Open Different Outlook Features in Separate Windows to Improve Productivity
Jan/100
If you work in Outlook for much of the workday, you may find it annoying having to navigate from Mail View to Calendar, then Contacts…etc. Today we show you a cool quick tip that will allow you to open each feature in a new Window.
Outlook 2007
Open up Outlook and in the Navigation Pane right-click Calendar and select Open in New Window.
Now you can do this for any feature you want to have open in a new window. For example here we have Calendar, Contacts, and Mail each open in their own separate window.
Now if you’re using Windows 7 you can easily switch between windows with the new Taskbar.
Or you can use the “Alt+Tab” key combination if you prefer especially in earlier versions.
?
The process is the same for Outlook 2010…
And and for Outlook 2003 as well.
![sshot-2010-01-23-[00-49-16]](http://semibeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/31f3d5c2ec004916.png.png "sshot-2010-01-23-[00-49-16]")
This is a simple tip, but can be very effective in helping you get work done easier and more quickly.
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Open Different Outlook Features in Separate Windows to Improve Productivity
Our Hands On Look at Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0
Dec/090
While Outlook may run the business world, at home you can use whatever email client you want, and Thunderbird is an awesome choice. It has been a while since a major new Thunderbird release, and today we take a look at version 3.0 features and what you can expect.?
Installation & Setup
When you begin installation you can choose Standard or Custom. The only extra things you can change with a Custom install is the installation directory, Shortcuts, and Start menu folder. Most users should be fine with the Standard Install.
After installation Thunderbird starts up and you can select what you want to use it as the default client for. If you don’t want to see this message every time you launch it, then uncheck the box Always perform this check when starting Thunderbird.
Migration assistant will start up if you have an older version of Thunderbird on your system and migrate mails and folders to the new version.
While the Migration Assistant completes you have the option to use the new or original toolbar and Smart folders mode. If you don’t want to choose right away…no worries, you can access it at anytime later.
Adding your Hotmail or Gmail account is easy. It’s not as complicated as it can be in other clients…just enter in the account and password. You don’t need to know IMAP, SMTP, TLS settings, the wizard will check a database and find the right settings for your account.
Thunderbird 3.0 Features
Thunderbird now has a tabbed user interface like most web browsers do, so you can easily switch between different messages and searches.
Speaking of searches, it has been greatly improved and is fast. It also offers different search options that are easy to change from the search box.
It provides an easy way to filter through the messages you’re looking for using different criteria.
Search results provide a timeline in addition to the results. You can click on the time line to narrow down a search in different date ranges.
You can also go in a more advanced mode and find specific information you’re looking for in the subject, body, CC field, Priority, Status and more.
An easy to access one-click Address Book. Simply right-click an address and add it to your contacts.
The Smart Folders option is enabled by default and merges multiple account inboxes together. This allows easier management of messages by combining folders like Inbox, sent, or archives. Click View on the toolbar, go to Folders, and there you can change the folder arrangement.
It also now has an Add-ons Manager like in Firefox. You won’t need to visit the website to search for them, just use the manager to search and install the ones you want.
The Activity Manager is a one stop place that records the different actions you have taken with your mail. It takes the guess work out of figuring out what happened to a message. It’s good when you have a “what the heck did I do with that email” moment.
Attachment Reminder is also a neat feature. Have there been times during a busy day where you’re talking about a document or file attached to your email, and then forget to attach it? Attachment Reminder looks for keywords related to attachments in the message body, and pops up a reminder and lets you click to add it.
There are better security features included like allowing your Antivirus app to analyze and even quarantine a suspected virus in an attachment. It also has an interesting Anti-Phishing capability that will analyze a message for commonly used phishing techniques. It will also warn you when clicking a link in an email that takes you to a different site than the one shown in the URL.
Conclusion?
Overall I would have to say it has been worth the wait and Thunderbird 3.0 is a great improvement over previous versions. It’s fast, has a cleaner user interface, and is easier to search and manage emails. The new features like the tabbed interface and Add-ons Manager make it intuitive to use for fans of Firefox. They have enhanced the SPAM filtering and when you mark an item as SPAM, Thunderbird learns to filter those messages out. It will work with Windows 2000 or above, Mac OSX 10.4 or higher, and most versions of Linux. If you’re looking for a new email client for your desktop or are already a fan of Thunderbird, getting version 3.0 is definitely a great idea.?
