Custom Dictionaries

Custom Dictionaries allow you to store words that are not in the standard dictionary but which are valid. Names, surnames, towns as well as technical terms are common examples of correctly spelled nonexistent dictionary phrases. You would add these words to a custom dictionary so as to prevent the spell checker from prompting you whenever these words are used in an email.

With custom dictionaries it makes more sense to move the file to the folder that holds the pst files. See the article titled “How to backup your Microsoft Office 2007 Outlook in its entirety (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7)” for more information. For Windows 7, the suggested folder was %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Outlook while under Windows XP it was %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\Outlook. This ensures that all terms added to the dictionary are backed up whenever you backup this folder.

To perform this action, choose the entry Options… from the Tools menu. From the dialog box that comes up click on the Spelling tab; the Spelling and Autocorrection… button; the Custom Dictionaries… button. The dialog box titled Custom Dictionaries comes up. For each dictionary that is defined, you can set the path where it should reside. This can be done by selecting the dictionary and then clicking the browse button and selecting the new location for this file. If you already have data stored in your CUSTOM.DIC file, you should close Microsoft Outlook and move this file using Windows Explorer.

Signatures, Stationary and Templates

Stationery and themes are a set of unified design elements and colour schemes you want to apply to messages. They specify fonts, bullets, background colour, horizontal lines, images, and other design elements you want to include in outgoing e-mail messages. Signatures are parts of a document you embed at the end of each email. You may have a different signature defined for each email account that pours into Microsoft Outlook. You can vary the signature depending on whether you are writing a new email or replying to a communication sent by someone else. Besides being a time saver, signatures allow you to personalize your email. Within companies and organisations a standard signature helps promote a professional identity.

Under the folder %APPDATA%\Microsoft are three directories called Signatures, Stationery and Templates. By including these directories in your backup strategy you would not have to create your customisations if you ever need to reinitialise your Microsoft Outlook installation. You would only need to reselect the appropriate signatures, themes and stationeries the first time you run Microsoft Outlook after a fresh install.

Conclusion

Having to reinstall a computer is one of the most nerve wrecking experiences. Even if you are willing to stay up late into the night or to dedicate a Sunday to reinstall the operating system and programs, remembering and implementing program customisations can ultimately take much longer. Recreating some functionality exactly as it was before can end up being a real bugger. By backing up these settings, getting back to the state you were originally becomes a breeze.

Comments are welcome and should be sent to chribonn@gmail.com.

In my entry titled “How to backup your Microsoft Office 2007 Outlook in its entirety (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7)” I described how to backup the Microsoft Outlook 2007 data file together with that part of the Windows registry that stores within it the email accounts from where Outlook retrieves emails or via which emails are sent out. Today I discuss how to use that backed up information to either recover a failed computer or to transfer the settings from one computer to another. The former may happen if the hard disk fails or as a result of a malware attack while the latter would apply if you are upgrading your computer or operating system.

On your freshly formatted computer you need to install Microsoft Outlook. Accept all the defaults. After the installer completes, run Microsoft Outlook for the first time. You will be asked a number of questions. Enter anything that will allow you to proceed to the end of this process. Do not enter valid email account details because Outlook will attempt to download mail after you complete the process and since this is not the database you will be using, you do not want any messages to end up here (this can be fixed but why create a problem that will need fixing).

1. Restore the files you had previously backed up to their original location. If you followed my previous article, the location would be %USERPROFILE%\Documents if you’re using Windows 7 and %USERPROFILE%\My Documents for Windows XP.

If you were using an online backup solution, you could have had a process that backed up this directory multiple times a day thereby guaranteeing that not even one email was lost when disaster struck.

2. Delete the files created by Microsoft Outlook when you first ran it. As we did when backing up, we need to find out the default location where Microsoft Outlook places the pst database. The same steps you performed during the backup stage must be repeated:

1. With Outlook running, right click on the Personal Folders entry (1) and choose the option Properties for ‘Personal Folders’ from the short cut menu that comes up.
2. A dialog box titled Outlook Today – (Personal Folders) Properties comes up. Click on the Advanced… button (2).
3. This brings up yet another dialog box titled Personal Folders. The Filename: entry (3) depicts the location of where your Outlook data file currently resides.
4. Copy the directory location from the Filename: entry and paste it into Windows Explorer.
5. Click OK on all the dialog boxes you have just opened and shut down Outlook.
6. Delete the contents of this folder.

 3. Click on the Microsoft Outlook 2007 icon to run the program. Since the pst data file is no longer there, Outlook prompts you that it cannot find this file and asks that you select the location where this file can be found. Move to the directory you have just restored and select the appropriate database. Outlook will memorize the new location.

A  message box comes up to tell you that Outlook must be restarted. Press the OK button.

4. Run Outlook again and confirm that all your emails, contacts and calendar entries are present. Although everything should be there, the email account settings are missing. This is because these are not stored within the pst file but are held in the registry.

If you did not follow the article about how to backup this information, you will have to manually setup each email account. Search your mail provider’s website for information about how to go about it. If, on the other hand, you retained a backup of this chunk of the registry then read on.

 5. Close Microsoft Outlook.

 6. Restore the Registry entries by double clicking on the registry file found in the directory you restored earlier. You will be asked to confirm the operation (1). You need to choose the Yes button. A warning comes up (2) to tell you that mucking up with the registry is dangerous. This is because one can easily render a computer an electronic vegetable if one deletes, adds or modifies incorrect entries to the registry—check out the backup part of this work for more about the Windows registry. Press the Yes button for this dialog box. A third dialog box (3) will tell you that the entries have been successfully added.

7. The next time you run Outlook you will get a prompt for the password associated with each email account managed by this program. Type in the password. If you do not wish to have to enter the password every time you run Outlook, click the appropriate checkbox to save the password.

8. Confirm that everything is working as it did before.

End of part 2 – Conclusion

You do not appreciate something until that something is no longer there. Emails, contacts and appointments are three of the most important things in the electronic world we live in. A backup solution that is easy to setup and forget about while being equally easy to restore when the need arises is the ideal candidate to ensure that you do not ever lose one bit of data.

Your comments and opinions are welcome. Is there a program you would like to backup but do not know how to go about it? Did I miss something out in my article on how to backup and restore of Microsoft Outlook 2007? Leave a comment or email me on chribonn@gmail.com.