The Outlook & Sync blog

If you’re into Geocaching, you can use our free software GoogleEarthTweaker to convert GPX files and make them display nicely in GoogleEarth.

You can also use this program to exclude found caches. This may be useful if you have a lot of GPX files that you don’t want to update all of the time, but still want to remove your latest finds from them.

Simply activate the “exclude” checkbox and use the button […] to specify a folder where the GPX file with your finds resides. (Note: It can still be zipped, GoogleEarthTweaker won’t mind.)

Please use this link to Download GoogleEarthTweaker.

Synchronzing two calendars is a feature, that’s Easy2Sync for Outlook can do since ages. But the new version 1.26 offers a new twist:

Copy-merging.

Now what’s that?

It almost like synchronizing. Any item that exists on both sides and is changed on either, is updated on the respective other side. The new this: If the item is new, it gets only copied if its new on the “master” side (the source side for the arrow).

Too abstract? Two examples:
1. 20 people in you company have 20 calendars. Simply synchronzing them would create havok, each calendar would contain all items from everybody, you couldn’t find anything. With the new copy-merge mode, you can create a 21st calendar and copy-merge all calendars into the new one. The 20 calendars stay the same but now you have a “team calendar” that contains all items from all calendars. And the best part: If you change an item in the “team calendar” it will get synchronized back to owning calendar *only*.
2. You can 12.000 contacts in Outlook. You PDA would detonate if you tried to synchronize it with that. Just create a calendar with your “favorite contacts”. You can now use your PDA software (sorry, not Easy2Sync) to synchronize your PDA with the favorite contacts folder. And you can use Easy2Sync for Outlook to copy-merge the favorite with the main contact folder. It will synchronize changed items in both directions. But it will not add items from them main to the favorites folder.

Hope you get what I mean. 😉 Want more info on Easy2Sync for Outlook and team calendars? Give Easy2Sync a try!

Synchronizing Outlook over the network is always the faster and easier option – but it’s not always available. For example if you want to synchronize your Outlook calendar at home and at the office. You still can synchronize them. And here’s how to:

1. Get an USB-Stick. It doesn’t have to be big. Any stick that you can buy nowadays is likely to be big enough to hold your calendar. SD-Cards & co work, too.
2. Get Easy2Sync for Outlook (this requires the Business Edition). You’ll need it on both computers.
3. Use Outlook to create a blank PST file on the USB-Stick (Outlook: File > New > Outlook data file) and create an empty contacts folder in it.
4. Close the file in Outlook again. (Right-click the root item of the new file in the Outlook folder tree)
5. Start Easy2Sync for Outlook, click on the “New” button and choose the Calendar sync. Just follow the wizard’s steps.
6. Repeat (5) on the other PC, with the stick plugged in there.
7. If you want, edit the tasks to exclude private contacts from the sync.

That’s all! Want more info on Easy2Sync for Outlook? Click here!

Originally Easy2Sync for Files was “just” able to synchronize files. By now it has outgrown that small island and has become a feature continent. You can synchronize, copy, move and do lots of other things with your files. Simply create a new task and choose one of the “move” task types:

Yes, there’s more than one because you can decide if you want to keep the directory structure or move that, too. Perfect for doing a backup of your files! Try Easy2Sync for Files!

One might argue if collecting stamps is a useful hobby. Collecting tasks however can be VERY useful. Both Easy2Sync for Outlook and Easy2Sync for Files feature something called “task collection” in the “new” menu:

Task collections are special tasks that group several other synchronization tasks. Once the task collection is run (manually or automatically), it starts all the files in the collections. For example, I have a task collection “Backup” that runs all the different backup tasks that I use to back up different parts and projects of my harddisk to a removable medium. One click, one coffee and I can sleep better. 😉

BTW: This feature can be combined with a menu item of the “view” menu. It allows you to hide all the sync jobs that are member of a task collection from the main dialog. A great feature if you have so many sync jobs that it already messes up the main dialog, as it reduces the many synchronization jobs to a few task collections. 😉

Another BTW: You can easily recognize the task collections in the main dialog, as they don’t have an icon to indicate their task type (sync, copy, etc.). Since they can icorporate many task types (sync AND copy) it doesn’t make much sense to display an icon.
If you want you can test the Freeware Edition here.

