----| Exchange & Outlook UPDATE--Outlook Edition |----
IN THIS ISSUE
*Commentary: The State of Outlook Printing
*From the Community: Customizing Printing of Check Box Fields in a Custom Form
*New and Improved: Simplify the Process of Encrypting and Decrypting Emails
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OUR SPONSORS WHO HELP SUPPORT FREE DELIVERY OF THIS NEWSLETTER:
Making the Case for Email Archiving and Litigation Readiness
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepapers/Symantec/retention/?code=EXCTop1027
Improve Software Quality and Reduce Costs
http://findtechinfo.com/penton/nl/109
Email Discovery and Compliance
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/ebooks/ilumin/discovery/?code=EXCHot1027
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sponsor: Symantec
Making the Case for Email Archiving and Litigation Readiness
Are your messages easily accessible, yet secure, in the case of an e-discovery request? With the phenomenal email volume growth, and increasing costs when companies fail to comply, you can't afford to lose an email. Download this free whitepaper today and implement a strong email retention and management system today!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepapers/Symantec/retention/?code=EXCTop1027
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
***COMMENTARY: The State of Outlook Printing
by Sue Mosher, News Editor, [email protected]
Back before the Internet reached almost everywhere, I managed several projects in the broadcast news industry that involved moving information from point A to point B and equipping journalists to do their jobs, no matter where in the world they might be. From that experience, I learned two principles that are very relevant to Microsoft Office Outlook as well:
- "If it doesn't work offline, it doesn't work."
- "Sometimes there's no substitute for a hard-copy printout."
Microsoft has given that first principle a lot of attention, with a steady stream of improvements in Outlook's offline story—especially against Exchange Server—in every version. But printing in Outlook is still primitive in many ways. Given that the so-called paperless office seems as elusive as ever, I thought it might be useful to review the state of Outlook printing and see what changes are coming in Outlook 2007. I'll also share some tips and workarounds for common printing problems.
Outlook printing is largely WYSIWYG. If you want to print a view of all the items in a folder, you should first arrange the view on screen the way you want it to appear in the printout. For example, if you want to print a table view, such as the phone list of your contacts or a list of your tasks, you get more information on the page if you turn off Outlook's default behavior of squeezing all the visible columns into the current window's width. Right-click the table column headings, choose Customize Current View, then open the Other Settings options. Clear the check box for "Automatic column sizing," then click OK twice to return to the folder. Now you can resize any column heading to exactly the size needed to show the data for that column. You might want to change the paper orientation to landscape to print more information across a single page.
The biggest limitation in printing from folders such as Tasks and Contacts is that if you want a printout of all the notes from a group of tasks or contacts, you must use the Memo style, which forces each item to start on a new page. For contacts, the workaround is to use Microsoft Office Word to do the printing. Start a mail merge with Outlook's Tools, Mail Merge command, then follow the prompts to generate a Word document that can include any or all contact fields, including all notes for the contact. The "catalog" merge format is good for contact lists.
Mail merge works only for contacts, though; there's no comparable workaround for folders such as Tasks and Journal. In the Calendar folder, you can use the Calendar Details printing style to print a running description of your appointments—including all notes—that doesn't waste paper by starting each appointment on a new page.
When it comes to calendar printing, perhaps the chief annoyance is that the monthly view can show only a certain amount of information per day and thus often cuts off subjects or even omits entire items from a printout. Outlook 2007 with the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR) actually does a slightly worse job in this area, cutting off subjects that Outlook 2003 prints with no problem.
However, help is on the way. Microsoft is developing Calendar Printing Assistant for Office Outlook 2007, an application that offers a wide array of new formats for calendar printing and can fit more information into each day of the month. (See below for the URL to download the beta.) The Calendar Printing Assistant also provides a way to print a full year's calendar and corrects another long-standing monthly calendar printout annoyance: It shows thumbnails for last month and next month, not this month and next month (the built-in behavior in Outlook).
Many message-printing problems stem from the fact that Outlook 2003 has two editors and three message formats and uses Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) to render and print HTML-format messages. For instance, a draft message printed with Word as the editor will have no sender, recipient, or subject information. If you need that information on the printout, you must either turn off Word as the editor or wait and print the message after it's stored in the Sent Items folder. Outlook 2007 solves this problem. Even though there's only one editor—and it's Word (or a stub of Word if the full version of Word 2007 isn't installed)—the To, Cc, and Subject fields print out on draft messages just fine in Outlook 2007.
