Solving a Problem - Outlook 2007

The road one travels in setting up a new laptop always has a few bumps in it. Last summer I had to travel this road again when my old laptop began having major issues. The biggest pothole I encountered was in getting my Outlook 2007 files transferred.

The features I use in Outlook are: calendar, task list, and contacts. I do not use Outlook for email. As it turns out, Microsoft creates several data files for Outlook and stores them in a couple of different places. It took quite a bit of research and some trial and error to get all the important Outlook configurations and data transferred over and set up. In the end it was pretty easy but the road to that point was a rocky one.

If you ever need to do this, here are some steps you can try. It worked for me. I’m not saying it’s the best or only way, it just worked. These instructions worked for Windows 7. You might have to do things a little differently if you are using a previous version of Windows. Microsoft has several help articles you might find helpful. One in particular was indispensible in solving my issues.

First you will need to be able to see “hidden” folders:

1.     In Windows, click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.

2.     Click Appearance and Personalization.

·        NOTE:  If you are using Control Panel Classic View, double-click Folder Options, and then continue with step 4.

3.     Click Folder Options.

4.  On the View tab, under Advanced settings, under Files and Folders, under Hidden files and folders, select Show hidden files and folders.

Next you need to find the different types of files:

Note: drive and user will vary from computer to computer and situation to situation. 

Personal Folders File (.pst): Contains emails, calendars, contacts, tasks, and notes. Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook 

Command Bar and Menu Customizations (.dat):

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat 

Navigation Pane Settings (.xml): Includes shortcuts, Calendar and Contact links.

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Outlook\profile name.xml

Outlook Contacts AutoComplete (.nk2): AutoComplete is a feature which displays suggestions for names and e-mail addresses as you begin to type them. These

suggestions are possible matches from a list of names and e-mail addresses that you have typed before, known as the AutoComplete name list. (It’s not something I seem to have at this time, but then you never know about later on…)

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

Print Styles (Outlprnt with no extension):  

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

Signatures (.rtf, .txt, .htm): I don’t seem to have any of these files at this time but again, you never know what might happen down the road.

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures

Stationery (.htm):

Location: drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

Custom Forms:

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Forms

I don’t seem to have this.

Dictionary (.dic)

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof

Templates (.oft)

Location: drive:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

I’m not sure how you would use templates in Outlook but I notice that the Word templates that I have created are in this file.

There we have it. A nice list of where to look for some of the Outlook files. Hopefully this will make the road much smoother the next time we find ourselves needing to transfer the various files related to Outlook. At least now I know where to look online for help and the keywords to use (outlook 2007 files configurations save). I hope this helps you too!

This post was written for #31WBGB: Solve a Problem.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Changes to Turning of Generations

As part of this week's #31WBGS assignment, Update a Key Page, you might notice several changes to the home page. I'm not going to list them all but changes that will hopefully make it easier to subscribe, share and comment (and promote your own posts) include:

• Facebook, Tweet and Google+ sharing in the sidebar.
• An option to follow by email.
• Rearranging of the sidebar to hopefully make it easier/more obvious how to follow, subscribe and share.
• Comment Luv, Facebook share and Google Buzz This options in the comments (if I did everything correctly, which I am not certain I did).

Updates were also made to About and Societies & Organizations.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Create an Editorial Calendar - 31 WBGB

Creating an Editorial Calendar is the perfect assignment. I've attempted to put together an editorial calendar 2 or 3 times but have never some up with the format that is right for me. I love Tonia's spreadsheet (I'm a spreadsheet kind of girl too) with the color coding but something was still missing. I need the visual of a monthly calendar so I ran with Tonia's idea and put it on an actual calendar.

I was able to use a Word calendar template and make modifications to it so the necessary information would fit. Then I used the same color coding scheme as Tonia. Hopefully this will work much better.

Here is an example of my calendar for October.

Remember this TIP: Click on the image to view a larger version and then click on the back arrow button to return to this post. If the larger version isn't big enough try this: Windows users: hold down the Control key (Mac users hold down the Command key) and press the plus key to make it even bigger (minus key makes it smaller).

To use this calendar, just click in the cell for the date you want to edit. Then type in whatever information you want to see on your calendar. To fill the cell with color, go to the Home tab in Word and look under Paragraph for the Shading option which appears as a paint bucket.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Brainstorm Blog Post Ideas-31 WBGB

I’m playing catch up for last week’s assignment which was to use mind mapping to come up with 10 ideas for future posts, using our last five posts as a starting point. After completing this assignment, I didn't feel like I came with the best ideas so I extended the assignment. I keep a running list of ideas for future posts, so I took a look at that and selected several to mind map. I felt like I really got somewhere. The next step was to use the memes that are going around right now (99+ Genealogy Things and the Tech SavvyGenealogist) and mind map some of those. The result: plenty of great ideas for future posts.

