outlook

Stay safe while using e-mail

The third of my three updates to the 10-Step Security story I wrote back in 2005 covers steps seven through 10, which deal with e-mail safety. (Last week, I refreshed steps one, two, and three, which address Windows security, and steps four, five, and six that cover safe browsing.)

Three years ago, e-mail was the source of most PC virus infections, but that's no longer the case. Now you're more likely to catch a piece of malware from a Web site, whether by downloading a file or simply by opening a booby-trapped page.

Does this mean you may … Read more

Microsoft expands licensing program for mobile Exchange

Microsoft announced Thursday it expanded its Exchange ActiveSync IP licensing program and posted technical documents to spur development of prototype applications that link to its Exchange Server and Exchange ActiveSync-enabled mobile phones.

The Exchange ActiveSync software is designed to allow mobile phones to receive wireless push e-mail, as well as synchronize calendar, contacts and tasks. It also aims to allow companies to manage wireless devices and enact security policies.

The software giant also posted the protocols on the Microsoft Developer Network and expanded the licensing program to establish greater clarity on the steps and licensing terms that are needed when … Read more

Outlook and Google Calendar become one

For anyone who relies on a digital calendar to keep them on track, Google Calendar Sync is a must-have application. The free download isn't fancy or even pretty--a simple log-in and options list comprises the system tray icon. However, the meat of the application is what it can do, which is flawlessly add details of Outlook calendar items to Google's Calendar, and vice versa if you so choose. At any time, you can make it unidirectional in the options, and how often the tool updates is entirely up to you.

Syncing your Google and Outlook calendars

Last January, a Worker's Edge post described how to swap data between your Google Calendar and the calendar in Outlook 2003 or 2007, using the import/export functions of each product.

A few months later, Google released a free program that not only moves data between the two calendar apps, but it also syncs the calendar entries automatically at the interval of your choice.

Google Calendar Sync is so fast and simple to use that my calendars were synced before I knew it. When you install the program, you're asked where you want to place the utility's … Read more

AMD issues fourth-quarter warning

Advanced Micro Devices warned Thursday its fourth-quarter revenue will come in significantly lower than previously expected, due to weakness across all regions in all its businesses.

AMD shares were climbing back up in the morning, after having dipped to as low as $1.92 just after the markets opened.

The chipmaker said Thursday it expects to post revenue of $1.19 billion in the quarter ending December 27, excluding process technology license revenue. That's 25 percent below its third-quarter performance.

When the company reported its third-quarter revenue of $1.59 billion (excluding the process tech license revenue) in October, … Read more

Outlook plug-in Xobni gets deeper social hooks

The popular Outlook extension Xobni (download) is getting hooks into additional data sources. The service, which to date has given users historial detail about the people they communicate with in e-mail, is now extending its lookup to more social networks and other data sources.

Now, when a user is viewing a person's record, in addition to showing the user the Outlook history, it will also look up communications with that person on Yahoo Mail, and let you connect with them on Skype.

More interesting, I think, is its expanding hooks into social networks: In addition to its previous LinkedIn … Read more

Taglocity bringing Gmail features to Outlook

Taglocity, a company that aims to provide streamlined e-mail services to the enterprise, announced Thursday that the latest release of its add-in for Outlook will bring much of the functionality already offered in Google's Gmail application to Microsoft's e-mail client.

According to the company, Taglocity 2.0 will bring enhanced search, conversation threading, tags, and automation--all features already found in Gmail--to Outlook. The software will allow users to assign an unlimited number of tags to any Outlook item and automate mundane tasks by running actions once tags are set. The company claims that Taglocity 2.0 will be … Read more

Four essential tweaks keep Outlook simple and safe

You can't expect any application as complicated and full-featured as Microsoft Outlook to suit you perfectly right out of the box. Here are the Outlook adjustments I rely on to make the program safer and easier to use.

Send and receive mail in plain text In a previous post, I described how to make sure Outlook shows all incoming mail as plain text. Quick recap: in Outlook 2003, click Tools > Options > Preferences > E-mail Options, and in the Message Handling area, check "Read all standard mail in plain text." To do the same in Outlook … Read more

View HTML mail from trusted senders, plain text from others

My previous post described how to create a quick-and-simple HTML e-mail newsletter. I mentioned that you should view the plain-text version of the newsletter so you could see how it looks to recipients who have HTML mail disabled.

But what if you're on the receiving end? How can you ensure that you see the full-color, fancy-format HTML messages sent to you by people or organizations you trust, but are protected from potentially malicious HTML mail from bad guys? In Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007, it's easy.

Customize Outlook's message view Start by setting Outlook to view messages … Read more