Assigning a View to Public Folders

Have you ever made a custom view for a public folder and wanted that view to be default for anyone who opened the folder on their computer?

It's very easy to do. First you need to create a custom view that is either visible to everyone or for all folders of that type. If the view is private (This folder, me only), copy the view and make the copy visible to everyone or for all folders.

Once the view is created, set the view as the default for the folder. Do this by right clicking on the folder and choosing Properties, Administration tab. Select the view from the list.

That's all there is to it. You can even assign default views to mailbox folders.

Once caveat: if you use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 and do this with calendars, you'll need to refresh the view to see folder-specific views when you select a shared calendar. Deselect the other calendars, leaving only the shared calendar selected, then click on the Mail folder button then the Calendar button. This is necessary because the default or selected calendar’s views are loaded when you open the calendar folder, not when you select or deselect each calendar.

Take Ownership of a Meeting

A reader asks: "I set up a meeting and one of the invitees would like me to transfer control of the meeting to herself so that she can add documents and teleconference details. Can we do this without sending out a second invitation from her calendar?"

No, you can't transfer the meeting to her. She would need to send a new meeting request from her calendar if she wants to be the organizer, but she doesn't need to be the organizer to send documents to the attendees. Any invitee can use Reply to All. Simply right click on the meeting and choose Reply to All. The reply includes the meeting details in the message body as a reminder. This won't add the documents to the meeting, for that you need to send an update with the information or cancel your meeting and she'll send a new one. If she has Send as, Send on behalf of rights, or is a delegate to your mailbox, she could access the meeting on your calendar and send the update.

Flags and the To-Do Bar

Dave had this to say about Outlook 2007's flags: “One thing I really don't like is the changes in flags and mixing of tasks and "to do" items. I flag emails to separate important ones from the rest of my messages. Some are info only, others are actionable whenever and others are urgent. It seems that now, if you flag a message it becomes a To-do item, period. There used to be five flag colors to differentiate flagged messages. Is there a way to recreate that functionality? Also, I like the To-Do Bar, but only want Tasks on it. How can I do that?

Flags in Outlook 2007 are back to acting like flags from earlier versions. Their purpose is to flag things for follow up, nothing more, nothing less. Instead of using flags, use color categories to mark messages. Color categories were designed to replace color flags - if you have a purple flag you use for 'info only", make a purple-colored category called “Info only”. Use flags only when you need to flag something for follow up.

If you don’t want flagged items on the To-Do Bar, you can customize the view and create a filter to hide them. Right click on the row of field names and create a filtered view that either using only the Tasks folder or is limited to task forms. Note that you can only have one view for the task pad on the To-Do Bar.

Color Categories, Labels, and Recurring Appointments

In another change from Outlook 2003, labels were removed and replaced by color categories. Unfortunately for users, color categories don't work quite the same as labels did and users don't always make the distinction between color categories and color labels - they both offer the ability to highlight an appointment in color and that's all that matters.

"In Outlook 2003, you could set up a recurring calendar item and tag the series with a colored-coded category. THEN, you could open up each instance of a recurrence and change the category color. Once an appointment was completed, I changed the category color to 'none'. This doesn't work in Outlook 2007."

Correct, color categories (like categories in all versions) are an all-or-none proposition on recurring appointments. You can not assign a category to one date and a different category to another date. Labels were by date and you could assign a different label to each occurrence. With the removal of labels and the addition of colors to categories, all dates within a recurrence will be the same color. The only workaround is to copy and paste the appointment in-place and change the color category then delete the occurrence for that date.

You aren't alone in your complaints - there are many users who mark appointments by changing the label and color categories just aren’t the same. Color categories were one of the few things I disliked about Outlook 2007 and it took me several months to get used to using them; I had my own way of using Labels, Quick Flags, and Categories and Color categories weren't a good fit.

Office 2003 is in Extended Support

"Mainstream Support" for Office 2003 expires this month. This means customers can't call Microsoft for assistance with Office 2003 problems for non-security issues or to request feature changes. Support for problems which do not affect security is available to corporations who are willing to pay for support contracts.

For the next five years, Outlook 2003 is in "Extended Support". During this period Microsoft will release security updates for Office 2003 as needed and refresh the junk-mail definitions for Outlook.

What does this mean for most people? It means nothing, as in it's not going to affect them or change their behavior, as long as the junk mail updates keep coming. Most of the bugs in Outlook 2003 are either fixed or known but not going to be fixed. Most people don't call Microsoft for support, they use google and visit websites such as www.slipstick.com and www.outlook-tips.net, or ask questions in the Outlook newsgroups at msnews.microsoft.com when they need support for Outlook.