Exchange Hosting News: 123Together Hosted Exchange

Is it possible to change the calendar meeting time reminder so that it isn’t always fifteen minutes?

All appointments made in your calendar have the default reminder warning time of 15 minutes.  This means that 15 minutes before every item on your calendar comes due, a reminder notice will pop up on your screen.

When setting up the meeting you have the option to choose from a predetermined list of reminder times but what if you want to have a distant reminder, say one that reminds you to begin prep for the meeting weeks in advance.

You can easily set any other reminder period you want, not just what is listed in the dropdown. If you want to set the reminder to 11 minutes, type 11m in the reminder field. If you want 2 days, type in 2d in the field. 4 weeks, type in4w.
When changing the time period make sure you type in the right letter value:  m for minutes, d for days, and w for weeks.

In Outlook 2003, there was a field in the lower right called Contacts which you could use to link a contact to an item which would then show up on the Activities tab. In Outlook 2007, it is hidden by default.

To make it visible, go to Tools > Options > Contacts Options button and add a check to the option under Contact linking to show it on forms.

If you are one of those people that always need to have the latest version of software, if half the software installed on your machine is in beta, or if you are just considering upgrading (or already upgraded) then this post is for you.

You may experience performance problems when you are working with items in a large .pst file or in a large .ost file in Outlook 2007. Short version is that if you have large PST or OST files, Outlook hangs, sometimes 10-12 seconds and may reduce your computer’s speed. The cause is “To accommodate new features, Outlook 2007 introduced a new data structure for .pst and .ost files. In this new data structure, the frequency of writing data to the hard disk increases as the number of items in the .pst or .ost files increases.”

More info at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932086

Did you know that you can customize your views in specific folders? Outlook can help you organize the contents of folders to best suit your needs. For example, consider view options within the Tasks folder:

1. Click on the Tasks folder on the left hand panel of Outlook.
2. Click on the View menu then Arrange By > Current View > Customize Current View.
3. The pop-up menu allows you to change the font or group by fields.
4. You can change the default view to another view type: Table, Timeline, Card, Day/Week/Month or Icon.
5. You can also define a new custom view. Click on View > Arrange By > Current View > Define View.
6. In the Custom View Organizer box, select New.
7. Create a new view by naming it and selecting the default settings. Click Accept and your new view is applied to your Tasks folder!

Do your emails contain tasks you need to keep track of and accomplish?  Outlook can help you instantly create appointments and tasks from these emails. Here’s how:
1. In your Inbox, left click on an email that contains a task and drag it to the Tasks or Calendar tab on the left hand panel of Outlook.
2.  A new task or appointment is automatically created in the body of the selected email. You can edit the task details by filling out due dates, priorities, etc.
3.  Click Save and Close in the upper left corner of the email.

Is your Inbox getting full and overcrowded? Do you have trouble finding important emails quickly? Outlook can help organize your Inbox by automatically placing incoming emails in specific folders. Here’s how:
1. In your Inbox, right click on an email that you would like to be automatically placed into a folder.
2. From the menu, select Create Rule.
3. In the Create Rule Box, select the conditions for your rule so that it will apply to the sender, wording, or recipient of the email.
4. Below the conditions options, select Move e-mail to a folder.
5. Click on Select Folder to specify where emails with your selected conditions should be automatically stored. Click OK.
6. A Success box will pop up. Select Run this rule now to apply your rule to other messages already in your inbox. Or, click OK and your rule will apply to all incoming emails in the future.

Increase your knowledge of Outlook and improve your email efficiency! Whether you’re new to Outlook or an experienced user, here are some quick Outlook tips geared towards your experience level:

Automatically Sort Incoming Emails

Is your Inbox getting full and overcrowded? Do you have trouble finding important emails quickly? Outlook can help organize your Inbox by automatically placing incoming emails in specific folders. Here’s how:

1. In your Inbox, right click on an email that you would like to be automatically placed into a folder.
2. From the menu, select Create Rule.
3. In the Create Rule Box, select the conditions for your rule so that it will apply to the sender, wording, or recipient of the email.
4. Below the conditions options, select Move e-mail to a folder.
5. Click on Select Folder to specify where emails with your selected conditions should be automatically stored. Click OK.
6. A Success box will pop up. Select Run this rule now to apply your rule to other messages already in your inbox. Or, click OK and your rule will apply to all incoming emails in the future.

Create Tasks from Emails

Do your emails contain tasks you need to keep track of and accomplish? Outlook can help you instantly create appointments and tasks from these emails. Here’s how:

1. In your Inbox, left click on an email that contains a task and drag it to the Tasks or Calendar tab on the left hand panel of Outlook.
2. A new task or appointment is automatically created in the body of the selected email. You can edit the task details by filling out due dates, priorities, etc.
3. Click Save and Close in the upper left corner of the email.

Customize Folder Views

Did you know that you can customize your views in specific folders? Outlook can help you organize the contents of folders to best suit your needs. For example, consider view options within the Tasks folder:

1. Click on the Tasks folder on the left hand panel of Outlook.
2. Click on the View menu then Arrange By > Current View > Customize Current View.
3. The pop-up menu allows you to change the font or group by fields.
4. You can change the default view to another view type: Table, Timeline, Card, Day/Week/Month or Icon.
5. You can also define a new custom view. Click on View > Arrange By > Current View > Define View.
6. In the Custom View Organizer box, select New.
7. Create a new view by naming it and selecting the default settings. Click Accept and your new view is applied to your Tasks folder!