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The next time you open a message, try double-clicking the Message tab in the Ribbon. You can save a lot of screen real estate by collapsing the Ribbon. Plus, once you collapse the Ribbon it will stay that way for all messages you open! By default, the Ribbon is always visible. If you double-click the Message tab to collapse the Ribbon, you’ll see much more of your message. If you’re reading a message and need to take some action (i.e. Reply, Forward, or Delete), you can either single-click the Message tab to pop out the Ribbon temporarily or use a keyboard shortcut. Loving her Zune, Ellen Adams Program Manager

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In previous blog entries we have covered several aspects of the Outlook Rules engine, and some interesting ways to leverage its capabilities to better triage the constant inflow of e-mail messages. We often hear from users that they get confused whether to choose “Sent To” or “Received From” when creating ‘move incoming email messages’ rules for Distribution Lists. This confusion usually results in having messages from random senders getting moved unexpectedly to a folder that was created as part of a ‘move messages received from a Distribution List’ rule. Here’s how to choose which type of rule condition to use:

Choose “Sent To” for a Distribution List when… You want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received as a member of the specified Distribution List Choose “Received from” a Distribution List when… You want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received from any member of the specified Distribution List.

Let’s look at a real-world example. In the first case I will go into the Rules Wizard and create a rule by selecting the “Check When Messages Arrive” template. Then I will chose the “Sent to” condition to apply to the “Contoso Core team” distribution list of which I’m a member. First of all let’s open the Rules Wizard by clicking the Rules and Alerts option in the Tools menu, and then click on the “Check messages when they arrive” template. I now click the Next button and select the “sent to people or distribution list” condition. At the bottom of the Rules Wizard dialog, the rule template is displayed as follows: I then click on the “people or distribution list” to select the appropriate recipient (in this case it’s the “Contoso Core team” distribution list) and add it to the To field: Next, I click OK and the rules condition will reflect my choice: It’s now time to choose an action to perform. I click Next again, to get to the “Select action(s)” step. In this case I choose to move the messages to a folder (the topmost action in the list): At this point all I have to do is select the desired folder (in this case the aptly named “Contoso Core team” I had previously created) and click OK. The rule will look as follows: Now, all messages I will receive that are sent to the “Contoso Core team” distribution list will be moved to the Contoso Core team folder. So far, so good. Now let’s see what happens when I choose “Received From” condition for the same rule template. The steps are the same, except that I’ll chose the “from people or distribution list condition: At the end of the process the rule will look as follows: In this case, Outlook will move all messages sent to me by members of the Contoso Core team Distribution List to the Contoso Core team folder. More often than not this is not what the rule’s creator intended. Outlook reads this rule as “Apply this rule to all incoming messages that were sent to me by members of the Distribution List”. People often get confused by thinking that messages get sent to them by Distribution Lists, whereas Distribution Lists are simply a practical way to aggregate recipients. So next time you create a rule involving Distribution Lists, keep in mind these two rules of thumb:

Choose the “Sent To” condition if you want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received as a member of the specified Distribution List. Choose the “Received from” condition if you want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received by any member of the specified Distribution List.

Alessio Roic Program Manager

SpamBully 4 is an anti spam Outlook add-in using Bayesian filtering.

SpamBully 4 is an anti spam Outlook add-in using Bayesian filtering.

I use keyboard shortcuts to save time and avoid using the awkward mouse on my laptop.  Here are my favorites in Outlook 2007:

Mark as read	CTRL+Q
Mark as unread	CTRL+U
Send	CTRL+ENTER
Enter a name in the Search Address Books box	F11

 

I also use custom keyboard shortcut keys to apply Color Categories to messages because my organizational system requires every message to be categorized based on the action I need to take.

 

I use CTRL+F12 throughout the day to archive conversations by marking them green.

 

Check out the lists of keyboard shortcuts on Office Online for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 and find your own time-savers:

Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook 2007

Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook 2003

 

Ellen Adams

Program Manager

OutlookPower Magazine recently published my story on hosted Exchange Services, title "My Inbox in the Sky, a hosted Exchange mailbox." The story, which you can read here: http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200804/00002022001.html talks about my experiences with the 4smartphone.net hosted Exchange service, and the benefits of using such a service. They're usually some work to set up, but once you have everything set up, they eliminate the problems of access to your Outlook data on more than one computer, or when you are out of the house, out of town, or even out of the country. If you need access to your Outlook data on more than one computer, or when you are traveling, or even from an Internet cafe halfway around the world, this could be the solution you are looking for. Check it out.

OutlookPower Magazine recently published my story on hosted Exchange Services, title "My Inbox in the Sky, a hosted Exchange mailbox." The story, which you can read here: http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200804/00002022001.html talks about my experiences with the 4smartphone.net hosted Exchange service, and the benefits of using such a service. They're usually some work to set up, but once you have everything set up, they eliminate the problems of access to your Outlook data on more than one computer, or when you are out of the house, out of town, or even out of the country. If you need access to your Outlook data on more than one computer, or when you are traveling, or even from an Internet cafe halfway around the world, this could be the solution you are looking for. Check it out.

When Outlook doesn’t shutdown cleanly, your Outlook Data File (either a .pst or .ost file) can be left in an unverified state that can cause one of the following errors to appear the next time you boot Outlook:

“Outlook cannot open the data file filename until it has been checked for problems.” “Microsoft Office Outlook’ exited without properly closing your Outlook data file ‘drive:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.ost’. ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ must be restarted. If this error message recurs, contact support for ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ for assistance.” “The data file filename was not closed properly’. This file is being checked for problems.”

At this point Outlook needs to perform a reconciliation of the data file, a simple process that ‘cleans up’ the file from an incorrect shutdown. While the verification is happening, you will see a small ‘gear’ icon in the lower-right corner of Outlook:

Again, it’s okay to continue using Outlook as you would normally while this is happening as this reconciliation process happens in the background. When this icon disappears, the .pst file or the .ost file is verified.

If you shutdown Outlook while the gear icon is present, then verification must restart the next time you run Outlook. We recommend that you leave Outlook running until the gear icon disappears before shutting down. An incorrectly shut down Outlook Data File may occur for one of the following reasons:

• Another program that is accessing your Outlook Data File doesn’t exit cleanly
• Antivirus scanning of the file
• Outlook add-ins
• Outlook crashing
• Forced Microsoft Windows shutdown before the Outlook.exe process shuts down completely

If you believe you’re seeing this last issue often and need to shutdown Outlook shortly before shutting down your computer, then it may be better to shut down Windows when the Outlook window is still open instead of shortly afterwards. Michael Affronti Outlook Program Manager

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Second Edition Top Tips eBooks make life with Outlook easier and more efficient.

Second Edition Top Tips eBooks make life with Outlook easier and more efficient.