Outlook

Miscellaneous

• Summary of keyboard shortcuts can be found here.

References

• Microsoft Office 2007 Resource Kit (official documentation from Microsoft)
  • Documentation page
    • Security for the 2007 Office release
    • Group Policy overview for the 2007 Office release
  • Administrative template (ADM,ADMX,...) files
    • Use 7-zip to decompress this file without installing it. Don't miss the summary excel sheet inside.
• Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003, By Sue Mosher, Robert Sparnaaij, Charlie Pulfer, David Hooker.
  • Excellent book for administering Outlook 2003. Content can be browsed/searched on Google Books.
• Excellent 3rd party page on Outlook policy: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/policies.htm
• Folder with interesting policy settings on Outlook [1].

Important Registry Keys

Apparently important registry keys are under:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook]

Unlocking

Account Settings

To unlock access to Account Settings (error "This feature has been disabled by your system administrator"), the following registry key must be set to 0 (for Outlook 2003/2007):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Setup]
"ModifyAccounts"=dword:00000000

Cached Exchange Mode

The following keys were set in my configuration, preventing to change the settings related to Cached Exchange Mode. In particular the mode selection was disabled, ie. the options Download full items, Download headers and then full items, Download headers were all grayed out.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Cached Mode]
"CachedExchangeMode"=dword:00000001
"Enable"=dword:00000001
"NoDrizzle"=dword:00000001
"NoFullItems"=dword:00000001
"NoHeaders"=dword:00000000
"NoManualOnlineSync"=dword:00000001
"SyncPFFav"=dword:00000001

To unlock all settings, and eg. allow download full headers, simply delete values CachedExchangeMode, NoDrizzle, NoFullItems, NoHeaders, and NoManualOnlineSync (ie. all but Enable and SyncPFFav).

Move .pst to another location

Follow the simple procedure described here:

1. Open Outlook - Configure your GMail account as detailed here. Stop Outlook.
2. Open Control Panel → Choose Mails → Click on Data files.
3. Select the Account name and check for the location of the PST file. Leave the window open.
4. Open the folder containing the PST. Move the PST to the desired location.
5. Do NOT rename the file - if you do Outlook creates a new file in the default location again.
6. Switch to the Data Files window (as opened in Step 2) and double click on the PST file location.
7. Outlook displays an error window, Ignore the error, and point to the new location. Close the windows.
8. Outlook may create a new PST in the default location again, delete it, in such a case.
9. Restart Outlook.

Macro

Installation

To install a macro:

• Alt-F11 in Outlook
• Open Project1 → Microsoft Office Outlook Objects → double-click ThisOutlookSession
• copy/paste code
• close & save

If required, change the macro security settings:

• Tools → Macro → Security → Macro Security → Warning for all macros (You'll have an annoying popup at startup)
• Tools → Macro → Security → Macro Security → 'No security check for macros (no pop-up but since you'll always click yes anyway...)

Send & Save

Reference: [2]

Lotus Notes can prompt the sender to specify what folder a message should be saved in. In Outlook, you can set the storage folder on the Options dialog. This VBA code reproduces something closer to the Notes behavior by popping up the Select Folder dialog when the user sends the message. (see here and there)
UPDATE: Avoid treating appointments as it fails.

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, _
    Cancel As Boolean)
  Dim objNS As NameSpace
  Dim objFolder As MAPIFolder
  Set objNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
  If TypeOf Item Is MailItem Then
    Set objFolder = objNS.PickFolder
    If TypeName(objFolder) <> "Nothing" Then
         Set Item.SaveSentMessageFolder = objFolder
    End If
  End If
  Set objFolder = Nothing
  Set objNS = Nothing
End Sub

If you don't want this pop-up all the time but to sort on casual base, you can use the built-in option:

• While writing a new mail, select "Options" tab (not the "Options" toolbar) -> "Save Sent Item" button -> Other Folder -> Select

