The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on December 7, 2017.
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Today's Highlights:
- Add Lunar, Sunrise, Tidal, and Weather Calendars
- Stop automatically assigning categories to threads
- To-Do Bar Calendar View
- Read Message Attachment Fields
Add Lunar, Sunrise, Tidal, and Weather Calendars
We occasionally get questions from users who wonder why Outlook doesn't include calendars for moon phases or sunrise and sunset. While moon phases would be easy to provide, sunrise and sunset times depend very much on where you are located, and it would be difficult for Microsoft to provide these calendars for all but a few cities.
Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016, along with Outlook on the web for Outlook.com or Office 365 email accounts, provide weather information with links to sunrise, sunset, and moon phase information online.
To see sunrise and sunset times, moon phases and astrological events in Outlook, you'll need to find an internet calendar you can subscribe to or import, such as Full Moon & Astronomy Calendar or UK Astronomical Calendar Calculator.
If you follow high and low tides, tidal calendars are available for many locations worldwide at Online Tides and Currents Predictions. These calendars include moon phases, sunrise and sunset times. You can either subscribe to the calendar or download. The events will be on a separate calendar, which can be “turned off” to reduce clutter when not needed, as this calendar has 6 events each day.
For additional calendars, see iCalshare. This site has calendars that work with Outlook or any calendar application that supports multi-event iCalendars.
To subscribe to a calendar in Outlook on the web, paste the subscription URL in the Calendar module's Add Calendar > From Internet. Calendars added to Outlook on the web will sync to Outlook. To remove the calendar, right-click on it and choose Delete in Outlook desktop or Remove in Outlook on the web.
Although Outlook's Weather feature does not include moon phase or sunrise/sunset times, it includes a link to see more information online where you'll find sunrise & sunset times and the moon phase.
To add or change the locations used for weather in Outlook, click on the current location name. Although you can only view weather for one location at a time, you can save five locations in the location list. Click on the current location name to easily select another location. To change the temperature format or disable the weather information in Outlook desktop, open File, Options, Calendar. Weather settings are at the bottom of the dialog.
The dialog is similar in Outlook on the web. Click the arrows to view the weather for another location. Currently, the link doesn't open your location in a web browser (I get NYC weather details). Click Edit locations to add and remove locations, change the temperature display or to stop showing weather on your calendar; to re-enable weather, you'll need to go into Calendar Options.
Outlook includes alternate calendars that are based on the lunar year and if you know which phase is on which day of the lunar month, you can use one as a secondary calendar, such as the Hebrew Lunar calendar. You won’t have times for the moon phases, just a general idea of what phase the moon is in on that date. (The full moon is on the 15th and the new moon is on the 30th.)
The advantage with this method is that you only have one calendar, although it may look "busy" with the second set of numbers on each day.
To add an alternate calendar, go to File, Options, Calendar options and Enable alternate calendar. Choose English, Hebrew Lunar.
Stop automatically assigning categories to threads
A user had a complaint: When I add a category to a message, every message in the thread thereafter will also be marked with the category. I use categories to set action items for specific messages and automatically propagating the categories to future messages completely defeats my purpose.
Whether or not every message in the thread is categorized depends on how you set the category. When you categorize the message’s conversation group header, all messages in the thread (including messages received later) will be categorized.
To avoid this, you need to categorize just the message. While this easy when you have multiple messages in the thread – expand the thread, select the message and categorize it – its more difficult when there is a single message in the thread as the message is the conversation group too. To avoid categorizing the entire thread, open the message then set the category, or turn off Show as Conversations (on the View ribbon) before setting the category.
To-Do Bar Calendar View
A user had a question: I have the calendar and tasks in the to-do bar on the side of my messages. The calendar uses the month view. Can I change this to a week view?
No, sorry you cannot change the calendar layout in the To-Do Bar or Peek. (The view on the Task list or Task peek can be changed.)
Appointments scheduled within the next seven days are shown under the calendar thumbnail. If you select another date, you’ll see appointments for the next seven days from that date forward.
Read Message Attachment Fields
A user came to me with a problem: I need help. Is it possible to write macro to read the sender email address in the email attached top another message?
Yes, it is possible. You can save the attachment to the hard drive to get the message properties, or you can use Redemption to read attachment properties, including addresses and other MAPI fields. I have a sample that uses Redemption at GetAttachmentInfo
For more information and links to download Redemption, see RDOAttachment object
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
Can't send an email message when Full Access permission is granted to a shared mailbox in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3045224
Contact card displays phone number instead of name in Skype for Business 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4054432
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
"Problem adding one or more people to the group" error when you try to add an external contact as a guest in Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4054864
A user cannot access a mailbox that's provisioned in Office 365 dedicated/ITAR (vNext)
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4052993
Accessing other peoples mailboxes in Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/10048
Contact card displays phone number instead of name in Skype for Business 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4054432
Emojis are not displayed in Office applications in Windows 7
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4021341
Outlook performance is slow in the Office 365 environment
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2441551
You see validation errors for users in the Office 365 portal or in the Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2741233
New & Updated Outlook KB Articles
December 5, 2017, update for Outlook 2016 (KB4011570)
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4011570
Email is deleted from server or duplicated in Outlook 2016 when downloaded using POP3
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3145116
How to disable Simplified Account Creation in Outlook 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3189194
You cannot open a shared calendar in Outlook 2016 for Mac
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3007307
Other Resources
Add Lunar, Sunrise, Tidal, and Weather Calendars
Add moon phase, sunrise, sunset or tidal calendars to Outlook. <https://www.slipstick.com>
Emails are not shown in the People Pane
Following the installation of Windows 10 Fall Creator's Update (version 1709), Outlook doesn't show recent messages, appointments, or attachments in the People Pane.<https://www.slipstick.com>
How to delete Autocomplete’s Other Suggestions
How to delete Other Suggestions from Outlook's new Autocomplete list.<https://www.slipstick.com>
iCloud Add-in is not listed in Outlook Add-ins
The problem: iCloud doesn't sync because the iCloud addin is not listed in Outlook's Addins<https://www.slipstick.com>.