Windows Live Mail : How to import Calendar from facebook to windows live mail

                 Have you ever wished to have all your events and birthday reminders from your facebook calendar to your calendar in Windows Live? Thanks to fbCal with thefacebook help of which you can export your events and birthday reminders in facebook to your calendar in Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal and of course Windows Live. fbCal can export these in two separate calendar files in a friendly .ics format which can be imported in all the popular calendar apps. These calendar are up to date only to the time you exported them from facebook.
The .ics file exported from facebook with the help of fbCal can be used with both Windows Live Mail on the desktop, and Windows Live Calendar on the web. AllWindows Live Calendar you have to do is simply import the .ics file(exported with fbCal) through Windows Live Calendar on the web which will then automatically synchronize your calendar on the desktop
with Windows Live Mail.

To do this:

Step 1: Go to fbCal.com and click on “Get your Calendars Now”.

Step 2: Now to export your birthday calendar from facebook, click on “Or download a copy here.” from “Subscribe to your friends Birthday” section of fbCal as illustrated from the screenshot below. You will have to first log into Facebook and give permission to fbCal to access information before you can download the .ics file.

 
Step 3: 

 Now to import this calendar to Windows Live. Log into Windows Live Calendar and create a new Calendar. Give your calendar any name like “Facebook” and your new calendar will be created. 

  

Step 4: 

  Now select your newly created calendar and click on subscribe. Select “Import from an ICS file” and then browse the .ics file created using fbCal. Clicking on Import Calendar button will import all the birthday reminders from your facebook calendar to your Windows Live Calendar.

 

The best part is that the facebook calendar which you just imported to your Windows Live Calendar will be automatically synched to the desktop client i.e. Windows Live Mail as shown in the screenshot below:

 

Similarly you can repeat the above steps to import your facebook events calendar to your Windows Live too by selecting “Or download a copy here.” in Step 2 from “Subscribe to your facebook events” section of fbCal.

These steps can be followed on Windows XP or Windows 7

Windows Live Mail : How to import contacts.

              This article will explains how to import contacts in Windows Live Mail; if you are switching from Outlook Express or Microsoft Office Outlook for example, you will be able to import all your contacts, rather than having to create your contacts all over again. Windows Live Mail lets you import contacts in several formats: Windows Address Book file (WAB), virtual business card (VCF file, or vCard), Microsoft Office Outlook address book, and CSV files (comma-separated values). Windows Live Mail can also import contacts from your current Windows profile (directly from your Windows address book.

Importing a contact file in Windows Live Mail This flexible format support means that you can import contacts from the most popular email programs: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, etc. You only need to export your contacts from the other email client in a compatible format, and then import them in Windows Live Mail.


How to import contacts in windows live mail:

 

You import contacts in Windows Live Mail by going through the address book, "Windows Live Contacts". To open Windows Live Contacts, click the address book icon in the bottom left corner of Windows Live Mail's main window. Alternatively, you can quickly open it with the following keyboard shortcut:

Shortcut: press Ctrl+Shift+C to quickly open the Windows Live Contacts window.

   
Import format for contacts

Once inside Windows Live Contacts, click the Show Menu button, and click Import: a submenu will expand, listing all the formats in which Windows Live Mail can import contacts. The format you choose will depend on the file or email program whose contacts you would like to import: most email clients can export their contacts as CSV files; so, in doubt, this is a good export format to choose.

Importing contacts from Microsoft Outlook or the current Windows user's address book into Windows Live Mail is an automated process: click one of these two choices, and Windows Live Mail takes care of the rest, only notifying you in case of problem or successful import:

file formats for Importing; CSV and contact mapping

If you are trying to import contacts from a file (WAB, VCF, or CSV), you will just need to pick the file for Windows Live Mail; in the case of CSV files, you will need to make sure that the contacts' "mapping" corresponds (it should by default). You can change the mapping, if needed, manually, to make sure each contact information column corresponds to the expected data:

After the import process has completed, look at Windows Live Contacts: you should see all contacts from your other email program, or contact file, now listed. Windows Live Mail will now have access to all these contacts when you send emails, create contact groups, etc.

These steps can be followed on windows Xp and Windows 7

Windows Live Mail : How to setup email account

          This post will show you how to setup a POP3 or IMAP email account in Windows Live Mail. POP3 and IMAP are some of the most common email account types available, nearly always those offered by your web hosting or email hosting company. Most companies not using Microsoft Exchange as email server will be using POP3 or IMAP for their employees email account. Windows Live Mail support equally well these two technologies.

