Confessions of a Microsoft Consultant : Office

Office 2003 being put to bed

Daniel Oxley — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:38:00 GMT

Just a quick reminder to everyone that mainstream support for Microsoft Office 2003 ended on April 14th 2009, extended support will be available however until the 14th of January 2014. You can get more information from the following two pages:

On a similar note, Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007 is scheduled for release on the 28th of April 2009, more information is available here.

Job/Life/Reputation protector 2.0

Daniel Oxley — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:58:00 GMT

Back in January I posted some simple VBA code for adding an “are you sure?” type question to the Reply To All button in Outlook. Since then I have received a few suggestions for improving the code, one of the most common of which was to add to the question box the list of names that the mail will be sent to. So, as requested, you can find below the updated code!

Just place this code in a module in Outlook (you can get to the VBA editor by pressing ALT+F11) and then assign it a button on the toolbar:

Sub ReplyToAllGuard()

    On Error GoTo ReplyAllErr
    Dim myOlApp As Outlook.Application
    Dim myFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
    Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
    Dim ReplyMail As Outlook.MailItem
    Dim i As Integer

    Set myOlApp = Application
    Set myFolder = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder

    iCount = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Count

    For i = 1 To iCount

        Set myItem = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
        Set ReplyMail = myItem.ReplyAll

    Next i

    Dim mymsg As String
    Dim strRecipients As String
    Dim ReplyQ As Integer

    For Each strRec In ReplyMail.Recipients

        strRecipients = strRecipients & strRec & Chr(13)

    Next

    mymsg = "You just clicked Reply to All. Are you sure that this is what you want to do? The following recipients will receive this mail:" & _
            Chr(13) & Chr(13) & strRecipients

    ReplyQ = MsgBox(mymsg, vbYesNo, "Job/Life/Reputation protector")

    If ReplyQ = vbNo Then

        Set ReplyMail = Nothing
        Exit Sub

    Else

        myItem.UnRead = False
        ReplyMail.Display

    End If

ReplyAllErr:

    If Err.Number = -2147467259 Then

        MsgBox "The sender has prevented you from being able to reply to all recipients.", vbOKOnly, "Job/Life/Reputation protector"

    End If

    Exit Sub

End Sub

I also made one another change to the code in order to prevent receiving the error “A program is trying to access e-mail address information stored in Outlook”. This error is generated because Outlook has detected a possible security risk because some ‘unknown’ VBA code is trying to harvest the e-mail addresses from an e-mail; in this case though, we actually want it to!

Basically, instead of initiating a new Outlook session in memory, the code now reuses the existing instance of Outlook, thereby not generating a security problem as the message box is suggesting.

Edit: I amended the code to fix an oversight by me where the code did not clean up after itself! Also, the mail now marks itself as read after you reply - Thanks JP for pointing it out.

Just leave me alone! (for another 6 minutes and 52 seconds anyway)

Daniel Oxley — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:00:26 GMT

Ever get that feeling where you can't get anything done because the arrival of new e-mail keeps breaking your train of thought? Just as you get something clear in your head, the Outlook notifier pops up to tell you that you have a new email. Then, when you go check what the e-mail is, you see that it is not important and that what you previously had in your head is now gone. The solution for me was always to close Outlook until I had finished what I was trying to concentrate on, but the downside of this "solution" though is that I would often forget to re-open Outlook when I had finished meaning that I would never be reminded about any meetings, or that I would miss the arrival any important e-mails that needed immediate attention.

Well, fret no more! The Office Labs team has invented a Do Not Disturb button for Outlook!

Just select the amount of time that you don't want to be disturbed for, configure the priorities (if required), then press "Turn on Do Not Disturb"; it couldn't be simpler! Once activated, Outlook will temporarily pause it's checking for new e-mails on your Exchange server until the time you selected has expired. It can also prioritise your mails based on criteria that you can set, for example based on who the e-mail is from.

One feature that I think is pretty useful is that you can add a pause in your e-mail until the current meeting that you are in has finished (based on the appointments in your calendar). Nowadays people often take their laptops into meetings with them as it is a useful tool to take notes on, access documents or give presentations. However, if I am sitting with someone in a meeting room, I sometimes find it irritating when they stop talking mid-sentence in order to respond to an e-mail that they have just received. Also, if you are giving a presentation on your laptop via a projector, you can enable this option so that the Outlook notifier won't be telling every single person who is viewing the projector what your new e-mails are.

Get get it here: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/emailprioritizer/Pages/default.aspx. The program only works with Office 2007 at the moment, so you might want to check out the FAQ before you download and install it. Enjoy!

Closing time for the bar

Daniel Oxley — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:27:07 GMT

If you run Outlook 2007 on a Windows Server 2008 machine, then you may have noticed that your Outlook persistently shows that little yellow bar saying "Click here to enable Instant Search". Unfortunately, clicking on the bar does not enable Instant Search because the Operating System services are not installed by default in Windows Server 2008.

