SBS 2008 - REMOTE ACCESS TO FILES

Outlook Web Access can be used to view or open any file in a shared folder on the servers in an office run by Small Business Server 2008.

Small Business Server 2008 improves many things about remote access to an office network. The main screen for Remote Web Workplace makes it easy to use Outlook Web Access or connect to an office computer, with nothing extraneous to confuse anyone.

Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007 is so much improved that some people will use it instead of installing Outlook to access their Exchange mailbox. I just discovered another feature which is so good that it will figure prominently when I talk about SBS from now on.

There is a new "Documents" button in the Exchange 2007 version of Outlook Web Access.

Once it is configured, anyone can click on "Open Location" and put in the name of a shared folder in UNC format - \\ServerName\SharedFolder. The window on the right shows the name of the subfolders and files. At any point a location can be added to Favorites by clicking a button at the top. The folder names are shown at the top in a breadcrumb display to make it easy to navigate.

Most office users will be looking for files created in Word, Excel, or Acrobat. Double-clicking on a .DOC, .XLS, or .PDF file launches it in those programs, if they're installed on the remote computer.

Right-clicking on the file name provides the option to view the file in Internet Explorer or send it by email.

Documents cannot be saved directly back to the server - this is only a method to retrieve files.

This is extraordinary! I'm looking forward to introducing my SBS offices to this feature.

TECHNICAL NOTES

This feature is not enabled by default in SBS 2008; it has to be set up by opening Exchange Management Console with administrator privileges and opening Server Configuration / Client Access. Right-click on OWA and click on Properties to see the options for Remote File Servers. I was following the instructions in Eriq Oliver Neale's wonderful new book Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed but found one error. When you click the Allow button, the only allowed entry is the name of the server, not the network path to a shared folder. (And don't use the FQDN for the server unless that's necessary for some reason - the presence of a period in the server name will cause it to conclude that you've designated a FQDN and you'll have to add the domain suffix in the next section of the window.)

There are a huge number of ways to tweak the behavior of various file types to prevent opening something or require the web viewer for something else. The defaults are just fine for small offices. Once I figured out what to put in the Allow dialog, it started working instantly, with the exception of the web viewer for PDF files. That's on the list of things to fix someday.

Labels: network, Office, Outlook, remote, SBS

posted by bruceb at 1/05/2009 12:05:00 AM | permalink

SBS 2008 - SSL CERTIFICATES

Let me give you a quick overview of the kind of issue that makes it fun to be a consultant.

When you go to a web site where any personal information is going to be exchanged, you're likely to see the web site address change from http:// to https://. The data is encrypted (has a "Secure Sockets Layer" or SSL) and is reasonably well protected against eavesdroppers. You'll see it at banking sites or almost anything involving money or payment, as well as on web sites for access to company networks and other places where data should be confidential.

When you go to http://www.wellsfargo.com/, the bank's web server presents its security certificate from a known certificate authority, a big company that has done some checking to ensure that the server actually belongs to the company whose name is on the web site. Your browser examines it and agrees that it looks authentic, then it does some cryptographic things that convince it that the certificate was really issued by the big trusted authority. When it's satisfied, it proceeds automatically to https://www.wellsfargo.com/ and shows you a happy padlock icon in the address bar.

Until recently, SSL certificates were only used by big companies: they were expensive, required annoying paperwork, and the whole process was technically difficult.

Small Business Server 2003 wanted remote users to log into its great Remote Web Workplace over a secure SSL connection but couldn't saddle small businesses with the headache of buying expensive certificates, so it used a workaround. By default an SBS 2003 server presents a "self-signed certificate." Essentially the server vouches for itself and tells your browser that it's safe and trustworthy.

That sounds a bit flaky but it worked well enough for a long time, until security concerns began to trump everything else. Business people began buying Windows Mobile phones to sync their Outlook folders over the air and for a while it was possible to convince them to accept the SBS server's self-signed certificate, but it got harder and harder to accomplish - it required finding the right tool to install the certificate on the phone and the manufacturers were nervous about giving people access to the depths of the phone's operating system to do that. Now it's almost always impossible.

Meanwhile Microsoft began to add new security warnings to Internet Explorer as part of its hardening over the last few years. Now when you go to a site with an SBS 2003 certificate, you get this ominous warning:

If you go past the scary warning to the company's RWW site, you get the unhappy red IE address bar instead of the happy padlock:

Fortunately, a few companies began offering inexpensive SSL certificates with a minimum of fuss. GoDaddy.com offers SSL certificates for only thirty dollars per year that are accepted by most computers, phones and other devices. SBS consultants began to work out elaborate documentation for installing them on SBS servers. Many consultants made it a standard part of setting up a server running SBS 2003.

SBS 2008 still begins with a self-signed certificate but a wizard is included in the initial setup checklist to help purchase a third-party certificate.

The wizard wasn't helpful to me in a migration where I already had a domain name with an existing certificate. I found myself burrowing deeply into IIS and feeling my way through the process. I was successful but it took some interesting tricks to get everything to work correctly.

The experience exposed another interesting feature of Exchange 2007. If a company runs the web site http://www.bigfirm.com/, it can set up http://remote.bigfirm.com/ as a subdomain that leads to their internal company network. Set the company's MX record for incoming mail to http://remote.bigfirm.com/ and give that address to the business people for remote access. SBS 2008 has wizards to help get the domain names registered and set up in Exchange.

Then if a business person goes home and sets up Outlook 2007 for an Exchange Server at http://remote.bigfirm.com/, Outlook will configure itself automatically with the settings to connect over the Internet to Exchange Server at the office. It's not necessary in that case to configure the deep proxy settings that have been required until now to set up Outlook for RPC over HTTP. Microsoft thinks the technology is so cool that it blessed it with a new brand name, "Outlook Anywhere." (SBS 2008 does some of the magic to accomplish that, thank goodness - otherwise it requires deep surgery in ADSIEDIT and the Exchange command line console.)

That works fine, I'm sure, but I used a different naming scheme when I bought domain names for all my SBS clients for their remote access. SBS 2008 does not like that arrangement one little bit. And it's only easy to set up a subdomain and manipulate MX records if you have full DNS control over the ISP for http://www.bigfirm.com/. A small business will frequently have set up their web site with small hosting companies and web site designers that are, shall we say, not always easy to work with.

You see what I mean, I'm sure - it's fun!

