The Outlook Team has an excellent drill down into what is quickly becoming my favourite feature in Outlook 2010 – Quick Steps.

Well worth a read, but in short Quick Steps are a productivity boon.

Previously I blogged about an issue I first encountered with the Windows 7 M3 build (the one that was released at PDC) and my hosted Exchange provider.

In short when running the M3 build and the public beta I was unable to authenticate to my hosted Exchange provider using my email address and password.  Instead I had to find out the domain name and enter credentials in the format DOMAIN\username in order for outlook to connect to Exchange.  This was a bit of a pain.

The good news is that the Windows 7 Release Candidate resolves this issue and I can now authenticate with my email address as I could under Windows Vista.

For those of you who may be running the M3 build of Windows 7 and using either hosted Exchange or accessing a corporate Exchange environment via Outlook Anywhere (nee RPC over HTTPS) there is an issue you may run into. 

When you try to open Outlook you are prompted for credentials.  With most hosted Exchange providers you use your email address as the username.  If you do this on Windows 7 (M3) I have found that you are repeatedly prompted for your credentials but no matter how carefully and correctly you type your password it just keeps prompting you. 

If you run into this issue try entering you username in the DOMAIN\Username format instead of your email address.  I don't know why this works, but I know it does for at least two Hosted Exchange providers.  Contact your hosted provider if you are not sure what the domain name is.

While it is possible to have two Outlook profiles on one machine and to configure these profiles to point to different Exchange environments it has always bugged me that you can only have one profile open at one time.  Until now.

Nick Randolph pointed out a really great little tool that allows you to launch a second, independent instance of Outlook in which you can open a different Outlook profile.

So, without further adieu, we are proud to present you with our "ExtraOutlook" tool that allows you to launch as many Outlook instances as you want. All you have to do is configure the profiles you want, and then type: ExtraOutlook.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE"

ExtraOutlook is available from HammerOfGod.  Groovy.

Since HTC announced the Shift there has been some confusion about how the two operating systems on the device play together.  What can you do in each one?  Do they talk?

Well I have to preface this whole section by stating that as far as I know the software on the unit I had to evaluate is not the final version that will be on the devices when they ship.

In Windows Mobile...

The WM6 installation on the Shift has been stripped down and customized.  It is important to note that even though the device includes the 3G radio there is no phone application.  The Shift is not a voice device.  When you access the WM interface you are presented with a heavily customized Today screen.

This gives you access to your next couple of appointments, the date, time and calendar.  There are also buttons to access your full calendar, email, SMS, contacts, weather information and some settings.

The weather interface is quite nice - cool thunder storms tomorrow :)

The settings button takes you into an explorer view that gives you access:

Notice there are a bunch of things that are usually in WM6 that are missing?  Most of the settings interfaces have been replaced.  Don't expect to add too many applications either.  There is no programs folder so you would have to launch them through the file explorer.  And there is not much memory for running applications either.

The HTC Debug Tools folder in the settings folder gives you a bunch of little utils.  I don't know if this is going to be the same in the released version.

The bottom most icon in that - oops name was cut off - is called USBTool.  This offers a menu with two options - cable in and cable out.  When you select cable in with Vista running it creates a virtual USB connection between the two personalities of the HTC Shift.  This allows you to run up Mobile Device Center and explore the WM OS from Vista.  This makes it easier to set up things like Exchange ActiveSync.

The Windows Mobile OS stays running even when the Vista OS is sleeping or powered off.  If you configure it to use Direct Push you can receive your Exchange email even when Vista is off.  If you prefer or if you don't have an email account with Direct Push, you can use the virtual USB cable described above to sync directly with the local copy of Outlook in the Vista environment.  Of course in this configuration you will only see in WM a copy of what is in Vista.  You will not receive new emails while Vista is not running.

In Vista...

In Vista there is also a Connection Manager type of application that is called - for reasons that escape me - The Shag Control!  This is a fairly clean interface that gives you access to connection management, power management and other settings.  There is a gem buried in there - here's a tour:

Opinion

Given how stripped down the WM OS is I almost wondered why they bothered doing it that way.  I'm not saying that it is not useful - far from it - but I would almost rather that the second OS was implemented as a sideshow host rather than a WM environment.  You would not be able to do the push email, but you could access the data from the local instance of Outlook...  and potentially do a bunch of other cool things.  Food for thought.

Saw this on the Outlook Team Blog.

Here’s a cool trick for Outlook: you can type in date fields!

Suppose I want to set up a meeting for next Friday. In the meeting inspector, instead of clicking on the calendar picker to navigate to the right day, I can simply type “next Fri” into the date field, then press Tab or Enter.

Check out the full post for more details. V. cool.

 The Outlook Team have a very detailed post about how to hide the navigation pane and To-do bar in Outlook 2007. This is a great feature when you are using Outlook on a small screen device or a tablet in portrait mode.

Check it out.

My friend Lee's long wait is almost over - his new LS800 is on the way.  He asked me today what he should do with his new tablet when he gets it.  There are tons of things you can do with your tablet and discovering those things is one of the joys of tablet ownership. 

That said here are 10 tips - things you can do with your new tablet to get you started.

