My Digital Life

GoDaddy Hosted Exchange - Forwarding to multiple email addresses

The problem: I use several alias email addresses to forward emails to myself and my wife. For example when I make a travel reservations I use an email alias called [email protected] to receive the confirmation. This eliminates the need for me to manually forward the confirmation to my wife. The problem with the GoDaddy Hosted Exchange service is that their Microsoft Email Manager Email Forward feature only allows you to forward to one email address. With GoDaddy's standard SMTP email service, you can forward to multiple addresses.

The resolution: GoDaddy's Hosted Exchange Service does allow you to create Exchange Server rules which can be executed when email arrives in your inbox. Here are the steps I use:

1. Create forward using GoDaddy's Microsoft Email manager under Email Forwards. The display name is the alias email address you want to use and the forward to address is your email address.
2. In Oultook 2007, go to Tools/Rules and Alerts.
3. Under the E-Mail Rules tab, click on New Rule.
4. Under the Start from Blank Rule section, click on Check messages when they arrive.
5. Click Next.
6. Select the check box next to sent to people or distribution list.
7. Click on the hyperlinked people or distribution list (in rule at bottom)
8. Select (double click) the email alias you created in the GoDaddy Microsoft Email manager (step 1). You may have to select the Global Address List under Address Book to view the email aliases.
9. Click OK.
10. Click Next.
11. Select the check box next to redirect it to people or distribution list.
12. Click on the hyperlinked people or distribution list (in rule at bottom).
13. Select (double click) the email address you want the email forwarded to.
14. Click Finish.
15. Click OK.

Now every time an email comes from an alias address you created in the GoDaddy Microsoft Email manager (step 1), it will automatically be forwarded to the other individuals you specified in the redirect step 11/12. These rules will run even when you are not signed in to your email account.

Office 2007 OneNote missing virtual printer

I use OneNote regularly on my Lenovo X60 tablet as well my Dell XPS 720. OneNote has an excellent synchronization feature which allows you to sync notebooks between machines. In addition to note taking, OneNote is great way to store web content. You store web content by printing to the OneNote virtual printer. Last week I went to print a page to OneNote on my XPS 720 and found the virtual printer missing. After unsuccessfully trying to manually recreate the virtual printer, I started searching for a solution.

I found the solution in the comments attached to this post. I ran the Office diagnostics in the help menu. The function recreated my OneNote virtual printer driver automatically. No need to perform the other steps in the post. I love simple solutions...

Now; if the Office team could produce a decent Windows Mobile OneNote companion, life would be grand...

Microsoft finally releases Windows Mobile Office Mobile 6.1

Office Mobile 6.1 has now been officially released for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 6 devices. 

Per the Microsoft web site:

"To allow Windows Mobile users to work with Office documents created in the Open XML formats, Microsoft has developed an upgrade for Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile applications. This upgrade to the Office Mobile applications allows viewing and editing of Word documents and Excel workbooks and viewing of PowerPoint slideshows created by using Microsoft Office 2007

Other improvements include:

• Enhanced viewing experience for charts in Excel Mobile
• Ability to view SmartArt in PowerPoint Mobile
• Ability to view and extract files from compressed (.zip) folders"

This upgrade only works for Windows Mobile powered devices that have an earlier version of Office Mobile. If your Windows Mobile powered device does not have Office Mobile applications, this upgrade will not work for you. You can purchase Windows Mobile full Office Mobile suite from handango.

The .msi install is available free from Microsoft here.

GMail gets IMAP

Google is in the process of implementing IMAP support for GMail (link). I mention in "process", since the option has not yet shown up on my settings page under Forwarding and POP, the new page link will display Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

It looks like they are targeting their help to iPhone users...

Windows Mobile - Office 2007 compatibility update

After announcing the update, Microsoft pulled it from its website. I found a link on Howard Forums which points to a download of the .cab file.

I installed the file last night. It is huge at 6.1MB so I placed it on my Storage Card. The installation created a Windows directory on my Storage Card. I am wondering if the installation would have just overwritten the previous Office Mobile files in Storage Memory. After the installation I got into a continual reboot situation which necessitated the removal of the omap850_sdhc.dll (per my post), very bizarre. I may try reinstalling in Storage Memory.

After I got passed the reboot problem, I synced some Office 2007 files and successfully opened them.