Now, you could go and install and enable all those services in order to have the Instant Search in Outlook, but if you are like me then you don't really want it because it is not a feature you especially use. I find the 'normal' search functionality to be more than adequate for me, but then I am not an Outlook power user that requires anything more. So, if you don't enable the extra OS services then you are stuck with that annoying bar... Or at least so I thought until I noticed a well-hidden option to remove it.

Just choose Options from the Tools menu, go to the Other tab and press the Advanced Options button. You'll get a new window appear, as the one shown below, which will allow you to uncheck the box next to "Show prompts to enable Instant Search".

Why was this option not included in the message that appears when you click on the yellow bar? Would it not be friendlier to say something like "Click *here* to enable Instant Search, or click *here* to remove this reminder"? That yellow bar used to drive me nuts as it was wasting space on my screen and I knew of no way to get rid of it!

Oh well, at least it is gone now.

Unravelling the Office Ribbon

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:31:00 GMT

At last! Microsoft has made public the super useful Search Commands tool for Microsoft Office 2007! It has been an internal dogfood tool for a pretty long time now and I find it invaluable. Basically, it adds an extra tab to the Office ribbon called "Search" from which you can search for a command rather than hunt around for it in the ribbon. This tool is great for people who are lost with the change from Office 2003 to Office 2007 and spend far too much time roaming around the ribbon tabs looking for the button that will insert a footnote into their document!

Just go to the new tab, type "footnote" in the search box and it will display the relevant results on the toolbar, along with the information about where the button has been moved to!

Go get it here: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

Office 2007 - Cool "Getting Started" stuff

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:29:00 GMT

I've just seen that some excellent add-ins are available for Office 2007 to help you get familiar with the new interface and all the great new features crammed inside, and best of all they are totally free! They work by adding an extra tab to the Office Ribbon called "Get Started" and they include things like an interactive guide, videos, demos, assisted help, and links to the Office page on www.microsoft.com. I have included some screenshots below, along with the download links.

Unfortunately, they have not been localised (as far as I can tell) so English is the only installable language.

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Downloads:

Word: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F587370C-FDAE-4EDE-B528-AC58031A5DFF&displaylang=en

Excel: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8A5AF9D7-08A7-41BA-8844-76BB94228957&displaylang=en

PowerPoint: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=831F0AE9-FC50-4074-96D3-D02FD98CB041&displaylang=en

Gulp! Did I really just send that to the entire company...?

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:47:00 GMT

I am sure that it has happened to everyone in some way or another. You receive an e-mail from a colleague and decide to reply with some harmless comment/joke/snide remark/insult/opinion* but without realising that you pressed the 'Reply To All' button, nor realising that HR and/or your boss were copied on the e-mail as well. Now you are thinking 'Oh dear' and a way to explain it all away as harmless and inconsequential; sound familiar? Well look no further as you can prevent it from ever happening again with just a few lines of code!

You can use the following VBA code in a module in Outlook (only tested in Outlook 2007) to request confirmation from you before using the 'Reply To All' button.

Sub ReplyToAllGuard()

        Dim mymsg As String
        Dim ReplyQ As Integer

        mymsg = "You just clicked Reply to All. Are you sure that this is what you want to do?"
        ReplyQ = MsgBox(mymsg, vbYesNo, "Job/Life/Reputation protector")

        If ReplyQ = vbNo Then

                Exit Sub

        Else

            Dim myOlApp As Outlook.Application
            Dim myFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
            Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
            Dim ReplyMail As Outlook.MailItem
            Dim i As Integer

            Set myOlApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
            Set myFolder = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
            iCount = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Count

            For i = 1 To iCount

                Set myItem = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)
                Set ReplyMail = myItem.ReplyAll
                ReplyMail.Display

            Next i

        End If

End Sub

Just create a new button on your toolbar (see the snapshot of my toolbar below) and link it to the code that you have added to your module. IIRC, there is also some code somewhere in the help files of Office that does a similar thing, but I could not find it quickly and the above code only took 2 minutes to write.

* delete as applicable

Free Office 2007 training!

Daniel Oxley — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:25:06 GMT

I am working on a project to deploy Windows Vista and Office 2007 at the moment in a large bank. The client is concerned that once the rollout commences all hell will break loose because his users will not be able to find anything in Office 20007 because of the new UI and the Ribbon (In his words. I actually find the Ribbon to be quite intuitive). So, he asked me if we had free training resources available that he can start to use with all his staff to try and make the transition as smooth as possible. I'd said that I'd look into it but I suspected that there was nothing that was detailed enough for him without any cost. Then a couple of hours later I saw a blog post by Dave Northey that provided links to an abundance of free Office 2007 training! Perfect!

I've reproduced all the links here, plus a link to the original post.

Web-based interactive command reference guides

Interactive: Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide

Interactive: PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007 command reference guide

Interactive: Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 command reference guide

Interactive: Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 command reference guide

Interactive: Access 2003 to Access 2007 command reference guide

Training courses

Up to speed with Outlook 2007

Up to speed with Access 2007

Up to speed with Excel 2007

Up to speed with Word 2007