Microsoft Outlook

Outlook FAQ * Helpful Outlook Links * Good Outlook Books

0. The Basics
1. Storage Types
2. Common Problems
3. Inbox
4. Calendar
5. Contacts
6. Journal
7. Tasks
8. Public Folders
9. Miscellaneous

The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007 - ORDER NOW!

You can now pre-order your copy of Ben M. Schorr's "The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007" from the American Bar Association. CLICK HERE If you pre-order now you can save 15% off the cover price!

There are other Outlook FAQs and you'll find some of them listed in the Helpful Links section, but this is another one. Hopefully I'll answer some questions you didn't see elsewhere. It's just getting started so it'll take a while to build up; thanks for your patience!

What to discuss Microsoft Outlook? Visit our Outlook Discussion Forum or visit the official Microsoft Support Newsgroups.

0. The Basics

0.1 How do I find the Outlook Newsgroups?

A1: Start your newsreader software, such as Outlook Express, and point them to the news.microsoft.com server. There is no login required.

A2: http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp

0.2 How do I post a question?

A: Just start a new post and ask away. Be sure to include all of the pertinent information such as what operating system you're running, if you have an Exchange Server, exactly what it is that you're trying to do, exactly what (if any) error message you're getting, what version of Outlook you're using and how you have it installed. There are a lot of different systems and it's hard to know how to answer the question if all you say is "My Outlook isn't working, why?"

0.3 Is Outlook the same as Outlook Express?

No. The unfortunately named Outlook Express is just a mail and news reader. It does no contacts or calendaring and the two programs share very little in common.

0.4 What if I have an Outlook Express question?

Post it in the Outlook Express newsgroups. For example:

microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress

You can also find good Outlook Express information here: http://www.tomsterdam.com

0.5 What is the current version of Outlook?

Outlook 2003 SP2

0.6 When is the next version of Outlook coming?

The date hasn't been announced but Outlook 2007 is already very much in the works. You can read our Outlook 2007 Special Report here for a preview. You should probably expect it in the second half of 2006 some time.

1. Storage Types

1.1 What is a .PST and why do some folks say it's bad?

A1: A .PST file is a Personal Folders File. It's a file that contains all of the mail, contacts, calendar, task and other Outlook items and is typically located on the local hard drive of the user. It's bad because it has a tendency to get corrupted easily; especially as it approaches its maximum size of 2 gigabytes.

Outlook 2003 removes the 2GB maximum size IF your PST file is in Unicode format.

A2: Why .PSTs are bad.

1.2 Where is my .PST file? I can't find it?

Do a search on your computer (Start | Find | Files or Folders) and make sure that you tell the search to also search hidden folders. In Windows XP the .PST file is stored in a hidden folder under your Documents & Settings\%userprofile% directory.

1.3 I copied my .PST file to a CD and took it to my home computer but the home computer says it can't read it.

Outlook requires Read & Write access to the PST files. Copy the PST file to your C: drive, make sure the Read-Only property is turned off (right-click the PST file and choose Properties) and then try to access it again.

2. Common Problems

2.1 Where's my data? It's gone!

A1: Do you have a filter applied? What view are you using (see: View | Current View) to see your folder? If the view is "Unread Messages" for example, any message marked as read will appear to have disappeared. Reset the view to "Messages" or something innocuous like that.

A2: Are you using AutoArchive and if so did you check to see if the AutoArchive took your data items to an archive file?

2.2 Why didn't AutoArchive work?

AutoArchive works off the modified date of items, not the received or created date. If you moved an item, for example, from one folder to another the modified date will change. That's a common reason why AutoArchive might appear not to work.

2.3 When I try to send a message I get an "interface not registered" error!

See if this KB article helps.

3. Inbox

3.1 How do I separate items received from different e-mail accounts?

Create a separate folder(s) for the other account(s) then create Rules in the Rules Wizard (Tools | Rules Wizard) that looks in the headers of the received messages (not "Sent To" that won't be reliable) for the internet mail address of that other account and moves the messages that have it to that sub-folder.

3.2 I have a search folder that I created, but I want to change the folders it searches. Do I have to delete it and start over?

Nope. Right-click it and choose Customize This Search Folder. You'll get a dialog box that gives you the ability to browse the list of folders in your store and select which ones you want to search.

3.3 Does Outlook have to be open for it to check mail?

Yes, unless you use a third-party utility. You can find some here: http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail.htm

3.4 How do I configure Outlook to use [Yahoo/Hotmail]?

You have to have the premium (paid) account with them to use Outlook as a client. The free service doesn't offer POP3 service which is what you need to make Outlook work.

4. Calendar

4.1 How do I create automatic resource scheduling for conference rooms?

If you have an Exchange Server and Outlook 2000 or later: Create a mailbox for the conference room. After you create the mailbox for the resource you need to log into it one time, from a workstation with a profile that uses that mailbox, in order to "initialize" it.

While you're there set the frequency of Free/Busy updates in Tools | Options
| Calendar Options. You may want to set it to be more frequently than the
default, which I seem to recall is 15 minutes.

You should also, while you're there, set the Tools | Options | Calendar
Options | Resource Scheduling to automatically process the meeting requests.

