Outlook Mobile Team Blog : Tips and Tricks

Texting a Non-Mobile Number

ChaniJ — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:31:00 GMT

Commenter Jakub Anderwald notes how hard it is to send a text message to a home or work phone. I totally agree. These days many people have more than one mobile number and yet we only have space for one mobile number on our phone. As a result people have to store alternate mobile numbers as “work” or “other” and it is harder to send text messages to these numbers.

Jakub mentioned needing to copy and paste the alternate phone number to send a text message. Though not perfect, there are easier ways!

Method 1

Bring up the summary card for the contact you want to text and scroll down to the phone number you want the text to go to. Then you can start a text to that number using Menu -> Send Text Message. In the example below this will send a text message to the work number for Raymond Same.

Method 2

Open a new text message and then choose Menu -> Add Recipient to bring up a list of contacts. Choose the contact that you want to text and it will then allow you to choose which phone number you want to use. The example below also shows how you can send the text to the work number for Raymond Same.

Hopefully these methods will make it a little easier to send text messages to non-mobile numbers and work around the single mobile number limitation.

Quick Note: Email Server Search

ChaniJ — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:15:00 GMT

The other day I was on the way to a potluck with some new friends and I was running late (somehow I always underestimate how long cooking really takes). On my way over I remembered that the location had changed earlier that week and I didn’t actually know where I was going. Checking my email I found that I had deleted the part of the thread with the critical information and only had the emails about what everyone was bringing.

Admittedly that wasn’t very bright of me, but thankfully I had email server search on my phone. From my inbox I used Menu -> Tools -> Search Server and then searched for “potluck” in all folders. It found the email for me and I was able to get to the right place without having to call anyone and admit my mistake. Check it out – it’s a helpful feature, especially when you don’t know where you are going :)

How to Access the Company Directory

Outlook Mobile Bloggers — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:52:51 GMT

Did you know that you can search your company directory on your phone? All you need is a Windows Mobile phone and an Exchange account.

How do I get to the company directory?

Open Contacts->Menu->Company Directory

What can I do in the Company Directory?

You can enter a name, email address, or office location and search the company directory. Notice also that your successful searches are saved in the search history below.

A list of resulting contacts will appear. You can view a contact’s detailed information via View. You can also take specific action on this contact. In this case for Kim Abercrombie, we can Call Work, Send e-mail, Save to Contacts, Save to SIM, or Send Text Message. Also, if you need to speak with Kim Abercrombie in person, the Office Location field can help you find her.

You can refine your search via Menu->New Search in the event that

a. You find no contacts

b. You receive a notification that you matched more than 100 contacts, and only 100 contacts are displayed.

c. You simply want to narrow your search results down.

You can also save this contact to your contacts list via Menu->Save to Contacts.

Stay tuned for a future post detailing other ways to take advantage of the company directory!

Finding Contacts FAST for Communication

ChaniJ — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:34:00 GMT

Recently I’ve posted a few tips about working with contacts and it has been mostly focused on access from the contacts application or Smartdial. I thought I should touch briefly on integration of contacts into other areas like messaging and calendar that make it really quick and easy to communicate with your contacts.

Personally my favorite way to address new emails or SMS is to use the contacts auto-suggest list from the compose form. In the “To:” field just type name, number, or email of the person you want to communicate with. As you type we’ll search for contacts that match that information and display them in a list. This picture shows auto-suggest for a new SMS indicating the phone number associated with the contacts. In this scenario I also could have searched by typing in the number.

The number of items in the list is limited to keep it from being information overload, so if the suggestions aren’t what you are looking for at first keep typing. When you see the one you want scroll down to it and then action on it to insert it. These images show the process for a new email of typing the first few characters of a contacts name, selecting him from the list of suggestions and the name and email populated in the “To:” field. This also would have worked if you were typing in his email address.

Another means of getting existing contact info is to use the “Select a Contact” dialog. To do this from the “To:” field of the compose form you can either hit Action/Enter or choose Menu - > Add Recipient. This will bring up a filterable list of your contacts (the filtering works just like in the contacts application). These images show accessing the filtering contact chooser dialog through the menu and then filtering down to a particular contact. This is just a different way to do the same thing and it’s your preference if you prefer to go with the auto-suggest or contact selection dialog.

This filterable list of contacts is also available from the calendar application when you are adding attendees to a meeting. From the appointment edit card action on the “Attendees:” field and then choose to add either required or optional attendees. Either way you will be taken to the filterable list of contacts to find your desired attendees. The following images show the process of picking attendees for an appointment and the same contact selection dialog.

Note that both auto-suggest and the contact chooser dialog will only show contacts that have applicable communication methods – for instance if you are composing an email the list of contacts will already be filtered to show only those that have an email address. This is helpful to keep the list manageable and prevent situations where you are trying to send an email with no email address. But it’s a good thing to keep in mind if you are searching for the contact and not finding them that they might not have the applicable information populated.

