Sunday, June 29, 2014

Adding Images To The Windows Live Mail Signature

Did you recently come across an e-mail with an image signature? You can have one too! To add an image signature to all your outbound e-mail you can either contact your Windows Live support, or follow these instructions to do it yourself.

Instructions
  •  Start by composing a new e-mail. If you are using Outlook Express or Windows Mail make sure rich-text format is selected.
  • Design your signature in the empty message column, writing the text to be displayed and editing it by making use of the rich-text compatible formatting tools. You can change the font face, size, color and alignment.
  • Assign space to insert the animation or image of your choice. You can even add a website link to the image if you wish to. Click to bring the pointer to that space.
  • Click on the Insert tab and then click on Single photo. It is preferable to edit your image to the required size before you insert it. The most suitable extensions when selecting an image are jpg, png or gif.
  • If you want to add a website link to the image, click on the image and then press Ctrl+K. A pop-up dialog box will appear on the screen. Copy and Paste or type the full URL into the box and then press Enter to embed the link to the image.
  • Press F12 to save the file as an HTML file. Navigate to a location to save this file in, and type in a relevant file name.
  • Before you proceed any further, you need to copy the file location of the image you want to upload to your clipboard.
  • Next, you need to open the file you just created, using a Notepad or an HTML editor. Browse to the file in your file browser and right-click it. Select Open with, and choose your preferred Notepad application from the list.
  • Even if you do not know HTML and the file looks like complete gibberish to you, look through the file and locate src=”Some_gibberish”. Select the value inside the quotes and press Delete. Since the file location is already in your clipboard, paste this value instead. Make sure the file location of the image lies inside double-quotes. Press Ctrl+S to save this file and then close it.
  • Open Windows Live Mail and click on Ctrl+Shift+O to open the Options menu. Click on the Signatures tab, click New, and then File in succession. Browse to the file location of your HTML file and press Enter.
If you have any queries, or are facing problems creating the image signature, feel free to contact our Windows Live support!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Fixing The Outlook Not Opening Error

Over the years, Outlook users have reported many errors that they encountered in the mail client. Sometimes Outlook will not load when you try to launch it in the system. Sometimes the messages will remain stuck in the Outbox folder, and will never be sent to the recipient addresses. These problems can be easily resolved by following the troubleshooting instructions provided at the Outlook support website.

How to fix the Outlook will not load error?

Microsoft has put in place some software repair tools in the MS Outlook application itself. You can execute some commands to access these tools. Also, the Outlook Inbox repair tool called Scanpst.exe will be there in one of the Outlook or MS Office folders. You just need to run a system search to find this tool.
Running the Scanpst tool will fix most of the PST errors in Outlook. PST or Personal Storage Table is the data format used for saving the Outlook files in the system. Errors and file corruption among PST files are quite common. This might be why your Outlook application is showing all these errors.

So, running a scan using the Scanpst tool every now and then will detect most of the PST errors in time, and repair them before resulting in any major Outlook errors. If you are experiencing some Outlook errors, then resetting the Outlook folders and the calendar reminders might sometimes fix the issue.

Microsoft has provided such an option for resetting the Outlook folders, which can do from the OS command prompt or the Run command execution box. Here is how to do it. First, make sure that you have closed the Outlook application. Check the task manager to see if the application is running in the background.

Now, go to the Start Menu and launch Run command execution box you see there. Here, you need to enter the following command – outlook/resetfolders. This will ensure that the Outlook files are reset, and all the corrupt files are removed from the Outlook folders. But it does not mean that you will lose any of the data stored in these Outlook folders.

Similarly, you can run the outlook/cleanreminders command for resetting the Outlook Calendar reminders. Sometimes Outlook errors are caused by the corrupt calendar or reminder entries. This command will clear out those corrupt files from the Outlook folders.

These are just some of the tips for fixing the Outlook errors. For more information, visit the Outlook support website.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

How To Configure Outlook With UIC ID

Microsoft has released various email client programs and Outlook is one of them. This email client will help you add internet email accounts and then use the same to download emails to the computer. Now, if you have a UIC netID, then you can configure emails with it so that you can download the emails received on your UIC netID to your computer. Let us now go through the steps involved.

Steps Involved
  • Go the desktop window and double click the icon for Microsoft Outlook. 
  • When Outlook comes up, choose the option File and then select Account Settings. The Account Settings option might be present under the option Tools in some versions of Outlook. 
  • In the window for Account Settings, select the option Mail. 
  • Click the option Add in the window. 
  • Mark the option Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP or HTTP and select Next in the first window. 
  • Check the box for Manually configure server settings or additional server types and click Next. 
  • Choose Internet Email in the subsequent window and click the button Next. 
  • Under the heading Login Information, enter your UIC netID. Keep in mind that you should not enter the part @uic.edu here. 
  • Type the ACCC password in the field for password. 
  • If you are using a personal computer, mark the option Remember password. 
  • Leave the option for Secure Password Authentication (SPA) unchecked. 
  • Select the button More Settings and click the tab Outgoing Server. 
  • Under Outgoing Server, mark the option My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication. 
  • Choose Use same settings as my incoming mail server. 
  • Go to the tab Advanced. Here, select SSL for the option, Use the following type of encryption connection: for your Incoming server. Once you choose SSL, the port number for Incoming Server will change to 993 from 110. However if you are using POP, the port number will be changed to 995. 
  • For IMAP users, the port number is 587. 
  • In the option for Use the following type of encryption connection, select TLS. 
  • Choose the button OK. 
  • Choose the button Test Account Settings to test the entered Outlook setting. 
  • Select Next in the window for Add E-mail Account and then Finish completing the setup. 
With the above steps, you can configure Outlook with your UIC netID. For further assistance on Outlook setting or configuration, contact our technical support team.