Labels: domains, IE, Internet, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, phone, remote, SBS, security

posted by bruceb at 12/03/2008 12:46:00 AM | permalink

MICROSOFT ONLINE SERVICES

I am happy to announce that Microsoft formally unveiled Microsoft Online Services today.

I am a Microsoft partner authorized to sell and support Microsoft Online Services. I expect to set up many of my clients with Exchange Online for their mail. If you're interested, please call me or drop me a note! I do not need to be in your geographic area to assist you with this.

This is the first big step by Microsoft to deliver online services directly to customers, part of its effort to redefine the entire company and move some of your data to the online cloud. I've already written up the background information you need to understand Microsoft Online Services - click here for information about where this comes from and how it fits in your world.

Basically, each Outlook mailbox is hosted by Microsoft for a monthly fee. (An Outlook "mailbox" is the term for the entire set of Outlook folders, including contacts, tasks and calendar.) The hosted Exchange service allows you to connect to your Outlook folders in a variety of ways:

• MULTIPLE COMPUTERS  The same Outlook folders can be displayed on multiple computers at multiple locations. You can use your Outlook folders seamlessly from a desktop computer at the office, a desktop computer at home, and a notebook computer on the road, and Outlook is always up to date at all locations.
• MULTIPLE LOCATIONS  Office workers can be linked together and share Outlook folders even if they are in different offices.
• WEBMAIL  Outlook folders can be accessed online through Outlook Web Access - full access to all Outlook folders presented in Internet Explorer, like other webmail services.
• PHONE  Windows Mobile 6 devices can sync email, calendar, and contacts over the air continuously.
• SHARING  Calendars and address lists can be shared with other people in the office.
• SECURITY  Microsoft provides virus and spam filtering.
• REDUCED COSTS  Microsoft is responsible for backups, database maintenance, security updates, and upgrades.

Microsoft has put together a very robust service that will be used by businesses of all sizes, including big enterprises that want to outsource their mail. It is best suited for small businesses if they fit within these parameters:

• The company has a domain name for mail, or wants to begin using one.
• There are a minimum of five email users.
• All computers are running Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business (or Ultimate), and all computers have Microsoft Outlook 2007 (or are prepared to buy it).
• The company is not set up with Small Business Server, which already includes Exchange Server. (It's possible to combine service from Microsoft with the onsite Small Business Server but I'm not sure the benefit would justify the cost for very small businesses.)
• In addition to the $10/month cost per mailbox, there will be some setup costs. You don't want to set this service up without assistance! As with anything new these days, I'm learning about hundreds of quirks and potential pitfalls as I set up clients. Call me before you sign up!

Here's Microsoft's press release about the new services, which include Sharepoint and other online services.

Other companies also offer hosted Exchange mailboxes which might be better matches for some people. I'll write more about those soon. Start to think about the advantages of having access to your Outlook folders from anywhere!

Labels: business, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, SBS, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/18/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS AZURE & LIFE IN THE CLOUD

"Windows Azure" is a terrible name but you need to be aware of it anyway. Windows Azure is a breathtakingly ambitious platform outlined by Microsoft at last week's Professional Developer Conference, another attempt by Microsoft to position itself to profit from a paradigm shift that will be just as important as the move to the Internet in the 90s.

Yesterday I used word processing as an easy example to imagine what it would be like if you had universal access to your files with the ability to open and edit them from any computer. Of course, it's just as easy to imagine having easy access from anywhere to your Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations, with the programs running in a browser if you don't have a copy installed on the computer nearby.

Okay, now stretch a little bit. Imagine that you could have something like the same experience on your phone - Windows Mobile can sync folders using Live Mesh and it runs little tiny versions of Word and Excel. Photos can be moved around from computer to computer and/or stored online, too, so you might not be surprised by this anecdote from someone who tried using Live Mesh on his phone to sync the folder where the phone stores pictures. There were the pictures on his computer a few minutes later with no muss, no fuss, no action required at all. The camera on the phone looks a lot more usable all of a sudden!

But now let's take a big step. Windows Azure is a platform that will allow you to run programs that are identical to programs installed on your computer but which are actually running from Microsoft's online servers. Microsoft's goal is to have all of its programs run from Microsoft's data centers in such a way that you cannot tell the difference between a program hosted online and a program on your computer. The developer tools will allow all the other software vendors to do the same thing.

Some of you already have experience with that. Businesses running on Small Business Server use Outlook to connect to mailboxes stored in Exchange Server. At the office, people open Outlook to do their work; away from the office, they might use Outlook on their notebook computer, or they might check their mail or calendar on their Windows Mobile phone, or they might use Outlook Web Access to display their Outlook folders in a web browser. Outlook Web Access is already significantly improved in Exchange 2007 so it more closely resembles Outlook, and it only takes a small leap of faith to imagine the experience being identical to using the full program.

The Azure framework is intended to give developers the ability to present their programs to you over your Internet connection so that virtually all the hard work is done by the online servers. Microsoft or Google or Amazon have responsibility for holding the data and backing it up; when a program is updated, the updates are applied at the source instead of requiring you to take steps to install updates on each of your computers.

I'll be writing more about Live Framework, the unified underpinning of the various Windows Live services as they become increasingly integrated, and Microsoft Online Services, which will introduce hosted online Exchange mailboxes to many of my clients. They're early signs of this movement to online services that will change your life, whether you're ready or not. There are many miles and many competitors and the future is not assured for Microsoft, but make no mistake - the company has staked its future on this ambitious transformation.

Here are some more early comments on Windows Azure: Dan Farber on "Microsoft's Manhattan Project"; Robert Scoble says not to underestimate Microsoft's ability to turn a corner; CBS News on the Azure launch; and Joe Wilcox on the significance of the project:

"I simply cannot overstate how enormous an undertaking is Azure. Microsoft plans to support cloud services in every product. Azure is hugely ambitious and will transform Microsoft, whether or not the vision stated on Monday makes it to market. As such, Azure is enormously risky and its success as envisioned is uncertain."

Labels: business, computers, file_sharing, Google, Internet, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/04/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

OUTLOOK: MULTI-DAY CALENDAR VIEWS

The Outlook team at Microsoft plans to publish a series of tips in their blog about interesting ways they use Outlook. Today's item highlights a way to display any range of dates in the Outlook calendar, even unconnected dates.

Click a day in the date picker (the little calendar in the upper left or upper right), then hold CTRL down and click additional dates. Each one will be added to the calendar display. You can display the range from Wednesday to Tuesday, for example, instead of being limited by the Sunday-Saturday view in the normal "WEEK" display; or you can choose just Thursdays and see your next month's worth of Thursdays lined up next to each other.