Windows Mobile 6 - Message flags

One of the feature I use daily in the desktop version of Outlook is flags. Flags are very useful to highlight a message and add a reminder without having to create a task. I sort my inbox by flag, then by date received. This provides me with my flagged email at the top of my inbox view. 

In Outlook 2003, flags and categories were linked together. Flags could have categories associated with them. This allowed you to categorize as well as highlight messages with one action. In Outlook 2007, the Office team decided to break out categories and flags. Categories are now separate from flags. From a view perspective this broke the way I sorted my messages, since categories are now sorted independently from flags. I have not been able to sort the messages in Outlook 2007 the way I had them in Outlook 2003. I have found categories to be very useful in the past but now that I can't sort them within flags I find that I don't use them as much. I do however use flags quite a bit and now with Windows Mobile 6 and Exchange 2007 we have the ability to use flags in Mobile Outlook.

A tap on a message displays the menu with the flag options.

The only missing feature in Windows Mobile 6 is the ability to set an associated reminder on the message. Also message flag reminders are not synced to Windows Mobile 6. Hopefully, the next version of Windows Mobile will provide these features.

Office 2007 - Business Contact Manager 2007 for Outlook 2007

Business Contact Manager 2007 (BCM) was finally released on the MSDN subscriber download site this week. As a consultant I have been missing it for the last 3 or so weeks after the release of Office 2007 which did not include of BCM. The only issue I had with the installation was that I needed to un-install the Office Small Business Connectivity components.

An error message with a good explanation. I am assuming these components were installed with Office Small Business Accounting 2006 (SBA). As a consultant BCM provides great integration with SBA to track your billable time which then feeds into the creation of invoices. You can use this feature with calendar appointments. BCM also allows you to create projects and associated tasks which can feed into SBA's time entry feature. The integration is excellent for any small business interested in keeping track of employee time against both billable and non-billable projects and tasks.

BCM adds additional buttons (circled in red) to manage time from Outlook 2007.

Outlook 2007 comparison chart

Here is a link to an Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, and Outlook for Web Access 2007 comparison chart of some key features. I can't say enough good things about Oultook 2007, it contains many new helpful features you can read about on this blog.

Thanks to Jason Langridge for the link.

Outlook 2007 - Viewing multiple calendars

One of the great features of using Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server (I use 4smartphone's Hosted Exchange Service) together is the simplicity with which you can share calendars, tasks, contacts, or just about any mailbox folder. In Outlook 2003 there were two ways to view calendars together, side by side or in group calendar mode which displays a list similar to the scheduling view when you create an appointment.

The side by side calendar view. I just found another view in Outlook 2007, the overlay view. This view is selected by right clicking on the calendar tab and selecting View in Overlay Mode.

The overlay view combines the entries of two calendars into one with the primary calendar displayed as solid blocks and the shared calendar displayed as transparent blocks. By clicking on the calendar tab, you swap which calendar items are displayed solid and transparent.

This is a another very nice feature of Outlook 2007 in addition to being able to view your tasks at the bottom of the calendar view.

Microsoft is offering a free copy of Office 2007 Professional and Windows Vista Business just by viewing 3 webcasts or vlabs for each product set. This is a great offer, you can find out more information at http://www.powertogether.com/.

Office 2007 RTM is available on MSDN subscriber download site

Office 2007 RTM was made available yesterday on the MSDN download site. I downloaded it and installed without any problems.

Here are some caveats:

• If you are using Outlook with Business Contact Manager, you should backup your database.
• If you are using Small Business Accounting 2006 and Business Contact Manager (BCM), disconnect BCM from the accounting system.
• You must remove every Office 2007 beta application and add in before installing the RTM software.
• After installation, if you want the fast search capability you will be pointed to download the new version of Windows Desktop Search (WDS). If you were using WDS with the beta, the new installation will wipe out the index, forcing a re-index.
• Office 2007 Pro is described to come with Outlook with Business Contact Manager, however I could not find Business Contact Manager (BCM). I am still looking for the RTM version of BCM.
• I installed the XPS / PDF add in found here.

Outlook 2007 RTM used my previous profile information from the Beta2TR version so I did not have set up my personal options again.

So far the only inconveniences I found are:

• Having to re-index my system.
• Not being able to find the Business Contact Manager 2007 RTM application.

I will keep this entry updated on my experience.