Outlook 2003's use of IE to print HTML-format messages has always been a mixed blessing. The drawbacks of using IE as the HTML message-rendering engine, beyond the security concerns, are many:
- You get no print preview.
- Some messages run off the side of the page or under an image unless you switch the paper format to landscape. (IE 7.0 seems to do a slightly better job on messages prone to this problem.)
- Some users get print errors because of a poorly registered IE component.
- You can't remove the default date/time at the bottom of the page.
- Images in HTML-format messages don't always print well.
The biggest advantage is that IE allows you to select a page range to print. In versions through Outlook 2003, users could select which pages to print, at least for their HTML messages. Outlook 2007, however, has no ability to specify a page range for printouts for any messages. The workaround for Outlook 2007 is to save messages as .htm, .txt, or .rtf files—depending on the message format—then use Word to print the pages you want. (That's also a good workaround for Outlook 2003's plain-text and rich-text messages.)
There are plenty of other long-time printing annoyances with no ready solution in Outlook 2007 B2TR:
- Like earlier versions, B2TR doesn't print Bcc recipient information for messages in your Sent Items folder.
- There's no easy way to skip printing a long list of recipients if the original sender put hundreds of people in the To or Cc box (except the aforementioned open-and-print-in-Word method).
- If you print another user's Calendar folder from Outlook 2007, the other user's name appears on the printout, but if you print another user's Tasks or Contacts folder, the printout will contain your own name.
- Custom Outlook forms don't print what you see on the screen; instead, they print custom fields in alphabetical order.
In short, printing remains one of Outlook's weaker areas, but perhaps Microsoft's development of the Calendar Printing Assistant heralds a new awareness of the existing deficiencies. I'm sure many users and organizations would like to see task, contact, and message printing assistants as well.
Calendar Printing Assistant for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/programs/outlook/cpa.mspx
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sponsor: Klocwork
Improve Software Quality and Reduce Costs
New White Paper from Klocwork: Improve software quality and reduce life-cycle costs by incorporating Static Analysis tools into your routine development processes. Results: More maintainable code, more secure, reliable software, and a more predictable development process. Download White Paper.
http://findtechinfo.com/penton/nl/109
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your Vote Counts!
Vote for the next "IT Pro of the Month!" Take the time to reward excellence to an IT pro who deserves it. The first 100 to cast their vote will receive a one-year print subscription to Windows IT Pro magazine—compliments of Microsoft. Voting only takes a few seconds, so don't miss out. Cast your vote now:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/itpromonth
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
***From the Community
Customizing Printing of Check Box Fields in a Custom Form
Learn how to make your custom form print the values Yes and No instead of -1 and 0 for fields that use check boxes.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/93198/93198.html
------
Have a question? Got answers? Join your peers in the Exchange discussion forums:
http://forums.windowsitpro.com/web/forum/categories.aspx?catid=40&entercat=y
Current Threads:
Outlook 2003--Cannot import/export pst files
Voting buttons
OWA and Outlook 2003: Syncronizing OWA with Outlook (POP3)
------
Don't forget to sound off in our Instant Poll. This month's question is "What are your Exchange plans for 2007?"
http://www.windowsitpro.com/MicrosoftExchangeOutlook/Index.cfm
~~~~ Hot Spot: ~~~~
Email Discovery and Compliance
You know you need to manage your email data; how do you do it? What steps are you taking? What additional measures should you enact? What shouldn't you do? Get answers to these questions and get control of your vital messaging data. Download the free eBook today!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/ebooks/ilumin/discovery/?code=EXCHot1027
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
***NEW AND IMPROVED
by Blake Eno, [email protected]
Simplify the Process of Encrypting and Decrypting Emails
Encryptomatic announced MessageLock for Outlook 1.3, a personal email security plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003 that provides sender-to-receiver protection of email messages and attached email documents. MessageLock makes encrypting and decrypting messages and files simple and uses 128- or 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption for all email and files. You can also configure MessageLock so that compression may be disabled for certain domains, specific email addresses, file sizes, or file types. You can download a free trial of MessageLock at Encryptomatic's Web site. For more information, contact Encryptomatic at 218-287-5188.
