gHacks technology news » microsoft outlook

Microsoft Outlook Temp Cleaner

Martin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:57:54 +0000

All versions of Microsoft Outlook use a temp folder for email attachments. This temp folder can grow in size and pose a security risk if others have access to the computer system. The Microsoft Outlook Temp Cleaner is a software program for the Windows operating system that can perform the following actions:

Open the Microsoft Outlook temp folder
Display the size of the folder
Delete all files in the folder

All of these actions can be initiated after installation of the application on supported Windows operating systems (which are Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 as well as Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2).

The program supports several command line parameters as well which can be used to initiate actions directly. Supported are:

-clearfolder to delete all files located in the temp folder
-openfolder to open the folder
-foldersize to display the size of the Outlook temp folder

These can be used either with a startup shortcut or the Windows Task Scheduler to clean the Microsoft Outlook temp folder regularly without further user interaction.

Outlook Temp Cleaner is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2010, Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002/XP, Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 to be installed on the computer system. The program can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Tags: Email, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook attachments, outlook temp cleaner

Microsoft Research ESL Assistant

Martin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:48:53 +0000

People who learned English as their second language usually make different mistakes than English natives. This can be attributed to a number of factors with the differences between their native language and English being a major one. Computer programs that correct spelling errors are nowadays provided for most operating systems. They usually use a dictionary and compare the words written by a user against the words in the dictionary. Only a few programs can check for grammatical errors and those that do are usually not sophisticated enough to be of great help.

Microsoft Research has created an online tool called the ESL Assistant which aims to correct errors that are typical for ESL (English as a Second Language) users. The tool is provided as a web form and as a plugin for Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft Research ESL Assistant has been developed in Silverlight which needs to be installed to access the website. The website itself uses a basic layout. The top form is used to copy English text into it. The online tool will then check the text for errors and display these with suggestions on how to fix them in the lower form. Errors are underlined in the first form and it is possible to use the controls to go forward or backward. It is also possible to click on an underlined word or phrase to go directly to its suggestions.

Not every suggestion offered by ESL Assistant is correct. A check on Microsoft’s Bing search engine displays a percentage ratio for all suggested terms which could be an indicator aiding in picking the right phrase. The final decision has to be made by the user.

The Microsoft Outlook add-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007. It will place a new button in the Outlook taskbar which will open the ESL Assistant website when it is clicked. The email message is automatically analyzed and corrections are displayed.

The ESL Assistant website contains the web form and the Microsoft Outlook add-in download.

Tags: esl, esl assistant, microsoft outlook, microsoft research, outlook add-in

Microsoft Outlook Inbox Management Plugin

Martin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:29:23 +0000

Microsoft Outlook is a popular desktop email program especially in the business sector thanks to its excellent blend of email and calendar functionality but also to its networking capabilities. Plugins for Microsoft Outlook on the other hand are not that easy to find. One of the better plugins for Outlook is the Clear Context add-on which comes as a personal and professional edition. The personal edition has a limited functionality (when compared to the pro version) but is completely free of charge.

Clear Context can be best described as an inbox management plugin for Microsoft Outlook. It’s main functionality can be divided into three key areas: Email management, attachment management and managing the inbox or other folders of Outlook.

The email management functionality is all about organizing the inbox and filing email messages. Clear Context provides filing suggestions, one click filing possibilities, highlighting of the most important messages and a threaded email conversation view.

Attachment management on the other hand makes it possible to view all images and attachments from a selected folder without having to browse through individual emails to find a specific attachment. This does give the user a chance to save multiple attachments found in multiple emails at once.

A notification manager can be used to move so called notification emails (like new Twitter followers or Facebook friend requests) from the inbox into other folders to unclutter the inbox.

Clear Context is installed as the pro version. It will revert to the personal version automatically after 30 days. Users who do not want to wait that long can go into ClearContext > about and enter the registraion username and key personalv4 to enable the personal edition right away after installation.

