Shadow Box

Outlook Help - Distribution Lists

• Using mailing lists or groups in Outlook is easy... once you know how to do it.
  
  To create a distribution list from your contacts that already exist in your Contact List follow the directions found at Microsoft Office Online.
  
  
  Create a distribution list - Microsoft Office Online
  
  Create a distribution list using names in the Address Book

• On the File menu, point to New, and then click Distribution List.
  
• In the Name box, type a name.
  
• Click Select Members.
  
• Double Click the name you want to add. It will appear in the Members line below. Do this for each person you want to add to the distribution list, and then click OK.
  
• If you want to add a longer description of the distribution list, click the Notes tab, and then type the text.
  
• The distribution list is saved in your Contacts folder by the name you give it.

What is RSS?

And more importantly how can it help me?

What Does This Mean?

You may recognize the universal feed icon or these “chicklets” from your favorite Web sites, blogs and podcasts. These icons represent content in any format — text, audio or video — to which you can subscribe and read/watch/listen using a feed reader. What's that?

Why is This a Good Thing?

Technology evolution in online publishing has made it really easy to not only publish regular updates to web-based content, but also keep track of a large number of your favorite Web sites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email Inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you're ready.

• Consumer Bottom Line: Subscribing to feeds makes it possible to review a large amount of online content in a very short time.
• Publisher Bottom Line: Feeds permit instant distribution of content and the ability to make it "subscribable."

All information above is taken from Feedburner's site.

RSS Readers

There are several third party readers that are available for free. Some may require that you set up a user account, but it's worth that one time hassle so that later you can begin subscribing to numerous feeds from the sites that you visit most. The two that I would reccomend that you try first would be Google or Yahoo. Google has two options, a news reader or a personalized homepage. If you already have a Google account then this service is already available to you.

Yahoo also offers a personalized homepage so that you can include numerous feeds and other informaiton that may be helpful to you. If you already have a Yahoo account then this service is already available to you.

Once you have a feed reader set up, visit the site you want to subscribe to and click on the corresponding icon in the side bar to add a blog or website to your subscriptions. You will then be able to see whenever there are new updates to the blog.

A side note of interest for Internet Explorer 7 users - they is already RSS reader built in. Subscribed feeds in IE7 will be treated much the same as favorites. Download the beta today and try it out.
The Google Toolbar for Firefox, also has an easy way to subscribe to Feeds as well. In firefox you can also use Live Bookmarks to show you when there has been an update to a site.

Basically the options are endless and free. Choose whichever avenue you prefer and then start subscribing!!

RSS Feeds in Outlook

So you prefer to read the feeds from your favorite sites in your e-mail client such as Outlook?

Office 2007 will make this process a really simple one, but until then you may have to download a third part client, such as Inclue to add your RSS feeds to Outlook.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way for content publishers to make news, blogs, and other content available to subscribers. You can view RSS content in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. Using RSS, publishers can make content and updates available for download by subscribers automatically. The content on all Web sites is not available as an RSS Feed, but the list is growing daily.

How does RSS work in Outlook 2007?

RSS readers, such as the one built into Office Outlook 2007, allow you to subscribe to RSS Feeds and then read content or follow links for additional information. Whenever you see a link to a feed, or an RSS icon such as the one at the top of this page, just click. Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 will automatically subscribe you to that RSS Feed.Using Office Outlook 2007 to subscribe to an RSS Feed is quick and easy and does not involve a registration process or fee. After you subscribe to an RSS Feed, headlines will appear in your RSS folders. RSS items appear similar to mail messages. When you see a headline that interests you, just click or open the item. For more information, read how to add an RSS feed to Microsoft Outlook 2007 and how to read your subscribed RSS feeds. Below is a sample of the many feeds you can subscribe to from around the world. Click on the links that interest you and Outlook will subscribe to them.

Get started Using Office Outlook 2007 to subscribe to an RSS Feed is quick and easy and does not involve a registration process or fee. After you subscribe to an RSS Feed, headlines will appear in your RSS folders. RSS items appear similar to mail messages. When you see a headline that interests you, just click or open the item. For more information, read how to add an RSS feed to Microsoft Outlook 2007 and how to read your subscribed RSS feeds.

Dell Battery Recall

CNet Article is HERE

MSNBC Article is HERE

Tech Dirt Article is HERE

Yes, your laptop can really catch on fire if you have one of these batteries.

Dell has initiated one of the largest recalls in its history for batteries in recently sold Dell notebooks. The models possibly affected are:

Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810

Inspiron: 500M, 510M, 600M, 700M, 710M, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 9400, E1505, E1705

Precision: M20, M60, M70, M90

XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, XPS M1710

Please visit the following Dell website and follow the instructions to determine whether your specific battery is affected. If it is, follow the additional instructions needed to exchange it, free of charge, through Dell.

https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Default.aspx

Customers can also call a toll-free Dell number, 1-866-342-0011, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT.

