Outlook 2007 Search Desktop not indexing Public Folders

I use Hosted Exchange and share my contacts and calendars with my colleague through the Public Folder.

To add a new contact to the Public Folders Contacts you must first click on that folder in the navigation bar (My Favorites), then use Ctrl-Shift-C to add a new contact.

The problem with the Hosted Exchange installation is that by default there is an option for caching/indexing that is NOT set in the Microsoft Exchange Account profile. However, it is easy to set once you know how.

First check that Exchange is in fact being cached. Click on File, Cached Exchange Mode, and check Download Full Items.

Next turn on . Click on Tools, Account Settings. Highlight Microsoft Exchange account. Then click Change. You are now in your Exchange profile settings (Change Email Account). Click More Settings, then the Advanced tab. Check both Use Cached Exchange Mode and Download Public Folder Favorites. You’ll have to restart Outlook for it to begin working.

Outlook and Hosted Exchange will automatically resync and you’ll now be able to find those missing contacts using the Search Desktop feature.

And if you don’t have the Search Desktop feature running, you can find it at

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/getitnow.mspx

Address Book Disappeared? How to Pull it Back Out of the Hat

There are times when you may need to upgrade your Outlook, move it to a new computer, upgrade to Hosted Exchange, or any number of other tasks, and sometimes your Address Book simply disappears. Worse, you’ll notice that you can no longer use the To: box in a new email (I don’t recommend that anyway–just type the person’s name or part of their name).

In all likelihood the address book is only hiding. Outlook thinks some other address book is to be used.

In many cases you only need to re-point Outlook to the right address book. Here’s how.

1. On the standard toolbar, find the little open address book icon and click on it.

2. Click on Tools, Options in the menu bar.

3. Drop-down the “Show this address list first” and choose the appropriate list. If you see any folder multiple times like”Contacts” simply choose one, then select Properties to see which Contacts folder that one is.

If you need to regenerate the address book from the ground up, see this blog:
“How to Regenerate Missing or Corrupt Address Book“

Beware of Inbox Rules Size Limit in Hosted Exchange

An Outlook 2007 client found that some of her rules “couldn’t be checked”. As it turned out, she is a Virtual Assistant using Hosted Exchange and Exchange Servers like Hosted Exchange have a 64K limit (there is no limit on your standalone Outlook). We proved this by exporting the list (using Tools, Rules, Options, Export) and then simply hovering over the file in Windows Explorer to check the size. Yes, it was 74K, over the limit. Once she removed some unnecessary Rules, she was ok.

One more interesting note however. I imported her Outlook 2007 Rules into my Outlook 2003 (before I knew she was on 2007) and all the rule titles appear, but the rules don’t appear in the edit box below and remain unchecked. The rules remain uncheckable and the contents missing. They were fine in my Outlook 2007. Upshot: Outlook 2007 inbox rules are not backward compatible with Outlook 2003.

Outlook Rules Have Size Limit in Hosted Exchange

An Outlook 2007 client found that some of her rules “couldn’t be checked”. As it turned out, she is a Virtual Assistant using Hosted Exchange and Exchange Servers like Hosted Exchange have a 64K limit. We proved this by exporting the list (using Tools, Rules, Options, Export) and then simply hovering over the file in Windows Explorer to check the size. Yes, it was 74K, over the limit. Once she removed some unnecessary Rules, she was ok.

One more interesting note however. I imported her Outlook 2007 Rules into my Outlook 2003 (before I knew she was on 2007) and all the rule titles appear, but the rules don’t appear in the edit box below and remain unchecked. The rules remain uncheckable and the contents missing. They were fine in my Outlook 2007. Upshot: Outlook 2007 inbox rules are not backward compatible with Outlook 2003.

Entourage 2008 Unsupported on many Hosted Exchange providers

I was reading about latest issue with Entourage 2008.  It is now unsupported with Hosted Exchange.  That’s bad for Entourage users wanting to have their contacts and calendars shared across multiple machines or between themselves and their virtual assistants.  I called my local Hosted Exchange provider who confirmed it…they dropped support for Entourage 2008.

Apparently the key synchronizing mechanism between Entourage 2008 and Hosted Exchange is now missing–MAPI (Messaging API) .  So Entourage users are now are going to find it more difficult than ever to share contacts and calendars.  I don’t think this was political.  I think it’s just very difficult to connect MAPI to MAC’s.  Microsoft will keep working on the problem, so maybe the Entourage 2010 will have the answer.