New Features In Microsoft Outlook.Com

Popular free email service Outlook.com from Microsoft gets a slew of new features that include Advanced Rules, a new Undo option and in-line reply starting this May. These features are designed to make your inbox and consequently, your work, more organized.

“Starting today, we are releasing Advanced Rules and three other features, all to help you keep your inbox in top shape and make it even easier to see the email that matters to you,” reads the Official Microsoft Office blog post announcing about the new updates. Hence, if you were planning to get Microsoft Outlook email client, think again!

True to their word, these new features give more control in the hands of the user in terms of arrangement of the mails in the inbox. The new Advanced Rules feature enables the user to create multi-condition, multi-action rules that include time constraints, email tallying, checking read/unread email state and more. The prior existing rules can now be clubbed together and customized in a way that suits you. For example, you can set the rules in such a way that any e-mail from your contact that is yet to be opened three days after receiving will automatically be flagged as important.

Microsoft finally added the in-line reply feature that was standard in Google mail stating “Almost 8 million times a day” use of the Reply button. This feature saves a lot of time by allowing Outlook.com users the ability to reply to an email in the same view.

Apart from all these features, the new Undo option, which is similar to the Ctrl + Z function, helps you undo an accidental move. Let us say you accidentally moved an e-mail into the wrong folder. You would have to enter that folder and move it back to the folder you originally planned to send. But using the undo function, you can revert your action with the press of a button. Some of the actions that can be undone by this feature are categorization, flagging, moving emails to junk, and moving back an email that was moved to a wrong folder.

Apart from these features, Microsoft eased up the process to start a conversation in the chat system. You can just click on the user you want to start the conversation with from the tilted view box in the bottom left corner of the screen.

With all these features and updates in Outlook.com, it would not make logic to get Microsoft Outlook client instead of using the Outlook.com web service for regular uses.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

How To Import Gmail And Hotmail Contacts In Outlook?

Organizing contact lists in multiple accounts is a difficult task. If organizing the contact list on multiple accounts has perplexed you, then it will be better to import all the contacts in the Outlook 2010 program as it provides a very easy way to manage the contact list. With the help of the Outlook import wizard, you will be able to instantly import Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo contacts to the Contact folder of the Outlook program and then organize them under one window. This article discusses the ways to import Hotmail and Gmail contacts list to the Outlook program. The Outlook setting steps to be done are same for all the other email services.

Exporting Hotmail Contacts
  • Turn on your computer and open the Hotmail window. Click on the Contact list that is located on the left sidebar. 
  • This will open the Contacts main window. In the contact list, check the box that is located near to Name title to select the complete contact list. From the Manage drop-down list, you can select Export. 
  • Type in the Captcha correctly and then select the Export button to save this file on the local drive. 
Exporting Gmail Contacts
  • Open your Gmail account and select Contacts from the left sidebar.
  • In the main Contacts window, select the Export option located under the export window. Select Everyone (All Contacts) checkbox and from Which Export format, select the Outlook CSV format option.
  • Click on the Export button to save the contacts list on the local drive.
Importing Contacts In Outlook
  • Open the Outlook 2010 program. In the File menu, select Open and then finally click on the Import button. This will bring up the Import and Export Wizard. Choose Import from another program or file option from the list and then click on the Next button. Select Comma Separated Values (DOS) and select the Next button. 
  • Click on the Browse button to select Gmail contacts CSV file and then on the OK button. Enable Do not import duplicate items to prevent duplicate contacts from being imported and click on Next button. You may then Map the contact list by selecting Map Custom Fields. Click on the Finish button to end the wizard. 
These are the Outlook setting steps to import Gmail and Hotmail contacts in the Outlook program. For further help, you can contact our tech support team.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Microsoft Office Features

Google and Microsoft are competing with each other over the provision of more products and services than you’d care to count. With Google offering document editing, cloud storage and many other free applications, Microsoft has now introduced its own online free streaming suite of business applications, which goes by the name, "Office Website Apps". These useful applications provide users free versions of popular desktop applications like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc. What is most exciting is Microsoft’s SkyDrive system, which provides 25 Gigabytes of free storage online, for storing files on the software giant’s SkyDrive system.

But, it is not all good as some of the online designs do not have all the features that you see in the Microsoft Office 2013 products you operate in your PC. It is now obtainable to users located around North America, the United Kingdom etc. You can use it with the help of IE7 and later, Firefox 3.5 etc. It supports a huge range of mobile devices such as Blackberry, Nokia S60, iPhone, etc.

In order to get documents through your computer system into the Office Website Apps, you need to send them through the SkyDrive system. It can be done, but the problem is that the functionality should be available in the many Office applications.

The new Microsoft Office 2013 has introduced many refinements and user-interface enhancements for connected users. The layout design features are much better in this version. Now, it is possible to directly embed films or photos into Word documents. There are various additional features in Office 2013, including extended file format assist, UI updates, etc. Office 2013 works on IA-32 and x64 units, but it requires Windows mobile 6, Windows Server R2 or newer versions of either. There is a version of Office 2013 that works fine on Windows RT devices. It is interesting to note that Office 2013 is more “cloud-based’ than all the past versions. Since cloud computing and mobility figures a lot in the future of business, Microsoft is getting geared up for the future. This is why there is more focus on “cloud based” technology. The Redmond-based giant is pushing for integration between its desktop based applications, and your data stored on Microsoft servers.

For more Office related news, you can go to the official Microsoft website. You can also learn such news from Microsoft help forum. Microsoft help forum has various threads discussing a variety of technical and news related topics.