Tags: clear context, Email, inbox management, microsoft outlook, microsoft outlook plugin, outlook, outlook plugin

Schedule Emails In Microsoft Outlook

Martin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:33:07 +0000

There are quite a few reasons for wanting to send an email message at a later time. It can be emails that cover a new product release that should not be received before a specific date or emails that are important – like birthday emails for example – that need to be send on an actual day and not before that. Microsoft Outlook comes with a set of tools to schedule emails easily. The only problem that users might experience when scheduling emails in desktop clients is that the client needs to be running around the time the email has been schedule for to be actually send out to the recipients.

That’s in contrast to online email services which are always connected to the Internet and can send out emails at any time providing they offer the ability to schedule emails which the most popular (Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail) do not at this time. There are however third party services that can be used in this case.

Microsoft Outlook on the other hand makes it dead simple to schedule emails. All the user needs to do is to create a new email message, switch to the Options menu at the top of the screen and click on the delay delivery button under More Options in the ribbon.

This will open a new menu with the option to define a delivery data and time. Microsoft Outlook will not send out the email before the specified date. It will send out the email as soon as possible once the date and time is reached which is usually instantly if the computer is on and Outlook open.

The menu needs to be closed afterwards. The email can now be written as usual and send out. Outlook will recognize the date the email is scheduled and put it in the Outbox for the time being.

Tags: Email, emails, microsoft, microsoft outlook, outlook delivery options, outlook email, schedule emails

Microsoft Outlook Plugin Reply All With Attachments

Martin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:37:38 +0000

A great Outlook feature is that it can be extended with plugins. Much like the Mozilla Thunderbird email client or the Firefox web browser with the exception that there is no central plugin repository and no comfortable way of managing the plugins.

Reply All With Attachments is a specialized plugin for Microsoft Outlook that has been designed for users who regularly include attachments that were attached to email messages that they received. The add-on has been tested with Outlook 2007 but chance is that it will also function with previous and future versions of the email client.

It has a few additional requirements especially the VSTO 4.0 runtime. The Reply All With Attachments plugin can then be installed by double-clicking the downloaded file. Users should ensure that Outlook is closed during the installation. A new entry called reply all with attachments should appear under the custom actions button in the main Microsoft Outlook menu.

A click on the new entry will automatically open a new email with all attachments of the original email attached. All recipients that have been listed in the original email will also be added as recipients in the new email. Reply All With Attachments is available at the developer’s homepage.

Tags: desktop email, Email, microsof outlook plugin, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook plugin

Microsoft Outlook Facebook Add-On

Martin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:27:15 +0000

The very same developer that is offering the Microsoft Outlook Twitter Add-on has created another add-on for Microsoft Outlook that is integrating Facebook in the email client. FBLook is available for Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 running on Windows 2000 or later. It integrates some of the functionality of Facebook in Outlook including the ability to update the status from within the email client, receiving status updates from friends and seeing the number of new requests (including Friend Requests, Messages, Invites, Pokes)

The installation of the Facebook add-on for Outlook takes only a few seconds and requires no user interaction at all. New buttons are added to the Outlook toolbar that become visible on the next start of the email client.

It is obviously required to log into Facebook before information can be retrieved and send to the online service. This is done by clicking on the Login to Facebook button in Outlook. It will spawn a new browser window or tab that is displaying the Facebook login page. The user has to log in and confirm the log in in Outlook to be able to use the controls in the email client.

From then on its possible to use all the features provided by the Microsoft Outlook add-on. One interesting option provided is to update the Facebook status using the music track played in either Windows Media Player or iTunes.

Tags: Email, email client, facebook, facebook add-on, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook 2003, outlook 2007, outlook add-on

Advanced Sorting In Microsoft Outlook

Martin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:58:27 +0000

Microsoft Outlook users can sort emails and other messages in the email client by clicking on one of the column titles at the top. That’s a pretty common way of sorting emails and offered in other email clients as well. What many Outlook users do not know is that their email client is also offering advanced sorting possibilities.

This can be easily achieved by pressing the Shift key and at least two title columns. It is for example possible to sort by sender and date, title and date or sender and subject. The only important thing to remember is to press the shift key while doing it to get the desired effect.