Download Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0
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Our Hands On Look at Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0
How to Save Searches in Windows 7
Oct/090
If you regularly search for a certain group of files in Windows 7, saving searches is a great way to access them more quickly. Here we’ll take a look at how to share and organize searches in Windows 7.
Saving Searches
Anytime you are performing a search, you can click on the Save Search button in Explorer.
Now when you are in Explorer you will see the save searches under Favorites.
Another way to save a search is dragging the search icon in the address bar into your listed favorites list. Like in this example where I searched for “type:flac” and drag the icon to the list.
You might also want to create shortcuts to the searches on your desktop for easy access.
![sshot-2009-10-21-[03-39-08]](http://semibeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/6d47f3d0b4033908.png.png "sshot-2009-10-21-[03-39-08]")
If you have a lot of files on your machine and need a way to access them quickly, saving searches is a great way to increase productivity.
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Continued here:
How to Save Searches in Windows 7
Access Your Browsing History Easier in Firefox
Oct/090
Do you find searching through your browser’s history frustrating because the default History Menu & Manager are not as intuitive as you need? Now you can make that history easier to search through with the History Submenus extension.
Before
Here is our browser with the default “History Menu” displayed. There is not a lot that we can look at in detail is there? We need to be able to see more than just some of today’s browsing history…
But to do that means opening the “Library Window”. Not good…not good at all. Time to make all of that browser history easy to access from the “History Menu” itself!
Options
Once you have installed the History Submenus extension and restarted Firefox, you should take a quick look at the options. Adjust the number of items shown for each of the categories to best suit your personal needs. For the “Label” option, there are only two choices…”Date Format” or “Number Of Days Ago Format”.
History Submenus in Action
It is easy to see a big difference from the default “History Menu”. Not only do you get to look through the most recent day of history at the top, but you also get to browse through the history for past days specifically (very nice!). Here you can see the “Date Format” style…
The “Date Format” style with all of the active and empty sub-menus showing…
And the “History Menu” when it is set for the “Number Of Days Ago Format” style.
Conclusion
If you find yourself becoming frustrated with the default History Menu & Manager while trying to find a specific website/link, then the History Submenus extension will be a welcome addition to your browser.
Links
Download the History Submenus extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
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Access Your Browsing History Easier in Firefox
Norton Internet Security 2010 [Review]
Oct/090
Norton Internet Security delivers fast and light online threat protection. It guards your PC, network, online activities, and your identity with innovative detection technologies optimized to combat today’s aggressive, rapid-fire attacks. It makes online shopping, banking, and browsing safer and convenient.
Note: This is a review of a commercial software package, which shouldn’t be considered an endorsement, but rather a tour of how the software works so you can make up your own mind. It is for this reason that we only include the excerpt in the syndicated feed or email newsletter.
Read the Review: Norton Internet Security 2010
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Norton Internet Security 2010 [Review]
Combine Wolfram Alpha & Google Search Results in Firefox
Oct/090
Do you wish there was a way to combine all that Wolfram Alpha and Google goodness together when you search for something? Now you can with the Wolfram Alpha Google extension for Firefox.
Setup & Options
Once you have the extension installed you will notice a new “Status Bar Icon” in your browser. The icon acts as a quick on/off switch to enable or disable combining search results.
These are the options for the extension…all focused on display properties.
Note: You will most likely want to activate the “Always show scrollbars on Wolfram Alpha frame.” option (see below for an alternative way to access the scrollbar).
Wolfram Alpha Google in Action
For our example we decided to do a search on Singapore. As you can see the search results are displaying nicely side-by-side (terrific!).
Here is a close-up of the Google results…
And a close-up of the Wolfram Alpha results (very nice!). Just for fun we left the Wolfram Alpha frame scrollbar deactivated to show a nice option for it…
Notice the “Show scrollbar” option in the lower right corner. You can easily control when you want or need the scrollbar without it always being active.
