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Slow Contact Activities search results

Roady [MVP] — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:30:00 +0000

The following was asked as a responds to the previous tip about customizing the Contact Activities view;

I’m a quite frequent user of the Activities section for contacts and I was hoping that I could speed it up a bit by applying a filter to the view as currently come in just way to slow to remain useful. Sadly, the “Filter…” option is disabled.

Why is Contact Activities so slow and is there any way to speed it up?

Find messages with attachments by file extension

Roady [MVP] — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:12:12 +0000

Outlook can find emails with one or more attachments by specifying the "Has Attachments" option. But how can I search for a specific type of attached file? e.g. search for emails having .doc, .pdf, .xls or .zip files etc.

Using Instant Search with Public Folders

Roady [MVP] — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:45:00 +0000

When searching in my own mailbox, I directly get my search results when typing. However, when I do a search in a Public Folder, this is not the case and I have to press ENTER to actually start the search. In addition, several search commands do not seem to work and are grayed out. How can I make Instant Search for Public Folder behave the same as for my mailbox?

Unified Inbox folder for recent unread items

Roady [MVP] — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:11:13 +0000

I'm using Outlook with multiple accounts configured. This is a mix of Exchange, POP3, IMAP and Hotmail accounts so they each have their own Inbox folder. This sometimes makes it hard keep track of all the latest (unread) messages as it requires me to visit each Inbox and sometimes sub folders as well. Is there any way to create a special view or Search Folder which combines all these Inboxes into a single list of (unread) emails?

Search Indexer add-in disabled (mssphtb.dll)

Roady [MVP] — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:01:16 +0000

I'm having some issues with the search function in Outlook and I think it is because the Windows Search Email Indexer is disabled. I tried to enable it but Outlook disables it everytime. Why can't I enable this add-in and how do I get Search to function again?

View all Outlook Social Connector status update messages

Roady [MVP] — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:06:31 +0000

I use the Outlook Social Connector but most of the status update message from my contacts go unnoticed since you only really see them when you receive a message. There are various contacts that I only “follow” and not regularly receive messages from. While I could open the contact or find an old message from these contacts to see all their updates, I was wondering; Is there also a way to list all status updates of all contacts together?

Open Outlook search results in a new window

Roady [MVP] — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:15:00 +0000

When doing a search in Outlook, the main Outlook window is taken up by the search results. Often I want to leave these search results and want to do something else in Outlook. In previous versions of Outlook, search was a separate window which I could leave open. Now, in Outlook 2010, even the "Find Related" right click option on a message no longer opens in a new window. How can I have Outlook open the search results in a new window?

Searching inside msg-files

Roady [MVP] — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:45:00 +0000

Several emails are saved as separate msg-files on my disk. When I do a search in Explorer, I noticed that it only searches in the file name and not inside the message itself. Strangely enough, the search results do show Word documents and other files that contain the words I searched for. How can I make Windows also search inside msg-files which I've got stored?

Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010

Roady [MVP] — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:09:52 +0000

I just installed Office 2010 and each time when I start Outlook I get an installer dialog saying; "Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010" It finishes this process and then Outlook starts normally but when I restart Outlook, this process starts all over again. None of the other Office applications trigger this installer dialog; just Outlook. How can I get Outlook to start without needing to go through this process?

Jump to contacts by typing first letter

Roady [MVP] — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:08:28 +0000

I'm sorting my contacts in a list view (Phone List) instead of using the Business Cards view. With the Business Card view there is an alphabetic index on the right side which allows you to easily jump to contacts starting with that letter. This index is not available in the Phone List view nor does typing the first letter of a name bring me to that contact (like it does in Explorer), instead it starts overwriting a selected name or adds a new contact. Is there any method in making the index available in the Phone List view as well or make it jump through a contact by typing?

Outlook 2010: New features and Cached Exchange Mode

Roady [MVP] — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:25:36 +0000

I’ve just installed Office 2010 but I seem to be missing some new features or they are not working correctly. How can I enable these features?

Accidentally moved a folder and cannot find it

Roady [MVP] — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:36:02 +0000

I've accidentally moved a folder when I tried to select a different folder. I'm now not able to find back the folder anymore to move it back where it belongs. I've got a lot of folders so going through each and every one of them isn't really an option. Is there a way in Outlook to search for a folder name?

Searching for or excluding items with empty fields

Roady [MVP] — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:22:00 +0000

When using Instant Search, it is easy enough to find something when it contains that specific word or category. I can also do a search for items that should not include that word or category by using NOT in my query. However, I cannot seem to find a way to locate all the items that do not have any value assigned at all to that field. For instance; find all items that do not have any category assigned or find all contacts for which I haven't specified their birthday or company. How can I use the search feature to return all items that have empty fields?

Clear recent searches

Roady [MVP] — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:03:08 +0000

I've used the Instant Search feature and it seems to remember my previous search queries. Is there any way I can delete this cache or remove items from it?

Search queries with special characters

Roady [MVP] — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Some emails I receive are having tags in the subject field formatted such as "<tag>", "!tag" and "Ref id #12345". Instant Search does not seem to look at these characters when doing a serch query which skews the search results. How can I search for strings with special characters using Instant Search?