Backing Up and Moving Data

• I don't know why some of my items are not being archived.
• Quick Fix: I get an error when I try to access a personal storage file that I backed up to a CD.
  
  
  
  You've made a copy of a backup or archive file on a CD to avoid losing your data due to a hard disk failure. But when you try to open that file, you get a message telling you that access is denied. What's happening is that Outlook needs to be able to write to any file it opens, and the CD is a read-only medium. All you need to do is to copy the file you are trying to open to your hard drive first, and then open it in Outlook from there.
  
• I don't archive because I need fast access to my e-mail.
• My Microsoft Outlook PST file is getting too large.
• Quick Fix: I want to determine if my Outlook 2000 data store is becoming too large.
  
  
  
  You need to monitor and back up the single Personal Folders file (PST) used as the primary data store for Microsoft Outlook 2000 with Internet e-mail accounts. To do this, you need to locate the PST on your hard drive.
  

  1. Right-click Outlook Today in the Outlook bar.
  2. Click Properties Of Personal Folders.
  3. Click the Advanced button.
  4. Look at the box to the right of Path, which contains the path to the PST file (usually named outlook.pst for Outlook Internet Only users or mailbox.pst for Corporate/Workgroup users).
• Quick Fix: I need to retrieve archived items.
  
  
  
  Once you've archived your e-mail, you'll want to know how to quickly access it and retrieve archived messages.

  1. On the File menu, point to Open and click Personal Folders File (.pst).
  2. Navigate to the folder on your computer that contains the archive file containing the messages you want.
  3. Double-click the archive file you want to open.
  4. If the file is password-protected, type the password and click OK.
  5. Locate the archived Personal Folders file in the folder list and open the folder in it that contains the items you want to access.

Calendar

• The holidays added by Outlook go only to 2002.
• Quick Fix: Switching to the Calendar always shows today's date.
  
  
  
  You're using the Calendar to look at a date or set of dates in the future, then you switch to another folder—perhaps to look up a Contact or maybe to view a note you made—but when you switch back to the Calendar, it's showing the current date, week, or month, not the date at which you were last looking. The workaround is to open the Calendar in a separate window, then switch back to your regular Outlook window when you open another folder. You can then switch between windows using the ALT+TAB key combination.
  
  To open any folder in a separate window, right-click the folder in the Folder List and click Open In New Window.
  
• Quick Fix: I want to view a monthly calendar but still view the TaskPad and Date Navigator.
  
  
  
  Whenever you switch to Month view in the calendar, the Date Navigator and TaskPad disappear from the right side of the screen. Here are a couple of ways to make Month view, Date Navigator, and TaskPad appear at the same time.

  1. Click Day, Work Week, or Week to get the Date Navigator and TaskPad to appear on the right.
  2. In the Date Navigator, find the month you want to view (use the arrows on the top month to scroll through the months if you need to).
  3. Click in the area of the month that contains the abbreviations for the weekdays. You'll see that month appear to the left of the Date Navigator.

  Alternately, you can start with the Month view already showing.
  

  1. Click Month on the toolbar or View menu, which causes the Month to occupy the entire screen.
  2. Move the mouse pointer over the right edge of the vertical scroll bar until it turns into a pair of vertical bars. Drag the bar to the left until the Date Navigator and TaskPad appear.
• I want to view appointments according to categories or contacts.
• Quick Fix: I want to view a specific week or workweek in my calendar.
  
  
  
  Using the Date Navigator to jump to specific weeks can be useful but sometimes confusing, because it acts slightly differently depending on which view you have open.
  

  1. To select any entire week, find the week in the Date Navigator and click the week number to the left. Or click a day in the Date Navigator and then click the Week button on the toolbar.
  2. To select any workweek, first click the Work Week button on the toolbar, and then click any day in that week in the Date Navigator (including days in the entire week that aren't in the work week).
• Quick Fix: I want to make specific appointments to handle tasks I've already created.
  
  
  
  Tasks have start dates and due dates as part of their form, but they don't have actual appointment times you can set to work on the tasks. However, you can easily schedule appointments for tasks as follows.
  

  1. Open the Day view of the Calendar for the day you want to schedule a task.
  2. Find the task you want to schedule for that day in the TaskPad on the right.
  3. Click on the task and drag it into the time slot.
  4. Adjust the Start time and End time to fit the task.
  5. Click Save and then click Close.
• Quick Fix: I want to change the default time intervals provided for events and appointments.
  
  
  
  The Calendar's Daily view provides a time grid with a resolution of time intervals, such as one hour, so that all appointments and events fall on even increments of that interval. You can easily change this resolution to match your daily activities.
  

  1. From the View menu, select Current View, and then click Customize Current View.
  2. Click Other Settings.
  3. Click the arrow to the right of the Time Scale field, and select the time interval you want, from 5–60 minutes.
  4. Click OK twice to close both dialog boxes.
• Not all of the people being invited to my meeting use Outlook.
• I can't find the tasks I need in the TaskPad list.

Configuration

• I don't know how to set Outlook to be my default manager for e-mail, news, and contacts.
• Quick Fix: I don't know how to configure Outlook's menu display.
  
  
  
  Outlook uses the menu behavior common to all Office 2000 applications, which monitors the menu items you access most often and hides the rest. While many find this helpful (or perhaps don't even notice it), others find this behavior frustrating and would like to disable it. If you're one of the latter who likes to see all there is to see on the menu in the same order every time, you can disable this menu behavior.
  