 How to setup email account in Windows Live Mail


The first time you open Windows Live Mail after installation, the new email account setup wizard should open automatically, ready to collect and test your email account information.

Windows Live Mail only requires three fields of information to automatically setup an email account for you and these screen is similar to Microsoft Office outlook 2007  where it is similar email account setup setup screen:

Enter your email account information

Enter your full email address in the first field ("E-mail address"). The "Get a free e-mail account" link Windows Live Mail displays allows you to obtain a Hotmail account; you can ignore it if you are trying to setup a standard POP3 or IMAP email account.
 

With the second field ("Password"), Windows Live Mail requests your email account's password to be able to connect to your mail server. Windows Live Mail will by default remember your email account password; you can opt to supply it every time by unchecking the "Remember password" checkbox.

The last field, "Display Name", determines what Windows Live Mail will show as sender's name to people you email from it. The display name can be your real name or not: it does not have to match your email address or its user name (the portion of the email address that comes before the "@" character).

The "Manually configure server settings for e-mail account" checkbox is unchecked by default, and Windows Live Mail will attempt to configure your email account automatically. It is worth letting Windows Live Mail give it a try, it could save you a couple minutes.

Finalize your new email account setup in Windows Live Mail


Click the Next button: Windows Live Mail should display a successful email account setup message.

After that, it will start downloading your emails from the mail server. You will see appear in the left pane your new email account and its default folders. If you setup an IMAP account, you will also see all the folders you created on the server through a webmail service or another email client.

That it! You have finished setting up your new email account in Windows Live Mail.


These steps can be followed for windows live mail on Windows Xp and Windows 7

Mozilla ThunderBird: Keyboard shortcuts

Most Used Keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Thunderbird

                Knowing the most useful keyboard and mouse shortcuts for your e-mail client can cut down on writing time and increase productivity. But in order for shortcuts to make your job easier, you'll need to commit them to memory. Printing out this document and keeping it where you can glance at the shortcuts while you read e-mail with Mozilla Thunderbird will keep you using them until the shortcuts become automatic.

A note about command keys:
 

Mac users will find that they will need to use the [Cmd] key in place of the [Ctrl] key, and Return instead of [Enter]. It is also important to note that Mac OS reserves the function keys (F1 through F12) for its own purposes, so Function key shortcuts will likely not work on Macs. 

 

Tagging and marking shortcuts:

[M]: Mark message as read or unread (toggle)

[R]: Mark thread as read

[J]:Mark message as Junk

[Shift][J]: Mark message as Not Junk

[1]: Add or remove "Important" tag (toggle)

[2]:Add or remove "Work" tag (toggle)

[3]:Add or remove "Personal" tag (toggle)

[4]:Add or remove "To Do" tag (toggle)

[5]:Add or remove "Later" tag (toggle)

[0]:Remove all tags from selected message

Responding to and writing new e-mail messages shortcuts:

[Ctrl][L]: Forward selected message

[Ctrl][E]: Edit current message as a new message

[Ctrl][R]: Reply to message sender

[Ctrl][Shift][R]: Reply to All (replies to message sender and all other recipients)

Note: The reply and forward shortcuts are likely to be the most used of this group.

Reading e-mail Shortcuts:

[Ctrl][Shift][F]: Search messages

[Ctrl][F]: Find in current message (open a search window at the bottom of the current e-mail message)

[Ctrl][O]: Open e-mail message in new window

[Ctrl][W]: Close current open e-mail message window

[Ctrl][P]: Print currently selected e-mail message

[F]: Go to next message (from any Thunderbird screen)

[N]: Go to next unread e-mail message (from any Thunderbird screen)

[B]: Go to previous e-mail message (from any Thunderbird screen)

[P]: Go to previous unread e-mail message (from any Thunderbird screen)

Note: These shortcuts are best ones if you are dealing with lots of emails.

Send and receive shortcuts:

F5 [Ctrl][T]: Send and receive all messages for all e-mail accounts

[Ctrl][Shift][T]: Get new messages for all e-mail accounts

[Esc]: Stop current action

[Ctrl][M]: Write new e-mail message

[Ctrl][Enter]: Send current message now

[Ctrl][Shift][Enter]: Send current message later

[Ctrl][Q]: Exit Thunderbird

Keyboard shortcuts: Outlook 2007

Keyboard shortcuts on Outlook 2007:

     Keyboard shortcuts are typically an alternate means for invoking one or more commands that would otherwise be accessible only through a menu, a pointing device, different levels of a user interface, or via a command console. Keyboard shortcuts generally expedite common operations by reducing input sequences to a few keystrokes, hence the term "shortcut". 

