I’ve had a lot of questions lately wondering why the Tasks in the Hotmail account aren’t syncing to Outlook. Tasks are not supported by the Outlook Connector at this time, only contacts and email sync – that’s why the Task folder in the Hotmail data file says “(this computer only)”.                     ... (more...)

A popular request is the ability for Outlook to remember what calendars were selected when you last used Outlook and to reselect them at startup. The good news: Outlook 2007 and 2010 should remember the selected Calendars. The bad news: it only remembers when you “start in” the Inbox or non-calendar folder. If the calendar module opens at start, only the default calendar is selected. This includes... (more...)

In Outlook 2007 and older, users could open an item then go to File, Properties and view a dialog that included archive options, importance and sensitivity settings, and the sent, received, and modified times. In Outlook 2010, the properties dialog is the Message Options dialog – it has archive options, importance and sensitivity settings, expiration settings, contact and category options, Internet... (more...)

Keyboard ShortcutsA question from a user this morning got me thinking. He said his toolbar disappeared and to create a new email message, he selects an old sent message and replaces the contents with new. When he needs to delete a message he right clicks and chooses delete because the X button is missing. Yikes. You can accomplish that using two of the easiest to remember keyboard shortcuts, ones... (more...)

I’m hoping this will be my next-to-last post about the problem of Outlook2010’s handling of multiple accounts when an IMAP account is the default email account. (The last post will be an announcement that users can revert to the old way of handling default accounts. I don’t know if it will ever happen though.) The problem: Outlook 2010 chooses the email account to send mail from based on the... (more...)

When the ribbon is minimized, the File tab appears to be the default tab, instead of the Home or Messages tab. The solution: don’t minimize the ribbon. Actually, the File tab isn’t really made default, it just seems so because of the tab color. While it is an extra click to show the commands on the Home tab, its not because the File tab has focus, its because the ribbon needs to be expanded.... (more...)

I’m seeing quite a bit of confusion over the Suggested Contacts folder in Outlook 2010. It’s a contacts folder containing addresses you’ve sent mail to that are not already in your “good” contacts folder. It’s not a copy of the autocomplete cache, although addresses in the folder should also be in the autocomplete cache (unless you cleared the cache). Importing an old NK2 will not add... (more...)

Outlook uses the long date format set in Windows for date formatting in the calendar, both onscreen and in printouts. For example, if you want to include the day of the week on printed calendars or display the full name of the month above the navigation calendars, check your long date format in Control Panel’s Region and Language applet. You can make your own date formats if you don’t care for... (more...)

We get a lot of questions about “broken” follow up – there is only one follow up option – a basic flag -  and reminders aren’t available for it. Follow up is not broken, its just not supported for IMAP accounts. You’ll have the full range of follow up flags and can set reminders if you move the items to a local pst. All other account types (POP3, Outlook Connector, and Exchange)... (more...)

A user asked “In XP you can go to the Outlook property box, delete “/recycle” from the end of the target address and be able to open up multiple copies of Outlook so you can have instances of mail, calendar, contacts, etc., open simultaneously. How do you do this in Outlook 2010 on Windows 7?” Outlook 2010’s shortcuts don’t use the /recycle switch so you can select any link to open... (more...)