0.0 The Basics
1.0 Storage Types
2.0 Common Problems
3.0 Inbox
4.0 Calendar
5.0 Contacts
6.0 Journal
7.0 Tasks
9.0 Miscellaneous
One of the current problems we're seeing a lot in the newsgroups is the issue of people who have installed the Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview and now are receiving messages that appear blank.
This is a known issue with Internet Explorer 6 and Microsoft has released a patch which can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/preview/ie6/ie6update.asp
There are other Outlook FAQs and you'll find some of them listed in the Helpful Links section, but this is another one. Hopefully I'll answer some questions you didn't see elsewhere. It's just getting started so it'll take a while to build up; thanks for your patience!
A1: start your newsreader software, such as Outlook Express, and point them to the news.microsoft.com server. There is no login required.
A2: http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp
A: Just start a new post and ask away. Be sure to include all of the pertinent information such as what operating system you're running, if you have an Exchange Server, exactly what it is that you're trying to do, exactly what (if any) error message you're getting, what version of Outlook you're using and how you have it installed. There are a lot of different systems and it's hard to know how to answer the question if all you say is "My Outlook isn't working, why?"
No. The unfortunately named Outlook Express is just a mail and news reader. It does no contacts or calendaring and the two programs share very little in common.
Post it in the Outlook Express newsgroups. For example:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress
Outlook 2003 SP1
There hasn't been any official announcement but you should expect a second service pack (SP2) probably sometime later this year, and the next version of Microsoft Office is rumored to surface by the end of 2006 - but that's obviously subject to change. No public word yet on what new features might be on the horizon.
A1: A .PST file is a Personal Folders File. It's a file that contains all of the mail, contacts, calendar, task and other Outlook items and is typically located on the local hard drive of the user. It's bad because it has a tendency to get corrupted easily; especially as it approaches its maximum size of 2 gigabytes.
Outlook 2003 removes the 2GB maximum size IF your PST file is in Unicode format.
A1: Do you have a filter applied? What view are you using (see: View | Current View) to see your folder? If the view is "Unread Messages" for example, any message marked as read will appear to have disappeared. Reset the view to "Messages" or something innocuous like that.
A2: Are you using AutoArchive and if so did you check to see if the AutoArchive took your data items to an archive file?
A: AutoArchive works off the modified date of items, not the received or created date. If you moved an item, for example, from one folder to another the modified date will change. That's a common reason why AutoArchive might appear not to work.
A: Create a separate folder(s) for the other account(s) then create Rules in the Rules Wizard (Tools | Rules Wizard) that looks in the headers of the received messages (not "Sent To" that won't be reliable) for the internet mail address of that other account and moves the messages that have it to that sub-folder.
A: Nope. Right-click it and choose Customize This Search Folder. You'll get a dialog box that gives you the ability to browse the list of folders in your store and select which ones you want to search.
A: If you have an Exchange Server and Outlook 2000 or later: Create a
mailbox for the conference room. After you create the mailbox for the resource
you need to log into it one time, from a workstation with a profile that uses
that mailbox, in order to "initialize" it.
While you're there set the frequency of Free/Busy updates in Tools | Options
| Calendar Options. You may want to set it to be more frequently than the
default, which I seem to recall is 15 minutes.
You should also, while you're there, set the Tools | Options | Calendar
Options | Resource Scheduling to automatically process the meeting requests.
1. Make sure you're in 1-Day view.
2. Hold down the CTRL key and click each of the days you wish to see in the Date
Navigator. They'll appear side-by-side-by-side in the calendar page.
There are two basic ways to do it.
1. Create subfolders and store your contacts in the appropriate subfolders. This can be a good way to do it if each contact will only appear in one subfolder or if you need to grant permissions to other users to access these subfolders and you want them to be isolated from each other.
2. Use categories. Assign each contact to one or more categories and then create custom views to allow you to see the different categories in various ways. This is usually the best solution to this problem.
It's for keeping logs of activities. I use it to keep logs of phone calls I make and receive and sometimes meetings. Some people use it to log activities made with documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, faxes and all kinds of other contacts.
Yes, just press CTRL+SHIFT+J from anywhere within Outlook and a new entry will be created with the current date/time already entered. I usually do exactly that whenever my phone rings so I can keep the notes of the call.
Yes, just press CTRL+SHIFT+K to start a blank new task item from anywhere within Outlook.
Check your Exchange Server, in the Internet Mail Connector (Exchange 5.5) or Virtual SMTP server (Exchange 2000 or later) it is probably configured not to allow automatic replies to the Internet.
Slipstick Systems - a great Outlook and Exchange site.
Microsoft's Outlook Site - The official Outlook Home.
Wikipedia - Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook 2000 E-Mail and Fax Guide - by Sue Mosher
Microsoft Outlook Programming, Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers and Power Users - by Sue Mosher