1. Install Vista
   There is a lot to love in Windows Vista if you are a tablet or mobile user.  The Snipping Tool (which is available for XP tablet users in the free Tablet Experience Pack from Microsoft), Pen Flicks, multiple selections in Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer's panning tool, autocomplete for URLs and email addresses, an updated Tablet Input Panel and handwriting personalisation make Vista a compelling offering for tablet users.  You can read more about all of these in this post I did way back in April last year, during the beta.  There are some more mobile friendly features outlined here as well.
2. Make a Mind Map
   Mind mapping is a great way to plan things out or get your creative juices flowing.  I use Mind Jet's MindManager 6 - but there is a new version coming out soon, so that will be well worth checking out.  If you are running it on a small screen tablet, check out my optimization tips.
3. Ink on a PDF.  Tablet users delight in freaking people out.  A great way to do that is to return a PDF form that has been emailed to you by emailing it back within minutes all filled out.  I use PDF Annotator to do this.  Apart from being very efficient it is good fun.
4. Take some notes.  Note taking is where a tablet comes into its own.  If you have OneNote installed you can use that, but if not all tablets (Vista or XP) come with Windows Journal.
5. Do some drawing.  Drawing is great on a tablet.  For the best tablet experience you want something that is aware of the different pressure levels that are reported by an active digitizer.  My favorite is NZ grown ArtRage - even my daughter loves it.  Another good option is the free photo editor Paint.NET.
6. Read a book.  In slate mode a tablet makes a great platform for reading eBooks.  I've used both Microsoft's Reader and Palm Digital Media's eReader and they are both good.
7. Ink in Word - You can use ink in Word to markup documents or to insert ink comments.  If you are using Word as your editor in Outlook 2003 or if you are using Outlook 2007 then you can also ink email messages.
8. Ink on PowerPoint Slides - Another great way to show off in front of the ink challenged masses.  More on that here.
9. Ink Instant Messages - If you use Windows Live Messenger then you can chat in ink.  Great if you happen to be having an IM conversation while on the train (I've done that!)
10. Most importantly of all - Have fun!

Lora Heiny over at WhatIsNew.com is passing along a great tip from Josh Einstien (author of TEO) on how to multiselect emails in Outlook 2007 without using the shift key. 

Josh passed along a great tip. The cursor switches directions so that you can actually multi-select emails without having to use the Shift key.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2007 in normal view mode
2. Move cursor position to the left side of the mail envelope and the right side of the divider, and the cursor direction switches to point to the right.
3. Now, drag the pen or mouse position down et voila! you can select multiple emails.

Great tip guys - works on any PC, but is awesome on a tablet!

Source: How to select multiple emails in Microsoft Outlook
Originally published on Thu, 17 May 2007 05:11:00 GMT by Lora

Rob Bushway invited the Program Manager for Outlook to one of the dinners the Tablet MVPs were having during the recent MVP Summit.  We had a really good and fruitful discussion with him and MS are looking for more feedback on how Tablet and Mobile PC users use Outlook. From GBM:

We met with Microsoft's Outlook Program Manager last night. They are in the planning stages for Outlook 14 and 15, and have requested some specific information from the tablet pc community in regards to Outlook and tablet pc / ultra-mobile pc usage.
What they are looking for is how you currently use Outlook with your Tablet PC / UMPC. Describe your work scenarios when in convertible and slate mode. When operating in slate mode, how are you currently using your pen to interact with Outlook.

This is an excellent opportunity to help MS understand how you use Outlook.  It is not a gripe session!  Head on over to this thread in the GBM Forums, have your say and help MS help you.

One of the features I love in Outlook 2007 is the ability to preview certain file types inside of Outlook.  However I have been mildly frustrated that there was no ability to preview PDF files as I get heaps of them.

However Tim Heuer and Foxit Software have collaborated to create a PDF Preview handler.  The handler will allow you to preview PDF files both in Outlook 2007 and in Windows Explorer (in both cases on Vista only).  Best of all it is free!

Kudos to Tim and Foxit for creating and releasing this previewer.

Hat tip to Warner over at GBM

A couple of days ago I posted about five cool features in the beta of Outlook 12. 

Here's another one - when you get an updated meeting request the bits that have changed are highlighted!  Yay!  No more getting updates and not being able to figure out what has changed!

I got official word the other day that the restrictions on blogging about the Office 12 beta had been lifted - for the client apps anyway.  I'm so pleased because I have been running it in production for a couple of months and I have uncovered lots to lok forward to.

This post is the first in a series of posts where I will highlight some great features in the new versions of the Office Client apps.  I'm going to focus on features that have not been widely reported and that I find myself using and enjoying.

I'm starting with Outlook because I pretty much live in that app.

1) The To-Do Bar - The Mail window has gained a new pane down the right hand side called the To-Do bar.  This pane shows the calendar for the current month, the next three appointments coming up in your schedule and your tasks.  You can open the upcoming appointments or your existing tasks and you can add new tasks.

2) Instant Search - The search is fast!  Type a search term into the search field displayed when you are in a mail folder and the results are paired down as you type.  There is also search term highlighting in both the message list pane and the message body pane.

3) Search everywhere - similar to the above but much more for all mail folders at once.  Clicking the All Mail Items node in the folder list extends the search to all folders in the mailbox and Mail Archive folders (PSTs)!!

4) Quick add Tasks - Right click the flag on an email item and you can add it as a task due Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week or with no due date.  You can also add a reminder.  This is great for tablet users - it can all be done with the pen very easily.

5) Calendar Overlay - I discovered this one by mistake, but it is so cool.  When you open another user's calendar you can view them side by side like this:

But if you click on the little red arrow you can overlay the other user's calendar on your own.  Very Handy!  Look a bit like this: