We have all hurriedly sent an email, only to remember moments later that we forgot to attach the file we said we had attached to the email.? Forgotten Attachment Detector is a great, free add-in for Microsoft Outlook that can help you avoid this embarrassing scenario.

Forgotten Attachment Detector is a small add-in for Outlook from Office Labs, a small division of the Office team that has created several nice add-ins for Office products.? Whenever you send an email contains terms such as attachment, attached, enclosed, and more but does not actually have a file attached, it will alert you before you send your email.? Then, you can go back and add the attachment you intended to before you actually send the email.

This add-in works on Outlook 2007 and 2010, including both the 32 and 64 bit versions.? In our test, we are using it on Outlook 2010 x64, but have used it in the past on Outlook 2007 too.

Getting Started

Once you’ve downloaded Forgotten Attachment Detector (link below), go ahead and install it.? Make sure you exit Outlook before you install it.? You may uncheck the box if you do not wish to

After it installs, you can open Outlook.? When you first run Outlook after installing Forgotten Attachment Detector, it ask you to verify that you want to install the add-in.? Simply click Install, and it will be ready to use.

Now, when you go to send an email, it will scan your message for keywords.? If it decides you intended to attach a file but do not have one attached, it will display a popup rather than just sending the email.

You can click “Show Snippet” to see exactly what in your email triggered the prompt.? If you wish to return to your email to add the file, click No; otherwise, you can click Yes to send the email as is.

Settings

In Outlook 2010, you will see a new button for Forgotten Attachment Detector on the Add-ins tab of your ribbon.? In Outlook 2007, this button is simply added to your toolbar.

This button opens the Forgotten Attachment Detector settings panel.? Here you can add or remove keywords that trigger it to ask if you want to add an attachment.? FAD uses both phrases to identify when you intended to add an attachment, as well as keywords when they appear in context with another word.? You can add or remove entries from either of these.? FAD will also by default remind you whenever you send an email without a subject; you can unselect this box if you do not want this.? Finally, this dialog will show how many times you forgot to attach a file or add a subject to an email.

Conclusion

This add-in has truly been a lifesaver for us many times.? You may not always need it, but when you’re hurriedly sending an email it can be a very appreciated reminder!

Link:

Forgotten Attachment Detector

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If you are testing out the new Office 2010 Beta you’ve undoubtedly noticed the annoying Send a Smile feature. While it’s cool that they want our feedback, two smiley faces sitting in the taskbar just doesn’t seem right.

After installing Microsoft Office 2010 Beta you’ll notice the Send-a-Smile feature in the Taskbar. It’s so you can send Microsoft a smile or a frown based on what you like or don’t like about an app or feature.

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To disable it from running automatically during Startup, go into System Configuration Startup and uncheck the box next to Office Send-a-Smile scheduler…

If you’re wondering where it is in Windows Task Manage it’s “OfficeSAS.exe”…

If you want to access Send-a-Smile in the future it’s in the Start Menu under Microsoft Office 2010 Tools.

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To close out of it you can right-click and select Exit.

Now you’ll have your Taskbar smiley free! What do you guys who are testing out the 2010 beta think of it so far? Have you sent Microsoft more frowns or smiles, or just don’t care? Let us know!

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Being able to share Access data with other applications is easier in Office 2010. Today we take a look at how easy it is to share data from an Access 2010 Database to to an Excel spreadsheet and more.

Share Access Data

First we’ll take a look at sharing an Access table to an Excel spreadsheet. Open the Access table you want to export and click on the External Data tab. From here you can see a bunch of different options you have for exporting the data. In this example we’re using exporting to Excel so click on that.

A window comes up asking where to save the file, the file format, and some other exporting options.

In the next screen you might want to save the Export Steps to make it easier the next time or if you’re working with several documents and need to do the same thing. From here you can also set up an Outlook task if you regularly need to repeat it.

The data goes into Excel and you can start working on it here, or send it where it needs to go.

There are a lot of other applications Access 2010 will let you export data, like text files, Word, a SharePoint List and more. There is an easy Word Merge feature so if you have a database of addresses you can easily incorporate it with Mail Merge.

Sometimes getting the data you need out of an Access Database can be a bit daunting. It looks like these tasks will be a lot easier in Office 2010, which will be great for increasing productivity.

Try the Office 2010 Beta

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When you installed MS Office 2007 or 2010, and didn’t do a customized installation, you might find there are some apps in the suite you don’t need or use. Here we take a look at how to add or remove those applications on your computer.

Add or Remove Features in Office 2007

By default, all of the features of the Office version will be installed. To uninstall some of them, pop in the Office 2007 disc and select Add or Remove Features then Continue.

Now go through the list of apps you no longer need and from the drop down select “Not Available” then click Continue. If you want to add a particular feature, select Run From My Computer.

After the configuration process completes, close out and those programs will be gone.

Add or Remove Features in Office 2010 Beta

Actually the process is much the same in 2010 as well. Start up the Office 2010 install and select Add or Remove Features and hit Continue.

Then again select the features you want to add or remove…

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The process for adding or removing features is virtually the same in Office 2003 as well.

If there are features in Office you don’t need, or want to add, this is the best process to accomplish it.

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If you’re a fan of Microsoft Bing as your search engine, you might be interested in trying out the new Bing Bar. Today we look at this toolbar which you can add to Internet Explorer and Firefox, and offers a lot of functionality with Bing and Microsoft Live services.

