The Madness Continues

There has been a noticeable uptick in dangerous emails over the last couple of months. Most recently, a bunch of CNN Top 10 emails that have malicious links in them. Yesterday we started seeing MSNBC News Alerts emails with the same type of malicious links. And we are even seeing bogus Internet Explorer update emails.

The common thing about these emails, with the exception of the IE update one, is they look very genuine right down to the company logos and fancy email layouts. This is all designed of course to trick the reader in to clicking on a link in the message that will cause some type of harm to their system.

Users need to be reminded about the potential problems with email and need to be alert when they see something like one of these emails. Do they have a subscription to CNN Top 10? Even if they do, check the from address in the message, most of the bogus messages we see will be very obvious by the strange from address names. Is the message signed by a famous person or some high ranking official from a foreign country?

Most users are aware of potential problems with email attachments. However, we find that most users are totally unaware of the same, if not increased risk of clicking on links in emails. As business owners and managers we must be aware of these risks and take whatever steps we can to mitigate them. One of the first steps (after making sure you have current antivirus and anti spyware software installed), is to create a process for continually educating and reminding your users of the potential risks within emails and bogus or infected websites. How do you handle this issue? Leave a comment here about how you are fighting or intend to fight this problem.

AT&T / PowWeb Issue

AT&T is currently having a problem routing Internet traffic to PowWeb. PowWeb is a large Internet hosting company that hosts thousands of websites and email servers. We have several Clients using PowWeb for hosting either their website, email or both. If you are using AT&T for your DSL service and you are experiencing problems with your email or accessing your website you will need to contact AT&T as the problem is with there systems.

Of course you can always contact our office for further information.

More information can be found here.

Watch For Windows XP SP3

Microsoft is releasing its latest and final Service Pack for Windows XP to the general public today. Service Pack 3 includes a large amount of hot fixes and a few functionality changes.  Beginning today SP3 will start being offered via the Windows Update Service.  This means that if you have auto updates turned on in Windows XP, Service Pack 3 may be downloaded and installed automatically on your machine depending on how you have it configured.

What does this mean?  During our testing we had quite a few issues with Service Pack 3 on older systems.  We install Service Pack 3 on all our new systems and have had no issues.  So, just be aware that you could have problems.  Of course create a full backup of your system before you apply SP3 just in case.

If you typically install all the Microsoft hotfixes on your computer and your computer is a little aged, I don’t think I would take the a chance with SP3.  Keep up with the standard hotfixes and start thinking about buying a new system.  If you want to stay with XP, even though XP has been retired, you can still get systems with XP on them by using Microsoft’s downgrade program.  But why don’t you give Vista a try? 

NOD32 Update Causing Problems

Eset released a NOD32 virus definition file update earlier today that caused problems. Definition update 3217 caused false positives on some Word files. Within about an hour they released update 3218 which corrected the problem. You can tell which version of data definition file you have by pointing to the Eset icon in the lower right side of your desktop. When you point to the icon a dialog will come up which displays the engine version and the Virus signature database version. Make sure you have 3218 or higher. If not, double click the icon, click on Update and then click on Update virus signature database. This should update you to the current version.

Get Back To Where You Were In MS Word

Sometimes I spend several days working on a Word document (no I'm not that slow at typing). It's frustrating that each time you open the document Word places you at the beginning of the document and you have to get yourself back to where you were working last, if you can even remember where that was! Many times I have had to read through the document to try to remember where I left it.

There's a better way! Simply hit Shift-F5 as soon as you open the document and bingo! The cursor will be right where you were working when you left.

I'm still looking for a key sequence that will create readable content from my ideas. So far Microsoft hasn't helped me out.

Clear IE Temporary Files Automatically

As you browse around the Internet, Internet Explorer creates temporary work files that it uses to speed things up and keep track of various information that might be needed by the websites you are on. These files do not always get cleaned up properly. This can cause IE to do some weird things. Normally you can go into IE Properties and clear the files manually which solves a lot of IE problems.

You can have IE clean the files automatically when you exit IE. This will insure you have a nice clean session on your next IE use. Here's how to set this up...

1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools - Internet Options.
2. Click on the Advanced Tab.
3. Scroll down to the Security Section.
4. Click on the Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When Browser is Closed checkbox.
5. Click Apply.

That's it.

Treo 700w Email Signatures

We have setup Outlook Mobile Access on several Treo 700w cell phones for our Clients. One of the things that several users have noticed is that their Outlook email signatures are not generated when they send or reply to a message from the 700w. This is true. However, it is easy to setup the Treo to send a signature with your emails although they can not be as pretty as your Outlook signatures. Here is how to do it.