  1. From the Tools menu, click Customize.
  2. In the Customize dialog box, click the Options tab.
  3. Deselect the Menus Show Recently Used Commands First check box.
  4. Click Close.

Contacts: Folder Display

• Quick Fix: I want to show only custom views when I click Current View on the View menu.
  
  
  
  When you click Current View on the View menu, you typically see a list of several Outlook view types in addition to any view types you've created yourself. If you've set up your own customized views that you always use, you can display only those views on the Current View menu so that you can immediately find the view you want.
  

  1. From the View menu, select Current View, and then click Define Views.
  2. Select the Only Show Views Created For This Folder check box at the bottom of the dialog box.
  3. Click Close.
• Quick Fix: I'm unable to edit a contact field without opening the contact.
  
  
  
  Regardless of whether you're displaying contacts in table view or card view, it can be much quicker to edit contact data directly at the folder level by editing fields in the folder. If you find that you can't actually change any fields, you'll need to enable this capability.
  

  1. On the View menu, point to Current View, and then click Customize Current View.
  2. Click Other Settings.
  3. Select the Allow In-Cell Editing check box.
  4. Click OK once to close Format Card View, and then again to close View Summary.

Contacts: General

• I can't find e-mail associated with a contact.
• I don't know how to modify the Contact form to contain my custom data.
• Quick Fix: I would like the names I reply to in Outlook 2000 added as contacts.
  
  
  
  To make it easy to create entries in your Address Book in Outlook Express or in your Contact folder in Outlook 2000, you can instruct Outlook Express or Outlook 2000 to add automatically any address to which you reply.
  
  To enable this feature in Outlook Express:
  

  1. From the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Select the Send tab.
  3. Select the Automatically Put People I Reply To In My Address Book check box.
  4. Click OK.

  To enable this feature in Outlook 2000:
  

  1. From the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.
  3. Select the Automatically Put People I Reply To In check box.
  4. If you don't want the default Contact folder to contain the new contacts, click Browse and select the folder to which you want the new contacts added.
  5. Close E-mail Options, and then click OK to close Options.
• Quick Fix: I have a large distribution list that I need to break into smaller distribution lists.
  
  
  
  You can use a distribution list (DL) when you want to send messages to a group of contacts using a single contact name. In business applications, DLs can become quite large, and breaking them into smaller lists later can become a tedious chore. Unfortunately, because a DL is actually just a specialized single contact form, it can't be exported and manipulated externally (in Excel, for example) in the same way multiple contacts in a folder can be. The bad news is that you'll have to do all the work by hand in any DL you maintain.
  
  The best way to guard against excessive reworking of DLs is to start with small DLs, using the smallest category that makes sense. (If you use the category field in the contacts, you can easily sort by category to find DL groupings.) Then create master DLs that include these smaller DLs. When you need to manipulate your mailing lists in the future, you'll find it much easier to manage larger lists by removing or adding smaller DLs. And if you have to edit the DLs, you'll find that task more easily accomplished with smaller lists.
  

E-Mail: Creating

• Quick Fix: I can't see the Subject and CC lines in my new message.
  
  
  
  If the Subject and CC lines in all new messages you're creating in Outlook 2000 have mysteriously disappeared, you've somehow disabled them while creating a new message at some point. It's a simple fix to get them back.
  

  1. From the File menu, select New, and then click Mail Message.
  2. In the new message, click the View menu, and then click Message Header.

E-Mail: Receiving

• I want to create an out-of-office message on an internet accout.

Email: Sending

• Quick Fix: I don't see the CC and Subject lines in new messages I create.
  
  
  
  All you see in new messages is the To field. Perhaps you're using someone else's computer to send e-mail or somebody has been having fun with your Outlook settings at your expense. These two fields (as well as the Bcc field if you've enabled it) belong to the message header and you can easily bring it back.
  

  1. On the File menu, point to New and click Mail Message.
  2. On the View menu, click Message Header. You should see the CC and Subject lines reappear.
  3. On the File menu, click Close.

Files: Receiving

• Quick Fix: I can't find a Word e-mail attachment that I modified and saved.
  
  
  
  You opened a Word e-mail attachment, edited and saved it, and then exited Word, and now you can't find the modified document. This is an easy mistake to make, but not one you'll want to repeat—always save attachments to a known place before you make any modifications. Your modified file may still be on your hard drive, however. Look in the Windows/Temp directory if you just performed a Save (that is, you didn't rename the file or choose a folder).
  
  If you performed a Save As operation but can't find the file, click Find (or Search) on the Start menu, point to Files or Folders (or For Files or Folders) and search for the name.

Files: Sending

• Quick Fix: I can only to pick one file at a time when I choose attachments.
  
  
  
  You were previously able to select multiple attachments when you clicked File on the Insert menu but now you can only select one file. This is usually an indication that you are using Word as your e-mail editor. Although the Insert File dialog boxes look the same, Word only allows one file at a time to be inserted. You can easily turn off Word as the editor, however, if this is important.
  

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the Mail Format tab, click to clear Use Microsoft Word To Edit E-mail Messages.
  3. Click OK.

Folders and Windows

• My Outlook Today window is garbled after installing the SR-1 update.

Hyperlinks in Messages

• I don't know how to insert hyperlinks into Outlook items.

Toolbars: Customizing

• I don't know how to add a button to a toolbar.