Outlook 2010: Where do I find… ?

The first thing users will notice in Outlook 2010 is the ribbon interface on the main Outlook window. Then they'll wonder where the Tools, Options dialog is. The Options dialog, along with many things that didn't fit on the ribbon, was moved to the "Backstage" area. This is the first button on the ribbon, to the left of the Home tab. Look here for the former Tools, Options dialog and many of the commands that are on the File menu in older versions.

This is where you'll find Import and Export. They were split apart and put in with the Open and Save commands. While it makes (some) sense that Import is on the Open menu and Export is with the Save options, it's going to take some time for users to get used to looking in separate locations for the Import and Export commands. While we discourage using Import and Export, they are occasionally necessary.

The Account settings dialog is also in the backstage area, along with the command to download offline address books and set up new accounts, under Info section.

The Home ribbon does not include a Send & Receive button. There is a small Send and Receive button on the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) or you can press F9 to initiate a send and receive. If you like doing things the hard way, and use two steps, Send and Receive is also on the Send ribbon. I recommend leaning to use F9 for manual send and receives, but since the ribbons are customizable (and can be exported), you could create a ribbon with your own most frequently used commands.

Don't Send Attachments to CC'd Recipients?

There are a lot of former Notes users who don't like how Outlook handles attachments. In Notes, it's really easy to send an attachment to people in the To line but not to those in the CC or BCC lines.

While its usually better that send a link to the attachment on the file share or SharePoint site, reality in the user world is that attachments are faster and easier, and it is useful to send attachments to some, but not all, recipients.

Outlook can't send attachments to some recipients. Users need to either send the attachment to everyone or send the message twice - once to the recipients who get the attachment and then to those who don't get the attachment. They can either open the message and use the Resend option or forward it.
Notes gets 1 point.

Reply with Attachments

Notes has another option users like - they can reply to a message and include the original attachment. Outlook doesn't have this option, based on the belief that the sender has the attachment and doesn't need another copy filling up their mailbox. Users disagree with this line of thought and usually have valid reasons for wanting to return an unedited attachment. Typically, they need to review documents and just need to say Yes or No but feel the recipient won't know which document the response refers to unless its attached.

Outlook has the reply format 'when replying, attach original message' , which attaches the original message and all of its contents, but many users find the resulting nested messages annoying when used for all replies. Fortunately, there are fairly easy ways to add the attachment to the reply that don't involve saving the attachment and attaching it.

The easiest way is to hit Forward instead of Reply. The drawbacks: it breaks threading and you'll need to address the message. Or you can hit reply then drag the attachment from the original message to the reply, which you can do right from the Reading pane. Finally, you can Insert the original message as an attachment.

Reply with Edited Attachment

More common is the need to revise a document and send the edited copy back. For most people, this means saving the attachment and inserting it into the reply. But there are other methods. Office applications have a ‘send for review’ option but it creates a new message, not a reply. If neither are a concern, use the Send to, Original sender or Mail recipient (for review) option. If you need to include the original message in the reply, it is possible to edit the attachment and send the edited copy without saving the file and browsing your documents folder for it.

These specific steps work with any file type and allow users to edit and return the edited copy to the sender, without saving the edited copy to My Documents.

1. Open the message, then the attachment. This step is important, not only because opening attachments from the reading pane creates read-only attachments, but also because it’s too easy to view another message, calendar etc. while the attachment is open. When this happens, Outlook loses track of the attachment and a copy is left in the secure temp folder.

2. Edit and save the attachment.

3. Do not close the message before you save and close the attachment! As long as the message is open there is a pointer between it and the attachment and changes will be saved to the document . The copy in the secure temp folder will be deleted when the message is closed when you close the attachment, then the message.

4. Hit Forward or hit reply and drag the attachment from the old message to the new message.

5. You can now close the original message. Outlook will ask if you want to save it, click Yes to replace the original document with the edited version or choose No to keep the original.

For insurance against an “oops” moment where you accidently save the edited copy to the original message, make a copy of the message before editing the document. Select the message, press Ctrl+C, V to make a copy. Open the copy and edit the document. After sending the edited document you can delete the copy.

Note: this will not work with Outlook 2010. All attachments use "protected view" and are read-only. Attachments need saved to the documents folder and re-attached.

Office 2010's Protected View

Protected view is a new security feature for all Office documents which arrive in email or are downloaded from Internet sources. This is a security sandbox used by Office 2010 to enhance attachment security. Administrators will be able to control whether all email attachments or only those from outside their Exchange network use Protected view.

How it works: When an emailed (or downloaded) document is opened, a red band appears at the top of the document to alert the user that the document is in protected view and cannot be edited. If the user trusts the document, they click the Enable editing button to begin editing. All attachments are read-only.

When a document that was previously attached to an email (or downloaded from the Internet) is opened, the red message bar states "This file originated as an email attachment " or "This file was downloaded from the Internet". The application knows this because Windows uses the Attachment Execution Service to place a zone identifier in an alternate data stream of the file which indicates it was downloaded from the Internet Zone. When Word, Excel, or PowerPoint opens the file and sees this marker it knows to open the file within Protected View and the user sees the red bar.

For more information on this security feature, see
Protected View in Office 2010
http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/archive/2009/08/13/protected-view-in-office-2010.aspx