Export contacts to .VCF files

'==========================================================
'==     VB Script to Export Outlook Contacts to vCard (vcf) files
'==
'==           Copyright © 2008, Dave Moats
'==
'== This sample is provided 'AS-IS', without any
'== express or implied warranty. In no event will the
'== authors be held liable for any damages arising from
'== the use of this sample code.
'==
'== Permission is granted to anyone to use this sample
'== code for any purpose, including commercial applications,
'== subject to the following restrictions:
'==
'== The origin of this code must not be misrepresented;
'== you must not claim that you wrote the original code.
'==
'== If you use this code, an acknowledgment in the
'== documentation is requested - shown below:
'==
'==             Portions Copyright © 2008,
'==        Dave Moats (http://www.davemoats.com/).
'==
'==========================================================

'==========================================================
'== NOTE: watch for wrapped lines and html special
'==        characters in the web representation of this
'==        sample code
'==========================================================

'==========================================================
'==
'== exportContacts.vbs - a script used to export contacts
'==                        from outlook and save them in
'==                        vcf format
'==========================================================
option explicit

'==========================================================
'== declare the local variables to be used
'==========================================================
dim scriptName, namedArgs, folderPath

'==========================================================
'== get the name of the running script
'==========================================================
scriptName = wscript.scriptname

'==========================================================
'== get the named command line arguments
'==========================================================
set namedArgs = wscript.arguments.named

if not namedArgs.exists("p") then
   wscript.echo "Usage: " & scriptName & " /p:<output folder path> is required"
   wscript.echo "Example: cscript " & scriptName & " /p:c:\path to the folder"
   wscript.quit
else
   folderPath = namedArgs.item("p")
end if

set namedArgs = nothing

'==========================================================
'== now call the subroutine that does all the work
'==========================================================
exportToVCF folderPath, ".vcf"

wscript.quit

'==========================================================
'== sub exportToVCF - subroutine that connects to outlook
'==                   and exports all contacts to the path
'==                   specified in the exportPath argument
'==========================================================
sub exportToVCF(exportPath, ext)
   
    '======================================================
    '== declare the local variables
    '======================================================
    dim outApp, fldContacts, contactEntry, exp

    '======================================================
    '== create the outlook object and then get the contacts
    '======================================================
    set outApp = createobject("Outlook.Application")


    '======================================================
    '== FIXME : put fold and subfolder structure here
    '======================================================
    set fldContacts = outApp.getnamespace("MAPI").folders("Personal Folders").folders("Sync2Mobile")

    '======================================================
    '== here we are looping the entries in the contacts
    '== folder looking for contacts - when a contact is
    '== found it will be exported
    '======================================================
    for each contactEntry in fldContacts.items

       if typename(contactEntry) = "ContactItem" then

          dim tmpString, tmpArr, periodLocation, outPath

          tmpString = contactEntry.FileAs
         
          '================================================
          '== creating the name of the vcf file based on
          '== the first and last name fields of the contact
          '================================================
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "'", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "<", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, ">", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, ":", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, """", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "/", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "\", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "|", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "?", "" )
          tmpString = replace( tmpString, "*", "" )

          tmpArr = split( tmpString, "," )

          if ubound( tmpArr ) <> 1 then
             wscript.echo tmpString & ext
             outPath = exportPath & "\" & tmpString & ext
          else
             if tmpArr(0) = "com" then
                wscript.echo trim(tmpArr(1)) & trim(tmpArr(0)) & ext
                outPath = exportPath & "\" & trim(tmpArr(1)) & trim(tmpArr(0)) & ext
             else
                wscript.echo trim(tmpArr(1)) & " " & trim(tmpArr(0)) & ext
                outPath = exportPath & "\" & trim(tmpArr(1)) & " " & trim(tmpArr(0)) & ext
             end if
          end if
         
          contactEntry.saveas outPath, 6

       end if
    next
   
    '======================================================
    '== dumping the object references that were created
    '======================================================
    set fldContacts = nothing
    set outApp = nothing

end sub