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Viewing Full Message Headers in Outlook 2007

There are occasions where you may need to view the full message headers of a message that you have received in Outlook 2007, e.g., if you need to determine if a message actually originated from the "from" email address used in the message, since "from" addresses are easily spoofed by spammers. The full message headers, which reveal the origination IP address for the message and the email servers through which the message has passed, are, by default, hidden in Outlook. To reveal them take the following steps.

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Configuring Outlook 2003 to Check a Gmail Account

Microsoft Office Outlook can be configured to download email from a Gmail account by following these steps.

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Exporting a Gmail Contact List For Use in Microsoft Outlook

To export a Gmail contact list for use in Microsoft Outlook, take the following steps:

1. Log into your Gmail account.
2. On the left side of the webpage for your Gmail account, you should see Contacts; click on Contacts.
3. Under Export, you will see "Who do you want to export", select the contact list you wish to export by using the dropdown list provided.
4. For "Which export format", select "Outlook CSV format (for importing into Outlook or another application)"
5. Click on the Export button.
6. Save the .csv file wherever you wish to place it on your system.

Now that you've saved the Comma Separated Value (CSV) file on your system, you can import it into Microsoft Outlook. To do so in Outlook 2003, take the following steps:

1. Select Contacts.
2. If you wish to create a new separate Outlook contact list for the Gmail contact list, click on File, select New, then Folder. In the Name field, type a name for the Folder. Leave "Folder contains" set to "Contact Items", then click on OK.
3. Click on File.
4. Select Import and Export
5. For the action to perform, select "Import from another program or file.

   

6. Click on Next.
7. For "Select file type to import from", select "Comma Separated Values (Windows)".

   

8. Click on Next.
9. For "file to import", you have 3 options:

   Replace duplicates with items imported
   Allow duplicates to be created
   Do not import duplicate items

   The selection you make among those 3 options is a matter of personal preference. If you aren't importing into an existing contact list in Outlook, but will, instead, be using the new one you just created, then it doesn't matter much which option you select. If you're importing into an existing list, e.g., you are updating an Outlook contact list again from one you've previously imported into Outlook, you probably don't want to have duplicate entries, so wouldn't want to select the second option to allow duplicates to be created. If the Gmail list is the more up-to-date one, you probably want to select "Replace duplicates with items imported."

   

10. Click on the Browse button and browse to the location of the .csv file you created from the Gmail contact list. When you've selected the file, click on Next.
11. For "Select destination folder", choose the main contact list or the one you created previously, then click on Next.
12. Click on the Finish button.

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Conditional Formatting in Excel

Microsoft Excel has a "conditional formatting" feature that allows one to change the formatting of cells based on their contents. E.g., you can specify that the background color for a cell or the font color be changed based on the current value of a cell.

[ More Info ]

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Calculating the Number of Days Between Two Dates in Excel

The datedif function can be used in Microsoft Excel to calculate the number of days between 2 different dates.

The syntax for the DATEDIF function is as follows:

=DATEDIF(Date1, Date2, Interval)

Where:

Date1 is the first date,
Date2 is the second date,
Interval is the interval type to return.

If Date1 is later than Date2, DATEDIF will return a #NUM! error. If either Date1 or Date2 is not a valid date, DATEDIF will return a #VALUE error.
The Interval value should be one of the following:

Interval	Meaning	Description
m	Months	Complete calendar months between the dates.
d	Days	Number of days between the dates.
y	Years	Complete calendar years between the dates.
ym	Months Excluding Years	Complete calendar months between the dates as if they were of the same year.
yd	Days Excluding Years	Complete calendar days between the dates as if they were of the same year.
md	Days Excluding Years And Months	Complete calendar days between the dates as if they were of the same month and same year.

If Interval is not one of the items listed in above, DATEDIF will return a #NUM error.

Examples of datedif usage

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Importing Data from an Access Database in Microsoft Excel

You can import data from a Microsoft Access database in Microsoft Excel 2007, even if you don't have Microsoft Access on the system. To do so, take the steps below:

1. Open Excel.
2. Create a new blank workbook or open an existing one that you wish to use.
3. Click on Data.
4. Select Import External Data.
5. Select Import Data.
6. Browse to the location of the Access .mdb file
7. You will then be prompted to select the table in the Access database that you wish to import into an Excel spreadsheet. Select the table you wish to use by clicking on it and then clicking on OK.
8. An Import Data window will open asking you where you wish to place the data in the Excel spreadsheet. The default location will be column A row 1. If that is where you want the data to go, click on OK, otherwise specify the location you wish to use.

