HowTo-Outlook

You might have noticed it already; since this week HowTo-Outlook has a completely new Add-in section! Since its introduction, the add-in section basically hadn’t changed at all and the length and diversity of the list made it impractical to use.

Now, all the add-ins have been categorized and got background information. Aside from browsing the categories, you can search for add-ins now as well making it even easier to find the functionality you are looking for.

The main page of the add-in sections offers you quick links to popular add-ins and categories. In the featured section some interesting add-ins are highlighted from the large collection of add-ins in the database.

This was a huge undertaking which distracted from adding new content to the website over the past few weeks so I’ll apologize for that. New guides are still planned and already being worked on though, and the 3rd version of OutlookTools is being worked on hard as well. In the mean time, tips are still being added daily to the tip-blog though.

If you are encountering any issues with the new add-ins section, have any ideas about improvement, want to added to our add-in database, would like see a guide about a certain topic or anything else, feel free to contact me.

Update: The issues with Windows Desktop Search and the Outlook Connector icw the Google Apps Sync plugin have been solved and a new version has been released. No news have been posted about the other issues regarding Acrobat PDF Maker Toolbar and Apple’s Outlook Change Notifier

The Outlook team is reporting on their blog that there are issues running the Google Apps Sync plugin with Microsoft Office Outlook.

The first one is that it disables Windows Desktop Search from indexing Outlook. The second issue is that it disables the Microsoft Outlook Connector.

To recover from the first issue, you can change the following registry key;

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
Value name: PreventIndexingOutlook
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0

Uninstalling Google Apps Sync will also re-enable the indexing. If you are using Google Apps Sync version 1.0.22.1945 or lower, then you’ll have to first install the latest version of Google Apps Sync and then uninstall it again to recover (or use the registry fix).

The second issue is easier to overcome as the Outlook Connector will notify you of it with an error that some functionality will be disabled. By clicking “Yes” on the dialog when prompted, the Outlook Connector will reset the proper keys and will function correctly.

In addition to the issues reported by the Outlook team, Google also reports that Google Apps Sync disables the Acrobat PDF Maker Toolbar and Apple’s Outlook Change Notifier.

Microsoft and Google are working together on fixing the mentioned issues.

A new version of OutlookTools has been released. OutlookTools 2.2 has been released to comply with the changes in Office 2007 Service Pack 2. It is still compatible with previous versions of Outlook as well of course.

OutlookTools is a support and advanced settings tool for Microsoft Office Outlook created by HowTo-Outlook. It gives you easy access to Outlook settings and data folders and allows you to change settings that are normally only possible through the registry.

Main Program Features

• Easy access to Outlook settings and data folders
• Easy access to troubleshooting tools
• Start Outlook with a startup switch
• Clear the Most Recently Used lists
• Make the New Mail Alert stay up for longer than 30 seconds
• Unblock attachments

And note that OutlookTools is completely free!

Download: OutlookTools 2.2

The wait is over; Office 2007 Service Pack 2 has been released today. After the KB articles for Office 2007 Service Pack 2 have been made public already earlier today, the download links for Service Pack 2 are now active as well.

When it comes to Outlook, Service Pack 2 is very similar to the February 2009 cumulative update which was very much focused on improving Outlook’s responsiveness and stability. Some other notable changes and fixes in Service Pack 2;

• The option to select which pages you want to print is back.
• Many fixes to meetings and reminders behavior.
• “Change Calendar Time Zone” option is removed and now available as a separate download.
• Outlook shutdown improvements (quicker and less likely to hang when still being used by an addin or external application).
• Downloading from POP3 will download the newest messages first instead of the oldest.
• RSS Feeds behave more reliable (sometimes they caused duplicates or stopped updating).
• Improved reliability with SharePoint connections.

When you launch Outlook for the first time after installing Service Pack 2, you’ll get a dialog saying “Preparing Outlook for first use.” This could take a while depending on the size of your mailbox and the amount of items in it. This is because of some changes in the indexes of the pst-file to improve performance. Don’t worry, this is one time only and it won’t break compatibility with Outlook 2003 (or in case you are still using the ANSI format, it won’t break compatibility with Outlook XP/2002 or previous either).

Outlook will also show a new icon in the Notification Area if the outlook.exe process is still running when all Outlook windows are closed already;

In addition, this Service Pack is the first Office Service Pack that can be uninstalled without first completely uninstalling Office and then reinstalling it again. So if you find the need to uninstall it again for whatever reason, you can use this tool.

View: Description of 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 SP2
Download: 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2
Download: Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 2
Download: 2007 Office Service Pack 2 Changes (Excel sheet)

I’m sorry to disappoint the Trekkies and other enthusiasts about this news but of course this was an April Fool’s joke. However, only very little picture editing had to be done to achieve these results. Most of it can be achieved already by modifying your font settings in Windows and Outlook. You can choose a font other than Klingon as well if you like

Office 2007 is localized in 37 languages and offers proofing tools for even more languages. A new language will be added to this collecting; Klingon.

For the ones not familiar with that language; Klingon is a fictional language spoken in the Star Trek series and movies with Lt. Worf probably being the most famous Klingon. The Klingon Language Institute (KLI) is an independent organization that supports the studying of the language for well over 15 years now. The Klingon language itself celebrates its 25 year anniversary this year since actual grammar was developed for it for the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Support for it will be added as a Language Pack meaning that not only proofing support will be added but also the interface can be set to appear in Klingon. However, there are certain limitations to this since several sections of the interface rely on the language of Windows itself and its configured locale. You can see this for instance in the time notations (I used an English version of Windows XP with a Dutch locale on my test machine). Additionally, subjects and names cannot be written in Klingon as they are not included in the Unicode character set and to prevent potential encoding issues on mail servers. It is also funny to see that the product names (Microsoft Outlook/Exchange) are not translated either.

The Klingon Language Pack will come out together with the Office 2007 SP2 updates for the other language packs which are currently available already. Additional languages are expected as well.

Klingon is the first fictional language that will be supported in Office.
(Click on the pictures for a larger view)

For a limited time only, Collaborative Innovations is offering their Picture Attachments Wizard addin with a 50% discount when using the discount code; MSOUTLOOKINFO-WINTERSALE

This offer is valid until the end of the Winter (March 21).

Amongst others, the Picture Attachment Wizard addin will allow you to view picture attachments as thumbnails directly within the Outlook message or even view them all within a Slide Show. This takes away the need to open them one at a time. Continue reading: Exclusive Wintersale of Picture Attachments Wizard (50% discount)