  Navigation shortcut (Basic):

CTRL+1: Switch to Mail.    

CTRL+2: Switch to Calendar.     

CTRL+3: Switch to Contacts.  

  
CTRL+4: Switch to Tasks.  

  
CTRL+5: Switch to Notes.   

 
CTRL+6: Switch to Folder List in Navigation Pane.   

 
CTRL+7: Switch to Shortcuts. 

CTRL+PERIOD: Switch to next message (with message open).    

CTRL+COMMA: Switch to previous message (with message open).    

F6 or CTRL+SHFT+TAB: Move between the Navigation Pane, the main Outlook window, the Reading Pane, and the To-Do Bar.     

TAB: Move between the Outlook window, the smaller panes in the Navigation Pane, the Reading Pane, and the sections in the To-Do Bar.    

Arrow keys: Move around within the Navigation Pane.    

CTRL+Y: Go to a different folder.    

F3 or CTRL+E: Go to the Search box.

ALT+UP ARROW or CTRL+COMMA or ALT+PAGE UP: In the Reading Pane, go to the previous message.

SPACEBAR: In the Reading Pane, page down through text.

SHFT+SPACEBAR: In the Reading Pane, page up through text.

SHFT+PLUS SIGN or MINUS SIGN: respectively    Expand or collapse a group (with a group selected) in the Navigation Pane.

LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW: respectively    Collapse or expand a group in the e-mail message list.  

Flag:

CTRL+SHFT+G    Open the Flag for Follow Up dialog box to assign a flag.     

Color Categories:

ALT+D    Delete the selected category from the list in the Color Categories dialog box. 

These shortcuts work with Outlook in Windows xp and Windows 7

Top 10 Keyboard shortcuts to ease your toggling in 2007

Top 10 Keyboard shortcuts for 

outlook 2007:

 

That’s quite a few to remember, and this should get you to a good start.




Ten more useful keyboard shortcuts :

   1. CTRL + R – Reply to a message

   2. CTRL + F – Forward a message

   3. CTRL + PERIOD – Switch to the next message (works only if you have a message  

       open)

   4. CTRL + COMMA – Switch to previous message (works only if you have a message 

       open)

   5. CTRL + SHIFT + K – Create a task

   6. CTRL + SHIFT + A – Create an appointment

   7. CTRL + SHIFT + Q – Create a meeting request

   8. F11 – Enter a name in the Search Address Books box

   9. F3 or CTRL + E – Go to the Search box

  10. F6 or CTRL + SHIFT + TAB – Move between the Navigation Pane, the main 
        Microsoft office Outlook window, the Reading Pane, and the To-Do Bar

These shortcuts work with Outlook in Windows Xp and Windows 7

Mozilla Thunderbird Add-on: Contacts Sidebar

Mozilla Thunderbird Add-on: Contacts Sidebar

       This is a handy addon that lets you display all available address books in Thunderbird sidebar. This lets you easily access all your contacts from the main window, quickly edit contact details, drag’n drop files on top of a contact to send it as an attachment and more.

Contacts Sidebar displays all available address books in a sidebar in the 3-pane-window of Thunderbird. It makes all your contacts easy accessible from the main window to quickly write messages, or to edit the properties of a contact card.

Feature highlights

* Collapsable address book selection and search field to save space for contacts and 

   accounts.
* Quick search contacts. Search your contacts with different search criteria modes and 

  multiple search terms
* Write message to selected contacts. Add the recipients to the To, Cc or Bcc field of 

  the new message.
* Forward Contact, to send contact info as a vCard attachment.
* Drag & Drop files and messages to a contact to easily add attachments to a new 

  message to this contact.
* Automatically populate LDAP address books with a user-defined search query (see 

  Contacts Sidebar Options).
* Toolbar button, F4 key and a menu item "View | Layout | Contacts Sidebar" to toggle the display of Contacts Sidebar.

This add-on can be installed for Thunderbird running in any windows O/s version like Windows Xp, Windows 7 etc

Click to Download Contacts slider

Safe mode in Outlook

Safe mode in Outlook:

         It's a fact of life that applications crash, and Microsoft office Outlook is no exception. it's up to you to set things right.

Outlook introduced the Safe Mode feature. Much like Windows' Safe Mode, the Outlook counterpart allows Outlook to boot when it might otherwise fail.

Safe Mode enables Outlook to detect and either repair or bypass the source of the problem, such as a corrupted registry or a misbehaving add-in. When Outlook boots in Safe Mode, it displays a dialog box explaining the problem and asks if you want to continue to load the program in Safe Mode or attempt a normal restart.