A caveat here is that only the mobile number counts for auto-suggest in the new SMS form (not work or other phone numbers). If you are trying to send an SMS to a number that isn’t stored in the mobile field you can still access that functionality through the contact summary card, but it definitely is not as convenient. Even so, in conjunction with the contact saving scenario that I covered a few weeks ago this covers many of the cases where you want to work with a contact outside of the contact application quickly and easily.

You’ll actually find the contact selection dialog from many different apps on the device. For instance when you are viewing pictures you are able to add one as the image for a contact and it will give you this dialog to select the appropriate contact. The contact selection experience is available across the device and enables quick filtering to find the person you are looking for.

As always, you can learn more about your Windows Mobile phone at The Windows Mobile Help & How-To page (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/default.mspx).

Saving Information to a Contact

ChaniJ — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:29:00 GMT

Creating a new contact from scratch is straight-forward enough both on the desktop and on your phone through the contacts application. But sometimes you have information you want to store before you have the contact itself. You may not have cut-paste access to this data or even if you did you want an easier way to get the data into a contact.

In this case you may often see a “Save” option that will allow you to do this in a stream lined way. There are many locations providing this options but let’s take the dialer as an example. Say you get a call from Bob Kelly, a new friend that you met recently. When the call is over you want to save the number so you can call him again. In the dialer you will see their number in the list and the “Save” option.

When you choose save you will see a list of all your contacts, in case this was an additional number for someone you already know, but at the top you will also see “<New Contact>”. Since you don’t have a contact for Bob yet you select that option.

At this point you see a simple interface to get the basic information in about the contact: first name, last name, and communication type. The phone number is already filled in for you, but you still get to specify the type of phone – mobile, work, home, etc.

When you are done entering your information you hit Save and the summary card will be brought up to display the information you just entered. This is the same card you would see if you opened the contact from the contacts application. If there was additional information you’d like to provide about Bob, perhaps the company he works for, you can open up the full contacts edit card by choosing “Menu->Edit”.

A recent call in the dialer is just one scenario for saving data in this way. Others include:

From an email – Action on the sender while viewing an email to bring up a temporary contact card that displays the user name and email address. From here you can choose Save to get that information into a contact.
From a text message sender – Action on the phone number when viewing a text message that has not been matched with a contact and you will get an option to create a new contact and start this process.
From the body or subject of a text message or email – If someone sent you a text message or email with a phone number in it you can action and then choose Menu -> Save to Contacts to start this process for that number.
From the dialer – If someone gives you their number and you type it into the dialer but don’t want to call them right then you can choose Save instead to keep the information for later.

If you’d like to learn more about your Windows Mobile phone check out The Windows Mobile Help & How-To page at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/default.mspx.

Warning: the following contains explicit SSL

jeffmin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:34:00 GMT

(or, Messaging: Port Probing Demystified)

The "Require SSL" checkbox in the account configuration wizard for POP3/IMAP accounts is an often misunderstood feature. It's somewhat ironic, then, that the intent of the checkbox is actually to simplify account configuration.

Compare the following two screenshots taken from WM6 Standard and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Notice how much more complexity there is in the Thunderbird dialog. Now this is not intended to be a dig at Thunderbird. In fact, as a power user I prefer and appreciate this level of control. But I realize that my preference doesn't reflect the best user experience for someone who doesn't write email software for a living!

Pop quiz, hotshots:

List the standard and secure ports for POP3, IMAP, and SMTP.
What is the difference between TLS and SSL? How do you know which your server supports?
What is the difference between "Use secure connection" and "Use secure authentication"?

To expect that the average user would be able to answer any of these questions is ridiculous. If they are able to provide the server address and username, that is already a huge win in my book.

So in the name of usability, we distilled all this down to a single, easy-to-ignore checkbox. Users who don't care about security don't need to worry. More informed/vigilant/paranoid users can enable the secure setting.

Probing the issue

Despite all the settings available in Thunderbird, there are really only three common connection profiles:

Implicit SSL on the secure port (a.k.a. IMAPS/POP3S/SMTPS)
Explicit SSL on the standard port (a.k.a. STARTTLS/STLS)
Unencrypted on the standard port

Rather than ask the user to know or guess which profile matches their particular server configuration, we simply try them all until we find one that works. We call this port probing.

Let's run through an example port probing scenario where SSL is not supported:

User configures an IMAP4 account and initiates a Send/Receive
Probe attempt 1
1. Implicit SSL on IMAPS port 993
2. Connection time out
Probe attempt 2
1. Explicit SSL on IMAP port 143
2. Connection successful
3. Ask server if STARTTLS is supported
4. Server says "no"
Probe attempt 3
1. Unencrypted on IMAP port 143
2. Connection successful (just use the connection from the previous attempt)
3. Ask server if plaintext authentication is supported
4. Server says "yes"
5. Login!

