by Erik Eckel  | Apr 16, 2007 5:53:00 PM

Takeaway: IT consultant Erik Eckel shows you how to effectively store old e-mail while maintaining accessibility to archived messages.

This article is also available as a TechRepublic download and as a TechRepublic gallery.

Is e-mail getting you down? Do administrative limits keep you pruning precious messages and attachments from your Inbox? Or worse, do you have to import numerous unneeded messages every time you must recover a single e-mail message?

There's a better way.

Organizations and employees, of course, are increasingly dependent upon e-mail. From correspondence with customers and clients to strategic communications with colleagues, vendors, suppliers, and others, e-mail has become a business critical application.

Information technology departments have responded accordingly. Back-end e-mail servers are often well-hardened, run on dedicated systems, and feature intricate remote or offsite backups. But an age-old problem remains: how to effectively store old e-mail while maintaining accessibility to those messages.

The PST file

Microsoft's answer has been the PST (Personal Storage File) file and a complex archiving dance. Redmond uses the PST file to store Calendar items, e-mail, Journal entries, and Tasks on local Windows workstations. Users are responsible for proper archiving (which requires specifying archive periods, file locations, folder and subfolder locations, etc.).

The PST file format, meanwhile, is used with the Microsoft Exchange Client, Windows Messaging, and Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000/2002. Microsoft Outlook 2003 introduced new functionality with support for Unicode data (as opposed to supporting only ANSI text encoding), meaning older versions of Microsoft Outlook encounter trouble when trying to access or open PST files from newer editions.

The Outlook 2007 PST file, like its Outlook 2003 counterpart, is not compatible with Outlook versions 2002 and earlier. However, Outlook 2003 and 2007 can open PST files created by earlier Outlook versions.

The PST files themselves are notorious for corruption. The storage format has proven so delicate (but critical) that numerous repair utilities low cost cialis — the Inbox Repair Tool/Scanpst.exe, EasyRecovery Email Repair, EasyRecoveryFileRepair, Search and Recover, Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Professional PST Recovery Software, Repair PST, etc. — exist for attempting to correct common corruption issues.

The file format has another significant drawback: size. Outlook 2000's PST file was limited to 1.933GB. Routinely in the field, I encounter Outlook PST files in excess of four and five gigabytes.

Outlook 2003 increased the size limitation to 30GB, but the larger the file often the slower the performance. Worse, when PST files do fail irrecoverably, the larger the file size the greater the loss from lost messages, reports, attachments and other information.

Thankfully, there's an effective alternative to archiving Outlook e-mail using only PST files.

Make folders instead

Just use folders.

Within My Documents on your desktop, create a folder titled Email (Figure A). Within that Email folder create subfolders (Figure B) for each folder you've created in Outlook (beneath your Inbox). Within those subfolders, create monthly or quarterly folders (Figure C) within which you place copies (just drag-and-drop them en masse) of every e-mail message you store within Microsoft Outlook. You can also create folders for Sent Mail and, if you're truly into backing up all your e-mail, Deleted Items as well.

Once you've copied messages to the Email folder, you can delete them from Outlook. Thus you receive an added benefit. Outlook will open and operate more smoothly and consistently, as you'll be working with a much smaller PST file (which will power only active e-mail messages, tasks, contacts, and calendar items that haven't been copied to the Email folder and deleted from Outlook). Plus, maintaining a small PST file will keep you out of trouble with the Exchange administrator (who likely implements and maintains strict mailbox size limits).

But there's more. What is the biggest advantage?

Whenever you need to revisit a specific e-mail message or (as is increasingly the case for many) a corresponding attachment, all you need to do is locate the proper folder, retrieve your e-mail, and you're done. There's no need to complete cumbersome import/export processes (that also require numerous other unnecessary e-mail messages and attachments be recovered).

Best of all, you don't even need to remember in which folder you placed an e-mail message. As mentioned previously, the rise of popular desktop search utilities (including the Windows Desktop Search engine built into the new Windows Vista operating system) makes easy work of locating an old e-mail message and/or attachment.