Conclusion
If you love having extra goodness packed into your searches, then you will definitely enjoy using the Wolfram Alpha Google extension!
Links
Download the Wolfram Alpha Google extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
Download the Wolfram Alpha Google extension (Extension Homepage)
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Combine Wolfram Alpha & Google Search Results in Firefox
Color Code Outlook for Easier Management
Oct/090
Organizing and keeping track of numerous emails at the office everyday can be a job unto itself. Today we take a look at using color codes to make it easier to identify message subjects and who is sending them.
This feature has been available in Office 2007 from the beginning but we never covered it yet, and it was something I overlooked. After playing around with it for a while however, I found that it is a good way to manage the multitude of emails I get everyday. Here we will go through colorizing contacts who are sending messages so they’re easier to spot. Also categorizing the subject matter into different color groups seems to help in keeping thing straight.
Color Code Senders
Open Outlook and click to highlight the message you want to color code.
?
Go to Tools and then Organize.
?
Ways to Organize Inbox opens up and you want to click Using Colors. Now you can select the color you want to associate with that contact. You can also choose a specific color for messages sent to only you, which comes in handy as a way to distinguish between group and personal messages.
Here is an example of what can be done with the colors. You might only want to create a couple of colors for the most important sender though, I went a bit overboard with this example.
Color Categories
Another helpful way to visually organize your messages is adding color categories to them. You can customize the which email subjects are related to each color category.
The message will have the category color bar across the top and you can Right-click the bar to change the color.
You can also Right-click on a message under the Categories section to change the category.
You can rename each category to whatever makes sense to you.
You might want to make a new category for different mails. Go to Actions Categorize and All Categories.
In the Color Categories screen click on New and give the category a name and color, you can also assign a keyboard shortcut to it as well.
Now you can sort through your email messages based on the type of category they are in.
If you want to be able to quickly glance at your email to get an idea of what is there, using color categories can be helpful. Hopefully this can get you started with organizing your emails so you know what the pointy-haired bosses want you to do more effectively.
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Color Code Outlook for Easier Management
Get a Great Out-of-the-Box Audio Player with Jaangle
Oct/090
Are you tired of always having to add lots of plugins to freshly installed audio players just to get the functionality that you want? Enjoy using a great out-of-the-box audio player with Jaangle.
Note: Jaangle was previously known as Teen Spirit.
Installation
Installation for Jaangle is quick and easy with a total of four install windows to sort through. As you can see here, the EULA is short and sweet.
You will see this message window as soon as you start Jaangle after installation. At this point you can immediately start adding music to Jaangle’s music library or go on to the main window first. For our example we decided to wait a few minutes before adding music to the library…
Here is what Jaangle looks like when first started…just waiting for a library full of music goodness. Notice that there are four separate sub-panes in the main window…each with “Add, Maximize/Minimize, and Close Buttons” in the upper right corners (very nice!).
Curious what the options are for the above mentioned sub-pane “Add Button”? If you click on the “Add Button” this is what you will see…you can even shift the sub-panes locations within the main window (terrific!).
Options
Time for a good look at Jaangle’s Options. The first area displays options for Minimizing to tray, database updating, Windows Live Messenger currently playing display, LastFM scrobbling, online service connection, update checking, clear type font usage, and debugging.
Here you can make choices concerning the Mini-Player…Behavior, Appearance, and Show. Notice that you can keep the Mini-Player on top of other apps and adjusting the transparency levels & size (definitely nice!).
Decide how you would like to handle Information Retrieval for your music collection…choose only what you like or need.
Make any needed adjustments for Jaangle Startup, General Player Control, and Crossfade…
Love using hotkeys? Set up a custom set right here!
Select the file formats that you want Tag Reading and Tag Writing to apply to. You can also make selections for Special Tag Support and Reading Depth…
Choose the default language that you would like to use for Jaangle…you can also create a language file using the “Create Button”.
And now for one of the other terrific features in Jaangle…lots of built-in themes! There are forty-nine themes to choose from, so have fun finding your favorite!
