Outlook 2007 Tips & Techniques from Sue Mosher

• Reading and Editing E-mail in Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2007 (.doc, 840kb)

There is no similar list for developer features related to the Word.Document object that Inspector.WordEditor returns. All the code in my Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming book that is related to WordEditor was tested both with and without Word as the editor. I have also documented some changes related to Word as the editor in the article Microsoft Outlook 2007 Issues for Developers. For example, Outlook 2007 no longer exposes the context menu for a message body, something that was available in earlier versions with Word as the email editor.

I once gave a quiz during a presentation to see if anyone could name all the different file types that Outlook uses to store its settings. I think there were 16 file types on my list, and one Microsoft product manager got almost all of them. But his job was Outlook configuration issues. Everyone else in the room seemed much less aware of how complicated it is to back up Outlook settings. 

Since then, things have taken two steps forward and a step or two back. Rules and the master category list in Outlook 2007 are now stored in the user's primary data store, whether that's an Exchange mailbox or a Personal Folders .pst file. However, Office 2007 has no equivalent for the Save My Settings Wizard, a tool that made it relatively easy in earlier versions to back up both registry settings and Outlook configuration files. Therefore, if you want to back everything up, you probably need to learn how to find all those configuration files and data files. The Microsoft Office Online article Where does Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 save my information and configurations? goes a long way to filling that need, especially as it starts out with instructions on how to make hidden files and folders visible in both Windows XP and Vista. The article leaves out some information, though, so here are my notes on what else you need to know:

Personal Folders Files

The paths given are the default, but a .pst file can be located anywhere on a local drive. (Microsoft does not support storing .pst files on network drives and warns that increased network traffic and data corruption may result.)

Offline Address Book

You'll have .oab files only if you connect to an Exchange mailbox.

Rules (.rwz)

To back up your rules to a .rwz file, you need to use the export feature in the Rules Wizard.

Custom forms

The Forms folder contains the forms cache, which consists of local copies of published custom forms that you have used. You don't need to back it up. It is useful to know, though, that if you need to recover a published form, for example if the administrator deletes it from the server, you can rename any of the .tmp files in the cache to .oft, then run the form with the Tools | Forms | Choose Form command in Outlook and republish it.

Templates (.oft)

The path given is the default for .oft form template files. However, the user can store an .oft file anywhere on the system.

Message (.msg, .htm, .rtf)

The article gives the path for these as the user's My Documents folder. Obviously, that's the default path for saving documents, including these copies of Outlook items. Any such files, though, are not essential to Outlook's operation. They're just copies of data that was once (and may still be) stored in Outlook folders.

Completely left out of the article is the Normalemail.dotm file, which contains styles and QuickParts for use in email messages. It is stored in the same Templates folder as used by default for .oft files.

The article also omits information about where Outlook stores information in the Windows registry. Here are the main keys:

For more information on Outlook 2007 backup issues, including links to third-party backup tools, see Diane Poremsky's article on Outlook 2007 File Locations.

For a free tool to back up your .pst files, which hold data, rules, and the master category list, see Back up Outlook data with the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool.

Currently, the only Microsoft tool that might be used to backup all Outlook data and settings is the User State Migration Tool, which is really designed for large-scale corporation desktop migration, not day-to-day use by average Office users. Version 3.0.1 supports both Windows XP and Vista.

Sub Euro()
' Euro Macro
   Selection.TypeText Text:="€"
End Sub

Sub Euro()
    Dim objDoc As Word.Document
    Dim objSel As Word.Selection
    On Error Resume Next

    ' get a Word.Selection from the open Outlook item
    Set objDoc = Application.ActiveInspector.WordEditor
    Set objSel = objDoc.Windows(1).Selection

    ' now do what you want with the Selection
    objSel.TypeText "€"
    Set objDoc = Nothing
    Set objSel = Nothing
End Sub

Among the commands not included on the ribbon in Word 2007 and Excel 2007 is the File | Send To | Mail Recipient command that allowed users in earlier versions to send the content of a document or worksheet as the body of an Outlook mail message. Fortunately, the command is still available. You just have to add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), which is the small toolbar above the ribbon:

1. Click the small down arrow on the right-hand side of the QAT, and choose More Commands. (See 1st picture)
2. On the Customize screen, from the Choose commands from list, select All Commands. (See 2nd picture)
3. In the commands list, select the Send to Mail Recipient command, and then click Add.
4. Click OK to finish customizing the QAT. (Tip: Before you click OK, browse the list of commands to see what other hidden gems you might want to add to the QAT. )

Once you add the command to the QAT, you'll see it on the QAT as a little green ball that you can click any time you want to create an email  message using the current worksheet or document.

The Outlook Help topic "Apply stationery, themes, and backgrounds to e-mail messages" states:

That is definitely true up to a point. Outlook 2007 itself provides no way to customize existing stationery or customize a theme to add a background image. That does not mean, however, that you can't create and deploy custom stationery and themes with other tools and make them available to Outlook.

Where does Outlook look for stationery and themes? Four different locations:

Let's consider the third and last locations first. Even though you can't create or modify stationery inside Outlook, you can copy an .htm file created with any HTML editor to one of these Stationery folders, and Outlook will display it in the list of stationery and themes with (Stationery) after the file name.