Don't forget my tip about displaying Outlook in multiple windows and creating shortcuts to start Outlook directly in the contacts or calendar folders!

Labels: Office, Outlook

posted by bruceb at 10/28/2008 12:19:00 AM | permalink

SLIMMING DOWN ITUNES

Apple's software for Windows has been causing problems on more and more of my clients' computers. I've been wrestling with bluescreens caused by iTunes, file extensions hijacked by Quicktime, and now I'm suspicious that an uninvited service has been causing problems in Outlook.

An iTunes installation includes far more than a music library that syncs to your iPod. There are multiple services and kernel mode drivers and program addins, with very little of it included in any disclosure or presented with any options. Apple also installs its "software update" framework, which it has used to install additional unrelated software without adequate disclosure, notably when it used the update service to install its insecure Safari web browser a few months ago.

The last few releases of iTunes install "Bonjour," a service that's only used if you share iTunes libraries across a network or use AppleTV. You don't do that. Why is that running on your computer without your knowledge?

You've also got "Apple Mobile Device Support," which syncs with iPhones and iPod Touch. If you don't have one of those devices, you don't need that software.

And if you're running Outlook and iTunes, you're probably running an Outlook addin named "iTunes Outlook Addin" or "Outlook iTunes Sync Addin." Take a look! In Outlook 2003, click on Tools / Options / Other / Advanced Options / COM Addins. In Outlook 2007, click on Tools / Trust Center / Addins, and click on "Manage COM Addins / Go" at the bottom. Now how did that get there! Make it go away. I suspect it of causing Outlook problems for several clients in the last few months.

There is a way to install iTunes without most of that unnecessary bloatware but be warned - it's not for the faint of heart. If you have to install iTunes, this guide will lead you through the process of locating the installation files for its individual pieces, so you can install only iTunes (and Bonjour if you need it), and leave the rest of it behind.

It doesn't help that the latest version of iTunes breaks the connection between J River Media Center and iPods. You're now forced to install iTunes if you get one of those devices, because Apple creates closed, unfriendly platforms and fiercely locks out potential competitors. Here's more info about that.

I hope my iPod Classic doesn't break - it connects to J River Media Center and I will never install iTunes or Quicktime on my computers. Apple is moving way up on the list of vendors helping send my kids to college.

Labels: Apple, audio, mobile, Outlook, phone, software

posted by bruceb at 10/07/2008 12:13:00 AM | permalink

RESIZING OUTLOOK PHOTO ATTACHMENTS

Here's a tip about Microsoft Outlook that I discovered by accident.

A common problem - you'd like to send an email to a friend with a number of photos attached. If you send the photos straight from the camera, the files are too large. Typical photos from a digital camera are 1.5-2.5Mb each, too big for an email attachment. Attach two or three or more and your message is likely not to be delivered, blocked by filters for oversized mail on your company mail server or your ISP's outgoing mail server or the recipient's incoming mail server or mail program.

There are many workarounds to resize the image for easy sharing. The photos can be shared online, or they can be resized by one of the many programs that can work with Outlook - Windows Live Photo Gallery and Photoshop Elements and many more.

There's another way to resize the attachments in Outlook and it's even easier. (If you don't use Outlook for mail, this isn't for you. Chat amongst yourselves for a few minutes.)

• Attach the photos to the outgoing message without any regard for their original size.
• Open the sidebar for "Attachment Options."
• Outlook 2003: button on the right of the attachment line.
• Outlook 2007: little arrow under the Message / Include buttons.
• Voila! An option to resize pictures automatically before the picture is sent. Pick a small/medium/large setting, push Send, and the message is on its way with reasonably sized attachments.

That's great stuff! Here's how those buttons look.

OUTLOOK 2003

OUTLOOK 2007

Labels: mail, Outlook, photos

posted by bruceb at 9/24/2008 01:08:00 AM | permalink

OUTLOOK SHORTCUTS

Here's a tip for getting around in Outlook: it's possible to switch between mail, contacts, and calendar using hotkeys on the keyboard instead of reaching for the mouse to click the navigation pane. Who knew?

Don't overlook an even better Outlook tip from a few months ago - opening multiple Outlook windows simultaneously.

Labels: mail, Outlook, software

posted by bruceb at 9/12/2008 03:24:00 PM | permalink

ACTIVESYNC FOR BLACKBERRY

ActiveSync is the technology from Microsoft that connects a mobile device to Exchange Server. For businesses running Small Business Server, it is ActiveSync that makes a Windows Mobile-based device so compelling - over the air syncing of Outlook mail, calendar & contacts.

Apple licensed ActiveSync for the new generation of iPhone, making it more appealing for businesses.

Blackberry devices don't run ActiveSync and cannot connect to an Exchange Server directly. That's why I've written frequently about the difficulty of setting up a Blackberry in offices running Small Business Server.

This web site announces a third party plugin for Blackberry devices that uses ActiveSync to sync with Exchange Servers, claiming it will be available this month.

That would be great! It's been overdue for a long time.

Will it work? Is this company for real? Will it suck the battery dry like ActiveSync does on the iPhone? Will it void the warranty on the Blackberry? Stay tuned. No one knows.

Labels: mobile, Outlook, phone, SBS

posted by bruceb at 8/06/2008 12:01:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS SEARCH 4 & NETWORK SHARES

Windows Search 4 was released last month as an upgrade to Windows Search 3.01 (Windows XP) and the built-in search capability in Windows Vista. It is an important upgrade for every Windows user; it will be pushed through the Windows Update system soon. Here's more information about Windows Search 4.

For the first time, Windows Search 4 can be installed on servers running Windows Server 2003 or Windows Home Server. This gives businesses an important new tool for finding information but there is one new trick to learn.

Many offices with Small Business Server have almost all important business files in a shared folder on the server, which is mapped to a drive letter and is universally referred to by its letter - "The file is stored on the N: drive." Normal people in small businesses don't have to be aware that the file is really in something like \\sbsserver\Company.

When the server is running Windows Search 4, it compiles an index of the business files. When a user with Windows Search 4 searches for something in the shared folder on the server, the server does the work of searching its index and providing the results. The search is completed nearly instantly and it is consistent for all users.

(The underlying technology is referred to as "remote query" or "remote index discovery." A computer with Windows Search 4 responds to a search query from a remote computer by consulting its own index and sending the search results. This works between any computers with Windows Search 4, not just searches on a server - a Vista computer can do a remote query on a shared folder on another Vista computer, etc.)

