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HOME TOPICS ABOUT ME Windows tips: Outlook is the most impressive program Microsoft has produced in a long time. It can be both delightful and frustrating. Find out what Microsoft might not tell you about getting the best from Outlook. Part 2. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Enhancements for OutlookMay 25, 1997 By Al Fasoldt Copyright © 1997, The Syracuse Newspapers Microsoft was true to form when it created Outlook, the central program in Office 97. Like so many other Microsoft programs, Outlook was not quite ready for prime time when it was released. Fortunately, Microsoft is learning how to fix both its bad habits and its unfinished software. The company has released a minor patch for Outlook that you can download today, and has announced a major fix (for Outlook and the rest of Office 97) that will be available in July. (For more information on the major upgrade, go to http://www.microsoft.com/Office/Office97/OpenLetter.htm.) While you're fixing Outlook, be sure to download the Outlook Rules Wizard, which gives all Outlook users a simple way of filtering everything that arrives -- deleting junk mail automatically, routing mail from specified users to various locations, popping up custom alerts and much more. The minor fix and the Rules Wizard are both free. The patch that's available now fixes a few bugs and oversights in the way Outlook handles Internet mail. The patched version works better on office networks, is able to handle multiple e-mail accounts properly, does not force the encoding of mail in a format known as RTF and fixes a lot of small problems. You can download the Outlook Internet Mail Enhancement Patch and the Rules Wizard from a link at http://www.microsoft.com/outlook/. Because of an oddity in the way Outlook works after it is patched, you should change one of Outlook's settings if you access the Internet through a dialup connection. Open the Tools menu, choose Services, click on "Internet Mail," then "Properties," then "Connection." Choose "I use a LAN connection." Then save those settings, open the Tools menu again, choose Options, and click on the Internet E-mail tab. At the bottom of the form, make sure there is a checkmark next to "Check for new messages" and fill in the time interval. (Yes, what I'm saying is that you should tell Outlook you access the Internet through a Local Area Network even if you use your modem to make a dialup connection. This fixes a bug that the patch itself introduces.) For full explanations of what the Internet mail patch does, go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://www.microsoft.com/kb/ and read the following articles:
For explanations of problems with the patch itself, look for these articles:
The Rules Wizard needs little explanation. Some things Microsoft does well, and the Rules Wizard is one of them. Setting up rules for what should happen when mail arrives is easy, and you can have any number of rules active at one time. You can even turn off rules that aren't needed without losing them, in case you want to use them again later. I use one rule I created to automatically delete junk mail. Another one automatically sends off a form letter, and I have about a dozen others that deal with attachments, inform me of mail from my sons or daughter, tell me that my wife has sent me a note across our home-office network, and so on. Even if you use the Rules Wizard for the most basic tasks -- alerting you with a customized message when new mail arrives -- you'll appreciate what Microsoft's programmers have done. (A note to users of Microsoft's Exchange Server: The Rules Wizard's functions are already available, in a simplified form, in the Exchange Server. You may want to try the Rules Wizard anyway, just to see how you can add to functions you already have.) |