Here are some general complaints about Office 2007. If anyone has suggestions on remedies (other than rolling back to 2003), please let me know! Otherwise, feel free to continue complaining: 1) Outlook: On calendar view, no way to get rid of the “How to Share Calendars,” “Search Calendars Online,” “Send a Calendar vis E-mail,” “Publish My Calendar,” and “Add New Group” links in the Navigation Pane. These take up a FULL THIRD of the screen! 2) Outlook: See above, but no way to see more than 2 months in the Navigation Pane. 3) Outlook: No way to customize the Month view. Right now, it shows 6 weeks, and I can barely see the appointements. It would be nice to reduce it to a custom number of weeks. 4) Outlook: In week view, no way to customize times shown. It starts at 12 am by default, cuts off at 9 pm on my screen. This cuts off some late night appointments, while it shows me a lot of gray space when I’m sleeping. 5) Outlook: No way to compress weekend days like in 2003 (I’ve heard this is an issue of compatibility with other calendar programs, though). 6) Outlook: Send/Receive (though scheduled to run once a minute) doesn’t run until I click on my Inbox folder (and sometimes not even then!). This may be a bug. A Send/Receive should run no matter what every minute, download the headers and show my Inbox as having new messages, regardless of what folder I’m in. 7) Outlook: No longer able to include “mark as read” in a rule. 8) General: No way to change “Save As” default unless you are using a domain user account (can’t use Group Policy Management Console, required to install the Administrative Templates without one). 9) General: No way to “skin” back to the old 2003 menu bar look. This would be a nice feature, as I have trouble finding some options in 2007 (especially in Excel), when I know EXACTLY how to access them from the normal menu bar. 10) Word: When rolling over to a new page, the document autoscrolls so I can’t see what I’m typing until I hit enter (or scroll down myself). In other words, if you’re typing and you get to the bottom of the page, rather than scrolling down to show you what you’re typing, the program scrolls UP so you can’t see what you’re tyipng. VERY bizarre behavior. All that said, I really do like the new look and some of the new functionality. These are just a couple minor issues that REALLY should be taken care of. Note: I’ve only used Outlook (extensively), Word (semi-extenisvely) and Excel (somewhat). I haven’t even touched the other components.

Quite a list you have there, but I'll address a couple. Complaint number 1: Why not Minimize the Navigation Pane? Complaint number 4: You can indeed customize the times on the Calendar by going to Tools, Options, Calendar Options. Set it to show the times you want displayed. Complaint number 6: Have you installed SP1? Complaint number 7: Yes you can. Complaint number 9: Have you looked here? http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/g... It will show you how to do in Office 2007 what you did in previous versions. Life's more painless for the brainless.

Jennifer, Thanks, I definitely appreciate the help! In response: 1 - Navigation Pane shows annoying tips, can't be removed: I actually like the navigation pane, otherwise that would definitely be the best solution. :). I LOVE having the calendar there so I can quickly go ahead/back several months. It's just silly they force you to keep certain tasks there... tasks I will never use. 4 - Week View shows 12 am to 9 pm, can't be changed: This has no effect on the week view. Mine are set to 8 am to 5 pm, and my Week view still shows 12 am to 9 pm, with no noticeable way to fix it. 6 - Send/Receive for IMAP doesn't download new messages: This is a BIG one. Still happening, and I've seen others having this problem. I'm going to put it in a new post. I have the latest updates via Microsoft and Office Update, and it's still doing this! 7 - Can't mark messages as read in a rule: PLEASE let me know how to do this! I've tried everything, and googling found a post of someone saying this is disabled in 2007 for some reason. 9 - Can't "skin" 2007 to look like 2003: This is very helpful! Thanks again for your help! Jon

Tools Rules and Alerts New Start from a blank rule Check when Arrive Next Set incoming criteria Next "Mark as read" is the 16th entry on the list. Life's more painless for the brainless.

Jennifer, You are completely right, and I just realized that my problem is slightly more complex. I am trying to use "mark as read" in a rule that runs after items are SENT. Basically, I am trying to create a rule which, after I send a message from my IMAP account, moves a copy of the sent message to the main Outlook (POP) sent items folder, then marks it as read. I had this same rule in Outlook 2003. If anyone has suggestions, I'm open to them! I've tried Custom Actions: AutoRead - Generates an error in Outlook. Mark Read - Marks ALL messages coming into my main Outlook/POP inbox as read, not jsut the ones being moved to my sent items folder. Thanks again! Jon

Why would you want to mark a message you have sent yourself as read. I would have thought it is a foregone conclusion that any message you have written yourself is read. Can't see how you could send a message without reading it. Are you getting confused with the auto replay facility that marks a message as read when the recipient reads it. Not when you read it. Stuart

Totally agree with item #1. Did MS learn NOTHING from the whole Clippie fiasco?!? People who need help links should be able to find them quickly and easily when necessary; people who don't need help links shouldn't have them taking up screen space. I'd much rather be able to display 4 extra months of clickable dates than four links that I'll never use.