The UsefulTechnology Blog

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7/17/2020

Tips and Tactics for a Better Digital Life

The Mysterious World of Extend Mode in Word and Outlook

The Extend Mode in Microsoft Word is an artefact of the early computing era before the mouse was...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/24/2006

My Mouse has a Dirty Bottom

What is that stuff that keeps building up on my mouse's bottom? No matter how many times I clean it...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/21/2006

Changing Meeting Attendees' Type

That is, without doubt, the most boring and uninspiring title that I've ever come up with for a blog...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/20/2006

Publishing Your Calendar for the World to See

Earlier this week I blogged about Outlook 2007's new 'Send a Calendar via Email' feature. An even...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/19/2006

Deciphering the Gobbledegook

I enjoy following Matthew Stibbe's blog at badlanguage.net. Matthew used to run a computer gaming...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/18/2006

Send a Calendar via Email in Outlook 2007

I'm busy testing the latest dogfood version of the new 2007 Microsoft Office system. As I journey...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/17/2006

Genial Presentations by Genii

If, like me, you regularly find yourself on your hind legs in front of an audience wondering how to...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/14/2006

Chunking up your time in Outlook

The default calendar view in the Microsoft Outlook shows the day broken up into 30 minute chunks....

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/14/2006

More on The Best Tip Ever...

Jonny_Day has posted a great follow-up comment to my Best Tip Ever posting in which he suggests a...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/13/2006

An Autoschediastic Posting

Education Corner: Today's word is AUTOSCHEDIASTIC. This is an adjective used to describe something...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/13/2006

Showing two Timezones in Outlook

If you travel a lot or work internationally it's very easily to tie your brain up in knots trying to...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/12/2006

The End Of The World As We Know It

Well, not quite. But I did just stumble completely by chance on a website that tells me that today...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/11/2006

The Joys of International Working

If you've ever had the "pleasure" of working for an international company the size of Microsoft,...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/08/2006

Go on, see if you can make it bigger

There are some things in life that we all wish would just be that little bit bigger. Now, I can't...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/07/2006

Get back, get back to where you once belonged

Every so often a tip comes along that you really want to memorise. And The Beatles would have called...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/06/2006

Are you ready for Vista?

Want to know if your PC is up to the job of running Windows Vista? Or should you start saving your...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 07/04/2006

Why Skype is Bad (part 2)

I received a lot of communication since my last blog posting in which I explained how the Skype...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/29/2006

Why Skype is Bad

I've used Skype. And I like it. It has a really simple user interface and does what it promises very...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/27/2006

The Best Microsoft Outlook Tip in the World... ever!

In this, my final posting as Exchange/Outlook Product Manager for the UK, I would like to share with...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/23/2006

New job? Start afresh!

I'm moving to a new role at Microsoft on Monday. Which, of course, means new things to learn, new...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/23/2006

Do you often send the same emails?

If you routinely send similar emails to the same people (like a sales report every morning) you can...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/22/2006

Creative Commons Licensing comes to Microsoft Office

Useful Technology news for Microsoft Office users who create documents that they share with others....

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/22/2006

Windows Live Messenger - just launched!

Windows Live Messenger, the brilliant successor to MSN Messenger, is now available for download....

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/22/2006

Crabby on the Rampage

My Outlook 2007 RSS Feed brings me news today that the Crabby Office Lady is on her soapbox again...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/21/2006

Getting Outlook help from Newsgroups

While Outlook 2007 will provide some fantastic new features that enable you to view RSS feeds...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/21/2006

Sample Add-Ins for Outlook 2007 Beta 2

There are some nice new sample add-ins for Outlook 2007 Beta 2 from MSDN at...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/20/2006

Send a letter from Outlook

Yes, it's true! Even though email now rules the communication world Outlook provides some speedy...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/20/2006

Adding contact pictures to Outlook

Anyone with a Windows Mobile 5 device (SmartPhone or PDA) will have seen how incredibly useful...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/19/2006

Coping with Email Overload: 20 ideas

I was recently asked to share some thoughts on how organisations can help their employees cope with...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/19/2006

It's Friday...

...and Frost is all over the news. So now you know what to do on Monday. Stay at home and get some...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/16/2006

Replying to an email with modified attachments

On a related subject to my previous post (Saving emails without Attachments) one other Microsoft...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/16/2006

Saving emails without attachments

Jeanie D asks: "Do you know of any method for saving an email without its attachment? Something...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/16/2006

Move or copy - you decide!

As my regular reader knows (if he's still conscious), I'm a big fan of Microsoft Outlook's...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/15/2006

Stylish Printing from Outlook

Are you one of those people who like to print out emails? Nothing wrong with that, of course, as...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/14/2006

How to reduce the size of your Outlook Personal Folders

If you use Personal Folders (.pst files) in Outlook, most of the time you simply add more stuff...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/14/2006

Bringing websites into Outlook

Did you know that you can change any folder in Outlook to display a web home page by default instead...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/13/2006

Useful Technology for Sport Spectators

I had the privilege of watching the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as a guest of Vodafone/Ferrari...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/12/2006

How to never miss a weekend party

Eileen recently posted about the ALT+1, ALT+2 etc shortcuts you can use to change the number of days...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/09/2006

Print, Don't Forget

You can customise a bucketful of things in Microsoft Word, like shortcut keys and autotext entries....

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/09/2006

Give impact to the important bits in your email

Careful formatting of your email messages can make a world of difference to the impact they have on...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/09/2006

See Windows Vista

Keith Combs' blog points out a nice link that gives an overview of some of the goodies coming in...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/08/2006

Opening Outlook in the folder you want

By default, Microsoft Outlook opens to the folder view you specify in the top setting in the Tools...

Author: Allister_Frost Date: 06/08/2006

More Windows Live Local collections for the UK

Microsoft recently invited employees to submit their favourite Windows Live Local map collections...