Outlook will display the up and down sorting icons (up or down arrow) in the columns that have been chosen by the user to make it easier to understand how the emails were sorted. The first selected column will be the primary sort order, the second obviously the secondary with the possibility to add additional columns as well.

Here is a practical example. Lets say you receive lots of message from one email sender. You can sort the emails in Outlook by sender which would display the most recent emails from that sender on the top. If you wanted to sort these emails by size you would simply press shift and then click on the from and size column titles so that the largest emails would be displayed on top from each sender (another click on the size column would sort them with the lowest on top as it would reverse the sort order).

This sorting technique works not only with emails in Outlook but also RSS feeds and pretty much everything else that is displayed in tables in the email client.

Tags: Email, microsoft, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook 2007, outlook emails, outlook sort, outlook tips

Microsoft Outlook Twitter Add-on

Martin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:57:56 +0000

It is not seldom these days that popular web services get integrated with other popular applications or services to offer a more comfortable way of working with both services. Twitter is one of the prime candidates for that integration as it is highly popular in these days. The TwInbox add-on for Microsoft Outlook integrates Twitter in the email client giving the user the opportunity to work with Twitter directly in the mail client.

TwInBox, which was formerly known as OutTwit, is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 running on Windows XP or Windows Vista with the likelihood that it will also work in Windows 7. Installation is a breeze. All that needs to be done is to run the setup (while Outlook is closed). The TwInbox add-on will automatically be displayed in the Microsoft Outlook toolbar on the next start of the email client.

The first thing a new user needs to do is to get into the options and enter the Twitter username and password to link these to the Outlook account. A new Outlook folder for Twitter messages has to be created in the same interface as well. There are other options like displaying notifications whenever a new Twitter message arrives.

The Outlook add-on allows a user to perform common Twitter tasks like updating the Twitter status, receiving new messages or replying to messages. There are also quite a few options that could be very interesting for some Twitter users including the ability to handle Twitter messages like emails with the option to archive, manage, group and search them. There are also options to track keywords, upload and post pictures and files that have been send to Outlook, automatically sort messages in sender folders or to assign custom folders and categories to new messages. There is also a graph available that is displaying Twitter usage statistics.

TwInbox (via Cybernetnews) can be downloaded directly from the developer’s homepage.

Tags: email client, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook twitter, twitter, twitter add-on, twitter software

Microsoft Outlook Mail Attachment Recovery

Martin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:03:11 +0000

Most Outlook users think that an email attachment is gone when they delete it in the email client. Only a few know that Microsoft Outlook saves attachments that are considered safe in a temporary Internet files subfolder from where they can be accessed as well if the temporary folder has not been cleared in the meantime. Users can therefor open the temporary Internet files on their computer system and locate the temporary Outlook folder to recover Microsoft Outlook attachments.

OLK Finder is a software program that has been designed to provide a more comfortable solution. The application will automatically scan for the temporary Outlook folder and list all attachments that have been stored in that folder in its interface.

The portable application can be started from any location. The Microsoft Outlook version has to be selected at the top so that the contents are displayed. Available are all Outlook versions from Outlook 97 to Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. Outlook Finder tries to find the location of the temporary Outlook attachments automatically after selecting the Outlook version. All attachments that have been found are displayed in the lower part of the program’s interface.

It is then possible to select some or all of the files that are listed in the interface. A double-click will launch the selected file immediately. A right-click will display the usual Windows Explorer context menu with options to copy or send the selected files.

Outlook Finder is ideal if you want to restore Microsoft Outlook mail attachments that you have received recently. Users who regularly clear the Internet cache might not be able to use the program to its fullest extent though which means that their only solution are file recovery programs.

Tags: attachment recovery, Email, mail attachment recovery, microsoft outlook, microsoft outlook mail, outlook finder, outlook mail, portable software, windows software

Fix Outlook 2010

Martin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:35:35 +0000

Microsoft’s plans to use the Word HTML rendering engine to display HTML emails in the upcoming email software program Microsoft Outlook 2010 has created quite a few protest websites that try to convince Microsoft to change their plans. Outlook 2010 is still in the beta stage and Microsoft is encouraging users to submit feedback to improve the email client before the release candidate and final release are released.

