There are some nice new sample add-ins for Outlook 2007 Beta 2 from MSDN at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ms778811(office.12).aspx which demonstrate the additional power available to developers in the new product. If you're running the Beta 2 version...

Yes, it's true! Even though email now rules the communication world Outlook provides some speedy shortcuts to allow you to send a letter to your contacts (you remember; a letter is one of those things you put in an envelope with an overpriced stamp and...

Anyone with a Windows Mobile 5 device (SmartPhone or PDA) will have seen how incredibly useful Contact pictures become. Each time you receive an email from someone on your contact list for whom you have a contact picture, a thumbnail of their photo will...

I was recently asked to share some thoughts on how organisations can help their employees cope with their email overload and become better email citizens. In response I compiled the '20 ideas' below as food for thought for messaging administrators and...

I come across this so often when meeting with customers and friends. Some people continue to use both a paper-based personal information manager (or a 'little black book' as some like to call it) and Outlook even though this is clearly highly inefficient...

...and Frost is all over the news . So now you know what to do on Monday. Stay at home and get some work done! Have a nice weekend.

On a related subject to my previous post ( Saving emails without Attachments ) one other Microsoft Outlook attachment challenge I frequently come across is how best to respond to an email which asks me to review and make changes to an enclosed file. If...

Jeanie D asks: "Do you know of any method for saving an email without its attachment? Something simpler than my current work-around of Reply, address the reply to myself, send it, and save that "copy" (which loses the benefit of the "from" field)?" ...

As my regular reader knows (if he's still conscious), I'm a big fan of Microsoft Outlook's CTRL+SHIFT+V shortcut which calls up the 'Move to Folder' dialog box. I use this a gazillion times each day to convert emails to tasks and calendar items using...

Are you one of those people who like to print out emails? Nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as you only print them out for good reasons and not because you're too bone-idle to read them from the screen! Here's how to get more out of printing...

If you use Personal Folders (.pst files) in Outlook, most of the time you simply add more stuff making them bigger. But if you delete items from a Personal Folder file to save storage space, you may not realise there are 2 very important things to do...

Did you know that you can change any folder in Outlook to display a web home page by default instead of its normal contents? For example you could change a mail folder to show a web page relating to a work project. The big downside of doing this is that...

I had the privilege of watching the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as a guest of Vodafone/Ferrari yesterday. It was a great day with excellent hospitality, some star appearances, oh, and a bit of racing thrown in as well. The race itself was a bit...

Eileen recently posted about the ALT+1, ALT+2 etc shortcuts you can use to change the number of days that your Outlook calendar shows. That's a neat shortcut. One of my favourite related tips is to head into Tools > Options and click Calendar Options...

You can customise a bucketful of things in Microsoft Word, like shortcut keys and autotext entries. Trouble is, while it's easy to create shortcut keys, it's much harder to remember them. Thankfully, help is at hand. Word makes it really easy to make...

Careful formatting of your email messages can make a world of difference to the impact they have on their recipients. THING TO DO: One simple but underused technique is to centre align your main call to action on the page This simple technique can...

Keith Combs' blog points out a nice link that gives an overview of some of the goodies coming in Windows Vista. I'm not sure what that guy's doing with his left arm. Contrary to my first suspicion though he does have one; as you'll discover if you don...

By default, Microsoft Outlook opens to the folder view you specify in the top setting in the Tools > Options > Other tab > Advanced Options... window. But you can also open Outlook to whichever folder you like by adding shortcuts to places...

Microsoft recently invited employees to submit their favourite Windows Live Local map collections for the UK. Here are some of my favourites: UK Premiership Football Stadia (figure out how far from your seat to the hot dog stand) UK Hedge Mazes...

As a follow-up to my earlier post about message expiry settings, you might also like to customise your Inbox view to alert you to expired messages you have received. Here's what I do: In Outlook go to the Inbox Either right-click on an empty...

Like fruit, communication is best when it's fresh. While you can't quite add a 'best before date' to your emails you can set a date after which they will expire (kind of like telling your words how long they have to live). This is handy if, for example...

Great news for fast-fingered slow-brained writers everywhere: the 2007 Microsoft Office System features a new contextual spelling feature that detects many of the glaring errors that traditional spell checkers miss. This could be the cure I've been looking...

Just released and shipping now: brand new free tools to help customers transfer data from Lotus Notes applications to Windows SharePoint Services. The new tools comprise the Application Transporter a new Application Analyzer and improved Exchange-Lotus...

Quick tip: save time inputting new contacts from the same company into Outlook. Open one of your existing contacts from that company then choosing the New Contact from Same Company option in the Actions menu. Outlook creates a new contact for you, pre...

Advanced users of Outlook make good use of Tasks to manage their day to day 'to do' list. As I work through my tasks I often find that I need to email someone about the task I'm working on. There's a natty shortcut in Outlook that can speed up this process...