SET A DEFAULT E-MAIL FORMAT FOR SPECIFIC RECIPIENTS Outlook lets you configure the default format for new e-mail messages and gives you three options: HTML, rich text, or plain text. If you've configured Outlook to use HTML as the default, each new message will start with HTML as the format, enabling you to add graphics, formatting, and other rich media. However, some users prefer to receive text-only e-mail messages. You can configure the default mail format to be different from Outlook's overall default format for specific users. This means that new messages you send to these users will be created using the format specified for the recipient, not those you set as the default for Outlook. Follow these steps to set the default message format for a contact in Outlook 2002: 1. Open Outlook's Contacts folder and double-click the contact to open it. 2. In the E-mail field, double-click the recipient's address to open the E-mail Properties dialog box. 3. From the Internet Format drop-down list, choose the format option you want to use for this contact. For example, choose Send Plain Text Only if you want Outlook to use only plain text for this recipient. You can repeat this process for any other contacts for which you want to set a specific message format. But keep in mind that the setting is address-specific, not recipient-specific. You can send messages to a particular contact using different mail formats, depending on which e-mail address you use. If the contact has more than one e-mail address, open the contact form and click the down arrow beside the e-mail address field. Select a different address, then double-click the address to set its default format. If you're running Outlook 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode, on the Contact form, just below the e-mail address you'll see an option named Send As Plain Text. Select this option to send to the recipient using plain text. If you're using Corporate/Workgroup mode, you can only change a recipient's send options if the address is stored in the Personal Address Book (PAB). Open the PAB, double-click the contact, and click Send Options to specify the message format for the recipient. [TechRepublic - 2 Jan 03]    Electric Xml Toolkit: Free And Easy To Use. Working with XML is often tedious and time consuming. But the free toolkit Electric XML simplifies many of these tasks so you can better utilize your time. [Builder.com - 17 Dec 02] [Eric's incoming newsletters]    MOVE A USER'S CERTIFICATE TO ANOTHER COMPUTER Outlook has several functions that require a security certificate. If you don't have a backup of the certificate and the system crashes, the user will have to obtain a new certificate. You can back up and restore certificates using several different methods, including Outlook. To use Outlook to back up and restore certificates, you first need to export the certificate to make a backup. Follow these steps: 1. In Outlook, choose Tools | Options and click the Security tab. 2. Click Import/Export and select Export Your Digital ID To A File from the Import/Export Digital ID dialog box. 3. Click Select, choose the certificate to export, and specify a path and name for the file (use a .pfx file extension). As an option, you can also enter and confirm a password to protect the file. 4. If the user has Internet Explorer 4, select the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Compatible option. Then click OK. Next, follow these steps to import the certificate into the new system: 1. In Outlook, choose Tools | Options and click the Security tab. 2. Click Import/Export, click Browse, and browse for the certificate file. 3. Enter the password for the file. 4. In the Digital ID Name text box, type the name by which you want the certificate to be shown. You'll typically enter the user's name or e-mail address or mailbox name. 5. Click OK to import the certificate. Backing up user certificates is particularly important if your users purchase certificates from a commercial certificate authority. You can mitigate that cost by installing and using Windows 2000 Server or .NET Server's Certificate Services to generate your own certificates. [TechRepublic - 19 Dec 02]    News: Microsoft Releases Mbsa 1.1. Microsoft recently released a new version of Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), which Shavlik Technologies developed for Microsoft. New features in MBSA 1.1 include Exchange and Windows Media Player (WMP) security update detection, full HFNetChk 3.81 support in the MBSA command-line interface, support for Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) during security update scans, compatibility with Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 Software Update Services Feature Pack, and detection for multiple Microsoft SQL Server instances. [Security UPDATE - 18 Dec 02] [Eric's incoming newsletters]    Identify Trends With The Microsoft Data Analyzer. VISUALIZE DATA USING MICROSOFT DATA ANALYZER Do your clients' eyes glaze over when you present them with a spreadsheet full of data? Microsoft Data Analyzer allows you to give your clients an easily