Use color to identify messages from specific senders

Expecting important mail? Identify it as soon as it comes in by displaying it in a distinctive color. Start by select an existing message from the sender in question, if you have one. If you don’t, that’s okay; you can enter the sender’s name manually. Now follow these steps:

1. Go to the Tools menu up on top and click Organize
2. In the Ways To Organize Mail pane, click the Colors link on the left side.
3. In the first condition statement (we won’t use the second), choose From in the first drop-down list.
4. If you chose a message before starting, the sender’s name will appear in the text box to the right. If it’s the wrong name, enter the right name or the person’s e-mail address.
5. Choose a color from the second drop-down list.
6. Click Apply Color and close the pane.

Afterward, Outlook will display all messages, existing and new, from the person you specified in step 4 in the color you selected in step 5.

Force “Reply to All”

Sometimes you need to talk to your entire team at once and have everybody be in the loop on the conversation. You may be working on a common project or trying to organize an office function of some sort – so you need people to “reply to all”  to make it easy. Then some knucklehead doesn’t follow protocol. Well, good news! You can configure your message to automatically “Reply to all” before you send it. Here’s what you do:

1. When composing the message, click the Options button on the Formatting toolbar.
2. Choose Options from the resulting drop-down list.
3. In the Message Options dialog box, check the Have Replies Sent To option in the Delivery Options section, which will automatically enter your e-mail address.
4. Next, click the Select Names button to the right and select all the appropriate recipients.
5. Click Close to return to your message.

When any recipient responds to the message, regardless of which reply choice they click, the reply will go to everyone you specified in the Have Replies Sent To option.

Show two time zones in your calendar at once

If you work with people from all over the country or all over the globe, scheduling meetings can be a challenge. Yes, their Outlook calendar will automatically display your meeting request in their time zone, but but what if that happens to be 2am their time? I think some modern armed conflicts started this exact way… Anyway, there a way to have Outlook display multiple time zones in your calendar:

1. In your calendar view, right click the time bar on the left side of the calendar, and choose “Change Time Zone”
2. Under this menu, check the box for “Show additional time zone” — and select the one you want to add.
3. Label your time zones and click “ok”

Cool, huh?

Gather your reference items in your Outlook calendar

I looks like not everybody knows about this one. I think everybody should — it’s SUPER convenient. If you have a big meeting coming up – or a business trip to, say, Maui (work with me here..), you’ve probably accumulated many documents and emails in preparation for the event. How to organize them all?  When you create a calendar entry, you can drag and drop a whole lot of things right into the “description” pane — like in the screen shot below. Try it out, it works great!

Use shortcut buttons to get things done faster

Don’t worry, I won’t give you the list of 200 seven-button combinations Microsoft felt it necessary to include (unless they did it before the mouse came out..) — but there are a couple that I use every day and find useful.

• Switch to Mail: CTRL+1
• Switch to Calendar: CTRL+2
• Switch to Contacts: CTRL+3
• Send: ALT+S
• Reply: CTRL+R
• New message: CTRL+N
• Find a contact: F11

1. Make sure the printer is plugged in. It sounds silly (and “of course it’s plugged in — I plugged it in myself”), but check anyway. You may just be surprised.

• Plug the printer in and try printing again

2. Make sure the printer is turned on and that all status lights are green. A red or yellow light may indicate a problem like a paper jam, low toner, no paper, etc..

• Some problems will be pretty obvious. For example, you will easily spot a paper jam by sliding out the paper tray or opening the top cover. Some printers will even show you where the problem is by flashing designated lights or displaying messages on the LCD screen. Other problems will be more difficult to understand. Some older Brother printers, fox example, showed a different combination of error lights and blinking sequences to alert users to common problems. You will obviously need the printer’s manual to decipher those.

3. Make sure your printer is connected to the network (unless it’s connected directly to your PC). There is a network cable that may go into the back of your printer; make sure that that light is green as well.

4. Perform a test. Most printers have a self-diagnostic program that prints out a test page with printer information. The information may include errors, toner levels and other diagnostic data.

• You can usually print the test page by pressing one or more buttons on the printer cover. Again, refer to the printer’s manual on how to do this with your particular model.

5. Make sure that you sent your print job to the correct printer. Sometimes the default printer may be changed through a security update or by another user.

• You can set/reset your default printer by clicking Start>Settings>Printers/Faxes. Right-click the printer you want, and select “Set as Default” from the list of options.

6. Check that your computer is connected to the network. Again, this is important if you share the printer with other computers in a networked environment.

• Open an internet browser and go to a website you don’t go to very often (I use www.nike.com — that should give you an idea of how little I work out) to check if you have a connection. Some computers may cache your common destinations like www.google.com, so this connectivity test won’t tell you much.

7. See if it’s an application error. Sometimes your Word or Excel or whatever application you use can hang up and cause the problem.

• Save your work, restart the application and try printing again.