   

References:

1. Import Microsoft Access Data Into Excel
   Mysticgeek's Realm :: Your Guide Through the Cyber Galaxy!

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Moving Outlook Data from One System to Another

I needed to copy Outlook settings on my wife's Windows XP desktop system to a new HP laptop running Windows Vista. She wanted to have her email, contacts, and stationery available on the new system. I've placed my notes on what I needed to do in Moving Outlook Data from One System to Another.

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Inserting Author and Last Edit Date in a Visio Drawing

In Visio 2003, to insert a field, such as the date a Visio drawing was last edited or the name of the document's creator, click on the text tool icon, i.e. the "A" in the toolbar at the top of the Visio window, which selects the Text Tool.

Hold the mouse button down and drag the mouse while holding the button down to create a text box. To insert a field into the text box, rather than typing text, click on Insert, then select Field. You can click on Date/Time to see options for inserting dates and times into the document. If you selected the Last Edit Date/Time, you could insert the date and/or time the document was last edited. If you later edited the drawing again, that value would be updated automatically in the area where you inserted it in the drawing.

If you placed author and company information in the drawings "properties" by clicking on File then Properties, you could insert that information in the document as well.

Instead of selecting Date/Time when choosing which information to insert in the document, you would then select Document Info for the field.

References:

1. Creating text fields to display information in Visio
   Microsoft Office Online

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Saving a Word Document as a Filtered Web Page

When saving a Word document, at least in Word 2003, you have the option of saving as "Web Page" or "Web Page, Filtered". You should get a smaller file if you use the filtered web page option. E.g., for one particular Word document, I found the size was half as much when I used the filtered option versus the unfiltered option, i.e. 26 KB for the filtered file versus 54 KB for the unfiltered version.

If you select "Web Page, Filtered" for the output file format, Word doesn't include tags that only have meaning to itself. Those tags might be useful if you are reopening the file to be edited again with Word, but don't need to be there for people viewing the document in their web browser or if it is to be edited later with an HTML editor. E.g., for one document the following code was in the head section of the HTML file in the unfiltered version, but not the filtered version.

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
 <o:DocumentProperties>
  <o:Author>Gail V. Williams</o:Author>
  <o:LastAuthor>John Smith</o:LastAuthor>
  <o:Revision>2</o:Revision>
  <o:TotalTime>2</o:TotalTime>
  <o:LastPrinted>2008-10-22T10:25:00Z</o:LastPrinted>
  <o:Created>2008-12-05T21:57:00Z</o:Created>
  <o:LastSaved>2008-12-05T21:57:00Z</o:LastSaved>
  <o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
  <o:Words>1108</o:Words>
  <o:Characters>6317</o:Characters>
  <o:Company>Home</o:Company>
  <o:Lines>52</o:Lines>
  <o:Paragraphs>14</o:Paragraphs>
  <o:CharactersWithSpaces>7411</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
  <o:Version>11.9999</o:Version>
 
</xml><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>

When you save a document as a filtered webpage, you will get a warning such as "Saving Test.doc in this format (Web Page, Filtered) will remove Office-specific tags. Some Office features may not be available when you reopen this page. Do you want to save the document in this format?". If you retain the original Word document in .doc format as well as the new filtered HTML version of the file, you can always re-edit the original copy, if you have any concerns about needing to retain the Microsoft Word specific information.

References:

1. About using filtered HTML
   Microsoft Office Online
2. Reduce Web page size by filtering HTML
   Microsoft Office Online

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Excel Password Protection

For encrypting Excel workbooks with a password, use the following technique. Note: these steps apply to Office 2003 and 2007; for other versions the exact steps may vary.

1. From the Excel menu select "File" or, if you are using Office 2007, click on the Office Button at the top left corner of the Excel window.
2. Select "Save As"
3. From the "Save As" window, select "Tools"
4. Select "General Options"
5. Specify a "Password to open"
6. Click on "OK" to save the file.

A password is now required to open and view the file.

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