On your Treo 700w

Click Messaging
Click Menu
Click Tools
Click Options
Click on the Signatures button
Make sure you have the Outlook E-Mail account selected
Create your signature

The signature will be attached to all new messages by default. If you want it attached to replies and forwards make sure that option is checked.

Add Your vCard to Your Outlook Signature

So now that you are a vCard wiz you would like to know how to add your vCard artwork to your Outlook Email signature. I am going to assume you know how to create a signature in Outlook here.

First, in Outlook, go to Tools - Options - Mail Format. Then click on the Signatures button under the Signatures section. Select the signature you want to add your vCard to and click the Edit button. Under the vCard Options section, click the New vCard from Contact button. Select your own contact record. Click OK 3 times and you're done. These instructions are for Outlook 2003. Previous versions may be slightly different.

Now when you send Email to someone they will get an attachment containing your vCard. By clicking the attachment they will be able to add your contact information to their Outlook Contacts. They will think you are really cool!

How To Create Your Own vCard

VCard is an Internet standard that allows users to share their own contact information with other Internet users. Outlook supports the vCard standard. This means that when someone sends you their vCard via email you can simply click on the vCard attachment and their contact information will be added to your Contacts.

You can easily create your own vCard in Outlook. First, open your Outlook Contacts and create a new contact. Add yourself as the contact. Make sure you enter all the information you want to share with others. To send your vCard to someone, open your Outlook Contacts and locate your own contact record. Click on the Actions pulldown and then select Forward as vCard (Not Forward). This will open a new email message with your vCard as an attachment. Once the recipient receives the message they can click on your vCard and your contact information will be added to their Contact list. No muss, no fuss. Most all email Clients support vCards so even, if they are not using Outlook they may be able to use your vCard.

You can also add your vCard to your Outlook signature. I'll show you how to do that next time.

Get Rid of Personalized Menus

I have had several people tell me that they don't like the personalized menus in Microsoft Office. These are the pulldowns that only show the functions you use the most often and then after a couple of seconds open up to the full list of choices. I can take them or leave them myself. However, they are actually very easy to shut off.

In any Office program click on Tools - Customize. Click on the Options tab. There you will have several options of how the personalized menus should work including how to shut them off.

Using OneNote For Screen Captures

I have discovered a cool OneNote function that you would not think of using OneNote for. But it works really well.

When you install OneNote, a little component of OneNote called SideNote gets installed. It shows up in the task bar next to the time in an icon with a N in it. When you click this icon a special OneNote page comes up which allows you to add quick notes to your notebook, a real nice feature in itself. However, if you right click the SideNote icon you will have a pop up menu that allows you to select "Create Screen Clipping". When you select it, your desktop will dim out and you will have a selection tool displayed. You can use the selection tool to highlight the area of the screen that you want to get a screen shot of. The screen shot will appear in a new OneNote page where it can be saved or copied to another application like an Outlook mail message or a Word document.

I have found this function to be very helpful in documenting how to do a specific function in an application.

Look at ME!

I'm not a big PowerPoint user but I do use it on occasion to do seminars or training. Sometimes you may want to blank the presentation out so that the audience focuses on you and not the slide that is being displayed. This is actually pretty easy in PowerPoint. Just hit the "B" key and the screen will go black or hit the "W" key and the screen will go white. Of course make sure there is enough light so people can see you!

Get a Closer Look

Have you ever linked to a website and found that some of the text is just to small to read? If you are using IE 6 and have a mouse with a scroll wheel there's a neat trick you can do that will enable you to read that small text.

While you are on the web page, hold down the Ctrl key while moving the scroll wheel forward or backwards. The size of the text will increase and decrease with the scroll wheel movement.

This also works in Word, Excel, OneNote, etc. Maybe you don't need those new glasses after all!

Using OneNote For Research

My favorite Microsoft application after Outlook is OneNote. It's simply the best application that has come out of Redmond in a long time. I use it for everything. One of the coolest things you can do with OneNote is pull information from the Internet directly into your OneNote notebook pages.

This is very easy to do. First, go to the web page that you want to use the information from. Next select a graphic or some text from the page. Once the object is selected, right click and select copy. Now open the OneNote page that you want to gather this information in. Right click in the page and select paste. The graphic or text will be pasted directly into the page. In addition, a link back to the web page will be included. Of course you can also use drag and drop to accomplish the same task if you would like.

I use this all the time. I have a page in my Notebook labeled Things to Checkout. Whenever I come across anything on the Internet that I want to spend more time checking out but don't have time at the moment, I post a piece of the article on the page and later, when I have more time I can simply go to the Things to Checkout page and get back to where I was. Of course I can add my own notes as well.

But I Don't Want To Capitalize That!

I have had several people complain to me that Word automatically capitalizes words when they don't want them to be capitalized. You can actually control how Word decides what to capitalize very easily.