http://www.encryptomatic.com
------
Wanted: your reviews of products you've tested and used in production. Share your experiences and ratings of products to "[email protected]" and get a Best Buy gift certificate.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
***EVENTS AND RESOURCES
These Windows-related events, papers, and resources will help you keep your knowledge and skills up to date and help you deploy, secure, and maintain the latest Exchange- and Windows-related technologies. For more Exchange related resources, visit
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/exchangeresources
In an environment where there is no one true OS, users must access a variety of applications across several platforms. Get the tools you need to analyze and improve how you manage access across Windows Terminal Services, UNIX and Linux X, Windows, legacy telnet, and even SSH. TechX World events start October 24—register today!
http://www.techxworld.com/?code=1025emailannc
How will compliance regulations affect your IT infrastructure? Help design your retention and retrieval, privacy and security policies to make sure that your organization is compliant. Download the free eBook today!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/ebooks/sherpa/compliance/?code=1015emailannc
Did you know that 75% of corporate intellectual property resides in email? With security concerns from viruses and malware, increasing amounts of spam, and ever-stronger performance demands for availability and recovery, email systems have become the most important business application. Join us for this free Web seminar and learn a holistic approach to managing challenges of security, availability, and control. Live Event: Thursday, November 16
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/symantec/messagingsecurity/?partnerref=1025emailannc
How do you manage vulnerabilities? If you depend on vulnerability assessments to determine the state of your IT security systems, you can't miss this Web seminar. Special research from Gartner indicates that deeper penetration is needed to augment your vulnerability management processes. Learn more today!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/coresecurity/vulnerability/?code=1025emailannc
Take the necessary steps for application management, from conversion of legacy applications to MSI to customizing applications to fit corporate standards. Don't overlook an important component of an OS migration—join us for the free on-demand Web seminar.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/macrovision/appmanagement/?partnerref=1025emailannc
FEATURED WHITE PAPER
===============
Help your small- or medium-sized business protect one of its most valuable assets—business information. Easily store, manage, protect, and share information with hardware designed with the needs of your business in mind. Manage IT without the large staff and extensive training—learn how today!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepapers/emc/smbs/?code=1025featwp
Special Offer: Download any white paper from Windows IT Pro before October 31 and enter to win a Casio Exilim Card Camera! The more you download, the more chances to win! Visit http://www.windowsitpro.com/whitepapers for a full listing of whitepapers and contest rules.
==== ANNOUNCEMENTS
=====================
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepapers/emc/smbs/?code=1025featwp
Invitation for VIP Access Become a VIP Monthly Pass subscriber and get instant online access to every article published in our network. You'll get full Web access to Windows IT Pro, SQL Server Magazine, and the Exchange and Outlook Administrator, Windows Scripting Solutions, and Windows IT Security newsletters—that's more than 26,000 articles at your fingertips. Sign up now for only $29.95 per month:
https://store.pentontech.com/index.cfm?s=1&promocode=eu276Aum
Get $40 off on Windows IT Pro
Subscribe to Windows IT Pro today and SAVE up to $40! Along with your 12 issues, you'll get FREE access to the entire Windows IT Pro online article archive, which houses more than 9,000 helpful IT articles. This is a limited-time offer, so order now:
https://store.pentontech.com/index.cfm?s=1&promocode=eu206Auw
~~~~ Contact Us ~~~~
About the newsletter -- [email protected]
About technical questions -- http://www.windowsitpro.com/forums
About product news -- [email protected]
About your subscription -- [email protected]
About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]
===============
https://store.pentontech.com/index.cfm?s=1&promocode=eu276Aum
Subscribe to Windows IT Pro today and SAVE up to $40! Along with your 12 issues, you'll get FREE access to the entire Windows IT Pro online article archive, which houses more than 9,000 helpful IT articles. This is a limited-time offer, so order now:
https://store.pentontech.com/index.cfm?s=1&promocode=eu206Auw
About technical questions -- http://www.windowsitpro.com/forums
About product news -- [email protected]
About your subscription -- [email protected]
About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]
This email newsletter is brought to you by Exchange & Outlook Administrator, the leading publication for IT professionals managing, securing, optimizing, and migrating Exchange and Outlook. Subscribe today!
https://store.pentontech.com/index.cfm?s=1&promocode=eu205xeb
View the Windows IT Pro Privacy policy at
http://www.windowsitpro.com/AboutUs/Index.cfm?action=privacy
Windows IT Pro a division of Penton Media Inc.
221 East 29th Street, Loveland, CO 80538,
Attention: Customer Service Department
Copyright 2006, Penton Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