Jaangle in Action
After selecting a new theme and making some adjustments in “Options”, this is what our example looked like. Time to add some music to the library! To add music, click on “Collections” then “Update local collections” and browse to select the music that you would like to add to Jaangle’s music library.
Choose the columns that you would like to have displayed…
Now we have our first addition to our library ready to go…artist/album pictures displaying in the “Music Browser Pane”, “Music List” showing, “Play List” set up, and “Album Information” also displaying. Looking great!
Note: Albums/folders for each particular artist are displayed under a collapsible/expandable category header as shown.
This is what the Mini-Player looks like when you have the main window minimized (partial transparency engaged). Perfect access to your player without eating up screen real-estate (great!).
Note: You can adjust the level of transparency to best suit your personal needs.
Here is the “Right Click Menu” for individual music files.
Conclusion
If you have grown tired of hunting for plugins, then configuring and tweaking those same plugins just to get your current audio player better suited to what you want, then Jaangle will definitely be a very pleasant and enjoyable change! This is definitely a recommended install!
Links
Download Jaangle (version 0.97.951)
Works On: Windows XP – Vista
Installed On: Windows Vista (32 bit), Service Pack 2
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Get a Great Out-of-the-Box Audio Player with Jaangle
Pause Incoming Email with Email Prioritizer
Sep/090
During a busy business day, sometimes it seems impossible to keep up with emails coming in. Today we take a look at a utility from Office Labs which let’s you pause incoming mail and easily sort them by priority.
When experiencing a hectic day at work, nothing is more annoying than receiving tons of email while you’re trying to get things done. Email Prioritizer is a handy plug in that will let you put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your inbox by pausing new incoming messages.? It also lets you prioritize email through a 0-3 star rating system that you can customize. It requires Outlook 2007 running on an Exchange Server so is perfect for use at the office and not intended for home users.
Using Email Prioritizer
It will first install Visual Studio 2005 Tool for Office.
Then to continue you will have to agree to participate in Office Labs Metrics and Auto Update.
However, if you’re concerned about privacy, after it’s installed you can uncheck it in Options after installed.
To activate the Do Not Disturb feature just click on the button, you can select different times to leave it running from 10 minutes to 4 hours.? It will stop incoming mail for that time so you can concentrate on other work and not be distracted.? Messages that are flagged as Important will still be delivered however.
It allows you to sort through your email based on different priorities.
To set up new priorities click on Options and Edit priority rules.
Here you can customize priority rules for incoming mail.
Keep in mind that this is a prototype still in development and you will probably want to talk with your IT staff before installing. If you are tired of dealing with needless emails while trying to get real work done, the Email Prioritizer plug in might be exactly what you need.
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Pause Incoming Email with Email Prioritizer
Manage Files and Documents Easier with Libraries in Windows 7
Aug/090
In previous versions of Windows it can be a tedious task managing music, photos, documents and other files that are scattered in different directories on your hard drive.? Today we take a look at the new Libraries feature in Windows 7 that allows you to organize folders from multiple locations in one spot.
Using Libraries
To access your Libraries click on Start then your user name to open up your personal folder.
Now in the left pane click on Libraries to view the four default Libraries which are Music, Pictures, Videos, and Documents.
Libraries show files that are stored in different locations on your computer as in this example of a Music Library.
You don’t have to limit yourself to just the four default Libraries by creating your own.? When you click on Libraries in the left pane click on the New Libraries button.
A new Library comes up just like a new folder where you can label it.
When you go into your new Library you are prompted to add new folders and files to it.
If you want to add new folder locations to any of the Libraries just click on the hyperlink that shows the current number of locations.
You can then click the Add button to include other locations on the computer.
Right-click on the Library icon and select Properties and you can include a folder from here.
Also, while your navigating through explorer you can Right-click a folder and include it in a library.
This might seem like a subtle change to the user interface but it’s effective and makes navigating files and folders much easier.
Libraries will allow you to share your folders and files with your Homegroup network easier as well.? Check out our look at sharing files and folders in Windows 7 with the Homegroup feature.?
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Manage Files and Documents Easier with Libraries in Windows 7
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