This is a significant improvement over Windows Search 3.01, which required each individual computer to compile an index of the files on the server. That created a lot of network traffic and search results were uneven - there was always a question of whether an individual computer's index was up to date or complete.

Note the requirement for this to work: Windows Search 4 must be installed on the server and on the workstations. As far as I know, the only way to tell if it has been installed is to look in Add/Remove Programs.

Putting this to use requires a simple technique for searches.

HOW TO USE WINDOWS SEARCH

SEARCHING OUTLOOK AND FILES ON YOUR COMPUTER

Use the toolbar by the clock (Windows XP) or the search bar above the Start button (Vista) to search files stored on your own computer and everything in Outlook.

 

SEARCHING FILES ON THE SERVER - WINDOWS XP

Open the folder with the business files. (Example: open My Computer and click on the N: drive.)

Click the Search button and do the search from Windows Search on the left.

 

 

SEARCHING FILES ON THE SERVER - VISTA

Open the folder with the business files. (Example: open Computer and click on the N: drive.)

Use the Search bar in the upper right corner of the window.

As far as I know, there is no way to do a single search that covers Outlook and files in a shared folder.

Now go find something interesting!

Labels: network, Outlook, SBS, search, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 7/28/2008 01:43:00 AM | permalink

MICROSOFT ONLINE SERVICES

Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced new services that might drastically change the email technology used by small businesses. Let me give you some background, then give you some information about Microsoft Online Services - a way for a small business to have its Outlook folders stored online by Microsoft.

Companies running Exchange Server for Outlook reap tremendous benefits. For example:

• The same Outlook folders can be displayed on multiple computers at multiple locations. You can use your Outlook folders seamlessly from a desktop computer at the office, a desktop computer at home, and a notebook computer on the road, and Outlook is always up to date at all locations.
• Calendars and address lists can be shared.
• Outlook folders can be accessed online through Outlook Web Access - full access to all Outlook folders presented in Internet Explorer, like other webmail services.
• Windows Mobile devices can sync over the air.

It's a rich environment.

Traditionally that has required a small business to run its own Exchange Server (included with the Small Business Server suite). A small business does not strain Exchange Server, which is remarkably robust and frequently troublefree, but make no mistake - it is fiercely complex and problems can happen. I dive for the phone to pay Microsoft for support when there's a problem with an Exchange database.

Microsoft developed a community of partners - big companies offering "hosted Exchange" mailboxes. A small business would pay a monthly fee to the big company to have the Exchange database stored online for all the business users. Outlook works completely smoothly with that arrangement; for the users, there's literally no difference between that setup and having the Exchange Server down the hall. The responsibility for backups, database maintenance, security updates, and upgrades is shifted to the big company.

Until recently, small companies mostly stayed away from hosted Exchange accounts. The big companies were unfamiliar (heck, the whole concept was unfamiliar), and the prices were just high enough to dissuade business owners from moving away from traditional standalone copies of Outlook. (I set up several people with individual hosted Exchange accounts, offered by 1and1.com, but even those were tough because people weren't familiar with the concept.)

Two weeks ago Microsoft announced the details of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft is bypassing its partners and offering hosted Exchange services directly. Pricing is still not cheap - $10 per user per month for 1Gb of mailbox storage space, with more space available at a cost for oversized mailboxes. But it comes with Microsoft's name behind it and it comes at a time when people are being bombarded with references to storing things "in the cloud." People are becoming familiar with the idea of having important data stored online.

As always, there are a lot of details to process. You can see from the chart that there are many levels of service, and other services in addition to Exchange. I've been testing the beta and there were kinks getting things set up. It's possible to integrate this service with an existing onsite Exchange Server, and it's possible to migrate from an onsite server to the hosted service, but there will be some technical hurdles to make that work.

Meanwhile the partner community is reeling, feeling betrayed, because this puts Microsoft in the position of competing with them directly and even potentially taking customers from the partners. Microsoft has set up an elaborate commission structure to try to soothe them but there is a lot of bitterness out there. I don't think that will slow things down but be alert for yet another round of Microsoft-bashing.

This might be one of those moments that changes the standard setup of computer services for a small business. The demand is already there for universal access to email, calendar and contact lists; this responds to some very real needs being expressed by every business. I expect to be talking about this with many of my clients that do not presently have a server.

Even more interesting, there are consultants in the Small Business Server community who wonder whether this will be such a compelling alternative that they should not recommend Small Business Server 2008. It could be that a small business will have a server onsite to do nothing more than file and printer sharing, and all the other company technology will be online services.

There are changes ahead! This is another one that deserves some attention. Here's more information about the presentation of Microsoft Online Services at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in early July. There's a demo at the MOS beta site. Here's an overview of Microsoft's step into this space. It's interesting stuff!

Labels: business, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, SBS, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/23/2008 01:52:00 AM | permalink

OUTLOOK vs. GMAIL

Microsoft Exchange and Outlook dominate the market for corporate email. Small businesses running Exchange Server use Outlook almost exclusively. Until recently, even individuals and businesses without a server would use Outlook with their POP3 mail accounts.

But in the last couple of years, almost everyone has started to chafe at a singular disadvantage of an individual copy of Outlook: it can't be used easily anywhere except by sitting at the computer where it's installed.

We want to read our mail from any computer, anywhere. We want to use more than one computer - a desktop in the office, another one at home, or perhaps a notebook for the road - and we want our email on all of them. We want our mail on a Blackberry or iPhone or Windows Mobile device. All of those things can be done with Outlook but not easily and not without compromises.

It's driving people to set up their mail online with Google Gmail or Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. There are some compromises there, too, but the convenience is starting to outweigh everything else. The webmail providers are adding features right and left, so it's possible now to use the online services without regret.

Google Gmail has devoted followers who love its presentation of messages in organized threads and unparalleled search options. Google is constantly tweaking it to offer more storage space, more options for displaying mail on more devices, and more features.

Here's a lengthy comparison of Outlook and Gmail. It's worth reading - your attention will be drawn to things you might not have considered, and you may find yourself nodding unexpectedly at one choice or the other. I think the author undersells Outlook a bit. (One point he doesn't mention, for example: people are very upset when they click "Send by email" in Internet Explorer or Word and nothing useful happens - the webmail services don't integrate with Windows that way.) And in the end, personal taste may outweigh any of these features; some people hate Outlook; personally, I can't use Gmail - I find it unintuitive and clumsy and unattractive.

