I've decided to move my blog to a new home on Windows Live Spaces. I hope you'll move with me. My new blog URL is http://usefultechnologyblog.spaces.live.com/ . To subscribe to the new RSS feed, simply click this link: http://usefultechnologyblog.spaces.live.com/feed.rss . Thanks for being with...

I've been playing with the new Soapbox on MSN Video service. It's pretty cool. I never really got into YouTube but I can see how useful it will be to be able to restrict access to my videos on Soapbox based on my existing Windows Live Messenger contact lists. I've uploaded 5 of my Outlook 2003 blogcasts...

My former boss, Bruce Lynn , asked me this weekend how he could locate all the large (>200kb) entries in his Outlook calendar so he could delete them to free up some space in his mailstore. He couldn't figure out how to do this but knew it must be easy. If you find your mailstore is running short...

Bloggers know how important it is to include relevant hyperlinks in their posts ;-) They can come in pretty handy in emails too. Instead of pasting a lengthy and ugly URL into an email you can add a hyperlink to any part of your email text. So, instead of this: The UsefulTechnology blog ( http...

Sometimes even the most disciplined time management gurus cannot cope with sheer volume of emails flooding into their Outlook Inbox. And while it's good practice to keep your Inbox as empty as possible ( converting all those 'things to do' into tasks ) there are some smaller jobs that are best left in...

Here at Microsoft, all full time employees have to sign up to personal commitments for their job. At the end of each financial year these are reviewed in a Performance Review on which all sorts of things depend including bonuses and promotion prospects. Some companies have similar schemes called MBOs...

Outlook has always provided an amazing amount of customisation, and it's never been better than in Outlook 2007. One area that I've personally chosen to customise is the default Inbox view. The default view now shows both the new colour category and the flag status fields against each item in the Inbox...

[POST UPDATED - SEE COMMENTS FOR THE LATEST!] Those with ageing memories have long enjoyed the powerful search capabilities in Outlook using add-ons like Lookout or Windows Desktop Search. I'm loving the latest beta of Outlook 2007 (I'm running the Beta 2 Technical Refresh) and the search seems quicker...

While I sit waiting for the 2007 Office system Beta 2 Technical Refresh to finish installing, I thought I'd share this blog posting of some of the new icon sets included in Build 4228 of the Beta. Of course, there's no guarantee that these icons will make it into the final build ;-) but it's nice to...

This isn't a new webpage, but a question from a colleague reminded me that I really should mention this on the UsefulTechnology blog. For the definitive view of every icon in Outlook 2003 check out this page . Now, what's the betting on Blake being the first to do something similar for the 2007 release...

It's Friday. And Steve Clayton writes today about how his Out of Office message has taken on a personality all of its own. Mine has too. We all get so many "OOFs" that the very least you can do is inject a little life into your own message. In the spirit of sharing, my most recent OOF is below. I received...

I have my annual performance review in half an hour. This reminds me of a great little non-technical tip that may help you get even more value out of Microsoft Outlook. Every time you receive an email thanking or praising you for some work that you have done, save it in a special folder called (something...

Slipstick features a comprehensive article detailing the latest known issues that people encounter while testing Outlook 2007 Beta 2. The most common problems I hear about are caused by incompatible add-ins which can be disabled in the new Tools > Trust Center window. If Outlook crashes while you...

If you still don't know your RSS from your elbow it's about time you made use of this very useful techno gizmo. Eileen Brown tells all in this blog posting from many moons ago. And life's even simpler if you're using the shiny new Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 or Outlook 2007 as they have a free built...

The Extend Mode in Microsoft Word is an artefact of the early computing era before the mouse was invented (and the natural evolution of that gunky stuff that builds up on your mouse's bottom ). Few computer users make use of this feature today because they've learned how to scoot around their documents...

That is, without doubt, the most boring and uninspiring title that I've ever come up with for a blog entry. Sorry. I just couldn't think of a better way of describing this fairly ordinary, but still rather useful, tip. As you may know, when inviting people to a meeting you can decide whether they...

Earlier this week I blogged about Outlook 2007's new 'Send a Calendar via Email' feature. An even more powerful calendar feature allows you to Publish your Calendar to the Microsoft Office Online Beta* service. After you first use this feature Outlook 2007 will upload as much (or as little) of your calendar...

I'm busy testing the latest dogfood version of the new 2007 Microsoft Office system. As I journey ever deeper into the new applications in the system I'm uncovering some really neat features. One of my favourites is Outlook 2007's new Send a Calendar via Email feature which allows you to, er, well, send...

The default calendar view in the Microsoft Outlook shows the day broken up into 30 minute chunks. This make is really easy to add appointments of 30, 60, 90 etc minutes duration but don't feel constrained by this convention. For example, it's good practice to set a one hour meeting to run for, say, 50...

Jonny_Day has posted a great follow-up comment to my Best Tip Ever posting in which he suggests a neat way to use Search Folders in conjunction with the Conversation View. Check it out here . That's one of the things I love about Microsoft Outlook. There's so much functionality in the application...

If you travel a lot or work internationally it's very easily to tie your brain up in knots trying to make sense of different time zones. Outlook has a useful feature that allows you to show two different time zones on your calendar so you always know when your meetings will take place. It looks a bit...

There are some things in life that we all wish would just be that little bit bigger. Now, I can't help you in every department but I know I can satisfy your text enlargement requirements with this natty little Microsoft Word keyboard shortcut. So, make sure you have a pair of nice warm hands, and let...

Every so often a tip comes along that you really want to memorise. And The Beatles would have called this tip the 'Get Back To Where You Once Belonged" Tip. While editing a document in Microsoft Word (or while composing an email using Word as your editor) you can "get back" to where you last edited...

In this, my final posting as Exchange/Outlook Product Manager for the UK, I would like to share with you the most powerful productivity tool in Outlook: the delete key . I'll also share a simple workflow you can use right away to help maintain an empty Inbox while staying on top of important information...

I'm moving to a new role at Microsoft on Monday. Which, of course, means new things to learn, new tasks to work on and new people to get to know. Because I'll no longer need to email many of my existing contacts, now is a great time to spring clean my Outlook world by clearing out my address history...