The main problem that arises when using the Word HTML rendering engine is that Microsoft Outlook 2010 will not support web standards like CSS or background images. This could very well mean that Outlook 2010 users will be stuck with broken HTML emails for the next years after the release. Below is an image that is showing a HTML email in both Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2010:

Microsoft Outlook 2000 was using the Internet Explorer rendering engine to display HTML emails. Microsoft mentions benefits that Outlook users gain by using Microsoft Word as their email authoring tool which include automatic styles and templates and SmartArt among other benefits. It would also not be in the best interest performance wise to use a different rendering engine for the display of HTML emails. (via Email Standards)

The initiators of the Fix Outlook protest website are making use of Twitter to rally protesters from all over the world. Every Twitter user that mentions fixoutlook.org in their tweets will automatically partake in the protest. The avatar icons of users will be displayed on the Fix Outlook website. Currently more than 15500 users have already joined the protest.

Tags: Email, email client, html, html emails, microsoft outlook, outlook 2000, outlook 2010

Automated Email Archiving and Monitoring In Microsoft Outlook

Martin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:35:03 +0000

It is sometimes important to monitor and archive emails, especially in a business environment. One example would be that a supervisor wants a copy of every email that an employee sends to customers to keep track on everything. Probably the easiest way of achieving this is to add the supervisor as a cc or bcc recipient in the emails. This is supported by all modern email clients be they web based such as Gmail, Microsoft Live Mail and Yahoo Mail or desktop based such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook.

The Outlook Auto BCC / CC add-in has been designed specifically for Microsoft Outlook. It allows the installation of automatic bcc and cc recipients in email messages based on rules. Possibilities include setting a rul for all outgoing emails from all email accounts, messages send to specific email addresses or messages that match specific phrases in the subject or attachment.

It is furthermore possible to create exceptions to rules so that certain email addresses and emails do not get archived or monitored.

This is an excellent solution for email archiving as well as it it unproblematic to send all emails to another email account for backup purposes. It would for example be possible to create a backup Gmail account and add that new email account as a BCC recipient for all email messages that are send from Microsoft Outlook. Another interesting option is to configure the Microsoft Outlook add-in so that only emails that contain specific keywords or phrases are send to another recipient.

The main benefit of this email archiving and monitoring solution is that the user behind the monitor does not has to remember to add a BCC or CC recipient as the Outlook add-in manages all aspects of this automatically.

Auto BCC / CC is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Outlook XP (2002) and Outlook 2000.

Tags: bcc, cc, Email, email archiving, email monitoring, gmail, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook 2007

Microsoft Outlook Mail Time Zone Plugin

Martin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:34:11 +0000

Time zones play an important role in email conversations. Not so when mailing a friend or colleague in the same region but when mailing someone who is living in another region of the world. Expecting a direct response from someone when it’s late at night their location is one of the problems that can occur.

It does not really matter if an online email service such as Gmail or a desktop email client such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook are used; Most, probably all, do not display information about the recipients timezone in the email client.

Sender’s Time Zone (via Technospot) for Microsoft Outlook changes that for Microsoft Outlook as it displays information about a sender’s time zone when replying to emails.

The plugin for Microsoft Outlook requires no configuration after the installation. It will automatically display the sender’s current time and the time zone difference in hours ahead or behind when replying to email messages in the email program.

Sender’s Time Zone is a plugin for Microsoft Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Outlook XP (2002) and Outlook 2000.

Tags: desktop email, Email, email client, microsoft outlook, microsoft outlook plugin, outlook, outlook plugin, time zone

Microsoft Outlook Macro To Save Images In Emails

Martin — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:14:55 +0000

Microsoft Outlook handles images embedded in HTML emails differently than other email clients. Users who try to save these images realize that they can only be saved as bmp images and not in the original format that they were send in. The only way to return the image in its original format is to convert it after saving it to the computer system.