The next few years will be a blur. Outlook's profile is dropping for home users; Microsoft does not even include Outlook with the Home and Student Edition of Office 2007, presumably because more people are using the online services instead (and perhaps because Vista's Windows Mail is a really nice mail program, better suited for many people who don't need Outlook's complexity).

On the other hand, Microsoft just announced a new program that may change the game completely for small businesses and keep them with Outlook. I'll tell you about that on Wednesday.

Labels: Google, mail, Microsoft, Outlook, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/21/2008 01:45:00 AM | permalink

OUTLOOK 2007 TROUBLESHOOTING

Microsoft has a support document that was updated recently with helpful information to troubleshoot performance issues in Outlook 2007. For my clients Outlook 2007 has been stable and speedy but keep this collection of tips in mind if you experience slow performance, lengthy delays before Outlook responds (either on startup or during normal use), or program crashes.

Personally, I've seen these things cause performance problems most frequently:

• Slow computers - either insufficient memory or slow hard drives
• Mailbox stores that are over 2Gb (performance begins to be affected) or over 4Gb (performance gets pretty dicey)
• Third party addins that cause odd side effects
• Lengthy mailbox checks when Outlook starts (which apparently can largely be avoided by leaving Outlook running when we shut down Windows, so Windows can completely manage the process of closing the program. Weird, eh?)

Labels: Outlook

posted by bruceb at 6/05/2008 09:26:00 AM | permalink

AT&T DSL & MAIL WOES

AT&T has a special place in my heart.

One of my clients is a small business with its own domain name and several users receiving POP3 mail addressed to that domain name - gertrude@businessname.com, for example.

The business has an AT&T DSL line.

A couple of months ago, they started having trouble sending mail - AT&T's SMTP server refused to take outgoing messages from Outlook.

Eventually we discovered that AT&T had sent this message a few months earlier, warning that its SMTP servers would only accept outgoing messages on an AT&T DSL line if certain conditions were met.

The first condition wasn't terribly unusual - Outlook had to be set up to authenticate itself to the SMTP server with an AT&T account - an email address and password. The business had set one up as part of the DSL account (businessname@pacbell.net) and we were able to dig that information out.

But wait! There's more! The outgoing mail also had to be set up as an SSL connection for additional security, on a non-standard port. You know, the settings in Outlook under Tools / Account Settings / Change / More Settings / Advanced - surely you've been there? Yeah, right.

I sympathize with the difficulty for ISPs of dealing with an unimaginable amount of spam, but this is a terrible, unforgivable thing to do to people.

We were able to get the mail flowing again for a couple of months. It stopped again with no warning.

I've spent more than two hours and although I found a workaround, I'm still pretty horrified at what appears to be going on.

I tried every combination of SMTP server name, authentication on/off, SSL on/off, port 25/465, with no success. The returned messages had an unfamiliar error in them - the sender's address was not "verified" to use the SMTP server.

AT&T and Yahoo have set up an extraordinary labyrinth of conflicting sites to log in with a @pacbell.net account. Eventually I found the Yahoo login page and was able to get to Member Center / My Account & Billing, where there was a reference to "Alternate email addresses."

"Your alternate email address is an address you can add to your AT&T Yahoo! account for use with a variety of products and services across the AT&T Yahoo! network. An alternate email address can be used any time you don't want to use your AT&T Yahoo! member ID for a particular function."

Great! Put in the business email addresses, respond to an email confirmation, and the addresses showed up as "Verified." Problem solved!

Not. Outgoing mail was rejected just as firmly. I kept typing test messages and pushing "Send" over and over, because I couldn't think of anything else to do.

I located an ominous sentence in an AT&T support document -

"Please make sure that you have entered your AT&T Yahoo! Business Email address as the "From" address in your email client. You will not be able to send mail if you have entered another address."

If I read it correctly, that support document only applies to people using an "AT&T Yahoo! Business Email address," whatever that might be.

But on a hunch, I went back to the account settings in Outlook and entered the @pacbell.net email address on the first screen for a POP3 account.

Outgoing mail immediately started flowing. And every outgoing message shows the sender is businessname@pacbell.net, from every computer onsite.

I spent more time and got nowhere. I thought about the horror of calling AT&T for technical support on an issue like this and put the idea out of my head. We may get to that point but my hourly rate becomes a very real consideration for this kind of headache.

And that's where things stand. Somewhere there's an answer. It can't be the case that a business cannot send email using its own domain name on an AT&T DSL line - but, well, that's where it stands.

By coincidence, Susan Bradley complained recently about changes AT&T has made to her incoming mail at an @pacbell.net address that make the account virtually unusable.

Sonic is still taking orders for DSL, and I'm hoping this business will just switch over and we can put this behind us. But what will we do when AT&T is the only DSL provider left?

[Postscript 05/30 1pm: after more experimenting, I found that mail.pacbell.net is apparently still running - messages can be sent from the business address. (Settings: authentication required; port 25; no SSL.) It's not clear whether this is a permanent solution or whether AT&T intends to shut down those servers, as their support letter suggests. But for the moment, the business can use its mail again]

Labels: broadband, mail, Outlook

posted by bruceb at 5/30/2008 01:05:00 AM | permalink

OUTLOOK SHORTCUTS

Did you know you can have multiple Outlook windows open? Try right-clicking on "Calendar" or "Contacts," then clicking on Open in new window.

This will be very exciting for some of you. But wait! There's more!

By default, Outlook opens into your Inbox. You can change the default folder by clicking in Outlook on Tools / Options / Other / Advanced Options.

But you can also create shortcuts for your desktop or Quick Launch bar that open directly into your calendar, contacts folder, or task list. Each one will open a new Outlook window automatically.

Try this out!

• Right-click on your desktop and click on New / Shortcut.
• The location of the item is the path to the Outlook program, followed by a command line switch that selects the folder to open. Note that the quotation marks have to be included!

OUTLOOK 2003

• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Inbox
• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Calendar
• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Contacts
• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Tasks

OUTLOOK 2007

• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Inbox
• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Calendar
• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Contacts
• "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Outlook.exe " /select Outlook:Tasks

 

• On the next screen, type a descriptive name - e.g., "Outlook Calendar."
• Right-click on the shortcut and click on Properties. Click the Change Icon button and pick an icon that matches the folder.

Bingo! A convenient way to open multiple windows directly where you want to go.