Now that we know which connection method the server supports, we can continue to use that method during subsequent Send/Receive sessions.

One important aspect of this routine is that the more secure connection profiles are tried first. In the above example, plaintext login was tried only as a last resort.

Questions arise

Q. Isn't port probing slow?

A. Yes, it can be slow since in many cases we are sitting around waiting for the socket connect attempt to time out. But typically the probing is only done during the first Send/Receive so it is a one time cost.

Q. What if my server doesn't listen on the standard ports?

A. Specify the port number in the hostname (e.g. "imap.aol.com:143"). This works for both incoming and outgoing mail server.

Protip: Specifying the port number in this manner will influence the port probing logic to favor the specified port number and will generally speed up the connection process!

Q. I'm using WM5 and [scenario] won't work!

A. Unfortunately there were a number of bugs in the port probing implementation in WM5 (see Errata below)

Q. Wait, you never explained what the "Require SSL" checkbox does

A. If the checkbox is checked, the port probing will never try plaintext login over an unencrypted channel.

Errata

The port probing implementation in WM5 was not perfect, though I'd venture to guess that most users never encountered these bugs. That said, woe unto he whose email administrator did use nonstandard ports or did regard STARTTLS above all others.

If you are having email connectivity issues and you suspect port probing may be to blame, try these troubleshooting techniques:

Add or remove the port number from the hostname
Toggle the "Require SSL" checkbox on or off
Toggle the "Outgoing connection requires authentication" checkbox on or off
(Try different permutations of the above settings)

If you have control over your own mail server, some connectivity issues can be resolved by opening alternative encryption/authentication methods. For example if your server only uses explicit SSL, try enabling implicit SSL on a different port.

Mega contact

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:24:00 GMT

Here's a useful tip. Create a separate version of your contact (call it "Me" or something) that you never beam to anyone. Add everything here. Your frequent flier number. Insurance number. Dentist info. Doctor info. Now you never have to search for anything again, ever. Just make sure you don't beam this contact to others and put a password on your phone or something :-)

Easy way of adding pictures to contacts

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:21:00 GMT

Love seeing pictures in contacts? Here's an easy way to add it: If you sync with outlook (desktop or server sync) then add pictures to your contacts in Outlook. They will sync over to the phone.

Where are my sent items?

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:18:00 GMT

By default the Messaging application does not sync the sent items folder. Therefore, you may notice that your sent items folder is empty. Here is how you "fix" it :-

Pocket PC :-

Menu -> Tools -> Manage Folders
Select "Sent Items"
Press OK
Sync

Smartphone :-

Menu -> Folders
Menu -> Manage Folders
Select "Sent Items"
Press Sync
Press Done
Sync

Zeeshan Hamid

Scrolling to the top hack...

zhamid — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:14:00 GMT

It is a pain to scroll to the top in Messaging (both in Read Note and the list view). Here is a work-around that works :-

In List view :-

Hit the right key to switch accounts
Hit the left key to go back. You're on top!

In the read form :-

Hit back (in Smartphone) or the OK button (in pocketPC) to close the message

Action to open the message again. You are on top!

The infamous Messaging Reply-All bug.

zhamid — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:39:00 GMT

Argh, do you wonder why replying-all to a message adds you to the recipient list? It's annoying. The problem is that Messaging does not know who you are. Here is the work-around :-

Go to Start -> Programs
Launch Active Sync
Go to Menu->Options
- (This menu item will be disabled during sync)
Select ActiveSync
Click Settings
Menu -> Advanced
Enter your e-mail address in the "Primary e-mail address" field
- This is the e-mail address that shows up when you reply-all. In my case, it is user@exchange.microsoft.com, instead of user@microsoft.com.

There, it was easy, wasn't it?

Add date / time in Messaging List view (in Smartphone)

zhamid — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 03:47:00 GMT

You might not even realize how amazingly helpful date / time is in List view. Turn it on and see. List View > Menu-Options > Display first item in the CPL.

Skip multiple letters in contacts

zhamid — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 03:32:00 GMT

In Contacts, you can bring up the letter chooser by hoding Up or Down for a period of time. Once it is showing, Up and Down will increment the letter one at a time. You can use Left or Right to increment or decrement 5 letters at a time.

<< Add screenshot here >>

Wildcard in smartdial

zhamid — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 03:20:00 GMT

Not many people know this, but smartdial supports wildcards! For instance, if you are looking for "dad", you may type 323. However, in case you forget the spelling, you can also type 313, which matches d*d.