You can even archive messages by month, quarter, or any other period (Figure D). Just create the required folders/subfolder structures (Figure E).

You can even tap Outlook's Task or Calendar functionality to remind yourself you need to archive e-mail. Whenever the reminder appears, copy e-mail messages to your new folder structure following these steps:

1. Open (within Outlook) each e-mail folder you wish to back up.
2. Click Edit.
3. Click Select All.
4. Click Edit.
5. Click Copy.
6. Open the Email subfolder where you wish to archive the e-mail messages.
7. Select Edit from the Windows Explorer or My Computer menu bar.
8. Click Paste. The messages will be copied from Outlook to the new folder on your hard disk.

Manage identical messages

When employing the folder system to archive Outlook e-mail without a PST file, there's one item you need to watch. When you copy an e-mail message from Outlook to another folder on your hard drive, Windows creates the file using the message's Subject Line as the filename (adding the .MSG file extension). If you copy multiple e-mail messages at once that have the same Subject Line, Windows simply appends numerals within parentheses to the end of the identical filenames, thereby creating unique filenames for each e-mail message. It works great.

For example, an e-mail message with the filename Test Message will be copied to a folder within My Documents as Test Message.msg. If two or more messages within Outlook share the same Subject Line, Windows simply makes each filename unique by adding numerals within parentheses to the end of the Subject Line: Test Message (1).msg, Test Message (2).msg, Test Message (3).msg, etc.

If, however, you later add an e-mail message to a Windows folder that already holds an e-mail message having an identical Subject Line, Windows will present the Confirm File Replace dialog box (Figure F).

Be careful in such cases to not accidentally overwrite an existing message. Instead, change the subject line of the existing messages before copying the Outlook e-mails with the identical subjects or, better yet, just create a new folder for the troublesome messages. By manually copying entire folders monthly or quarterly, this problem rarely occurs, however, as all Outlook messages are copied en masse, thereby enabling Windows to automatically create unique filenames.

Find what you need

In the past, just copying e-mail messages to document folders didn't work well, as trying to locate a single e-mail message within thousands of others proved frustrating. With the rise of Google Desktop Search, Windows Desktop Search, and Yahoo Desktop Search, not to mention the fact that Windows Desktop Search is built into Windows Vista by default, locating individual e-mail messages usually requires only that you type a keyword or two within ever-present search boxes (Figures G, H, and I).

Using various available desktop search tools, you can elect to read e-mail message contents within Internet Explorer or open the actual e-mail message (and corresponding attachments) itself (Figure J).

Simple, secure backups

Using an e-mail folder archive system, e-mail backups are greatly simplified, too. No longer do you need to worry about PST maximum file sizes, incompatibilities, or corruption issues. Just backup the Email folder (and all its subfolders) to your backup medium of choice and your e-mail is protected.

Restoring e-mail is equally straightforward. Just copy the Email folder to a PC or server, and messages (and their attachments) are almost instantly available (without the requirement of importing archive files and specifying new folder/file locations within an existing Outlook mailbox).

If you're worried about security, apply the appropriate NTFS permissions to the Email folder. If you're particularly paranoid about securing your manual e-mail archive, you can also elect to apply Encrypting File System protections to the Email folder. To do so:

1. Right-click the Email folder.
2. Select Properties.
3. Highlight the General tab.
4. Click the Advanced button.
5. Check the Encrypt Contents To Secure Data checkbox.
6. Click OK.

Summary

Microsoft's PST file format provides one method of archiving e-mail. Creating a folder backup structure, however, simplifies the process and encourages improved Outlook performance. Mated with any of the popular desktop search engines, archiving e-mail using simple folders helps eliminate many of the headaches associated with more cumbersome PST files.

by Steven Pittsley CNE | Sep 18, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Takeaway: If you've ever tried to transport or share a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation only to discover that essential pieces were missing and it wouldn't run properly, you'll appreciate the convenience and simplicity of the PowerPoint For CD feature. You can even include the Viewer for those who don't have PowerPoint installed.

The Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Package For CD feature is a flexible tool that allows you to either burn a presentation and all supporting files onto a CD or copy them to a specified folder. The package that's created using this tool includes image files, video clips, TrueType fonts, sound files, and other files used by the presentation. The package can also include the PowerPoint Viewer, making it easy to share the PowerPoint presentation with those who don't have PowerPoint installed on their workstations.

Creating a CD

To use the Package For CD feature to burn a CD, start by inserting a blank CD into your computer's CD writer. Next, open the PowerPoint presentation and click File | Package For CD, as shown in Figure A, to open the dialog box shown in Figure B.

Figure A

Figure B

Type a descriptive name for the package in the Name The CD text box. You can also click the Add Files button to add any files you want in the package that are not included in the package by default.

Now, click the Options button to open the dialog box shown in Figure C. Here, you can modify the default settings for creating the package:

• PowerPoint Viewer: When this option is selected, the PowerPoint Viewer is included in the package.
• Linked Files: Includes all the files that are linked to the package, such as videos and pictures.
• Embedded TrueType Fonts: Embeds all the TrueType fonts within the presentation so that they will be available on other computers.
• Password To Open Each File: Enter a password to protect each file in the package, including the PowerPoint presentation.
• Password To Modify Each File: Enter a password to restrict modification of any file in the package.

Figure C

Once you've set the desired options, click OK to return to the Package For CD dialog box. To create the package and write it to the CD, click the Copy To CD button. The Copying Files To CD progress window will appear (Figure D), providing status information as the package is created and written to the CD.

Figure D

When the procedure is complete, the Copying Files To CD window will display the message shown liquid cialis in Figure E.

Figure E

After a few moments, the CD will eject from the drive and the Copying Files To CD window will close. Now you have the option of copying the same files to an additional CD (Figure F). Click Yes to create another CD or No to end the process.

Figure F

Copying to a folder

Although the feature is called Package For CD, PowerPoint doesn't require that a CD writer be installed on the workstation. You can simply create a package and copy it to a folder for sharing with others.

To create a package and copy it to a folder, you follow the basic steps described above: Open the presentation and click File | Package For CD, then enter a package name, click the Add Files button if you want to include additional files, and click the Options button to modify the default settings for creating the package.

When you're finished, click the Copy To Folder button to open the dialog box shown in Figure G. Enter a name in the Folder Name text box and then click the Browse button to navigate to the location where you want the package saved.

Figure G

To finish the process, click OK. The package will be created and copied to the location you specified in the previous step. Surprisingly, you won't be notified that the procedure is complete.

To view the presentation and the files included in the package, open Windows Explorer and navigate to the location where you saved the package. Figure H shows an example of the files that are included in a package. In addition to the PowerPoint presentation and the supporting files, this package contains the PowerPoint Viewer (pptview.exe).

Putting together an educational slide show doesn’t have to be labor intensive. Using PowerPoint’s Photo Album tool, you can quickly assemble a series of screen shots and text slides for distribution as a training resource or as part of an informational package.

Trying to schedule training sessions for end users can be practically impossible — and attendance is never a sure thing, either. One good solution is to put together a series of annotated screen shots that illustrate a procedure or set of features or usage scenarios and create a PowerPoint presentation using those images. You can then distribute the presentation via e-mail, put it on the company intranet, share it on CD, or periodically host a brown bag lunch and run the slide show for those users who can make it.

It takes a certain amount of thought to grab the most useful screen shots and make sure your instructions are clear — but of course, that’s true of any training material or documentation you produce. At least you don’t have to worry about spending a lot of time creating the presentation. PowerPoint’s Photo Album feature makes that part of the process a breeze. Let’s run through the process.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

First steps

Figure A

1. In the Photo Album dialog box (Figure B), you’ll find options for choosing the desired pictures.

Figure B

1. Click the File/Disk button to open the Insert New Pictures dialog box (Figure C).

Figure C

1. Locate and select the images you want to use and then click Insert. As Figure D shows, PowerPoint will place them in the Picture In Album List. You can use the up and down arrow buttons to reorder the images, if necessary.