Note: If Microsoft Office is installed on a different drive or in a non-standard folder, your shortcut will have to be modified with the correct path. It's possible to open any Outlook folder this way, but it gets slightly trickier to create shortcuts to public folders or folders with spaces in their names.

Labels: Office, Outlook

posted by bruceb at 4/18/2008 12:40:00 AM | permalink

RANDOM OUTLOOK 2007 NOTES

When I set up a new computer these days, I spend almost no time describing new features in Windows Vista - people are generally able to start using it right away with a minimum of fuss. Outlook 2007 is so similar to Outlook 2003 that I don't even mention that it's a new version. The programs that get the most attention are Microsoft Word 2007 and Excel 2007, which got a complete overhaul that leaves people disoriented at first. (Most of them become big fans of the new design after a couple of weeks.)

Outlook 2007 is stable and fast but it has a few idiosyncrasies and no shortage of the kind of odd problems that promise to keep me employed for many years.

When Outlook 2007 is started for the first time, it presents a dialog box asking if you'd like to combine and synchronize the lists of RSS feeds in Outlook and Internet Explorer. Say what? For most people, this dialog box might as well be written in Sanskrit. Virtually everyone should choose "No" and move on. Choosing "Yes" without consciously following up to configure Outlook's support for RSS feeds can lead to slow performance, oversized mailboxes, crashes, sweating, drowsiness, and headaches.

(Although Outlook 2007 is not a very good RSS reader, it's worth knowing about RSS feeds, a useful way to keep up with blogs and other frequently updated web sites! Here's some basic information.)

Today I set up a new computer, installed all security updates and Vista Service Pack 1, then started Outlook for the first time. It refused to close, ignoring clicks on File / Exit and the upper right corner. It froze completely when I clicked on Tools / Trust Center - not just once, but repeatedly. After repeating the same steps five or six times, hoping that magic fairies would fix the problem if I just believed real hard, I finally convinced it to display a message that a dialog box was open. No box was anywhere in sight, but each time Outlook had started I had seen the dialog box appear and disappear in a flash that's intended to collect the user name and initials. It was acting exactly like a program with a hidden dialog box.

A little Googling led to a bug introduced by a recent security update that prevents the name/initials window from displaying correctly if Outlook is started for the first time after it's installed. Although it's possible to uninstall the KB946983 update, all it took was opening another Office program and filling out the same window. Outlook then opened and behaved normally.

This made me grouchy.

After restarting a computer, many people see Outlook's message that it must "check the data file for consistency because it was not closed down properly." Outlook 2007 does its check in the background but the computer slows down and Outlook is not very usable until the check is complete. I take it personally, since I'm very fastidious about closing programs before I shut down or restart.

It happens when a program keeps some portion of Outlook running even after the main window closes - a search program, a security program, or some other addin. This blogger found it happened less if he did not close Outlook before restarting Windows - somehow that gave Windows a better opportunity to close the entire program gracefully. Heck, it might work - I'm going to try it.

Some people found that Google Desktop was the culprit. I've been uninstalling Google Desktop pretty freely and so far no one has missed it. Most people don't even know it's installed. Dell has been shipping it on new systems for quite a while and it sometimes turns up riding along when other programs are installed.

There's a long list of suggestions on Slipstick Systems that might help troubleshoot the problem. It's another reason to go prune the list of addins that run in Outlook, removing any third party addins that are clearly unnecessary.

One more thing. Did you know you can have multiple Outlook windows open? Try right-clicking on "Calendar" or "Contacts," then clicking on "Open in new window." Typically I'll have Outlook running in three or four separate windows.

Labels: Microsoft, Office, Outlook, software

posted by bruceb at 4/02/2008 12:35:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS SEARCH 4

Microsoft released a preview of Windows Search 4 today, an update to the Windows Desktop Search program that is built into Windows Vista and can be installed separately on Windows XP. The search programs index everything on your computer that matters - the full text of your documents, the tags on your photos and music files, every word of every item in Outlook - and do lightning fast searches for anything, as fast as you can type in the letters of a search term. I've written frequently about Windows Desktop Search - here are some posts with more information and links.

This is the first public release of Windows Search 4. Microsoft's Knowledge Base article has detailed information and download links with no indication that this is anything other than a finished product. (04/01: The KB article was quickly edited to describe this as a preview.) The Vista team blog, on the other hand, describes this as a "preview," suggesting that we should all watch for a while until it is polished into a finished product. I'm going to begin testing right away.

Let's assume it does what they claim. As always, we may come back to that later.

It is designed to upgrade prior versions automatically. Theoretically Windows Search 4 can be installed freely on Windows XP or Vista computers and it will deal appropriately with earlier versions of WDS. Windows Search 4 includes the ability to search network shares, which previously required a confusing addin.

Most of the claims for Windows Search 4 are unexciting. They fixed bugs, improved performance, and it will handle things gracefully if there are errors in the index. Swell.

But there is one new feature that has the potential to make my small business clients laugh and sing. If this works as promised, it is a huge leap forward in the technology available to small businesses.

Currently Windows Desktop Search 3.01 is installed on my clients' PCs. Each copy of WDS 3.01 is installed and configured separately. When documents are stored on a server or in a central location on one of the PCs, each workstation has to be set up to search that network share and each workstation maintains its own index of each network share. That has an impact on network traffic and it introduces individual points of failure - each computer might have its index become corrupted or have missing files or a host of other problems.

Now imagine that Windows Search 4 is running on all your business desktop computers - and it's running on your Small Business Server, which is now one of the supported platforms. That means the server has an index of all of your business documents and PDFs and images.

Remote Index Discovery allows the search indexes to talk to each other. When you search a network computer, the network computer consults its own index and hands over the search results. That's quicker and requires less resources, it improves consistency in searching for everyone in the office, and it significantly reduces the chance of error.

I'll be experimenting and watching reports closely. I may want to roll this out in some of my clients' offices soon.

Labels: Microsoft, network, Outlook, SBS, search, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 3/28/2008 03:44:00 AM | permalink

IPHONE & EXCHANGE

Apple announced today that it has licensed ActiveSync technology from Microsoft, allowing the iPhone to sync mail, contacts, and calendars with Exchange Server.  Apple also released a development kit which will result in an explosion of third party applications for the iPhone.

The iPhone is poised to be a compelling choice for businesses, including my clients running Small Business Server. Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices suddenly look very drab in comparison.