understandable picture of their organizations' data so they can identify trends. Bob Watkins explains. [TechRepublic - 18 Dec 02] [Eric's incoming newsletters]    Six Tips For Employing Closed Wireless Networking. Wireless networks must be closed off to outsiders--a difficult task considering that wireless networks are initially available to anyone within their range. Find out how to protect your wireless network from unwanted users. [TechRepublic - 9 Dec 02] [Eric's incoming newsletters]    Get A Snapshot Of Your Server's Performance With Net Statistics. The Windows Performance Monitor gives detailed information about your server's performance, but it takes time to configure and use. Learn how to use the Net Statistics command to get a quicker view of how your servers are performing. [TechRepublic - 9 Dec 02] [Eric's incoming newsletters]    The System File Checker And Wfp. Windows File Protection (WFP) provides a built-in mechanism that in most cases prevents a hotfix, service pack, or application from replacing crucial system files with earlier versions of those files. Read more about this tool and learn a few caveats for using it at the following URL: [Windows & .NET Magazine UPDATE - 3 Dec 02] [Eric's incoming newsletters]    The Year At A Glance Outlook 2000+ Year View, from Planet Software Australia displays an entire year's calendar. It turns Outlook into a year planner, letting you block out days at a time for vacations, conferences, and other daylong and weeklong events. You don't need to be a developer to use this custom control, though, because the download includes an installer that sets up an Outlook folder home page that shows the year planner for any calendar folder you select. The Year View control isn't just for viewing events--you can also create new events. Right-click anywhere in the calendar, then choose New Appointment and pick a color category. The cursor turns into a pencil. Drag it across the days for which you want to create the event. A new Outlook appointment will appear with the category and start and end dates already filled in. All you need to add are the subject and any other details. You can create as many copies of the Year View.htm file as you need to create folder home pages for different calendar folders. Just edit the copy to change the Folder parameter that determines which Outlook folder the control displays. For public folders, you'll probably want to put the .htm files in a folder on your intranet Web server. You could also place the outlookyearview.cab file in a network location and edit the Year View.htm file to point to that file instead of the local drive. [Exchange and Outlook UPDATE - 7 Jan 03]    Tip: Displaying Multiple Folders Within A View Q: Can I show more than one folder within a view--such as the Day/Week/Month view that combines Calendar and Tasks, only with different folders? A: Aside from the built-in Calendar + Tasks view and the Outlook Today page, Outlook out of the box provides no views that combine data from multiple folders. The solution is to use the Outlook View Control (OVC) in a folder home page. The OVC is an ActiveX control that displays a specific Outlook page. Folder home pages are simply Web pages displayed within Outlook, and they can host multiple copies of the OVC, with each instance of the control showing a different folder. You can add the OVC to a Web page, just as you would any other control, and set the necessary properties. The original version of the OVC for Outlook 2002 had a serious security vulnerability, described in Outlook View Control Exposes Unsafe Functionality. Any Outlook 2002 update or Office XP service pack after August 16, 2001, has a more secure OVC. A new version is also available for Outlook 2000, either as a separate download (as described in the security bulletin) or in Office 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3). After you use the OVC to create a Web page, make it the home page for an Outlook folder by bringing up the folder's Properties dialog box and entering the path to the Web page on the Home Page tab. For more information about the OVC, including sample code, see the Microsoft article "OL2002: General Information about the Outlook View Control". [Exchange and Outlook UPDATE - 3 Dec 02]

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"Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."
— Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" by Arthur Conan Doyle. 

"I like deadlines," cartoonist Scott Adams once said. "I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

"There is nothing like that feeling of spending days and days banging your head against a wall trying to solve a programming problem then suddenly finding that one tiny obscure and seemingly unrelated piece of the puzzle that unlocks the solution. Oh yeah!"

- Chris Maunder, CodeProject Newsletter 28 Jan 2002

"Management at eSnipe, which is me, is also feeling the pain of the 2002 bear market. So rather than pout about it, I bought some stuff on eBay that I really didn’t need, but made me feel better."

- Tom Campbell, president of eSnipe