Exchange Tip: Integrate Exchange Public Calendar with SharePoint
Many organizations don't want to use Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server's event calendar because they're happy with their Exchange public calendar and aren't willing to migrate to Share-Point. Here's how to integrate the Exchange public calendar seamlessly with SharePoint:
- Enable Outlook Web Access (OWA).
- Add a new page viewer Web Part to SharePoint.
- Enter http://exchangeserver/public/calendarname/?cmd=contents&part=1 as a link, where exchangeserver is the name of your Exchange server and calendarname is the name of the public calendar. Here, the &part=1 parameter causes the calendar to appear as a flat event list instead of a full Exchange calendar.
- Edit Program Files\Exchsrvr\exchweb\version\controls\vw_calendarpart.css, where version is your Exchange version, to change fonts, colors, and other calendar characteristics.
- Make sure that everyone has read access to the public calendar; otherwise, the page will pop up a Windows logon dialog box.
—Muhammad Rashid
Exchange FAQs
Can I disable the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) on Exchange Server 2003?
With Exchange 2003, Microsoft has changed its stance on disabling the MTA. In Exchange 2000 Server, you couldn't disable the MTA, but because of limitations with the MTA in cluster environments and because its primary use is for communicating with Exchange Server 5.5 servers, Exchange 2003 lets you disable the MTA.
The main problem with maintaining the MTA is that in a cluster, only one Exchange Virtual Server (EVS) hosts the MTA resource, which is responsible for all mail transportation to Exchange 5.5 servers and third-party connectors for all databases hosted on the entire cluster. But the MTA can communicate with only 50 databases (60 with a registry modification; for more information about making this change, see the Microsoft article "How to increase the number of databases that are supported by the MTA service when Exchange Server 5.5 coexists with a server cluster that is running Exchange Server 2003" at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=899302).
Because each node in a cluster can host 20 databases (five databases over four storage groups—SGs), if you have more than three active nodes the MTA can't communicate on behalf of all the databases in the cluster. For more information about disabling the MTA, see the Microsoft article "MTA Stacks service supportability guidelines for Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003," http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=810489. If you don't require Exchange 5.5 communication or third-party connectors and you want more than 60 databases in a cluster, you need to disable the MTA.
—John Savill
It’s Official: Office “12” is Office
2007
How can I enable the new maximum database size in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)?
Exchange 2003 SP2 raises the maximum database size for the standard edition from 16GB to 75GB. By default, the size is increased to 18GB when you install the service pack; however you can raise this limit by modifying the registry as follows:
- Start the registry editor (regedit.exe) on the Exchange server.
- Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\SAVDALDC01\Private-ObjectGUID of the store subkey.
- From the Edit menu, select New - DWORD value.
- Enter the name Database Size Limit in GB and press Enter.
- Double-click the new value and set it to a value from 1 to 75. Click OK.
- Close the registry editor.
You can also set a warning level that writes a warning to the event log when the database grows to a certain percentage of the remaining space. To do so, navigate to the same registry subkey as in the earlier instructions, create a DWORD value named Database Size Buffer in Percentage, and set it to a value from 1 to 100 (the default value is 10).
This check of the database size occurs once a day at 5:00 A.M. You can change this time by creating a DWORD value named Database Size Check Start Time in Hours From Midnight in the same registry subkey and setting it to the number of hours past midnight at which to perform the check (e.g., a setting of 12 means the check would occur at noon). You need to dismount and mount the Information Store (IS) for the changes to take effect.
—John Savill
Microsoft announced that the next version of Microsoft Office, which is still planned for release in the second half of this year, will bear the name "2007." All the different Office suites will include Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (which is the full, official name), except for the low-priced Office Home and Student 2007 version, which will include Office OneNote instead of Outlook, in addition to Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
The suggested retail prices are the same as for Office 2003. The lowest priced retail suite that includes Outlook—Office Standard 2007—will go for an estimated $399, or $239 for an upgrade. Office Small Business 2007 will cost an estimated $449, or $279 for an upgrade, whereas the estimated retail price of Office Professional 2007 will be $499 with an upgrade price of $329. Office Small Business 2007 and Office Professional 2007 include an improved version of the Business Contact Manager add-in for Outlook. The estimated retail price of Outlook 2007 as a standalone program will be $109.
You'll be able to obtain the two high-end suites—Office Professional Plus 2007 and Office Enterprise 2007—only through volume licensing. These suites include the Office Access, Office InfoPath, and Office Communicator products, plus information-rights–management capabilities and new enterprise content-management features. Microsoft hasn't released volume-license pricing details yet.
The parallel beta of Exchange 12 has been going for only a few months, but organizations that install both Outlook 2007 and Exchange 12 can look forward to a significant streamlining of the process of setting up new clients to access their mailboxes. A new AutoConnect feature lets Outlook 2007 users build a mail profile to connect with Exchange 12 just by typing in their email address. Another key new Exchange feature is a scheduling assistant that makes it easier for Outlook 2007 users to book meetings by presenting options for the best available times.
I've been using Outlook 2007 Beta 1 for a while now and can report that there's a lot to like about it. I can find messages and other items faster with the near-instantaneous search feature. If a message includes an attachment, such as a Word document or a picture, I can preview it in the reading pane. That's a big time saver! The new To-Do Bar organizes my day by displaying my next few appointments and collating the follow-ups I've designated with tasks that I've defined either in the Tasks folder or with the To-Do Bar's quick-entry feature.
Among my favorite new features are the integrated news reader for Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds and the vastly improved iCalendar integration. When I'm feeling calendar-centric rather than task-centric on a given day, I like the daily and weekly views of my calendar that show all the tasks and follow-ups that I've assigned to each day as a color coded list below my appointments. And, yes, those tasks roll over to tomorrow if I don't finish them today. I find that I lose track of important tasks and deadlines very rarely with Outlook 2007.
Those features are just the tip of the iceberg—the ones that I use most and that have already made me feel more productive. I'll be highlighting specific features in the future, so be sure to send your questions and comments about Outlook 2007 to me at [email protected].
—Sue Mosher
