- Date: October 13th, 2008
- Author: Susan Harkins
We’ve all done it, and regretted it — sent an e-mail to the wrong person, sent an angry e-mail in haste, or sent an e-mail with mistakes. I don’t mind confessing my most humiliating e-mail mistakes because they’re so old:
- I sent an article to the wrong publisher. Now, that’s not horrible and as a freelancer, all my editors know that I work for other publishers, but it was still unpleasant because I looked stupid.
- I used the wrong publication name when corresponding with an editor. She responded with a curt, “I work for… ,” and I never received another assignment from her.
Most e-mail clients send e-mail as soon as you hit Send in the message window, and that’s why we get into trouble. Instead of sending each e-mail immediately, let them sit in the outbox. Later (usually a few hours or so), review the messages one last time and then send them. I often find small and seemingly unimportant mistakes, but mistakes nonetheless. Occasionally, I find something more cialis for sale important and I count my lucky stars! Letting a message sit for a while, especially if you’re angry when you respond, will give you a bit of time to rethink and perhaps, even save face.
Outlook is configured to send mail when you click Send in the New Message window. To reset this option so that you control when Outlook sends mail, do the following:
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From the Tools menu, choose Options.
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Click the Mail Setup tab.
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Click Send/Receive in the Send/Receive options.
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Uncheck the Include This Group In Send/Receive (F9) option in the Setting For Group “All Accounts” section. Most of us will set this for all accounts, but you can configure Outlook to handle each account differently.
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Click Close and then OK.
After unchecking the Send/Receive option, you must remember to click Send/Receive on the Standard toolbar to send mail. You can also set Outlook to send e-mail when you launch or close Outlook, or schedule it to send and receive e-mail at regular intervals, so be sure to consider those options as well. You’ll still have to find the mistakes, but putting a little time between creating and sending messages makes it easier to catch mistakes you might otherwise miss.
- Date: September 29th, 2008
- Author: Susan Harkins
If you’re like me, you live and breathe by your contacts. They’re vital to my business, as they probably are to yours. When I’m on the road without remote access, that can be a problem. I know that I can print my contacts, but taking the .pst file with me is much better. (The .pst file contains your contact information.) It’s a simple process:
- From the File menu, choose Import And Export.
- Choose Export To A File and click Next.
- From the list of file types, choose Personal Folder File (.pst) and click Next.
- Select Contacts and click Next.
- Save the exported file to your flash drive (or a CD).
- Click Finish.
To use the file, you can simply import cialis for daily use it into Outlook on another computer. But you should also be prepared to not have access to Outlook. Repeat the above process again, saving your .pst file as Microsoft Excel file and a comma-delimited text file (Comma Separated Values). If the worst happens, you can at least view the information.
Now, you probably already knew that you could export the .pst file. What you might not have considered was how easily you could save that exported file to a flash drive and take it with you.
- Date: October 3rd, 2008
- Author: Mary Ann Richardson
When your users need to run a parameter query while they’re working in a form, this custom button will save them some time.
Users can enter criteria directly into a parameter query’s dialog box, but there may be times when they’ll need to run a parameter query while working in a form. You can add a button to the form that will run a query using criteria entered in a form field. For example, say your company services customers in two states, Missouri and Illinois. You would like to create a query that will allow service personnel working in either state to quickly get a list of their customer data. Follow these steps:
- Open the form in Design View.
- Click on the Text Box tool and then click and drag to locate the control in your form.
- Right-click the text box and select Properties.
- Click in the Name property box and enter txtEnterState.
- Click in the Caption property box and type Enter MO or IL.
- Click on the Command Button tool and click and drag to locate the button in your form (Figure A).
Figure A

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Close and save your form. (In this example, we saved the form as qryFormQueryState.)
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Click on the Query object in the Database window and click New. (In Access 2007, click the Create tab and then click Query Design in the Other group.)
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Add all the fields you want to your query.
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Right-click the Criteria cell under the State field and select Build.
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Enter the following code at the prompt, as shown in Figure B:
[Forms]![frmQueryState].[txtEnterState]
Figure B

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Click OK.
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Close and save the query. (In this example, we saved the query as Customer Query by State.)
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Open the form in Design view.
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Click the Command Button control and then click and drag to locate the control in your form.
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In the Command Button Wizard, click Miscellaneous in the Categories box, and then click Run Query (Figure C).

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Click Next. Select Customer Query by State, and then click Next again.
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Click in the text box and type Run Customer Query by State, as shown in Figure D.
Figure D

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Click Next and then click Finish.
Now when service representatives want a customer list, they simply enter the appropriate state and click the Run Customer Query by State button (Figure E).
Figure E

- Date: October 2nd, 2008
- Author: Susan Harkins
Tweak your Outlook menus and toolbars so that it’s easy to access just the tools you need.
#1: Rearrange existing commands
Most of us use a few commands a lot, and seldom, if ever, use the rest. You can rearrange the commands on a menu or toolbar, making selection a bit more efficient. To do so, choose Tools | Customize, click the Commands tab, and click Rearrange Commands. In the Rearrange Commands dialog box (Figure A), select either the Menu Bar or Toolbar option. Then, choose the appropriate menu or toolbar from the drop-down list at the top of the dialog box. The Controls list box will display the commands, including submenus, as they appear from top to bottom on the menu (or left to right on the selected toolbar).
Figure A

You can add, delete, or move a command up or down (or left and right). Clicking Add will position the new item above or to the left of the selected command. You can also modify the selection by changing its caption and other attributes. Select Begin A Group if you want to add a separator above or beside the selected command. Clicking Reset removes all the customization, in case you need to start over.
#2: Move commands the easy way
You don’t have to use the Customize dialog box to move commands on a toolbar. Hold down the Alt key, click on a button, and drag it to an alternate position or off the toolbar completely. To restore the tool, reset the toolbar or use the Customize dialog box to put it back.
If you remove a custom command, you’ll have to rebuild it if you ever need it again. Consider moving custom commands to a custom toolbar created for the purpose of storing custom commands you think you no longer need. Someday, you may want that command and you can simply restore it from the custom toolbar instead of rebuilding it.
#3: Create custom toolbars
To create a custom toolbar, choose Customize | Tools. Everything you need is right there in the Customize dialog box. Click the Toolbars tab and then click New. In cialis erectile dysfunction the New Toolbar dialog box (Figure B), enter a name and click OK. Outlook will create a new, empty toolbar. Just switch to the Commands tab to add built-in commands to the new toolbar by dragging them from the Commands list.
Figure B

- Date: October 2nd, 2008
- Author: Mary Ann Richardson
By giving a form less data to digest, you can make it run more efficiently. These two tips can help.
The less data Access has to load into memory when you open a form, the better the performance. For example, if a form will be used solely for entering data rather than for data searches, you should change the form’s data entry property so a blank record opens directly. Otherwise, Access will read in all the records in the file before it displays the blank record at the end of the record set. Follow these steps to change the form’s data entry property:
- Open the form in Design View and click the Selector button.
- In the form’s property sheet, click the Data tab.
- Click in the DataEntry property text box and select Yes.
Another way you can improve performance is to use only default formatting cialis en francais and properties for most or all of the form controls. Your form will load faster because Access does not have to load the non-default form and control properties. If you must change the defaults for most of the controls in your form, create one control with the desired properties and make that the default control. To do so, follow these steps:
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Add a control to your form and change its defaults according to your form’s requirements.
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With the control selected, go to Format | Set Control Defaults.
Now, when you add the control to your form, it will have the same properties as the first one. Access saves only the properties of the default control; it does not need to store each control’s individual properties.