I am also happy to report that with the help of Office MVP Bob Buckland and the Microsoft Knowledge Base article WD2000: How to Modify a Theme that Bob pointed out, I can now create a custom theme with a background image that Outlook 2007 can use for new messages.

The problem for many users will be that the method to create a custom theme requires FrontPage 2003. SharePoint Web Designer and Expression Web Designer don't support themes.

Here's the step-by-step how-to:

1.    Open FrontPage 2003 (you don't need to connect to any existing web), and create a new normal page.

2.    Choose Format | Theme to display the Theme task pane.

3.    At the bottom of the Theme task pane, click Create new theme.

4.    Use the Colors and Text buttons to change the colors and fonts for your theme.

5.    To set the background picture, click the Graphics button.

6.    On the Picture tab, under Background Picture, click Browse and select the picture you want to use, and then click Open. Click OK to accept that picture as the background.

7.    When you have finished, click Save or Save As to save the changes to your custom theme. FrontPage will prompt you for a name for the new theme.

You should now be able to use your new theme in Outlook by choosing Actions | New Message Using | More Stationery or can make your new theme the default in Tools | Options | Mail Format | Stationery and Fonts | Theme. FrontPage saves custom themes as .elm files, each theme in their own folder, to the user's %appdata%\Microsoft\Themes folder. According to Bob, you also can copy a saved custom theme's folder to the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\THEMES12 folder; this is a good technique to keep in mind if you need to deploy a custom theme to all your users.

In case you're curious, the themes that users modify and save with Word or Outlook 2007 using the Page Layout | Themes tab are stored as .thmx files and can be modified with PowerPoint 2007, but the background image doesn't show up in a mail message or document. I wonder why that's the case.

UPDATE (9 Feb 2007): Outlook 2007 does not support background images for either messages as a whole or table cells.

UPDATE (23 Jul 2007): Apparently, to make themes work, you need to have Outlook and Word from the same Office 2007 package. Installing Outlook 2007 standalone along with Word from Office 2007 Home and Student Edition will not make themes available.

UPDATE (14 Apr 2008): Added location for stationery distributed with Outlook 2007.

Hardcore Outlook users, developers, and support staff know that you sometimes need to test a configuration with a different mail profile. That’s easier said than done if you have Outlook 2007 running on Windows Vista 64-bit version, because Control Panel shows only 64-bit applets.

To get to the Mail applet so that you can create a new mail profile or ask Outlook to prompt you for a profile, open Control Panel and choose Additional Options, then View x86 Control Panel Icons . Alternatively, switch to the Classic view of the Control Panel and run the View x86 Control Panel Icons applet.

Here are a couple more tips for working with the NormalEmail.dotm template that holds the Quick Styles, Quick Parts, and other settings for the Outlook editor:

Tip #1: To reach the folder that contains the template, use the folder path %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates. That will get you to the right folder, regardless of whether you use Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Tip #2: To insert text from a Quick Part using the keyboard only, type the name of the Quick Part and then press F3.

The default setting for an IMAP account in Outlook 2007 is to download only headers from the Inbox, but you can change that setting to make it download complete items instead. Follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to bring up the Send/Receive Settings dialog.
2. Select All Accounts (or the group that contains your IMAP account’s send/receive settings), and click Edit.
3. Under Accounts, select your IMAP account.
4. Under Receive mail items, select Use the custom behavior defined below.
5. Under Folder Options, select Inbox, then select Download complete item including attachments.
6. Click OK, then Close.

The next time Outlook performs a manual or automatic send/receive for that account, you should see full items download into the Inbox folder.

Quick Parts are a new Word and Outlook 2007 feature for text fragments and other building blocks, replacing the AutoText feature in previous versions. Here’s how you can create a Quick Part to hold boilerplate text for insertion in an email message.

1. Open a new Outlook message.
2. Write the boilerplate text you want to be able to reuse.
3. Select all that text, and then choose Insert | Quick Parts | Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.
4. In the Create New Building Block dialog, give the Quick Part a name and set the other options. Do not change the gallery from Quick Parts to something else.
5. Click OK to save the new part.

To test your new Quick Part:

• Choose Insert | Quick Parts, and select the name of the part you just created.

Outlook saves the Quick Part in the NormalEmail.dotm file, a template used for email messages that also can contain your custom Quick Style settings.

One of the new features in Office 2007 is style “galleries” that give you a preview of how the text will look once you apply the style. On an Outlook message, you’ll see the Quick Styles gallery on the Format Text tab.

What is not so obvious is how to make changes to the styles or – better yet – add your own styles to the gallery. What you will need to do is customize the template that holds the styles.

The template that Outlook 2007 uses for email messages is NormalEmail.dotm, which is located in the default templates folder for Office – usually C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. Once you find this file in Windows Explorer, follow these steps:

• Shut down Outlook.
• Right-click the NormalEmail.dotm file, and choose Open.
• Use the commands on the Home tab to change the formatting to what you want to use for your new Quick Style.
• In the Styles group, click the small down arrow to the right of the gallery, and choose Save Selection as a New Quick Style, and click OK.
• Close the NormalEmail.dotm and say Yes to the prompt to save changes.

You should now be able to restart Outlook, create a new message, and see your new Quick Style in the Format Text tab’s gallery.

[7 Jun 2006: Corrected Documents and Templates to Documents and Settings]