4.2 Trick: See multiple, non-contiguous, days side by side in Outlook.

Make sure you're in 1-Day view.
Hold down the CTRL key and click each of the days you wish to see in the Date Navigator. They'll appear side-by-side-by-side in the calendar page.

4.3 I'm trying to schedule something with a coworker for [6 months from now]. I can see his schedule up through 2 months from now but after that it's just crossed lines. Why?

Because the Outlook default is to only publish 2 months of Free/Busy information. Go to Tools | Options | Calendar Options | Free/Busy....and change the number of months it publishes.

5. Contacts

The contacts folder is the main address book for Outlook where you can store all of your contact information.

5.1 I need to be able to separate my contacts into groups, what's the best way?

There are two basic ways to do it.

1. Create subfolders and store your contacts in the appropriate subfolders. This can be a o.k. way to do it if each contact will only appear in one subfolder or if you need to grant permissions to other users to access these subfolders and you want them to be isolated from each other.

2. Use categories. Assign each contact to one or more categories and then create custom views to allow you to see the different categories in various ways. This is usually the best solution to this problem.

6. Journal

6.01 What is the Journal for?

It's for keeping logs of activities. I use it to keep logs of phone calls I make and receive and sometimes meetings. Some people use it to log activities made with documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, faxes and all kinds of other contacts.

6.02 Is there a way to quickly start a new Journal entry?

Yes, just press CTRL+SHIFT+J from anywhere within Outlook and a new entry will be created with the current date/time already entered. I usually do exactly that whenever my phone rings so I can keep the notes of the call.

7. Tasks

7.01 Can I quickly create a new Task item?

Yes, just press CTRL+SHIFT+K to start a blank new task item from anywhere within Outlook.

7.1 How can I quickly make a Task item out of an e-mail?

Just drag and drop the e-mail message to the Tasks folder. It will start a new task item for you and populate the task with the e-mail content.

8. Public Folders

8.1 Can I set a public calendar folder to be my default calendar?

No. The best you can hope for there is to use a 3rd-party ulility to synchronize your private calendar with the public one. You can find some sync utilities here.

8.2 How can I get public folders to appear on the proper NavPane tab in Outlook 2003? I don't want to have to navigate to the Folder List every time I need to look in a public folder.

Right-click the public folder and add it to your Public Folder Favorites. It should then appear on the proper NavPane tab depending upon the type of folder it is. (Contacts, Calendar, etc.)

9. Misc.

9.1 I [created an automatic response/turned on the Out of Office Assistant] but it doesn't work when I get mail from the Internet?

Check your Exchange Server, in the Internet Mail Connector (Exchange 5.5) or Virtual SMTP server (Exchange 2000 or later) it is probably configured not to allow automatic replies to the Internet.

9.1.2 Can I have Outlook send an Out of Office message every time a message is received; even to the same sender multiple times?

No, and you wouldn't want to. If they send a message to you and your out-of-office autoresponds and maybe they have an autoresponder too then their autoresponder will respond to your autoresponse. Then your out-of-office will send again and their autoresponder will autorespond again and your out-of-office will....and pretty soon your mailbox (and theirs) is filling up with autoresponses and both servers are bogged down under this silly game of e-mail tennis. That's called a mail loop and it's bad.

If you really insist upon having an autoresponder that replies every time use the Rules Wizard instead of Out-of-Office but I strongly advise against it.

9.2 Do I have to run an Exchange Server for the Junk E-mail filter in Outlook 2003 to work?

No, but if you do run an Exchange Server you have to use Outlook in cached mode. (Tools | E-mail Accounts | View or Change... | Exchange) or use a personal folders file (PST) as your default message store. (See 1.1). If you don't have an Exchange Server then you ARE using a PST file as your default message store and the Junk Mail filter will work fine as long as you have it enabled.

If you're not using Exchange you may want to check out SpamBayes for spam blocking: http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/.

9.3 I added a bunch of spammers addresses to my "Blocked Senders" list but I still get a lot of spam?

Blocking by sender's address is a fairly poor way to block spam anyhow -- most spammers spoof (fake) the address they're sending from and they change the from address they're spoofing more often than something that changes a lot. You can make a marginal dent in spam with blocked senders lists but it's a pretty small dent. For better results turn on the Outlook Junk E-mail filtering or look at SpamBayes (see 9.2 above).

9.4 My signature is double-spaced! How can I fix that?

Go to Tools | Options | Mail Format | Signatures. Select the Signature and click Edit. Click Advanced Edit. At the end of each line hit delete, that will move the succeeding line up, then press CTRL+ENTER to move it back down. Do that for each line, then save and exit the advanced editor and OK your way back out.

9.5 When I click the "Type a Contact to Find" box it gives me a list of names I've searched before. How can I clean that out?

See this article: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/mru.htm

Helpful Links

Slipstick Systems - a great Outlook and Exchange site.
Microsoft's Outlook Site - The official Outlook home.
Outlook-Tips - Full of Outlook tips, as the name implies.
Wikipedia - Microsoft Outlook
Office For Lawyers - Microsoft Outlook information with a slant towards Attorneys.

Good Outlook Books

Easy Microsoft Outlook 2000
Microsoft Outlook 2000 E-Mail and Fax Guide - by Sue Mosher
Microsoft Outlook Programming, Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers and Power Users - by Sue Mosher

Back to Home

Hit Counter

FactPlace