When you are in a Word document click Tools - Autocorrect Options. Click on the Autocorrect Tab if you are not already there. Here you can change how Word handles capitalization. My favorite one to turn off is Capitalize First Letter of Table Cells. You can even click on the Exceptions button and fine tune the rules even more.

More on Email Attachments

I observed a user the other day that made me realize that some people really don't know how to handle email attachments. This user had received a copy of a form letter created as a Word document. They used this form to send letters to their Clients.

Each time the user needed to send one of these letters they would open Outlook and search for the email message (another problem in itself), open the document, make changes to the document, and print the document. They indicated to me that they were having trouble saving the documents.

What's wrong here? Well, first obviously the document should not be accessed via Outlook. This process wasted space within Outlook, made the customized letters impossible to find, prohibited others from using the same form document, prevented the documents from being backed up. etc, etc, etc.

What needs to be done? It's simple. Right click on the attachment within the email message. Click on Copy. Open a folder on your server where the form should be properly located. Right click in that folder and click Paste. A copy of the document will now be in the folder. I would also suggest you go back into the Outlook message, right click on the attachment and select Remove. (Or delete the message itself) This will remove the attachment from the message therefore saving space in your email data location.

With the file properly located in your server file system, it can be shared and backed up. Also saving and finding those individualized letters will be much easier.

Don't Email That File!

The speed and capabilities of Internet email programs have increased dramatically over the last few years. In the past one would never send a large attachment with an email message because it would almost always hose up the user's email and cause various problems. Today it's a different story. Sending a 5 or 10 meg or even larger attachment almost never causes any noticeable problems. I say noticeable because even though the file may leave your Outbox, it can cause many problems along its way to the recipient. And many recipients are restricted from receiving large attachments if they are able to receive them at all. Because of the high risk nature of attachments, many companies will not allow users to receive any attachments via email

There is a great alternative. It is a web based service called YouSendIt. You simply log into the website, give the email address of the person you want the file to go to and select the file you want to send. YouSendIt then sends an email to the recipient which includes a link to download the file from. The file never goes through the email system. I have used the system myself and find it works very well. You can send files of up to 1 Gig.

Of course, make sure you have virus scanning software running the latest virus definition files on your workstation whenever you work with foreign files.

Click here to go to the YouSendIt website.

Where Are Those Icons?

If you are running Windows XP, you will always see the various icons over in the lower right (unless you moved your taskbar) portion of your screen. The time will be there as well as other icons depending on the applets you have running. But do you also see some icons on the left side of the task bar next to the Start button? If you don't, you don't have the Quick Launch bar on. You may be interested in having it on.

To turn the Quick Launch bar on (or off), right click on the Taskbar and click Properties. You will see a Show Quick Launch item under the Taskbar appearance section. Click it on to display the Quick Launch bar and unclick it to turn it off.

Several items will appear. One of my favorites is the Show Desktop button. You can click this and no matter what applications are running on your screen, you can get back to your Desktop. Buttons for your most used applications can also be created simply by dragging and dropping a shortcut to the application onto the Quick Launch bar.

Of course if you are going to use the Quick Launch bar you should probably remove any duplicate shortcuts from your desktop. Remember, a clean desktop is a good desktop!

Who Do You Want To Be Today?

Outlook has had the ability to add a signature to your email messages since the earliest versions. In the current version, Outlook 2003, you can have a signature for new messages and a different signature for replies and forwards. I use this feature myself. My new message signature is a full signature including my name, Company, and Websites. My reply/forward signature is a simple -Ed. This allows me to minimize the amount of text in replies and forwards.

Outlook 2003 also allows you to have multiple signatures for each option of new or reply/forward messages. So, you could for instance have a Sales signature and a Support signature for new messages or for replies/forwards. You set these up under Tools - Options - Mail Format. Once you get them setup you can pick a separate default for new and replies/forwards.

So how do you select an alternative signature in your message. It's easy! First open a new or reply/forward message. Your default signature will automatically be inserted. To change it simply right click on the default signature in the message. A list of all your stored signatures will show up. Pick the one you want and it will replace the default for this message. Cool!

Turn an Outlook Task Into An Appointment

Do you ever have a task in Outlook that seems to just keep getting put on the back burner? Maybe if you set up an appointment with yourself to complete the task you might have better luck in getting it done. Outlook makes this very easy.

1. Go to the Outlook Tasks List
2. Left click on the task you want to set an appointment for and drag it to the Calendar icon
3. Complete the rest of the appointment information

You now have an appointment to work on that dreaded task. You can use the same process to turn and email into an appointment or task. Just drag and drop the email to the Task or Calendar icon. In fact you can use drag and drop all over the place in Outlook. Very useful!