The update for the iPhone is scheduled to be delivered in June. The iPhone will still be tethered to AT&T for the foreseeable future. There is no official word about whether the iPhone will be upgraded to permit a faster 3G Internet connection but the rumor mills are predicting a 3G iPhone in June to go along with the enterprise features.

Here's an article about today's announcement of ActiveSync support for Exchange, and here's an overview of the entire Apple press conference. Apple unveiled a web site devoted to the iPhone Enterprise program and Microsoft concurrently issued a press release.

This has the potential to make the iPhone a bigger deal than anything Apple is doing with computers, and might even eclipse Apple's success in changing the music industry with the iPod. Pay attention to this story!

Labels: Apple, mail, Outlook, phone, SBS

posted by bruceb at 3/07/2008 12:57:00 AM | permalink

iPHONES & EXCHANGE SERVER

The iPhone is a sleek, sexy device that permanently changes our expectations for handheld devices. After holding an iPhone, it's hard to pick up another cell phone and PDA without feeling a bit of a letdown.

The iPhone has a few shortcomings that are not immediately apparent when you look at one for the first time. Here's a list of the big and small issues that users are discovering about the current iPhone. The most significant problem is Apple's deal tying the iPhone to AT&T. Perhaps that was important to finance the deal or Apple thought it was necessary for marketing, but it's a shame - AT&T is a horrible company to do business with and has a much weaker network than the competitors.

Let's say you can swallow signing up for an account with AT&T. At the moment, the iPhone is not the right choice for Outlook users hoping to sync e-mail, calendar, and contacts to the iPhone. That's especially true for businesses running Exchange Server, the software powering the mail system in Small Business Server 2003. Many reports online say that the iPhone is difficult to set up with Exchange Server - possible, but difficult to configure. Worse, even when it's set up correctly, I've seen too many reports that it just doesn't work very well.

Theoretically mail can be sent to the iPhone if support for IMAP is turned on in Exchange Server. That's a protocol for retrieving mail, similar in concept to POP3 but seldom used until recently. Researching how to do that turns up warnings like this:

As I understand it, the iPhone can be set up to receive e-mail from an Exchange Server - but that's it for over-the-air syncing. No contacts, no calendar sync over the air. Calendar and contact syncing is not done directly with Outlook even when the iPhone is in the cradle, if I understand right - first, Outlook has to sync with iTunes, then iTunes syncs with the iPhone. It's a messy process that's fraught with error.

It's unclear whether mail sent from the iPhone ends up going thru the Exchange Server and showing up in Outlook Sent Items - I think not but I haven't confirmed it yet.

This is likely to change soon, possibly in the next month or two. Two weeks ago Apple posted this job opening for a QA engineer:

The iPhone Quality team is looking for a motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills. You will join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iPhone products. Your focus will be testing Exchange and Outlook functionality with Apple's innovative new phone. The successful candidate will complete both documented and adhoc testing to ensure high quality releases.

The hope is that an Exchange connector for the iPhone is in its final testing phase.

Watch for an announcement from Apple that a new version of the iPhone has built-in support for Exchange Server. If that's coupled with an upgrade to permit the iPhone to use AT&T's higher-speed data network instead of the godawful slow EDGE network, it will make the iPhone a much more attractive choice.

Labels: Apple, mobile, Outlook, phone, SBS

posted by bruceb at 1/03/2008 01:00:00 AM | permalink

MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007 SP1

By now you've installed the updates and patches released last Tuesday on Microsoft's regularly-scheduled "Patch Tuesday." Some of you with new computers might have also found Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1, an unexpected addition to the list of optional updates. If you're not in a hurry, you'll still deal with it eventually - Office 2007 SP1 will be installed as an automatic update in the next few months.

The service pack arrived with very little fanfare; most industry types didn't expect it until next year. Microsoft presumably released it early to make a tiny dent in its reputation for being slow to bring products to market or get updates out the door. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is in its final round of testing and it looks as if it will be released on the timetable Microsoft has been predicting for some time now.

Office 2007 SP1 makes a frightening first impression - when I first added it to the list of updates to be installed, it predicted a download of more than 600Mb. Fortunately that was wrong - there are lots of variations of the service pack but most of you will download approximately 200Mb, which is what was displayed on my system when the download actually started. That's still a huge download!

Service packs are big collections of bug fixes. Microsoft's current philosophy is that service packs do not include new features or changes to the programs, so installing the Office 2007 service pack won't change anything very noticeable. Microsoft says there are good reasons to download and install Service Pack 1. According to Microsoft:

• There are roughly 2500 fixes in SP1. This an average size for a service pack, but many of the issues fixed are important.
• Almost 20% of those fixes are direct result of customer requests.
• Over 500 of those fixes focused on security.

This is diluted a bit because many of the fixes are for programs you don't use. Remember, Microsoft Office is now a huge suite of programs including many that are typically only used in large corporations with backend servers to support them and IT staff to implement and support them. Most of my small business clients don't use many of the programs getting important fixes in this service pack: Communicator 2007, Groove 2007, Infopath 2007, Project 2007, Visio 2007, and others. The fixes for our workhorses - Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook - are mostly bug fixes for very specific circumstances. The Office 2007 suite was very stable in its initial release, so it's possible that you've never run into a problem addressed by the service pack.

To be honest, much of the service pack is devoted to making the Office programs work smoothly for Windows Server 2008, due for release next year. Windows Server 2008 will be making a very big splash indeed, arguably more important for Microsoft's long-term plans than Windows Vista or Office. Even small businesses will be evaluating Server 2008 - it will be the foundation of the next version of Small Business Server.

Incremental improvements in a very large package. Sigh. Go ahead and install it when you have some free time.

Labels: Microsoft, Office, Outlook, software

posted by bruceb at 12/17/2007 12:50:00 AM | permalink

PLUGIN POSTSCRIPT

As if to emphasize my paranoia about plugins, yesterday I got a call from a client who has successfully used the YouSendIt Outlook plugin for months. It stopped working for no particular reason; when she pushed "Send" on a message with an oversized attachment, YouSendIt's dialog box would pop up and the message would be moved to YouSendIt's special Outbox folder, where it would sit, immobile, doing nothing. YouSendIt's progress bar showed that nothing was happening. A couple of times it taunted her by showing that 0.3% of the file had been uploaded before it went back to sleep.