That’s however not a practical solution in most cases. Robert Sparnaaij outlined another solution. The Microsoft Outlook macro that he provides on his website can be used to save all images of an email in their original format. His macro adds two combined options to Microsoft Outlook: Saving all images of an email in their original format.

Outlook users have to create the macro by themselves. The process is outlined on the author’s homepage and should not take more than a few minutes even for inexperienced users. The macro will be added as a button to the Microsoft Outlook toolbar from where it can be pressed to open a save dialog window which will save all images of the active email in their original format on the computer system. The macro is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007.

Tags: Email, email client, microsoft outlook, microsoft outlook macro, outlook, outlook email, outlook macro

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Essentials

Martin — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:59:09 +0000

Microsoft Outlook 2007 essentials is an add-on for Microsoft’s email client that adds three distinct features to it. The Microsoft Outlook 2007 add-on requires the .net Framework 3.5 which has to be installed on the computer system before the add-on can be installed.

Two of the features added by the Outlook add-on are reminders that check each email message when the user clicks the send button in the email program. The first reminder will check if a subject line has been added to the email. If that is not the case it will display a small popup window notifying the user of the missing subject line. The user then has the option to cancel sending the email to go back into editing mode and add a subject line or send the email anyway.

The second reminder will look for keywords in the email body that suggest that an attachment should have been added to the email message. If it finds a keyword but not attachment it will notify the user as well.

The last feature that is added by the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Essentials add-in is the ability to print a selection of the email message. This is done by right-clicking an email, selecting Outlook Essentials Mail Viewer, selecting the part of the email to be printed and right-clicking again to print the selection.

The Microsoft Outlook add-in might be useful for some users who either want to be extra careful to never forget to add attachments and subject lines to their email messages or who want to have the option to print a selection of emails.

Tags: Email, email client, microsoft outlook, microsoft outlook 2007, outlook 2007, outlook 2007 essentials, outlook email

Microsoft Outlook Mail Statistics

Martin — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:26:23 +0000

Outlook Stats View is another interesting application by popular software developer Nirsoft. The software program scans the Microsoft Outlook mailbox and will display statistics about every contact found. The email analyzer will scan incoming and outgoing emails and display various statistics that are computed during the scan. It will add every user to the usual table form that is part of almost every Nirsoft application. Each row includes information about incoming and outgoing email messages sent and received by the user, the total email message size, the email client used by each user and the time range that the emails were send and received. The outgoing emails are further divided into to, cc, bcc and total.

Outlook Stats View is compatible with any version of Microsoft Outlook and every NT based Microsoft operating system since Windows 2000 including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003/2008. The program can scan the Outlook mailbox automatically if only one Outlook profile on the computer system exists on the computer system and if that profile is not password protected. Microsoft Outlook users with multiple profiles or password protected profiles need to start Outlook with that profile activated before they run Outlook Stats View.

Scanning time depends largely on the size of the Outlook mailbox, it usually ranges from mere seconds to several minutes. Options to export the mail statistics to html are provided.

Tags: Email, microsoft outlook, microsoft outlook mail, nirsoft, outlook, outlook mail, portable software, windows software

Microsoft Outlook Folder Search Add-On

Martin — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:20:56 +0000

Hana Outlook Folder Search is a Microsoft Outlook add-on that provides additional folder search functionality and management. Outlook users who work with dozens or even hundreds of folders will appreciate the add-on the most while users with only a handful might not at all. It is a specialized Outlook add-on that provides in interface outside of Microsoft Outlook. It is best used next to Outlook to take full advantage of the possibilities it offers. It provides instant search as you type results and finds folder names in seconds. Please note that this is restricted to folder names, it will not find emails at all.

A double-click on a folder in the Outlook add-on will open it directly in a new Microsoft Outlook window. It is furthermore possible to copy mails to the folders in the Outlook add-on which might prove to be a quicker way for users with lots of folders. This can be done by right-clicking selected emails in Outlook and selecting “Move Selected email to this folde” or by using the shortcut [Ctrl V]. Folders can be added to favorites for quick access.