Automated safe mode

During startup, Office checks for problems such as an add-in or extension that won't start, or a corrupted resource, file, registry, or template. A message is displayed the next time the program is started, identifying the problem and asking if you want to disable the part of the program that has a problem.

A list of disabled items is accessible through the Disabled Items dialog box (About Microsoft <program>, Help menu). You can use this dialog box to enable the listed items. Enabling some items may require you to reload or reinstall an add-in program or reopen a file. Enabling an item does not necessarily fix the root problem; an item that you enable may be placed back on the disabled list the next time you start the program.

User-initiated safe mode

You can open any Office or Office family program in Office Safe Mode by pressing CTRL while you start the program or by using the /safe option when you start the program from the command line.

The following restrictions apply when you open a program in user-initiated Office Safe Mode. (Some items listed below do not apply to all Office or Office family programs.)

    * No templates (template: A file or files that contain the structure and tools for 

      shaping such elements as the style and page layout of finished files. For example, 

      Word templates can shape a single document, and FrontPage templates can shape 

      an entire Web site.) can be saved.
    * In Microsoft FrontPage, the last used Web site is not opened.
    * The Office Assistant is not automatically displayed.
    * Toolbar or command bar customizations are not loaded and customizations cannot 

       be saved.
    * The AutoCorrect list is not loaded and changes are not saved.
    * Recovered documents are not automatically opened.
   * Smart tags (action tags: Data recognized and labeled as a particular type. For  

     example, a person's name or the name of a recent Microsoft Outlook e-mail  

     message recipient is a type of data that can be recognized and labeled with 

     an action tag.) are not loaded and new tags cannot be saved.
    * All command line options are ignored except "/a" and "/n".
    * Files cannot be saved to the Alternate Startup Directory.
    * Preferences cannot be saved.
    * Additional features and programs will not automatically load.
    * Documents with restricted permission cannot be created or opened.

How to use manually start Outlook in Safe mode:

Hold CTRL

 
When you hold he CTRL button on your keyboard when clicking the Outlook shortcut on your Desktop, Quick Launch toolbar or Start Menu, Outlook will detect this and asks you if you want to start Outlook in Safe Mode or you can all so type outlook.exe /safe in "Run" command box.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

 
If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, then there is a Search box in the Start Menu. Here type; outlook.exe /safe

Create a shortcut

 
You can also create a new shortcut to outlook.exe and add the /safe switch;

First, determine the location of outlook.exe on your system. In general you’ll find it under;

32-bit version of Windows: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office <version number>
64-bit version of Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office 

<version number>

If you can’t find it, do a search for outlook.exe.

Once you’ve found outlook.exe we create a shortcut to it with the /safe switch to prevent Outlook from opening an extra window each time you click the shortcut or use your keyboard shortcut.

   1. Right click on an empty space on your Desktop and choose New-> Shortcut
   2. Type the path to outlook.exe between quotes or browse to its location via 

       the Browse… button
   3. Type an space behind that and /safe
   4. The entire line should now look like this (example is for Outlook 2007 on a 

       32-bit Windows);
       "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /safe
   5. Click Next
   6. Name your shortcut for instance: Outlook Safe Mode
   7. Click Finish

These steps work for all versions of Outlook on all windows operating system versions like Windows Xp, Windows Vista, Windows 7 etc

Outlook Add-in's: Send Shield

Outlook Add-in's:

Send Shield: This is an interesting little Add-in: it basically eliminates the problem of sending Office files with too much information on Outlook. Apparently, people send tracked changes and other comments in document attachments (and that can be quite embarrassing.) The plug-in strips out all that extra metadata when sending files like documents and spreadsheets. It is still in beta and available for download here.

These software is compatible to install on Windows Xp and Windows 7

Click here to Download

How to enable and disable Add-in's in Outlook 2007

How to enable and disable Add-in's in Outlook 2007:

           This describes how to re-enable/enable and disable add-ins in outlook. This is how to correct a program that installs an outlook plugin that you don’t use or want.

Disable/Enable Add-ins in Microsoft office Outlook 2007:

1. In Outlook 2007, go to Tools > Trust Center

2. Click on the Add-ins section

3. You will now see all active, non-active, and disabled add-ins. Click on the add-in you  

    want to enable/disable and then click on the Go button towards the bottom.

4. This will then open up the COM add-ins page. You can then check/uncheck the 

    add-ins you want to enabe or disable.

