Ellen F writes: ” Thanks for this: Outlook Categories – Why and How , which Microsoft of course doesn’t tell us about. However, I’m using Outlook Web Access and I can see how to apply categories to my emails but cannot figure out how to assign text labels to the
How can you send an Office document safely and securely to another person? A simple question with no simple answer. Who you are guarding against? A random snooper at the recipient’s end who accidentally finds the document, or someone targeting your or your data, such as a commercial rival,
Getting Outlook windows into the positions you want, and keeping them there, is one of those mysteries that Microsoft offers to us mere customers. We’ll try to explain what’s going on but, alas, can’t guarantee any solid answers. Most Outlook users have more than one window open at any time.
Finally, in this series about the ‘not so permanently’ deleted Outlook items, how do you recover a supposedly ‘permanently’ deleted item? Or maybe check to see if something you want wiped from your computer has truly been removed. All this is embarrassingly easy (embarrassing to Microsoft). There are various tools on
The fact that Outlook doesn’t ‘permanently’ delete items (like it says it does) has advantages or disadvantages depending on your need. Both needs are, thankfully, rare but worth keeping in mind. Cons These days we’re all more concerned about data privacy and where information can be stored without us realizing
So now we know that an Outlook item is not ‘permanently deleted’ even if Microsoft says so. How can you truly delete an Outlook message, appointment etc. You might want to truly delete when you’ve received something in error (as in the Aussie case) or simply want to prevent sensitive
There’s a vital but broken web page link in Outlook 2013 that stops people adding to one of it’s most promoted features. Outlook 2013 comes with some ‘Social Connectors’ to link contacts to Facebook and Sharepoint. For others you click a link ‘Connect to another social network’ (In Outlook Contacts,
Here’s a simple way to speed up Outlook when connected to accounts via IMAP. In short, make Outlook work offline at all times except when connecting to send/receive messages. Go to Send / Receive and click Work Offline On the Outlook status bar it’ll show ‘Working Offline’. Then go to
Office Watch dug into Outlook after yesterday’s story about passport details of the G20 Leaders being leaked accidentally. It’s quite possible that there’s a copy of the G20 leaders passport info still on a computer in the Asian Cup Local Organising Committee’s offices, based on the information provided in the
An amazing story of failed email security in the UK, not sure if it’s funny or tragic. We are sure it’s another example of failed email security and how Microsoft, among many, could prevent it. A prisoner managed to get a smartphone into his cell. He then created a fake
More than a few people have problems with the Outlook ‘instant’ search feature. It’s great when it works but too often you get the dreaded “Search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed”. Sometimes all you need to do is wait until indexing is complete. Depending on
Managing your Deleted Items folder You might think that when you delete something in Outlook, it’s gone. Nope, Outlook has a safety net, just like Windows does for files. In fact Outlook can have multiple safety nets to let you recover accidentally deleted files. That’s a good thing because sometimes
The big political story in the USA is that Hilary Clinton used a private email service while Secretary of State instead of the State Departments own email system. We don’t care much about politics, as Office geeks we’re interested in what Hilary Clinton’s staff used for her email hosting. She
All over the world, governments are intruding into our private lives in the name of safety and anti-terrorism. They talk about ‘metadata’ to make out that the information they are collecting isn’t that important. This ‘metadata’ will be collected, held for a long time and accessible by government agencies without
Microsoft has changed their Exchange Server hosting (under the Office 365 banner) to allow for longer holding of Deleted Items up to ‘forever’. Until now, Office 365 hosting had a fixed 30 days for Deleted Items retention. Any item in the Deleted Items folder older than 30 days was automatically
We’ve been looking closely at the Outlook app for iOS and Android as well as online reviews and the many comments from Office-Watch.com readers. We’ve come to the conclusion that there are two different apps. The preview versions that the public are trying and there’s other, quite different, apps which
Rene Winkelmeyer was the first to detail the worrying and undocumented way the Outlook apps store your email account logins. Normal programs and apps keep your login details (server, name, password etc) encrypted on the computer or device. When needed the name/password is sent direct to the mail host to
A substantially improved and upgraded Organizing Outlook Email ebook is available right now. The 3rd edition goes deep into Outlook 2013/2010 & 2007 with new ways to get the most out of your email. The Third Edition is totally updated and revised to cover Outlook 2013/2010 & 2007 email management in detail. There are all sorts
A few questions from readers about their ISP (Internet Service Provider) based email service that comes with their internet access. We’ll try to explain what normally happens. Keep in mind that each ISP has it’s own rules so you should check with them. Michael B writes: “Once I switch to RoadRunner,
If you thought email scams were all about Nigerian princes and unknown lottery wins, think again. An Omaha man has lost his job after being tricked into sending $17 million of company funds to scammers. The tricksters sent emails that appeared to come from the CEO and its auditors, but
We ignored all the hype and spin to spend some time ourselves with the new Outlook app on various devices. Here’s what we’ve found so far … Microsoft has released its own Outlook app, it’s hyped as a combined email, calendar and contacts app. You might like to get the
Here’s how to troubleshoot your Outlook connections to POP, IMAP and SMTP accounts. Outlook has a ‘Test Account Settings’ button that makes testing a lot easier (also Auto Configuration for many accounts). It’s there when you setup or change account settings. Click on the button and Outlook will try to
It’s hard to move from an email account you’ve used for years, but there’s a simple way to make the move easier. The main reason why Internet Service Providers give email accounts with all their connections (dial-up or broadband) is to make it harder for you to switch to another
Many reports about hacking into ‘Outlook’ had many regular Outlook software users rightly worried, especially if they are in China, Hong Kong or Macau. Don’t panic – a lot of the reporting was poorly worded and showed an ignorance of the difference between Outlook software (as sold/rented with Microsoft Office)
