7 Is Your Outlook About To Explode?

by Bonnie Boots

I made a mistake last week that cost me a great deal of time. I believed and acted upon an error message generated by MS Windows. And I should have known better!

I've been down this road a million times before and I'll bet you have, too. You're working away on your computer when suddenly everything stops. Excel stops excelling or Outlook stops looking out and up pops a little box with a message for you.

Usually, the error message says something useless like "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

If you're truly misfortunate, the message will be more specific, saying something like ""A fatal exception XX has occurred at 00457:000040Z4."

The first error message is fairly benign. You know something happened (not what, of course) and you know if it happens again you should contact someone else.

The second message is so much more dangerous. By giving you a small, specific detail, it can easily send you off on what seems like a mission to repair but is, in fact, only a wild goose chase.

After years of working with Windows operating systems, I know that many of the error messages generated are obtuse, unreliable, misleading and most often meant to be ignored.

Despite that, I read and responded to an error message by trying to take corrective action. Woe is me.

I use several email clients, ranging from MS Outlook to online email applications. And I'm religious about backing up my Outlook folders, something that gave me to a sense of security about my email records and address book. At least, until the day Outlook delivered this fatal message. "A fatal exception has occurred."

Suddenly, I couldn't delete anything from within Outlook. Imagine hundreds of messages flooding in every day, piling up because none of them could be deleted. My spam folder ballooned. My organization system collapsed. And I went on a mission to track down the details in that error message and repair whatever was wrong.

Four days later, after I don't know how many hours spent trying to repair and fix from inside Windows, wading through the Microsoft Knowledge Base, downloading assorted software "fixes" and asking for help in all sorts of forums, I finally-and unwittingly-stumbled upon the fix.

My "Deleted Items" folder was full. When I ordered Outlook to empty it, it did and ran perfectly thereafter.

Go figure.

Along the way to finding a fix I discovered a few things you should know if you're using Outlook:

1. When it comes to saving data, Outlook has limits.

No one, not even people who purport to be from Microsoft, seem to agree what those limits are. It could be 2 gigs. It could be 20 gigs or more. But beware, because when Outlook reaches those limits, it simply stops working.

 This wasn't much of a problem in the past when all we got in our email was email. But now our email is filled with graphics and family photos and voice mail and even video.

 If you use Outlook, do NOT leave those precious media files stored in Outlook folders. Use the save function to store them somewhere else, perhaps in a folder inside "My Documents" or in "My Pictures" or on a zip drive. Anywhere but inside Outlook.

2. Be religious about backing up your Outlook data folders.

If you don't know how to backup your Outlook folders, go to Google and type in "backup + Outlook + 2000 or 2003 or 2007 or whatever. Be sure to state the complete name for the version of Outlook you use. There are many different versions of Outlook and Outlook express and many differences in how you can create backups.

You can find out what version of Outlook you are using by opening Outlook, going to the top menu bar, clicking on "Help" then clicking on "About Microsoft Outlook."

The information box that opens will tell you what version of Outlook you are using.

3. Install the free Mozilla Thunderbird email program-just in case.

If Outlook ever crashes on you-something that seems to be happening to more people more often as we send more data-packed emails-you may panic. Email is a huge part of business and personal life. Not being able to access your email address books and personal folders can be a disaster. All sorts of important news and opportunities can be lost as you spend hours, even days, trying to find a fix.

It's far better to be prepared by having another email program already installed and ready to go, just in case the worst happens.

There is no problem in having 2 email programs running on the same computer. When you install a second email program, such as Thunderbird, it will ask if you want to make it your primary email client. Just say "No," and Outlook will remain your main man.

That means when you open Outlook, it will pull in your email. When you open Thunderbird, it will not pull in your email-not unless you go into the settings and options and tell it to.

But once you import your address book into Thunderbird, you can always send email OUT from it, even though you are not using it as your main mailbox.

And if something happens to Outlook, you can instantly designate Thunderbird as your primary email client and be back up and running in minutes-instead of days, and fix Outlook when you have time.

That's why, on a calm, quiet day, you should install Thunderbird or other free email client and read through the tutorials on how to import your Outlook address book and personal mail folders.

Unless you're a real tech head, importing address books and personal folders from Outlook into Thunderbird (or any other email program) takes some time and attention-something you will be short on if your Outlook crashes.

 In fact, of you don't have a backup of your Outlook pst files and Outlook crashes, you may find it impossible to access your address book and mail files and import them into Thunderbird. They could be gone forever.

Something that complicates the matter is the fact that all email programs use the same file format-EXCEPT Outlook. Outlook is the only email program that uses the pst file format.

So it's best to do a data import before you need it, when you're fairly calm and not swearing at Bill Gates.

Thunderbird, and most other email programs, look and operate very much like Outlook so you'll find it easy to use. Having it ready to go is good insurance against the day something goes wrong with Outlook. You can download the free Thunderbird program here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Now that I have Outlook back up and running, I'm not sure I'll go back to using it as my primary email client. I'm very happy with Thunderbird. But if I do go back to Outlook, I will be testing out a new, free program named Xobni.

Xobni is "inbox" spelled backward, and indeed, it allows you to look at your inbox from an altogether different angle.

The free add-on--currently in public beta--for Microsoft Outlook improves management of messages and contacts, something Outlook does not excel at, and does so without affecting Outlook's performance.

When you install Xobni, it adds a sidebar pane to Outlook that slides open whenever you need it. It then indexes your email and organizes it in a way that lets you have more information faster.

For example, if you open an email from Bonnie Boots, Xobni will show you the total number of email messages you've received from that contact, cataloged by the date and time they were sent and show you a thread of recent email conversations-very handy for quickly catching up with where you were.

If you've set up a contact file for Bonnie Boots inside Xobni, that profile will appear with whatever information you've added to it, including a photo and phone number. (Xobni can even capture that phone number from person's email.) And if you have Skype on your computer, a quick click on a phone number within a Xobni profile generates a Skype out call.

Xobni will search both text and contacts within Outlook and testers say it often returns results much more quickly than Outlook's search does.

Xobni goes far beyond Outlook's functionality by weaving together email conversations, contacts, and calendars in a way that makes your mailbox seem more like a social network. In other words, it makes Outlook what Outlook should be. And did I mention it's free? Download the beta program here: http://www.xobni.com/download

 

 
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