Figure D

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1. By default, the Picture Layout option is set to Fit To Slide, which is what we want for this example. But with this setting selected, you can’t make any other design changes here. So go ahead and temporarily choose 1 Picture from the Picture Layout drop-down list to activate the other options.
2. Choose a Frame Shape option if desired — we’ll go with Beveled. Then click Browse and locate the design template you want to apply to your presentation. (This is optional, but you’ll probably want to improve the readability and appearance of the slides, and this is the easiest way to do it.)
3. There are various ways to add the instructions that will go along with your images, but to keep things simple we’re going to add a separate slide to hold the explanatory text that will precede each screen shot. To set this up, click the New Text Box button as many times as necessary, matching the number of images in your presentation (Figure E).

Figure E

1. Change the Picture Layout setting back to Fit To Slide and then click Create.

Final setup

The rest of the process is simply a matter of arranging the slides and entering/formatting the text. Figure F shows our sample presentation in Slide Sorter view. As you can see, all the text box slides are at the end of the presentation, so we’ll start by clicking on each one and dragging it to the correct spot.

Figure F

Once the slides are all in place, we can double-click each text slide to display it in Slide view, enter the instructions that will introduce the screen shot that follows, and format the text, if necessary. In this case, we selected the heading text (Step 1, Step 2, etc.) and made it 48 points. Then, we formatted the body text to be 32 points. Once we edited the title slide (which PowerPoint creates automatically for photo albums), the job was complete. Figure G shows the results.

Figure G

Tweaks

This is a somewhat quick-and-dirty way to pull together a training presentation, and you may want to make various refinements. For instance, you might decide to include your instructions on the same slide as its corresponding screen shot, or you may want more than one image per slide. But even with the bare-bones approach we’ve outlined here, you’ll find that you can convey a set of instructions quite effectively with a presentation like this.

PowerPoint also offers the advantage of portability, making it easy to distribute and share your presentation. Just choose Package For CD from the File menu to create a CD that contains all the necessary files, along with the PowerPoint Viewer. (Prior to PowerPoint 2003, this feature was called the Pack And Go Wizard.) You can also export the package to a selected folder instead of putting it on a CD.

When you need to know what objects are being created for a database, you can run generic soft tabs cialis a query against an Access system table to generate a list of all current reports and queries.

Ever wonder exactly what reports and queries are being created for a database? As an administrator, you may need a quick way of determining what reports and queries are being run against a database. Fortunately, Access stores the names of all the top-level database objects in a system table called MSysObjects. You can run queries against MSysObjects just as you would any other table in the database.  Follow these steps:

Figure A

1. In Design view, right-click the first list box and select Properties.
2. Under the Data tab, right-click the RowSource property box and select Zoom.
3. Enter the code as shown in Figure B and click Close.

Figure B

1. Right-click the second list box and select Properties.
2. Under the Data tab, right-click the RowSource property box and select Zoom.
3. Enter the code as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

When you run the form, Access outputs all current reports and queries for that database to the respective list boxes (Figure D).

Figure D

To access other object types, use their type value. For example, to list all the tables in the database, enter 6. To list forms, enter -32768. To list macros, enter -32766.

It’s useful to include some basic information in Access report footers, such as the name of the person who prepared the report. Here’s a simple way to prompt for the user’s name and insert it in the page footer.

Since a report is just a snapshot of a database at a certain date and time, generic cialis review it is helpful to include that information in the report printout. In addition to a time and date stamp, it’s also nice to have the preparer add his or her name to the end each report page. Follow these steps:

1. Click the Text Box control tool and then click and drag in the Page footer section of the report.

1. Select the text in the Label control, type Prepared by:, and format it as desired.

1. Click in the text box and enter the formula below, as shown in Figure A:

=[What is your name?]

Figure A

When you run the report, you’ll see the dialog box shown in Figure B.

Figure B

After the preparer enters his/her name, the report will output with a page footer like the one shown in Figure C.

Figure C