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Friday 26 July 2002

Newsletter Issue 46, June 2002


Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 46, June 2002
Hi guys,
Calling all Outlook users - check that your Outlook skills are up to speed in CRM using Outlook below. This is the first in a new series of MS Outlook tip sessions.
We talked about recording a Paste Special macro last week. Here is the way to change the hotkeys you assigned to it this time in Assigning Shortcut Keys to Macros
Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

CRM using Outlook 

Customer Relationship Management. What a mouthful that is. And how important it is to get it right. Each time. Every time.
And time is the key. When you have a system, you want to keep things as simple and as timely as possible. You don't want to have to do things twice.
All of you are trying to manage customers with varying degrees of success. Some of you are thinking about getting CRM software to help. But, as I think that nearly all of you are using MS Outlook as your email software, there are likely to be some Outlook CRM features that you are underutilising that could plug the gap.
There are a whole heap of toys in Outlook, if you know where to look for them. So over the next few newsletters we are going to explore a few simple things that you can all do to improve your efficiency.
But before we can do that, we need to have a tidy up in Outlook, change some settings and ensure that your software is secure.
  • Antivirus. Make sure your antivirus is up-to-date and that you are installing the updates as soon as they come through
  • Contacts. Get all your contact information up to date. Consolidate files where you have some information in one and other information on the same client under another name. Enter company names, tidy up categories etc
    • Create new Contact cards for anybody who hasn't already made it into your Contacts list yet (click the New button and fill in the blanks). Remember that for Word mail merge to pull the correct names from Outlook, then enter the correct contact names first off
    • Categories. We have talked about assigning categories before. For any of you who haven't done it yet, it is a good way of grouping people together who are in a variety of companies, but who are also members of a professional club. See Newsletter #36 (if anyone wants a copy, drop me an email)
  • Backups. This is a two-pronged issue. Firstly we need to know where the file is that holds all your email etc on your system. This is called your Outlook.pst file.  If you don't know where it is, follow these instructions;
    • Shut down Outlook
    • Right click on the start button, select "Explore"
    • In the folder pane (left hand window), single left click on the (C:) drive to highlight it
    • Right click and select "Find" from the pop-up menu
    • On the Name & Location Tab, in the Named field, enter: outlook.pst
    • Click "Find Now"
The file location is where this file is stored. If it is eg under C:\Windows then this information is probably NOT being backed up... and if your system goes belly up, you will lose all your email and contact information (if your pst file is anywhere other than your back up area, give me a call so we can work through moving it - & backing it up - safely).
If Outlook.pst is under My Documents, great. Just remember to do your backups regularly.
Secondly, there is another glitch with Outlook. If anything happens to your pst file, you can't get any bits out of it; all your emails, contacts etc are locked inside a useless pst file. You have it, but you can't get at it. To avoid that problem as well, I copy all my contacts and important emails from Outlook into my file system, using drag & drop. This is a wee bit complicated to set up, and we will look at this next time.
  • Security. There have been a number of patches issued by Microsoft to close security holes in Outlook and Internet Explorer. There are some that you should check that you have installed to make sure that you can't be attacked from behind. They are;
    • Security Update, April 2, 2001
    • Windows Share Level Password Update
    • Security Update, May 19, 2000
    • Security Update, March 17, 2000
    • Security Update, January 17, 2000
    • Security Update 1, November 29, 1999
    • Security Update, November 12, 1999
    • Security Update, September 9, 1999
    • Windows Critical Update Notification 3.0
    • HTML Help Version 1.3 Update
DON'T install any of the following (or you will not be able to see a number of email attachments which will drive you nuts);
  • out2ksec.exe (Outlook Email Security Update)
  • Updated 128-Bit Encryption Provider for Outlook 2000
  • Updated 40- or 56-Bit Encryption Provider for Outlook 2000
  • Office 2000 Security Update: UA Control Vulnerability
  • Office 2000 SR-1 Update: Web Client Security
Talk to you next time when we look at moving files from within the pst file into your file system.

