:21:43 -0800

I got a BB Curve for my birthday a few months ago, and I love it. Contacts and tasks seem to synchronize well. However, there are few problems with calendar synchronization that I find very frustrating. Right now, it seems that everything in Outlook on my computer overwrites what is in my BB, whenever I sync them. Also, I can add new events on my BB, but they do not appear in Outlook after the sync – they continue to only exist on the device. I need any different events from Outlook and from the device to be merged together, so BOTH appear BOTH in Outlook AND on the device.

Also, sometimes, the same event appears twice in my BB (although it only occurs once).

Should I be talking to my carrier about these issues? This seems to be the problem with the software itself… Should I be contacting Research In Motion (company that makes BB)?

Please let me know if anyone had similar problems and was able to resolve them.

Can you recommend some business card scanning software?

mr_silver — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:21:34 -0800

Can you recommend any Windows software which will OCR photographed business cards, store them in a searchable database and work with Outlook? I'm sinking under a tonne of business cards and would like to scan them in. I know I could just go and purchase Cardscan which would do the job, but I don't really see the point in buying hardware when I have a perfectly good digital camera.

Plus, work won't reimburse me for the £130 that I'd need to pay for the solution (or the £50 if I got it from eBay) - and lets be fair about this - i'll be coughing up my own money just for something work related so I want to be prudent.

Can anyone make any recommendations on good business card scanning software? My requirements would be:

- Ability to batch load a large volume of card images
- High accuracy rate
- Keep original copy (or low res version) of the card image

I'm in two minds about where the information is held. I don't mind it being in the softwares database as long as it's good, does everything I need, is easily sortable and searchable and can export to Outlook.

On the other hand, I don't mind it just being Outlook, as long as I don't have to import everything into my default contacts folder. I have several hundred numbers and no need for them all to be synchronised to my phone and PDA.

I run Windows XP. I don't mind paying for the software.

Does my dream email software exist?

justkevin — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:21:32 -0800

I've been using Outlook for years, but I'm looking for a better solution to manage my email accounts and massive archive of messages. I have literally hundreds of thousands of email messages going back for years in Outlook. I have a half dozen email accounts which receive 1000+ emails a day (mostly spam, of course). Outlook has been pretty good to me, but I'm wondering if there's a better option. Here are my must-have requirements:

Keep all my existing emails, so a new solution must be able import them somehow;
Support multiple POP and IMAP accounts;
Capability to create rules to manage emails;
I need a robust, flexible spam control system;
Can't be outrageously expensive (Like thousands of dollars)

Here are some things that I really want, but not dealbreakers:

A server based solution so I could access all my emails from laptop, workstation or even on the road. Also, I wouldn't have the headache of migrating emails every time I upgrade (I do have unix servers I could install software on);
Some sort of calendar system as well, like Outlook;
Used MySQL for its database (so I could write my own tools);
Great user interface.

Champagne scheduling app on a beer budget.

Marnie — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:56:59 -0800

OfficeApp Filter: How can I seamlessly convert lists of project assignment names and deadlines to a calendar view that can be shared? Or can I? I'm a new supervisor. My team has a series of deadlines for different assignments - let's say 40 per month. If I have an Excel column of assignment names and one of their respective deadlines (generated from an Access query), is there a way to enter those automatically into a calendar view that can be shared on our network or on the web?

I have tried using the Task function in Outlook, but can only figure out how to show the deadlines in a "timeline" format. I would really like them in a 30-day calendar page. Also I can't just cut and paste the Excel columns, but have to enter them manually in "Tasks."

Our office has the MS Office suite exclusive of Project, Visio and FrontPage. I think it is all '98. There is zero budget, but I am open to any freeware or open source solutions. Bonus points if it's simple enough for an IT-disinclined staff.

Thanks in advance! Apologies if this has a common sense solution, but I am really stumped.

I'm looking for BlackBerry software, specifically something that will be more like Outlook.

Knigel — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:20:13 -0800

I've been searching for a while now and it seems to me that BlackBerry is very limited when it comes to programs. I also have a distaste for how it differs from Outlook. I'm starting to wish I had purchased something more compatible with Windows software. From my understanding, there is a void of any BlackBerry opensource software? I'm a student so don't have the cash to buy overpriced programs. If anyone knows of anything that might work with BlackBerry, I would appreciate suggestions. I'm on the 7250.

Alternatives to Outlook Express

scarabic — Sun, 11 Jan 2004 17:53:18 -0800

Now that M$ has ended further development of Outlook Express, I get the feeling I should line up an alternative. Now happens to be a good time for me to do this. Can anyone recommend a Windows mail client that's free & fast with filters/rules, spell check, and a halfway decent mail import/export? I'm actually already running Linux and MacOS on several machines already, so spare me those tips, thank you ;)