Dell said the notebooks can be safely used on an A/C power cord if the battery is removed first.

Google Search Cheat Sheet

Are you frustrated with the results you are getting while searching Google? While Google may be the best search engine ever invented it is sometimes hard to sift through all of the search results that come up for a few key words. The Techie Diva has tipped her readers to a Google Cheat Sheet for searching. I know you may not want to memorize anymore shortcuts, but print this off and tape it somewhere that you can see it quickly when you are trying to search for something.

Remember that Google has already made it easier to search for images through Google Images
or shopping through Froogle -

froo·gle (fru'gal) n. Smart shopping through Google.

or even searching for an item in the News.

One last tip - if you haven't downloaded the Google toolbar - DO IT!!!!!!!! It is available for IE or Firefox.


Tags: Google, Technology, Search Engines

Best Free Security Apps

I must get asked this question at least three times a week. Often I am still appalled at the number of people who have ZERO security apps loaded onto their computers. I think that most people are hesitant to continue to pour money into a new program every year when their subscriptions run out (a la Norton or McAfee).

While this may be a valid frustration, your computer must still be protected. CNet.com provides a helpful list of free security applications along with reviews and free downloads at Download.com.
Check out their list and download one that you feel comfortable with. Just remember, protecting your computer now will save your data later. Documents, Pictures, Music, and E-mail can all be lost in an instant by a computer virus. Take steps now to prevent that from happening.

Stand up straight and mind your e-mail manners

Can you remember a time before we had e-mail? I can remember that time, but I can't remember how we communicated. Then e-mail just sort of happened. We learned how to awkwardly do things just to get the job done. Suddenly, communication via e-mail was required and expected as a routine part of our life. Now we use e-mail for work, family, business, and school. And often we are still using e-mail in the awkward way we first learned how to send an e-mail in 1995. Have you ever read about E-mail Etiquette?

The Crabby Office lady has 10 e-mail crabs that she says everyone should pay attention to, especially in the workplace. And for most of them I agree with her. I'll outline her list here, but be sure to click over to her article to capture the wit she intended behind each item on the list. Or you can follow her suggestion to "print this list, frame it nicely, and hang it next to your computer."

Crab #1: Discretion is the greater part of replying

Imagine that you've received a piece of company-wide e-mail from someone in your very large organization. If you feel the need to respond to the sender, rest assured that every member of your very large organization does not want to have to read your reply, no matter how witty or urbane you may think it is. This goes the same for personal e-mail (especially if it's an Internet joke or rumor).

Crab #2: Stop yelling at me

USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS NOT ONLY RUDE AND IRRITATING, IT'S ALSO HARD TO READ. Save your caps for special occasions, such as those times when you want your recipient to know you're shouting. GOT IT?

Crab #3: Save the stationery for snail mail

(For all of you who love to use background color and stationery for your personal e-mail, please disregard this crab. This one is for you people at the office.)

Crab #4: This is not a chain letter

If I send you a nice note and then get a response from you that, at first glance, appears to have only what I wrote to you at the top of it, I'm going to assume you have nothing to say to me (and sent me an empty e-mail message to tell me as much).

Let's put this another way: when you're replying to an e-mail message and you want to include what the sender wrote, add your comments at the top of the mail, not the bottom. I know what I wrote — why would I want to reread it?

That being said, I do see the logic in keeping all the notes and replies in order (my original message on top, followed by your reply, followed by my reply to your reply, and so on). Well, it may be like that in the snail mail world, but we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Adapt. Your reply on top, please — this isn't a chain letter. (And if it is, don't send it to me. But that's a crab of a different color.)

Crab #5: Too many forwards is one step backward

While you can cut some slack for those in your life who have just discovered that Great Oracle of Misinformation we call the Internet, it's just not appropriate, considerate, professional, or even cool to forward these useless things to coworkers.

Crab #6: Don't be a cyber-coward

If you've got something to say to me that is:

• Highly personal
• Scary
• Sad
• Angry
• Tragic
• Vicious
• Shocking
• Any combination of the aboveÂ…

Â…please do it in person. (Actually, I prefer you don't do it at all.) Sentient beings are filled with emotions (and NOT emoticons). E-mail programs aren't the best translators of this.

Crab #7: I love you but not your 500 KB image file

As I see it, there are three main reason why you should refrain from sending really large files via e-mail:

1. It takes a long time to download a large file.
   
   
2. E-mail servers are like studio apartments: there's only so much space to keep everything.
   
   
3. Sometimes you're at the mercy of the ISP
   

So please consider the size the file you're sending. If it's a large image, make it smaller. If it's large document, zip it up using a file compression program.

Crab #8: The subject "Re: " means nothing to me

In other words, fill out the Subject line. I get hundreds of e-mail messages each day, and when I get one without anything in the Subject line, I tend to skip over it. If the subject of the message wasn't important enough for the sender to fill out the Subject line, then it's not important to me. Be gone!