Personally I am not a fan of extra toolbars in my browsers, but the Bing Bar is actually useful, especially for the Microsoft enthusiast and in IE. It lets you check your Hotmail, view news and entertainment headlines, includes Safety Center for web browsing, and more. It replaces the often useless MSN toolbar and has some interesting features.

Bing Bar Installation

When you start the installation, there are a few Additional Options you may want to not install. For instance if you don’t think Microsoft needs to know your system information or what you’re searching for, uncheck Improve my experience.

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After it’s installed, you can easily start searching using their default buttons. In this example we’re looking at Business news, and the popular headlines show with a brief description and picture. You can also search Bing from the search box located at the of the window.

It allows you to customize the buttons you want to show on the bar. You can also slide them around to different positions, similar to how you can in the Taskbar in Windows 7.

It let’s you check the weather, videos, entertainment and a lot more directly from the toolbar.

You can customize it with different colors and themes to match customizations.

The Safety Center will prevent pop-ups and included Phishing protections.

It provides private browsing with the click of a button.

It makes it easy to access different services with your Windows Live account like your photos, email, and SkyDrive.

Sign in to your Live account and it will allow you to check your email messages directly from the bar.

Here is an example of how it looks in Firefox. One thing that takes getting used to is the large Bing search box. It would be nice if there were a way to resize or customize it more.

Unfortunately it installs itself into Firefox by default, so you’ll need to go into Add-ons and disable it.

Conclusion

The Bing Bar is a drastic improvement over the MSN Toolbar and is nicely laid out and using it is pretty fluid. One problem I noticed is sometimes it can cause your browser to load slow while it connects to the services. If you find that it’s taking up too much real estate on your screen you can always hide it, then display it when you need to use it. I didn’t find it too appealing when using Firefox but in IE it’s actually kind of neat. It’s definitely not something that everyone will want in their browser (Firefox users come to mind), but if you’re a regular user of Bing and Microsoft Live services, you might want to give it a try. It works with XP, Vista, and Windows 7. You’ll need IE 6 or later or Firefox 3.0 or later.

Download Bing Bar

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It can be annoying when opening an application and having to resize or maximize the screen. This can be especially annoying when you want to see all of the data in an app like Access or Excel.

To fix it all you need to do is right-click on the application shortcut and select Properties. Under the Shortcut tab change the dropdown next to Run to Maximized.

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That’s it! Now any time you open that application it will be full screen.

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Another week slaving for “the man” and you now get your two days of freedom. Not necessarily only two days, because as you have noticed here, we support wasting any time working at the office on Friday playing a fun flash game.

BoomBot

Boombot is a simple game of using explosives to get your robot to the next level.

The game starts out simply, but there are more than 50 levels to play.

Use the size of your bombs to get the bot over different obstacles.

It starts out easy and progresses to harder challenges. You have to use larger bombs for the harder challengers. You will also have to use some of your explosives to destroy obstacles.

With over 50 levels you will have plenty of time to waste at work!

Play Boombot at the How To Geek Arcade

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If you liked using the earlier releases of FavBackup, then you will certainly be pleased with the additional features that have been added. Join us as we take a closer look at the newest version.

See our earlier review of FavBackup here.

Browsers supported in this release: Internet Explorer (6 – 8), Mozilla Firefox (2 – 3.6), Opera (9 – 10), Safari (3 – 4), Google Chrome (1 – 4), and Flock (2.0 – 2.5).

Setup

As before, FavBackup is still portable so all that you will need to do is place the exe file into an appropriate folder, create a shortcut, and you are ready to go. Things are going to look different from before since the UI for FavBackup has been migrated to the Microsoft Ribbon interface. Notice that there are now additional backup and restore capabilities…focus on just one browser or back them all up at the same time.

The “Backup, Restore, Full Backup, & Full Restore Menus” are all identical as shown in the screenshot above, so the only ones shown here are those that are different. “The Convert Opera Profile Menu”…

Choose the theme that you like best.

And the “Help Menu”. At the moment this section is minimal and will link you to a webpage for help.

Creating the Backup

Here is the browser that we have decided to backup. This is a portable version set up on one of our Vista systems…

To get started select the “Backup Ribbon Menu” and choose the browser that you would like to backup.

Browse for the location where you would like to have the backup file placed…

Since we were backing up a portable browser, we needed to browse for the appropriate “Profile Folder”. Once you have your profile located, click “Finish”.

The earlier release created multiple files but now all the information is placed into a single easy to manage (and transfer) file…

Restoring the Backup

This is our fully installed “pre-restore” browser on a virtual Windows 7 install. Very fresh with only the homepage being changed…

To start the restoration process select the “Restore Ribbon Menu” and choose the appropriate browser. You will then need to browse to where you have the backup file located…FavBackup will automatically detect the file and display it as shown… Since we were restoring to a regularly installed browser no further “profile browsing” was required. Click “Next”.

Once the restore process has been completed all that is left to do is click “Finish”.

The End Result

Here are our two browsers “side-by-side”…one on our Vista system and the other inside the VMware Player window.

Conclusion

The earlier releases of FavBackup did a very nice job with backup and restoration of browser profiles and now the additional features have made it even better.

Know issues with this release:?

• General: Restoring backups directly from DVD/CD drive can give error. Copy backup to your PC first.
• Windows XP: When using low screen resolution, scrollbars might appear.

Links

Download FavBackup (version 2.0.0)

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