The second interesting option that is provided by Hana Outlook Folder Search is to remove email duplicates from selected folders. The add-on can automatically check for duplicate emails. This is done by checking the message-id headers and comparing it to emails that have been received in the last 48 hours.

The Microsoft Outlook add-on is definitely not an add-on for every Outlook user. The duplicate mail detection might make it interesting for users that do not use the add-on’s main search feature.

Tags: Email, hana outlook folder search, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook add-on

Microsoft Outlook Performance Reports Generator

Martin — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:50:59 +0000

Many companies and organizations use Microsoft Outlook as a central communications platform. Employees can use it to send and receive emails, read news and create appointments and meetings in the calendar. The Microsoft Outlook Performance Reports Generator is a small program for the Windows operating system that can create performance based reports based on several criteria. The program is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003 and the latest Microsoft Outlook 2007 and will run on all Microsoft operating systems since Windows 98.

The Outlook Performance Reports Generator can generate four different reports:

Message amounts
Message bandwidth
Sender
Recipient

Each report is combined with a selection of Microsoft Outlook folders and a time range and time interval. It is for example possible to create reports for the total message bandwidth of the inbox folder of a selected month, year or week and display the results by hour or days of week.

Message amounts and message bandwidth take all messages into consideration while the sender and recipient reports only outgoing or incoming messages. Some possible scenarios where reports might make sense are the following:

Calculating the average bandwidth requirements per week / month / year
Displaying the hours of the day and days with the least and highest number of incoming emails
Comparing the incoming to outgoing email ratio

Outlook Performance Reports Generator can be downloaded directly from the developer’s homepage.

Tags: Email, microsoft, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook performance reports generator, outlook reports

Kontact: The Swiss Army Knife of PIMs

Jack Wallen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:51:42 +0000

If you’ve ever used a PIM (Personal Information Manager) you know how important they can be for both business and personal organization. Most users know Microsoft Outlook. Most Linux users know Evolution. But there is another PIM out there that has more to offer than any other PIM available. That PIM? Kontact.

Kontact is the KDE entry in the groupware client race. It is the proverbial tortoise in a race with one giant hare, but as the race continues, Kontact improves and evolves at a faster pace than any of its competition. Does that mean Kontact is ready to usurp your current groupware client? Probably not, but it is definately worth a long, hard look. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the features it offers.

Tools and features

Kontact has the usual suspects when it comes to groupware clients: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and todos. But along with these tools are a few surprises you might not expect but will gladly welcome.

Summary: Overview of everything happening in your Kontact including: Upcoming events, new email, news feeds, etc.
Notes: An infinite book of digital sticky notes. You can also drag and drop your notes into emails!
News: Collect your RSS feeds in one place.
KitchenSync: The universal syncing component.
Journal: Keep your own digital journal within the confines of Kontact.
Time Tracker: Keep track of time spent on projects and work.

Kontact can also communicate with many groupware servers. The list includes:

Kolab

SuSE Linux OpenExchange Server

* Support for Exchange is only partially implimented at this point.

Novell Groupwise

Obviously the single most important groupware server work must be done on Exchange. Once Kontact can fully commnicate with an Exchange server, Kontact will find far more support in the Enterprise level.

As far as features are concerned, the list is impressive. Outside of the usual groupware client features, Kontact also includes:

Mail

GnuPG support built in
Out of office replies
Favorites folder
Certificate manager
Anti virus/Anti spam/Filters managers built in

Calendar

Publish calendars
Timeline/Time spent/What’s next views

Contacts

Distribution lists
Crypto settings for individual contacts
Custom fields

Why you should use Kontact

If you are looking for a groupware client that offers more than the standard features, enables you to keep your life well organized (and Thunderbird isn’t enough for you) then Kontact is for you. You will enjoy the stability Kontact offers as well as the outstanding anti-spam tool (SpamAssassin) and anti-virus tool (ClamAV).