Opera is a great (free) browser. If you like it, too, you may want to synchronize your bookmarks between different computers. Since Opera stores all bookmarks in a single file, you can easily synchronize that with the Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files. Forever, if you like, as the Freeware Edition doesn’t contian a time limit.

Easy2Sync has a special assistant for task that synchronize just one file:

By default Opera’s bookmark file is named opera6.adr and is stored in C:\Program files\Opera\Profile (even though the path may be different on your system). To set up the task just drag the file from the local and the (shared) remote path into this dialog. When synchronzing, please note that Opera modifies the file every time you use a bookmark, so it’s best to synchronize often. 😉

Give it a try with our Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files.

Easy2Sync for Files offers plenty of configuration options. And if you’re the tech guy who did the job of configuration it for somebody else you may want to protect your work against accidental misconfiguration by the user.

This can be done easily with Easy2Sync. You can protect the tasks (which contain the file sync information), the options, the service configuration, the start of the sync software or of a sync task. Well, practically everything. And you can display an information message (like “don’t do this yourself, call us instead”) and / or demand a password.

Want to have a test drive? Then try our Freeware Edition. It fully supports the passwords feature.

Our software ReplyButler is able to store (very complex) text modules in form of text module library. Each library equals a file on your harddisk.

If you’re using ReplyButler in a team environment you may know that you can store the library files on a network drive. ReplyButler can handle this and share access between the instances running.

But what if you’re using a laptop that’s not always connected to the network? No problem you can use your Outlook text modules there, too. Simply use Easy2Sync for Files to synchronize the .ClipTextLib files between the computers. If you all of your text module libraries are stored in the same folder on your harddisk (would be a good idea anyway), then even the Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files can do this.

Outlook supports a “private” flag for contacts, calendar items and other items. Depending on your situation you might want to synchronize only private or non-private items. Or both?

No matter which combination you want, Easy2Sync for Outlook supports it. You can simply decide (for each object type indepently) if you want to synchronize or not. Transfer non-private contacts? Or only the private calendar items? Anything goes.

See for yourself:

Click here to try it and download the Freeware Edition.

Outlook is a great e-mail client, but shorthand text modules are not its strong suit. Some people suggest to use text expansion macros, but remembering them isn’t easy either, especially if you have a lot of text modules. (Most people who work in software support do.)

ReplyButler, can not only answer your e-mails with the right name, it also stores text modules. For this, it includes a new dialog bar, where you can see your text modules in a menu structure. Simply Ctrl+Click any of these items to add a new text module. (Or just click it to access the menu structure of your boilerplate texts.)

ReplyButler also allows language-specific text modules, variables, etc. But, then, that will be blogged on a different day. 😉

Please click here to try ReplyButler’s text moules in Outlook.

(This artcle was previously published in the ASPects regarding ReplyButler, but now I’ll make it available to everyone.)

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRODUCT

Did I catch you? Great, here are a few things you should consider when choosing the right boilerplate software for you.

1. Subfolders (Multiple levels)
These are absolutely essential if you want to stay organized.

2. General or integrated
If you plan to use boilerplate only in your e-mails you might want to look for a product that can be integrated into your mail client, making the texts easier to access. If you want to use it in other places, too (software development perhaps?), you should use a program than can cooperate with all applications on your PC.

3. Multi-Language
If you speak more than one language and answer support mails in the other language(s) you’ll find it useful to have your boilerplate text in multiple languages.

4. Multi-User
If your company is not a one-man-show, you’ll probably want to share your canned text with other persons. You could probably just copy the configuration files around, but it would be easier if the program supports a multi-user environment from the start.

5. Icons
You’ll probably look down on this point. But I’ve found it very useful because it’s easier to memorize an image than a text.

Good luck with your boilerplate!

Thomas Holz is the owner of www.itsth.com, a company offering the “Easy2Sync” file- and Outlook synchronization tools as well as the boilerplate software for Outlook “ReplyButler“.