I got on and did the usual troubleshooting: restart the computer; remove the plugin and reinstall it; run Outlook offline, then back online; remove the pending messages and start a new message; remove the plugin, upgrade to Outlook 2007, and reinstall the plugin; move slowly to be sure the hosted Exchange server was finished syncing at all times; light candles at the corners of a pentagram chalked around the computer and invoke the Elder Gods; use colorful language and interesting expletives; etc. Nothing made any difference. The attachments just wouldn't go to YouSendIt.

Nothing had changed on her computer. The YouSendIt plugin had worked the day before, and probably works today for thousands of satisfied users. It wouldn't surprise me if it starts working again for my client, again for no particular reason. This shouldn't dissuade you from trying it if it meets your needs. Instead, it's just one more cautionary tale that sometimes things just won't work.

Labels: file_sharing, Outlook, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/29/2007 12:02:00 PM | permalink

UNPLUGGING PLUGINS

We've become familiar with the slowdowns and crashes associated with programs and services that start up automatically when a computer is turned on. Now I'm running into problems caused by the links between programs - the "add-ins" or "add-ons" or "plugins" designed to make programs work together.

• Skype is a quirky but useful program for online phone calls. It installs a couple of add-ins into Internet Explorer - one, for example, identifies phone numbers on a web page and highlights them so a Skype call can be started with a single click. It took me a while to identify it as the reason that Internet Explorer suddenly started opening slowly and occasionally freezing; IE went back to normal when I disabled the Skype add-ins.
• Timeslips installs an Outlook add-in, regardless of whether you intend to exchange information between the two programs. It has caused odd behavior on a number of systems until it was disabled.
• Google finally announced its plan for online file storage; one of its features will be an add-in for Windows to make the Google storage appear in Windows Explorer as an integrated hard drive.
• Microsoft promotes dozens of Internet Explorer add-ons and there are many more powering the current wave of web services. Similarly, there's a huge market for software that enhances Outlook, mostly by installing add-ins to present integrated toolbars and menus.

Many of these are valuable additions to your computing experience, when considered singly. But I'll guarantee that we'll all be wrestling with odd problems as we accumulate more and more of these add-ins and they begin to fight with each other in unexpected ways. YouSendIt's plug-in for Outlook looks great but the chances for problems increase if five other programs are also checking outgoing Outlook messages for various things.

I'm adding these locations to my housekeeping stops, in addition to the various places to look for startup programs.

• Internet Explorer: click on Tools / Manage Add-Ons / Enable Or Disable Add-Ons.
• Outlook 2003: click on Tools / Options / Other / Advanced Options / COM Add-Ins.
• Outlook 2007: click on Tools / Trust Center / Add-Ins.

As with startup programs, don't be too quick to disable items - some of them will be unfamiliar and potentially important. But if you see something clearly unnecessary - references to programs that are uninstalled or wholly unused, for example - turn off the add-ins. You'll have fewer problems in the long run.

Labels: IE, Outlook, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 11/28/2007 12:27:00 AM | permalink

YOUSENDIT OUTLOOK PLUGIN

YouSendIt is one of the best-known services for moving large files from place to place - a persistent problem. I just learned about a way to set up Outlook to transmit large files through the YouSendIt service almost invisibly.

I've tried various things to dissuade people from attaching huge files to outgoing e-mail messages - coaching, gentle persistence, scolding, acts of violence, property destruction, mocking, cash payments, you name it. Nothing works. For all too many people, it's not enough for a web service to be easy - it simply can't require any change in habits at all.

YouSendIt has an Outlook plugin that comes close. Once installed, it intercepts an outgoing message with an oversized attachment after the "Send" button is pushed. The plugin moves the message to a special outbox, where the attachment is automatically uploaded to YouSendIt's servers. The message is then sent with a link to where the attachment can be downloaded. The recipient can download the file with a single click. Here's an FAQ with more details.

I love the idea. I've spoken to a couple of people who use it daily with no problems. (Secondhand anecdotes - your mileage may vary.) Theoretically it works with YouSendIt's free service but if you're considering it, you're probably going to use it enough to justify the cost of a "Pro" account ($9.99/month) to get enough bandwidth and storage space. A serious business user can pay $29.99/month for a "Business Plus" account that removes all advertisements from both ends of the process and lets the company logo appear on the YouSendIt pages seen by the recipient. Here's more info about the various levels of service from YouSendIt.

This might work well for busy lawyers and businesspeople who are dealing with huge PDFs and have no appetite for learning new tricks, as well as obviously being appealing for photographers and multimedia professionals. Good stuff!

Labels: file_sharing, Outlook, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/27/2007 12:13:00 AM | permalink

OUTLOOK 2007 CALENDAR PRINTING ASSISTANT
There's a remarkable world of applications designed to work with Microsoft Office. In fact, there's probably more programs included under the "Office" banner than you realized - the official name is "2007 Office System," with programs you've never heard of and deep connections to eight different specialized servers from Microsoft alone.

There are surprising add-ins for the basic programs as well. Random example: a client mentioned that Microsoft Outlook 2007 has a bug printing monthly calendars - weekend events spanning Saturday and Sunday don't print correctly. I couldn't find any workarounds and was about to suggest waiting for the next service pack, when I stumbled on the Outlook 2007 Calendar Printing Assistant. It's a free download that runs as a separate program and adds enormous flexibility to Outlook calendars, with templates for a variety of effects that aren't possible directly from Outlook. Among other things, it prints monthly calendars correctly.

You might want to spend some time looking through the Microsoft Office web site - it's a pretty extensive collection of downloads, clip art, and templates, and you might find something that makes your life easier.

Labels: Microsoft, Office, Outlook

posted by bruceb at 10/12/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

E-MAIL CONVERSATIONS
Google Mail sorts e-mail messages into "conversations" - basically, all the messages with the same subject line are stacked on top of each other. If a new message comes in, the entire stack moves to the top. You can immediately see the context for a message. Labeling and archiving happens to entire conversations.

Some people engage in lengthy exchanges with a group of correspondents with the same subject line used continuously. Those people love Google Mail's conversation view. They can't understand why anyone would use Outlook and display messages in chronological order.

(Personally, I find conversation view to be infuriating. My mind doesn't work that way, my e-mail flow doesn't happen that way, and at some deep level I just don't get it. I'm much more in tune with all the people who find this page when they look for a way to disable Google Mail's conversation view. It can't be turned off, by the way.)

Outlook 2003 and 2007 both permit folders to be arranged in conversations. (Click on View / Arrange By - weird, huh? It was there all along.)

The conversation arrangement in Outlook does not gather messages from all folders, and that makes it fairly useless. Your half of the conversation is stored in Sent Items a