Assigning Shortcut Keys to Macros

In the last newsletter, we looked at creating a macro shortcut for Paste Special | Unformatted Text.
This time we are going to look at reassigning shortcut keys (hotkeys) to Macros, commands, fonts, AutoText entries, styles, or commonly used symbols. 
  1. Go to the Tools menu | Customise | select the Keyboard button at the bottom right
  2. In the Save changes in box, click Normal.dot to save the shortcut key changes
  3. In the Categories box, click the category that contains the command or other item
  4. In the Commands box (to the right), click the name of the item you want to reassign (the hotkeys will appear in the "Current keys" box where there are currently shortcuts assigned) 
  5. In the "Press new shortcut key" box, type the shortcut key combination you want to assign. Click Assign. 
NB:  If you use a programmable keyboard you can't use CTRL+ALT+F8, as it is reserved for initiating keyboard programming on this one type of keyboard.

Retrospect Express Backup

There is a utility called "Retrospect Express Backup (Win)". It claims to do lots of things. Now, I don't know how good this utility is as I haven't tried it. And it is cheap (remember the "you get what you pay for" rule).
However, it has had good write-ups so may well be worth a look for those of you who are not keeping up to date with backups, and for those of you who don't really know WHAT to back up.
Their blurb reads "With larger drives to back up, it's good to know that a tape drive isn't your only option, especially when you consider how inexpensive CD-R media are. You can use this utility to save and back up files to removable discs and cartridges including Zip, Jaz, SuperDisk (LS-120), CD-R/RW, DVD-RAM, MO, and hard drives. It also takes a snapshot from each backup session to ensure that documents, preferences, configurations, applications, and fonts will be restored exactly as they were. Built-in compression shrinks files as they're backed up, and you can save time and media storage by backing up only new or changed files. Create backup scripts that run automatically with multiple sources, destinations, and schedules, and encrypt your confidential files for added security. You can even create a custom CD that can be used to boot a computer and automatically begin an emergency restore even after complete hard drive failure".
You can read more about it at http://www.dantz.com/ 
Version: Free x day trial 
Purchase Price: $49 
Register and download Retrospect Express now at: http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=free_trial_form&sku=174 

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you;
  • VBI, (Vertical Blanking Interval). A portion of a television signal that can carry information other than video or audio (like closed-caption text or stock market data)
  • Terabyte (yes, I know, not a TLA). A terabyte is a measure of computer storage capacity and is 2 to the 40th power.. or close to a thousand gig
  • BURN-Proof, (Buffer Under Run Error Proof). A Sanyo-developed (& trademarked) technology allowing CD recording to stop automatically when an unplanned interruption occurs and then to resume recording

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Short+Hot Keys... and now tips
All the Function keys for you - this time it's all you can do with Alt, Ctrl & F10;
  • Excel "Maximize or restore the workbook window" CTRL & F10 
  • PowerPoint "Maximize the presentation window" CTRL & F10 
  • PowerPoint "Activate the menu bar or Carry out Print command (File menu)" CTRL & SHIFT & F10 
  • Word "Document Maximize" CTRL & F10
  • PowerPoint & Word "Maximize the program window" ALT & F10 
Hot Linx
Wanting to keep up to date with technology? Then check out Click on Line, the BBCs window onto IT at http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickonline.asp?pageid=666&home=1
The Hieroglyphic Translator is a website that supposedly translates your name into hieroglyphics (I think it is actually a font that replaces your name letter by letter; not what hieroglyphics are about, but OK for a laugh). Check it out at http://www.a-u-s.org/glyph/
 For those of you who have not yet had enough of soccer to last you a lifetime, check out the early origins of soccer at http://www.soccerhall.org/history/origins.htm and use the research library at http://www.soccerhall.org/research_library.htm
If you haven't yet seen the hype about Minority Report, here's your chance. Go to http://www.minorityreport.com 

                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here