Off Topic - Office Xp Users?

[Lianna]

I'm going crazy here! I just upgraded from MS Office 2000 to Office XP and I'm getting frustrated with something:

 

You know how the less used menu items are hidden and you have to click the little double arrow at the end of any menu to expand it? Well, in 2000 you could get rid of that and I did, quickly!

 

PROBLEM: Can't for the life of me figure out how to do it in Office XP. Help is no help, discussion forums are 3 hours behind in even posting....lame for being such a giant in the industry (IMO).

 

So I'm resorting here. If anybody has a clue on this one, could you let me in on it?

 

Thanks!

L

[Lianna]

Dang! I found it! As soon as I give up, of course. Next time, I'll quit earlier!

 

For anyone else interested:

 

Tools > Customize > Options tab > Always show full menus

 

From any Office application, that will impact all of them.

 

Bill, sorry for taking up your board space with this one!

 

L

[Andrew]

You could have right-clicked the menu, chosen "Customize" and done it under the "Options" tab, too.

Been using XP for a few months now. Happy to help if I can.

 

Andrew

[Lianna]

Right Andrew. See that was the problem though. MS has gone and moved stuff around again for no good reason (IMO). It used to be under Tools > Options. I delved into every little button and buried feature that there is available in the Options dialogs. NOW, it's buried in Tools > Customize > Options. I think that I had looked in Customize before, but, again, in the old version, Customize was strictly Toolbars. Of course that was the first tab that was presented in the dialog and I guess that I closed it thinking "Naw, they wouldn't have put it there!"

 

What was the point of the move? Makes no sense to me whatsoever.

 

In other words, it was the Customize part of the whole equation that had my head spinning.

 

Thanks though. I'll yell for you if I have other questions about Office XP!

 

Oh, wait, I do have a question. Do you also use Outlook? Have you noticed that when composing a new message and you click the To: button, the address book that pops up is sorted by first name? I can't find a way to change that either. I have specified in Contacts to list as Last, First and it does when displayed in Contacts views. But the blasted address book still sorts them in First Last. So Gary Allen is right in order with Gary Zell then Gene Nobody. What sense is that?

 

...ramble...moan...

Anyway, if you have any insight here, I'll happily take it!

 

Lianna

[KevinW]

Lianna,

 

Does this help?

 

For Outlook 2002:

 

Choose Tools | E-mail Accounts.

Select View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next.

Select Outlook Address Book, and then click Change.

Under Show names by, choose First Last or File As.

 

Slipstick

http://www.slipstick.com/dev/olforms/ordcont.htm

 

It comes from www.slipstick.com which is my first place I go to for Outlook or exchange related questions.

[Lianna]

PERFECT! You have to close and reopen Outlook for that setting to take effect, but it's wonderous, I say!

 

Happy-happy-joy-joy!

 

Lianna

[Head Guru]

I have a big hole in my backyard, its available. Just in case you want to put oulook 2002 where it really belongs.

 

[Andrew]

MS has gone and moved stuff around again for no good reason (IMO).

I'm one of those rare folks who neither loves nor hates Microsoft. So I can actually almost sort of be objective about things.

 

I figured they had a choice: Keep the menus in a less-than-logical place (but one that people would be used to), or move them to a logical place (that previous Office users wouldn't find). So they chose #2.

 

I'm used to stumbling my way around until I find what I need, then getting used to the new configuration.

[Lianna]

I don't hate Microsoft, but geesh. I just don't have time in my life to re-learn every release! I, too, am used to just stumbling around until I find what I'm looking for. Under normal work loads, I would be investigating all of the menu options and figuring out what all the neat, cool new stuff does.

 

Thanks everyone for your help. It's greatly appreciated.

 

Since we are so off topic already, it probably won't overload Bill's server for the next question either. (One more, then I promise I'll start answering instead of asking! )

 

I have a pc at work and a pc at home. I have an external hard drive that I carry from one to the other. I have all of my data on it. All programs are installed on the individual pc's. I have Outlook .pst folder on the portable drive as well...nice. Questions:

 

How can I / can I store my email account settings/info only on the portable for use by whatever pc I happen to be using. (Getting tired of making sure that Outlook on one is looking for the same mail accounts as on any other and having to go through that sync routine manually.)

 

How can I / can i store my favorites only on the portable for use by whatever pc I happen to be using.

 

Both pc's are XP Home OS.

Lianna

PS: Yes KW, I backup that portable drive VERY regularly.

[Lianna]

Found one.

 

IE Favorites in a different location? This article at Novell explains how to do it using TweakUI for Windows. Their concentration was sending it to an iFolder for accessibility. Same dif - portable hard drive. Worked like a champ.

 

L

[Andrew]

Hmm... are those things (favorites and .pst file) in the same location on both PCs? I'm wondering about some sort of simple program or batch file that would copy it from the external drive.

 

TweakUI for XP is a great suggestion. One of its settings allows you to change where system and system-like files are kept. If you changed the setting so you favorites folder was pointing to drive Q: (or whatever your external is), that might work.

 

Then again, it might not.

 

(Everything in this post may be wrong.)

 

Andrew

[Lianna]

For Favorites, the TweakUI trick definitely did it. I have the Favorites on my external (g:) and just used TweakUI to point to g: on both pc's. Now, if I make a change to my favs or add one in a hurry for future reference, it's there on either pc.

 

.pst is the Outlook personal File Folders extention. I have that one working very well on g:. The problem is that the mail account settings aren't actually saved in that .pst file. Second problem, I don't know where they ARE saved. Searched the registry and only found two of 14.

 

Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express 6 have an Export feature that will save the mail settings in a file with .iaf extension. I could export the mail accounts on to g: and then import them on the other pc. But, alas, Outlook XP does not appear to have that feature to Export mail account settings.

 

Any way. If anybody has clues, hints, tricks...

 

Lianna