These steps can be followed for both Windows Xp and Windows 7

Outlook 2010: Quick step feature

Outlook 2010: Quick step feature

What are Quick Steps:

     Quick Steps are easy-to-use one-click buttons which perform multiple actions at once. If you file your mail, they can be a life saver – one click and that conversation is filed away and marked as read. If you send e-mail to the same people over and over – one click and you have a new email to your team. As your work style in Outlook changes, you can configure Quick Steps to work the way you do.





How to create Quick step in Outlook 2010:

Let’s take a example of “To Manager” from the available Quick Steps, in order to start using it you will need to enter the email address of your manager, you can also change the label and title of the quick step.

If you’re using Microsoft office Outlook 2010 you’ll notice the new Quick Steps section in the Ribbon. There are some included by default and they can be customized. To configure or change Quick Steps, on the Home Tab, use the dropdown arrow in the Quick Steps box, then select Manage Quick Steps.

A new window will open up displaying the list of you can move the order of the quick steps by clicking on the arrow, this will rearrange them.

In addition to that you can also modify, duplicate or delete the quick step, to modify the quick step click on the modify button.

Now we can edit the step. For example, we want to always forward certain emails to our boss. Enter in your managers email address and you can also select to flag it, select the type of importance, and add extra text for it. We also added an action to move the email to a specific folder in Outlook.

People who like Keyboard also like the fact that you can create a shortcut key for the step too. When you’re done making adjustments to the step make sure to save it.

Once you have made the changes click on the Save button to apply them, finally click on the Ok button in the Quick steps window.After saving your Quick Step, open an email you want to send to your boss and click To Manager from the Quick Steps box.

The email will be opened so you can forward it, and add more recipients as well if you want.

These steps can be followed on Windows Xp and Windows 7

Outlook 2010: Conversation management tool

Outlook 2010: Conversation management tool

                  Manage large amounts of e-mail with ease. Condense, categorize, or even ignore entire conversations with a few clicks. With new conversation management tools and the improved Conversation View

If you are in conversation with your friend regarding some sort of business deal for the past couple of months, you will need to go through a bundle of emails to track down the history of your conversation. Microsoft Outlook 2010 offers an easy conversation management feature, so that all of your emails are now grouped into conversations based on the subject of the mail.





Microsoft office Outlook 2010 groups emails with the same subjects together and you will see a drop down button along with such emails, simply hit it and you will find all the older emails linked here. Click any email to view it.

Whenever you will click the drop down button, you will see all the older emails attached. If to ignore the main conversation group, all emails inside it will be ignored, same goes for other actions, such as, delete, move, etc.

Note: Just to let you know, Thunderbird 3 also offers this feature.

This steps are same for windows Xp and Windows 7

Outlook 2010 New feature: Conversation management tool

New feature in Outlook 2010: conversation management tool

Think about how much e-mail you receive in a typical week today versus a typical week five years ago. We’ve redesigned Outlook 2010 to reflect these changes in your lifestyle and help keep up with the vast amounts of information you receive every day.
 
Manage large amounts of e-mail with ease. Condense, categorize, or even ignore entire conversations with a few clicks. With new conversation management tools and the improved Conversation View


 

Watch this vedio To see how conversations feature works in Outlook 2010:





This steps can be followed in Windows Xp and Windows 7

New feature Outlook 2010: Quick steps.

New feature Outlook 2010: Quick steps

A very interesting feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 is the introduction of quick steps, this feature allows users to perform several actions quickly and easily.

For example you can send a report you received, create a list of users that you can quickly email to, forward it to someone else, send a meeting reply, move it to another folder and so on.

This is indeed a very useful feature and it will definitely help to increase your productivity. There are several things that this feature has, which are not clearly visible, we will dive into things and help you understand how to use Quick steps, create your own quick steps and customizing quick steps.

To Understand Quick step feature watch this video.

This video guide can be followed on Windows Xp and Windows 7

How to manage Mozilla ThunderBird

How to manage Mozilla ThunderBird

Thunderbird flies! The free email program from the makers of Mozilla Firefox shines with easy to use yet powerful features — and you can make it fly faster and fly farther.In Thunderbird you can find similar features which are in Microsoft office outlook where in you can manage Emails, Contacts, Meeting request, Flagging, Massage rules and etc. Calender feature was missing in Thunderbird but now you can download add-on where you can manage Calender as well.

     

This information in video can be used to manage Thunderbird on Windows Xp and Windows 7

To Download Calender feature add-on click on this link 

Calender add-on for Mozilla ThunderBird