Ask DACS
September 2007

Jim Scheef, Moderator
Lisa Leifels, Reporter

We welcome questions from the floor at the start of our General Meetings. In addition, members who are not able to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@dacs.org. We will ask the question for you and post the reply in DACS.ORG. Please provide as much information as possible since we can’t probe during the session.

Q. I am using Microsoft Outlook 2002 and some of my mail folders have completely disappeared?

A. One way to recover email messages in Outlook 2002 and 2003 is to use Microsoft’s Inbox Repair Tool. Go to Start, Search and select Files or Folder, and enter the file name scanpst.exe. This file is usually found in the folder c:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033.

Before you run the repair program it is strongly recommended that you make a backup copy of the .pst file that you’d like to repair. You can then double-click on the file scanpst.exe to run the program. You will be asked to enter the path and name of the .pst file that you’d like to repair.

For additional information on repairing .pst files refer to the Microsoft Knowledge base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497.

Q. I read in the newspaper that the Ives Manor is renovating their basement. Will this cause any disruption to the DACS Resource Center?

A. The Ives Manor is currently undergoing work to fix a flooding problem. The DACS resource center is located on the opposite side of the building from where the flooding occurred. Charles Bovaird reported that the current repair work shouldn’t cause any problems with the availability of the DACS resource center.

Q. I have recently converted from Mozilla mail to the Thunderbird email program. I am having trouble reading mail in nested folders. Usually I use the shortcut on the toolbar to read new mail and this feature is no longer working.

A. You could type the letter N, which is the keyboard shortcut in Thunderbird to go to the next unread email. You may also want to download the latest version of the Buttons! Extension from the Thunderbird Add-on page of Mozilla’s website: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/106.

Q. Is there a way of doing a search in Microsoft Outlook where you can search for the latest items first?

A. In Microsoft Outlook 2003 you can do a simple search by selecting Tools, Find and then Find again from the menu bar. You can do a more advanced search by selecting Tools, Find and Advanced Find. In the Advanced Find you are able to restrict your search to emails that were sent or received in a specific time period, such as this week or last month.

Another possible solution would be to use either Google’s Desktop Search or Microsoft’s Windows Desktop Search.

Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org.