outlook

Few PC glitches are more frustrating and more difficult to troubleshoot than your e-mail program failing to connect to a mail server. Recently, a family member told me about the enervating problems he experienced trying to figure out why his new Vista notebook wouldn't link to his office's mail server.

"I have Office 2007. Our firm uses Exchange Server 2003. I was having the damnedest time getting Outlook on my new laptop to sync with the server away from the office. I was at this for hours and hours reading through a bunch of 'fixes' until I … Read more

I miss my PalmPilot. Not so much the way it kept breaking every 12 months, but the effortless way it synchronized my to-do lists with Outlook.

Ever since trading my Palm-powered Centro for my iPhone, I've lived without a decent task-management solution. That's because, for better or worse, I'm entrenched in Outlook, and the iPhone can't sync with the program's task list (eye roll).

For a while there I was reasonably happy with Chapura's KeyTasks, a decent enough task manager that delivered the "missing sync" between iPhone and Outlook. But wouldn't … Read more

In a move to marry its old-school Office product with the newer trends of the Net, Microsoft issued beta software Wednesday that brings social-network information into Outlook.

The product, called Outlook Social Connector, has been available in the Office 2010 beta. According to the Outlook Social Connector download site, the new version works with Outlook 2003 and 2007 and connects with social-network partners, which wasn't the case with the earlier version.

Outlook Social Connector will let people see updates from a person's social-network contacts. LinkedIn announced in November that it would become the first actual partner in the Microsoft program. … Read more

Microsoft is tying a ribbon around the next version of Office for Mac.

Due out later this year, Office for Mac 2011 will sport a version of the "ribbon" user interface that has adorned the PC version since Office 2007, Microsoft said Thursday. The new Office will also add support for Microsoft's new browser-based Office Web Apps as well as the first Mac OS X version of Outlook.

Microsoft had said last year that it was working on a new Mac version that would bring Outlook back to the Mac. The company says that version should indeed … Read more

Software developer 4Team specializes in add-in tools for Microsoft's Office and Outlook suites. Their ShareContacts lets users share and synchronize their all-important contacts folders and subfolders in Outlook, online or offline, without needing a server. You can specify which contacts to share with different individuals or groups, such as clients or project teams. You can customize shared forms and include imported data. Shared folders are automatically updated on each user's computer when you update your data. You can share just what you want with whom, all with a few mouse clicks. ShareContacts is also handy for keeping your … Read more

Software publisher Technocom offers numerous extraction utilities designed to seek and recover data from a wide range of applications. Their Email Extractor Outlook v3.2 pulls e-mail addresses from Microsoft Outlook, the most common e-mail client among business and professional users. It can extract e-mail messages from .pst files in all Outlook folders, including Inbox, Drafts, and Contacts. It can save the information it extracts as .csv and text files for wide compatibility with other software and platforms. It automates and simplifies what could be a frustrating, time-consuming chore, collecting and editing e-mail addresses from among what might be thousands … Read more

You never know when you're going to need an Outlook message that was archived long ago. In a comment on a previous post about moving Outlook mail to local folders, Cliff Brandt asked how to move a file from the archive to one of his main Outlook folders.

Doing so is a breeze, but keep in mind, an archive relocates only Outlook data of a specific age and is intended primarily to keep your Outlook.pst file a manageable size. A backup copies all your Outlook data and allows you to restore all your messages, contacts, tasks, and calendar … Read more

IT executives are feeling optimistic about a possible sector recovery this year, according to a new survey from CompTIA.

Following a wave of well-deserved pessimism that lasted most of 2009, executives were more upbeat when surveyed by the tech trade association in December. The new outlook prompted the rating for CompTIA's third IT Industry Business Confidence Index to jump 6.3 points to 56.6 out of 100.

With a rating higher than 50, the index now marks the first time positive sentiments outshone negative ones. The first two indexes from July and September of last year both scored … Read more

IQ medialabs' InLoox is a professional business utility that integrates sophisticated project management capabilities directly into Microsoft Outlook, the business world's standard e-mail client. It supports and enhances standard business-oriented Outlook features such as project planning, scheduling, and monitoring. Where it shines is in project management. It improves your ability to manage project resources, documents, and budgets with time, cost, and activity recording and enhanced team coordination capabilities.

Calling Outlook an "e-mail client" is a bit of an understatement since it's essential for planning as well as managing contacts and projects. Calling InLoox an Outlook Add-In … Read more