One-click Duplicate Delete for Outlook contains a neat option that can easily be overlooked, because it’s tiny (but also very powerful):

It can find duplicates that are not in the same folders.

To enable it, just use the advanced scan mode and activate the corresponding option:

That’s all. Have try, Download 1-Click Duplicate Delete for Outlook.

(This artcle was previously published in the ASPects regarding ReplyButler, but now I’ll make it available to everyone.)

ADVANCED BOILERPLATE ISSUES

If the boilerplates really become useful for you and your collection grows, you’ll face a different problem. Finding a text you’ve written months ago. That’s why you have to organize and maintain your texts. Giving the texts short headlines is essential and folders are very handy, too.

If you do support in multiple languages, you’ll probably want to use the same text in these languages, too. This can be difficult with most boilerplate products, as they don’t support it. As a workaround you can use folders or prefixes (or postfixes) with the language name in the headline (like “EN – Install problem”). But it’s important to use the same headline for the same issue, no matter what language the response is in. Otherwise you’ll constantly look for the wrong text. (Another mistake that I already made.)

The English language isn t very picky when it comes to addressing a person, but other languages offer more choices than simply “you”. Depending on your language and communication policies you may even want to store the same text in different styles: formal and informal. Otherwise you might easily end up with addressing somebody with his last name in the greeting phrase and using an informal addressing (“tu” in Spanish, for example) in the boilerplate. Sometimes texts are basically the same for several products or vary in other minor issues. So it makes sense to use one single boilerplate here and just fill in the gap when you re inserting the text.

Some boilerplate programs can ask for the gap text. If yours doesn t, simply use a placeholder like ######. The hash marks are great because you can very easily see them and it s less likely that you send out a mail where you didn t fill in the gap.

(This artcle was previously published in the ASPects regarding ReplyButler, but now I’ll make it available to everyone.)

They have many names. The dictionary calls them boilerplate text, but you ll also find them as stationery, AutoText, templates, canned text or text macros. The idea is always the same: Type a text once-use it many times. This article is about why they are useful for software support and how to get the most out of them.

Customers are asking questions. And chances are that they’ll ask you the same questions over and over again (probably ignoring any FAQ). And you’re typing the same answers again and again. You don’t? Sure? Test it! For the next twenty answered mails, pause for a second and think if you didn’t write that answer (complete or in parts) before. You’ll see that it happens more often than you thought. Still, you probably refrain from storing these texts in some form, because of the extra work this causes. Organizing the texts, choosing a wording that can easily be reused later for another customer, etc. But this work quickly pays off; you just have to start it. And the more boilerplate replies you have ready, the more time you can save, you’ll see.

As a side-effect, you ll probably also deliver the answers to customers quicker than you used to. Since canned text makes answering e-mail easier, you re less likely to procrastinate the answers.

Boilerplate has another advantage. Customers sometimes are unfriendly or simply write stupid things. It’s tempting to let your feeling go wild and write a hefty response. That may be satisfying for the moment, but it will definitely backfire. Trust me, I already made that mistake. If you have a boilerplate response to handle the customer’s issue (written in a friendly tone) it’s much easier to give the customer a professional reply.

Furthermore, a boilerplate library makes it easier for other persons to do your support work. Either while you’re on holiday or if you permanently give the support job to somebody else. This way they have to know less about your products and your company policies because they can just use pre-written texts.

Creating and using your boilerplate forces you to organize and categorize your support cases. This will also make it easier for you to see what the typical questions are that the people keep asking. That s very valuable knowledge. Perhaps you can change your product or website to make these issues clearer even before the customer has to write you an e-mail?

Organizing your canned texts for more efficient e-mail handling is great, but when you have lots of text, finding the right one can be a problem. (Even if you use the ReplyButler feature of organizing them in folders.)

For this problem ReplyButler has a great feature: The “Context” menu!

That is a new menu item that you will see your answer window in Outlook. Click on it and ReplyButler will display a lists of canned texts that could be useful to answer the current mail:

Automatically.

It’s great, have a try.