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Whenever Outlook is connected to online data storage (ie Gmail via IMAP or Exchange Server / Office 365) it will let you keep working if there’s a break in internet access.
Outlook is designed to cache online data into a file on your computer (a PST or OST file) which can be accessed whether or not the computer has a net connection. Outlook switches between online and offline automatically.
That’s why Office Watch has talked about synchronization of data between Outlook and an online data store. The synchronization is done for two reasons:
While you work, Outlook keeps contact with an Exchange Server/Office 365 machines or IMAP server (for Gmail and others).
If there’s a break in the connection, Outlook will patiently keep trying until the link is restored. You can switch Outlook offline/online but most users don’t bother and just let Outlook figure it out.
Many Outlook users do this, especially corporate users. They read, reply and write emails while offline on a plane – Outlook behaves exactly the same. When they reach the ground and internet access, Outlook reconnects to send the messages and get anything new that arrived while it was at 30,000 feet.
However it’s also great for people with slow or erratic internet connections. Outlook will do what it can, when the connection permits and meantime you keep using Outlook.
Nothing special has to be done. Outlook’s default setup is to turn cached mode on. You can check it from the account advanced settings.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Using gSyncit you can keep a copy of your Outlook contacts, calendar, tasks and notes in your Google account.
Why would you want to do that?
Once your Outlook info is syncd with online storage it’s available to you in a range of new ways. Most commonly you can see the same information on a smartphone (Apple or Android).
Contact information on Outlook automatically appears on the smartphone. Changes you make to a contact (eg change of phone number or email address) are automatically copied between the Outlook, online storage and your portable devices.
If you use the paid Google Apps service you get a tool from Google to sync data with Outlook. Customers of the free service have to look elsewhere.
Several readers have recommended gSyncit to us so we thought we’d take a closer look.
There’s a free evaluation version available from here. It’s available for Outlook 2002 (XP) onwards and both 32 and 64 bit versions for Outlook 2010. The evaluation version is limited to one calendar, 20 items and there’s a short time delay before each sync.
Licensing is per computer with activations monitored (you get an email confirming each activation – Microsoft please note!). Price US$19.99.
The Getting Started guide is very good, in fact all the documentation is above average. We followed the steps and had gSyncit running in a few minutes. For each sync mapping choose your main Outlook folder (calendar, contacts, tasks etc).
All the calendar items, contacts and tasks appeared in the Google account like magic. A few changes and additions online appeared in Outlook after the next sync.
The only minor stumbling block during setup was an error syncing the Calendar. It turns out that you have to login to your Google Calendar online at least once to initialise it. Once that’s done gSyncit does its thing.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Temple F writes:
“I would like to clone my current Outlook file (emails, contacts, calendar, tasks, settings) over to a 2nd and possibly 3rd PC. I don't believe I've seen any reviews on some of the complete add-ins for this purpose. I saw something recently on OW (gSyncit)that did calendar and I think contacts through Google Calendar sync. But it was not the more complete and automatic solution I was looking for.”
The answer is something we've been banging on about for a while.
Outlook wasn't designed as a place for data to be shared among multiple devices. Outlook, from its early days as an Exchange Server client, was made as an end-point for information to make it accessible to humans. In technical terms the Outlook database (PST/OST) is a single locked database which makes sharing and backups difficult.
We're used to the idea of Outlook being the main store of our email/contacts/calendar information - however more and more people want to share that information in multiple places. That can be multiple computers (desktop and laptop) as well as mobile devices (phones, iPhone, Android etc).
There are ways to backup or share Outlook data but they are generally clumsy and unreliable. That’s partly because Outlook’s underlying basis wasn’t designed to share data, only to import data and display it.
To do it effectively and easily you need to rearrange the way you think about your data storage – moving the main data storage away from your computer. Rather than keeping it in Outlook, the same information needs to be available from somewhere more accessible to many devices at once.
That means storing it on a server which is accessible from multiple computers or devices. In a company or small business that means Exchange Server or Small Business Server. For individuals (as well as organizations) it can now be some online service to store your email/calendar or contacts.
Anyone who has used these services knows how good they can be. Rather than messing around copying PST files between computers all you do is connect each to the online storage. The same information can be available to non-Outlook options like smartphones or a browser.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Outlook can be easily used to track online orders from Ebay, Amazon to make sure they arrive.
When you’re ordering a lot of items online it’s easy to overlook one. Outlook can pop-up a reminder for each package so you don’t forget something.
It all starts with the order confirmation email or the email telling you the parcel is on its way. Right-click that message and choose Follow Up | Add Reminder.
You could just choose ‘Tomorrow’ or ‘Next Week’ but the Custom reminder is more configurable.
Change the ‘Flag to’ text from one of the plain bits of text from Microsoft to something more specific.
You can enter a start date or choose from the calendar but it’s often faster just to type in the number of days ahead. Outlook is pretty smart about it – all these will work “ten days” “10 days” “week” “ 2 weeks” “month” “three months”. It isn’t fussy about singular/plural; “7 day” is accepted as well as “7 days”.
We usually set a reminder for a day or two after the package is supposed to arrive. If the parcel is due in a week we might type ’10 days’.
As long as you type an acceptable time period, Outlook will change the Start, Due and Reminder dates when you click outside the ‘Start date’ field or press tab to exit that field.
At the reminder time a pop-up will appear in Outlook (and any device you have sync’d with it).
Usually the parcel has arrived and clicking ‘Dismiss’ is enough. But occasionally something has gone wrong and the reminder prompts us to track the parcel or enquire to the merchant.
When there are a lot of items arriving the reminder might need to be more specific. If you look at the reminder above, the subject line of the email tells us nothing about the ordered item nor does ‘Has this arrived’. So putting the name of the item in the ‘Flag to’ line saves you digging around to find out what the reminder was for!
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Ctrl + Enter can be a shortcut in Outlook to send a message after you’ve finished typing.
However Ctrl + Enter isn't always available -- in Outlook it can be turned off. That's probably because people are accustomed to using it as a Page Break shortcut in Word. There’s a risk of people accidently sending emails when they didn't intend to.
The first time you press Ctrl+Enter when typing an email you’ll get this message.
You have the choice to send the message or not.
Check the ‘Do not show this message again” box if you want your selection to work in the future.
If you want to change the action later, or see how its set, go to Options | Mail | Send Messages …
The Ctrl + Enter option is available in Outlook 203 and it is set ON by default.
To turn the shortcut off you have to dig in the registry.
The exact setting depends on whether you use Word as your email editor or the in-built Outlook editor. If you’re not sure, change both registry keys.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\
Office\11.0\Word\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes
Type: REG_SZ
Name: CtrlEnter
Value: 13,8
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\
Office\11.0\Outlook\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes
Type: REG_SZ
Name: CtrlEnter
Value: 13,8
It’s almost the same for Outlook 2002 (Office XP) except the version number in the registry key changes:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\
Office\10.0\Word\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes
Type: REG_SZ
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...
