Crabby Office Lady

From using that mysterious Bcc field to figuring out how to automate your work, my readers have questions about Outlook. Here, I offer useful solutions, insightful observations, and a pinch (well, maybe a bit more than a pinch) of crabbiness.

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Today I'm going to solve some of the most common issues that my readers have with Microsoft Outlook. You people use Outlook at work, at home, and on your mobile devices. A few of you even use it in the car (hopefully not in New York, where even driving with a cell phone pressed to your ear is illegal).

Some of you who have written in about your Outlook woes have been charming and delightful, while others (and you know who you are) have been creatively insulting and downright entertaining. And yes, I've also received three marriage proposals, five declarations of love, and one fellow who insists I'm a "closet do-gooder." (Get a grip, fella.) Let's see if we can't flesh out your knowledge of Outlook, one of the most widely used Office programs.

The Bcc field: "Be courageous and courteous?"

Ever wonder what that "Bcc" field is doing in your Outlook message? Thought it stood for "Brave convictions and contestations"? Or perhaps "Bring champagne and caviar?" You're wrong (although endowed with a fine imagination), and you're apparently not alone.

"How do I create an e-mail list that will not show the individuals in the group? I don't want to share the information that it is going to all the people in the list."

— Secretive in Saskatchewan

"Can you please help me? When sending an e-mail to multiple recipients as a circular, I would like to be able to hide the names of the recipients, but I have not been able to figure out how to do it. I use Outlook for my e-mail, not Outlook Express. Look forward to hearing from you."

— Outback Muffin

Dear Secretive and Muffin,

You're obviously both devious and sneaky — I like that about you. And Outlook just happens to have a feature for people like you: the Bcc field. Bcc stands for Blind carbon copy. If you add someone's name to this box in an e-mail message, a copy of the message is sent to that person, but his/her name is not visible to other recipients of the message. I'm sure you can both think of when this might be useful being the devious thinkers that you are...

And by the way, Muffin, it doesn't matter if you use Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, or a snail with a letter tied to its back. The Bcc field has the same function no matter how you send e-mail. (Well, that's not exactly true; it only applies to e-mail programs. I guess that disqualifies the snail.)

These articles will guide you in your quest for sending secretive missives with a Bossy and creative clamor:

• Do Cc and Bcc Mean in an Outlook Mail Message?
• View the Bcc Field for New Messages in Outlook 2002

Automatic replies and reminders: The next best thing to being there

Out of the office, but still need to offer a response to e-mail?

"Is there any way I can set up an automatic reply so that someone who e-mails me receives a message saying roughly, 'I'm outta the office, try the following e-mail'?"

— Leave-Me-Be Lenny

Dear Lenny,

The age when robots will do all our nasty chores for us (cleaning the toilet, paying the bills, answering e-mails while you're away) is not yet upon us. In the meantime, you can take steps to automate at least one of these chores:

• If you're running Microsoft Exchange Server (our high-powered, super-duper networking and messaging platform), you can set up Outlook to automatically send different replies to different senders:
  
  Have Microsoft Exchange Server Send Custom Reply Messages with Outlook 2002
• If you don't have (or aren't running) Exchange Server, you can also set up Outlook to send automatic replies, but Outlook has to be running to make it all happen:
  
  Automatically Send Custom Reply Messages with Outlook 2002

My next reader needs to nudge her employees in an automatic sort of way.

"Can I make Outlook send out nasty reminder e-mails? I would like to remind everyone every Thursday to leave their computers on so that the virus check can run. Our office manager would have even much more use for a feature like this...."

— Single-minded Sue

Dear Sue,

Nasty e-mails: my specialty. For what you want to do, weekly, recurring meetings disguised as reminder e-mails (with reminders that pop up on the recipients' screen) are the way to go.

To set up a meeting that's really a reminder

1. Create a meeting request and invite everyone in the company. Or, if you value your job, invite just those you want to remind each week.
   Note   For more information on how to set up a meeting, see Help in Outlook.
2. Click Recurrence and set it to recur every week at a particular time, like every Thursday around 4:30 P.M., right before people leave for the day.
3. Make sure you click the Reminder box so that a reminder will pop up.
4. Enter a title like "Leave your computers on tonight or else." and send it off.

Once people have accepted the request, a reminder will pop up on their screens at the time you specify.

This method is, of course, not foolproof. There is a feature in Outlook that lets you turn off ALL reminders. The people in your company who've done that are the ones you'll have to baby-sit. You know, the rebels, the black sheep, the difficult children (not unlike myself).

Saving addresses: If it were a snake, it woulda bit ya

When my next letter started with, "OK Crabby, here is my crab," I knew stormy weather was ahead. But lo and behold, the answer was on the tip of his or her finger. (And it's Ms. Crabby to you, Gentle Reader.)

"I've read every help document and have yet to discover how to have the program save the address of a sender instead of having to type it manually into a 'Contacts' list. What were you people thinking? What ever happened to simplicity and ease of use? I just need simple reliable e-mail."

— Crabbier-Than-Thou

Dear Crabbier-Than-Thou,

Good grief, Grumpy — relax. I'm getting the feeling you actually like to spend hours hunting down the simplest of solutions. And here it is. Ready? Are you sure? Really sure? Close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and repeat after me:

1. Open the message.
2. In the From field, right-click the name you want to make into a contact.
3. Click Add to Contacts on the shortcut menu.
4. Click Save and Close.

What were we thinking by making it so simple and putting it in Help? I just don't know. I'll have a little chat with Bill.

To attach or not to attach

Some of you are very confused about attaching files in e-mail messages. Take this poor reader.

"Currently I use two computers with Outlook. When I send attachments, one computer puts the attachment in the body of the letter and the other puts it at the bottom. I would like to change the settings to include the attachments in the body of the letter but can't find where to make this change."

— Doing Double Duty in Detroit

Dear Double Duty,

Your problem is with e-mail formats. Here's a quick tutorial:

• HTML format   This is the default format when you create a message in Outlook 2002. HTML format lets you go crazy with formatting, alignments, pictures, and so on. Since most popular e-mail programs use HTML, it's the recommended format if you send most of your messages over the Internet.
  
  
• Plain text format    This is the one that all e-mail programs understand; however, it's boring and just, well, plain.
  
  
• Rich Text Format (RTF)   Only Microsoft Exchange and Outlook e-mail programs understand this format. RTF supports text formatting, including bullets, alignment, and linked objects. Outlook automatically creates meeting and task requests and messages with voting buttons in RTF format, regardless of the default format you have set.
  
  

When you send (or reply to) messages using HTML or plain text format, attachments will always show up in the Attach box (under the Subject header). When you send (or reply to) messages using RTF, the attachment is inserted in the body of the message, depending on where you had your cursor when you inserted it.

Thanks for sharing, thanks for caring

That's all the time we have for today, but don't shake your fist at me; there's more to come. Bit by bit, your questions will be answered and you will reach Outlook enlightenment. In the meantime, keep your feedback coming; it's so amusing. Even the mean stuff.

"Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it." — Edna St. Vincent Millay

About the author

Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don't vote, you can't complain.

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