Show Microsoft Outlook who’s boss

By Scott Dunn Outlook has improved over the years but still has some rough edges. Here are some ways to smooth out your Outlook application and make it work the way you want it to.

Clear unwanted addresses from auto-complete

Reader Nic Peck, like a lot of readers, wants to clean out some automatically added e-mail addresses:

• “I’ve been using Outlook 2002 for a couple of years now and I’m perplexed. I know where my default address book is, and I have all of my contacts in there. But if I start typing an e-mail address in the To: line of a new message, up pops a list of addresses that aren’t in my address book. Where are these addresses pulled from and how can I clear some of them out?”
  

Outlook’s auto-complete feature stores past e-mail addresses you’ve typed into the To: box to make it easier to type them again in the future. Unfortunately, you may not want all of them there.

To remove an unwanted address from the drop-down box in either Outlook 2002 or 2003, start a new mail message. Click inside the To: box and type something. When you see an address you don’t want, use your keyboard’s arrow keys to move the selection highlight to that address.  Then press the Delete key.

You can also turn off this feature so that no e-mail addresses are remembered. In both Outlook 2002 and 2003, click Tools, Options. Click the E-mail Options button, then the Advanced E-mail Options button. Uncheck the option labeled Suggest names while completing To, Cc, and Bcc fields. Then click OK a bazillion times.

When Outlook won’t take no for an answer

Outlook 2002 is proving annoying to reader Ben Benoit:

• “I have a vexing problem with Microsoft Outlook 2002 SP3. Every time I try to open a picture (the format makes no difference), I receive a warning prompt to open or save the file.
  
  “I can click Open, and the picture will open just fine. But I have to do this for each and every picture. I’ve unchecked the Always ask before opening box to no avail. I’ve even gone into the Registry to try to fix this, with no change in results. Thanks for any help you might offer.”
  

This has been a recurring bug in Outlook — but SP3 (which you have) was supposed to fix it. To make sure this update was properly installed on your system, go to the Microsoft product update site. If you haven’t already done so, click the link to upgrade from Windows Update to the newer Microsoft Update (which tests for and installs updates for MS Office, not just Windows).

Once Microsoft Update is installed, return to the update site and click Review your update history in the left column. Find SP3 in the list and check the icon in the Status column. If there’s a question mark or a red icon, try uninstalling the update and reinstalling it. You may need to turn off virus or spyware protection to get it to install properly.

Related posts:

1. Restore Outlook 2000′s Missing Holidays
2. Outlook Sends Mixed Messages
3. Outlook Tags Your Office Docs
4. Two Free Downloads For Outlook (Not Outlook Express)
5. …And a Free Outlook Tool From Fiji