8. See if the printer shows that it’s “online”. Go to Start>Settings>Printers/Faxes and double-click the printer you’re sending your job to and check its status. If it is “online”, try printing a test page to see if it goes through. If the printer is “offline”, then turn the printer on, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on again. Sometimes rebooting the printer will make it re-register on the network.

• If the printer doesn’t display “online” status after a reboot, it may not be mapping correctly and you may need to call your IT support for help.

9. Reboot the printer. Even if it’s showing “online” in the properties, it may have a minor glitch that will fix itself with a printer restart. Turn the printer off for 30 seconds, turn it back on and try printing again.

10. Restart your computer. Similar to how the application itself may be giving you trouble, it may be the machine. Restart your computer (don’t use “hybernate” or “sleep”) and try printing again.

Any luck? If your printer still doesn’t work, please submit a trouble ticket and an IT MAX Consultant will get in touch with you shortly. If you don’t currently have an IT MAX Support plan for your machine, you can inquire about it here or call 888-77-ITMAX.

• When typing an email or a text, simply push the Space Bar twice to create a period at the end of your sentence and automatically capitalize the first letter of the next sentence.

• When typing an email or a text, hold down a letter for one extra second to capitalize it.

• When in your messages inbox (text or email), use B to get to the bottom of the list, and T to get to the top.

• In the phone application, you can dial 1-888-FLOWERS (or any number that contains letters) by simply dialing 1-888 then press the ALT key to spell out the desired letters. The device changes the letters into a format that the phone system recognizes, therefore dials the appropriate number tones. This also works for spelling last names in a company directory! So, using this method to dial 1-866-ATT-SMBZ would automatically dial 1-866-288-7629.

• To type an accented or special character, hold letter key and roll trackball to the left or right, then release letter key when accented or special character appears.

• When viewing pictures, zoom in by pressing 3; zoom out by pressing 9; to return to center of a picture press 5 and to rotate a picture press L

• To change views in your calendar, press W for Weekly view, M for Monthly view, A for Agenda and D for Day view

• Jump from one application to the next quickly and easily using the Application Switcher – simply hold ALT and click ESC key, scroll to desired application, release ALT

Press and hold the Mute key to ender Standby Mode, this will also:

• Lock the keypad and turn off the LCD (prevents pocket dialing and extends the battery life)
• Mute a conference call
• Pause a song in Media Player

When navigating the browser:

• To move to a specific page, press G
• To add a bookmark for a webpage, press A
• To open a bookmark list, press K
• To stop loading a webpage, press the Escape Key

To copy and paste text:

• Select text by holding the Shift/CAP key and scrolling
• Click Trackball
• Select Cut or Copy
• Move to destination i.e. new email, new memo, calendar entry, etc.
• Click Trackball
• Click Paste (or Shift/CAP and press the trackball)

The most common reaction I hear after we get someone a second monitor for their PC is “I don’t know how I ever lived without it!” Some companies estimate that their information workers are 10% more productive with two monitors through better organization and multi-tasking. I can’t swear by the stats, but I know I’d fight to the death for my dual 20” monitor setup.

Ever wondered how to do this? I just came across a pretty decent DIY guide. Or, of course, you could ask your IT MAX consultant to hook you up!

Both options are compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 and the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.

1. Using Google Calendar Sync to synch Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook

Google Calendar Sync is an official software program by Google that has to run in the background to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Download and install Google Calendar Sync from the download link above. The syncing options can then be configured in the main interface which looks like the following:

Enter the Google email address and password for the account that you want to sync Microsoft Outlook calendar with. Syncing options are provided in the same interface. It is possible to select a 2-way sync which will sync new and changed calendar entries both way or single-way from either Microsoft Outlook to Google Calendar or vice verse. Lastly the time between syncs can be defined in minutes. The application will run in the background on the computer system. It will use about 10 Megabytes of computer memory while running in the background.

A right-click on the icon can be used to access the options and to initiate a manual syncing process.

2. Remote Calendars To sync Google Calendar With Microsoft Outlook

Remote Calendars is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that can be used to subscribe, reload and delete a generic remote iCalendar. Google Calendar is actually offering access to iCalendar in the options on their website. The process would look like the following:

• Install Remote Calendar
• Go To Google Calendar and copy the private ical link. (Select the calendar in the drop down box in the start page, click on Settings, then again on the name under Calendar in the opening page. It should display an entry called Private Address: at the bottom and next to it the iCal icon. Right-click the icon and select copy link from the options.
• Open Microsoft Outlook. A general options screen should show up that can be used to edit the options of the add-in. Close the options once you have finished configuring them.
• You should notice a new toolbar on top that is displaying various options, one of them is to add a new ical calendar.
• Click that option and paste the ical link into the Remote calendar’s url.

Please note that this option will only add Google Calendar entries into Microsoft Outlook. If you want to sync the items both ways use Google Calendar Sync instead.

Just download (save) and install a file from the link below, and Office 2007 files will open just fine.

Download Microsoft Converter Here