Why you should not use Kontact

Figure 1

If you need full Exchange support look the other way. It will be a while before the Kontact team manages to pull off full support for the most-deployed groupware server. You should also avoid Kontact if you prefer a less-is-more approach to your tools. You will understand completely when you first open up Kontact and see it’s “tools aplenty approach” (As you can see in Figure 1 to the left.).

Final Thoughts

I have used Kontact on and off for a number of years. I’ve seen it grow from an unstable, barely usable afterthought to a full-fledge, business-ready groupware client. Until recently I wouldn’t have recommended Kontact to anyone but the biggest KDE afficionados. Now, however, I think most people will find Kontact on par with most groupware clients. Outside of the lack of Exchange support (which is a deal breaker for many) I can’t see a reason not to give Kontact a try.

Tags: Evolution, kontact, Linux, microsoft outlook, personal information manager, pim

Two Options To Sync Google Calendar With Microsoft Outlook

Martin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:27:28 +0000

If you use both Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook’s calendar function you are probably looking for an easy and automatic way to sync the calendars to access all information all the time without having to switch between calendars. The easiest way to achieve this is to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook.

Both options are compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 and the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating system.

1. Using Google Calendar Sync To sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook

Google Calendar Sync is an official software program by Google that has to run in the background to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Download and install Google Calendar Sync from the download link above. The syncing options can then be configured in the main interface which looks like the following:

Enter the Google email address and password for the account that you want to sync Microsoft Outlook calendar with. Syncing options are provided in the same interface. It is possible to select a 2-way sync which will sync new and changed calendar entries both way or single-way from either Microsoft Outlook to Google Calendar or vice verse. Lastly the time between syncs can be defined in minutes. The application will run in the background on the computer system. It will use about 10 Megabytes of computer memory while running in the background.

A right-click on the icon can be used to access the options and to initiate a manual syncing process.

2. Remote Calendars To sync Google Calendar With Microsoft Outlook

Remote Calendars is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that can be used to subscribe, reload and delete a generic remote iCalendar. Google Calendar is actually offering access to iCalendar in the options on their website. The process would look like the following:

Install Remote Calendar
Go To Google Calendar and copy the private ical link. (Select the calendar in the drop down box in the start page, click on Settings, then again on the name under Calendar in the opening page. It should display an entry called Private Address: at the bottom and next to it the iCal icon. Right-click the icon and select copy link from the options.
Open Microsoft Outlook. A general options screen should show up that can be used to edit the options of the add-in. Close the options once you have finished configuring them.
You should notice a new toolbar on top that is displaying various options, one of them is to add a new ical calendar.
Click that option and paste the ical link into the Remote calendar’s url.

Please note that this option will only add Google Calendar entries into Microsoft Outlook. If you want to sync the items both ways use Google Calendar Sync instead.

Tags: Google, google calendar, google calendar sync, microsoft outlook, outlook calendar, outlook sync, remote calendar sync, sync calendars

Microsoft Outlook Attachment Extractor

Martin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:41:38 +0000

Email attachments can make up a majority of space required by email clients depending on the amount and size of attachments that are received on a regular basis. It’s usually a good idea to remove old attachments regularly from the email program to free up space that might be needed elsewhere.

The Microsoft Outlook Attachment Extractor is a small software program for the Windows operating system that can extract and remove email attachments from selected Microsoft Outlook folders. Extracting in this case simply means to save the attachments of a selected Outlook folder to another location on the computer system. Removing on the other hand means that the attachments will get unlinked from the email messages which will free up the space on the hard drive that the Outlook mails and profiles reside on.

This does not have to mean that the attachment cannot be opened from the email anymore. It is possible to remove the attachment from the Outlook folder completely, to replace it with a link pointing to the new location of the files or to replace it with a text reference in the email attachment.

Several options are available to configure the process in detail. It is for example possible to only process attachments that have a specific extension or those that are larger than a certain file size. The destination folder for the attachments can be selected as well as rules on how to process already existing files.

The Outlook Attachment Remover can also be used to add the removed attachments to the email messages again at a later point if the need arises.

Tags: Email, email-attachments, extract attachments, microsoft email, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook attachment, outlook files

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