Crab #9: Plain text and HTML are not buddies

If someone sends you mail in plain text format, you can usually tell because: 1) it has no formatting, and 2) the font it appears in is Courier. If you decide to reply to a plain-text sender using HTML format with special fonts and formatting, the text that your recipient receives will look like indecipherable nonsense that needs a Cold War code breaker to untangle its message. Do your recipients a favor: send your reply in the format it came in.

• About message formats

Crab #10: Itchy trigger finger? Count to 10 before hitting the Send button

You're hot under the collar and everybody knows that (and sometimes loves that) about you. But before sending your clever and scathing message out there to the world (with virtually no chance of retrieving it), remember this: the pushing of the Send button lasts a moment; its effects can last a lifetime — or at least until you're back on the streets, looking for another job.

If you use Outlook 2003, however, there is a way to delay that message — kind of like counting to ten before exploding. Learn about how to delay delivery of a message.

"Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices."— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tags: Microsoft Office, E-mail, Technology, Office Etiquette

Firefox or IE??

Are you still using IE?


Have taken a look at Firefox?

Firefox is the brower to have. It is secure and allows more customization than IE.

A recent article praised the upgrades to IE7 that were released in third Beta last week. A Firefox architect says that IE 7 'looks pretty good'.

I will personally stick with Firefox because I am used to it now and resort to IE only when forced to do so for work situations. However, I think that Firefox's increasing market share has made IE a better more secure product and that is a very good thing!


Technorati Tags: technology, Firefox, Microsoft

Picasa editor and Web share

Let's face it... We're all looking for that perfect photo editing program that allows us to make our pictures look better and send them to friends. Well friends, that software product has arrived. It's call Picasa Web, by Google (who else) and it is only in the beta version right now, but that will change in the future. I snagged an invitation to download Picasa Web and I used it yesterday. It is GREAT and did I mention FREE.
I've been using Picasa as a photo editor for some time because it has all of the basic functions I need without having to fire up photoshop every time I want to crop a picture.

• The upside to Picasa for the Web is that you can share photos publicly or privately (which means only people you invite can see the pictures, so they are not necessarily in the public domain).
  
• The second best feature is the ability for the people that you share with to download the pictures at FULL RESOLUTION. This is a breakthrough to me - where it may have been available in other programs before - I never found it or found it good enough to use. This means that someone can download your picture and print it or have it printed at the full resolution at which you took the picture.

• The two minor downsides to Picasa are the storage space. Right now you only get 250 MB's for free, which pails in comparision to the 2.7 GB's they give you for G-mail.
• The second downside is the lack of an integrated photo printing service. Instead of downloading the photos and then going back into Picasa to order them, it would be nice if you could just order your pics straight from the photo album. Maybe this feature will show up in the next version :)

Overall I really like this application and think that is is VERY easy to use. Check it out and sign up for Picasa for Web.

PowerPoint and Notes - Presenter's Screen

I have had tons of questions about this feature in PowerPoint. Since I don't use PowerPoint every day it's hard to keep up with all the features. But in my searching I found a link to another blog that had the directions for using the Presenters view to show the entire show on the projector and to show the presenters notes on the computer screen.

The key to this process is that you have to be hooked up to the LCD projector or another monitor in order to enable the multiple monitors feature.
Go into PowerPoint to finsh the configurations under multiple monitors.

For step by step instructions visit Michael Wyatt's Working Smart Blog.

Outlook: Share your calendar

I have been testing two various calendar programs that would make it easier to create and view calendars for multiple people without having to use the bulky import/export feature in Outlook.
One version is Google Calendar which is another fantastic Google service. This postive features of Google Calendar is the online aspect that you can log in with a Google account and upload your Outlook Calendar. There is a new feature that also allows other people you invite to share your calendar. This is pretty handy when you are trying to manage calendars for staff in different counties and it also gives the agent the ability to add tasks and appointments to the calendar as well.


The new service on the block wil be unveiled in Office 2007 which is Microsoft Office Online: Outlook: Share your calendar on Office Online.
Everyone knows that I am a big fan of Outlook and I have encouraged everyone to adopt this e-mail client. It is easy to use and it gives you much more functionality than Outlook Express or that other program that everyone use to use in Extension. This added feature in Outlook will streamline the process and keep you from using separate programs to take care of one function.

Office 2007 - It's Coming...

Has anyone been keeping up with the development of Office 2007?
Well if you haven't click the link below and check out the new look of Office 2007. The user interface is way more intuitive and you don't have to search inside 5 menus to get to something you need.

Microsoft Office Assistance: Crabby's favorite new features of the 2007 Microsoft Office system

By the way... the crabby office lady writes some great columns and I'll be posting on some of her more famous ones soon, like e-mail etiquette.

The Microsoft Office Crabby Office Lady

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