My favorite idea: genealogical uses for my new smart phone.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Interlink Your Blog Posts - 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog

Tonia's assignment for this week is to interlink your blog posts. I love this assignment for two reasons.

1. Since I tend to write my posts in series, I already use this technique to refer readers back to previous posts in the series.
2. My post for tomorrow,  The Rest of My Find A Grave Story, is one that I wrote last week and it fulfils all three of the techniques Tonia recommends as ways to add links to your old posts:
• In post links - This is one that many of us do all the time. Myself included.
• Updates - That's just what The Rest of My Find A Grave Story is.
• Further Reading - I'll admit I debated on this one but I went ahead and included links at the end of the article to the previous posts on my little adventure. I wasn't sure if that was a good way or not. Tonia says, "Darren suggests that adding manually-chosen links can be more relevant for the reader." Whew.

Tonia also gives us an extra action item as a way to prepare us for things to come. I can't wait!

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Blogging Tips From Other Bloggers - 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog

This week's assignment from Week 7 of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog over at Tonia's Roots is to write a post linking out to another blog or blogs. Since I'm behind, in that I didn't do last week's assignment, I thought I'd use the Week 6 topic (learning from successful bloggers) assignment to "jot down 3-5 key points" that you want to apply to your blog (with some adjustments) and then link out to fullfil this week's assignment. I'm finding I need to be creative to do all I want to do and keep the plate from overflowing at the same time. So here goes.

I learned several things from other bloggers that I am interested in applying to my blog. I hope they help you in your blogging.

1. In his article, The Commonsense Time-saver We All Missed, Stephen Guise discusses setting up a toolbar folder containing commonly used links you use in writing your blog posts. It will save you time and allow you to remain focused when composing your articles. To this I suggest including (or setting up a separate document that you open whenever writing a post):
• commonly used programs like Paint, Photoshop Element, Word, etc.
• Folders you routinely access. For me it's a Photos folder.
2. The title of this article says it all: 3 Questions to Ask Before You Publish Your Next Blog Post.
3. You won't see me putting images on the left side of my blog anymore. 5 Simple Font Changes to Boost Readers, Comments, and Shares on Your Blog explains why. I also changed my font size.
4. Finally, Cheryl's Heritage Happens post on the Week 6 assignment had a tip that grabbed my attention. Cheryl writes, "Under How To Write An Article 20 Minutes, I was intrigued by the statement that said not to hold those best ideas until later, write it now." It made me realize that I've lost some really great posts (or at least some of the pizzaz) because I didn't do it right away when the inspiration was fresh. The article has some other excellent points; I'm all about saving time these days.

I hope these points and the related articles help you in your blogging.

To Cite This Post:

Goodrum, Michelle. “Blogging Tips From Other Bloggers - 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog.”  Michelle Goodrum. The Turning of Generations, 19 August 2011. http://turning-of-generations.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-weeks-assignment-from-week-7-of-31.html: 2011.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

#31WBGB: Promote a Blog Post

This week, Tonia over at Tonia's Roots has challenged us with promoting a blog post. Here's what she says. My comments are in italics.

11 Ways to Promote a Blog Post

1. Pitch to other bloggers: ask another blogger to consider linking to your post. Tonia and several other bloggers have mentioned they aren't terribly comfortable with this one and neither am I.
2. Social Messaging: use Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks to promote your post. Darren says “the key is not to incessantly spam your followers and your friends with your link.” I already have a feed from my blog to Facebook. Right now that's the only social network I use.
3. Social Bookmarking: promote selective links on sites like Digg or StumbleUpon. While this interests me, it's not something I see myself doing at this time. Maybe down the road though. There's only so many hours in a day folks.
4. Internal Links: what posts within your own site can you link to a given post? Have you written on a topic before? Are you writing a series? Link them up. Another way to do this is to use automatic apps, like a related-post plug-in if you are on WordPress, or a widget like LinkWithin, which I believe works on both WordPress and Blogger. You can also add a section in your sidebar with “Latest posts,” “Popular posts,” “Featured posts,” etc. WordPress makes this very easy to do; I’m not sure about Blogger. This is something I have done on a number of occassions and will continue to do. It takes a little bit of extra time but it's a feature I use as a reader of blogs so I figure other's probably like to use it too.
5. Newsletters: shoot an email out to your newsletter list, if you have one. (Does anyone do a newsletter? I’d like to hear more about how often you do that, what kind of content you include, etc.) Newsletter??? I've wanted to do one for years but I keep finding myself saying, "There's only so many hours in a day."
6. Other Blog’s Comments Sections and Forums: leaving good-quality comments can help drive traffic to your site and leaving a link can be appropriate if it is germane to the discussion. (Just a note here, I use a plug-in called CommentLuv that automatically inserts a link to each commenter’s last post, if they’ve signed up for the service. And since, I’m signed up, my links are left on other bloggers’ sites, if they use CommentLuv.) Personally, I love commenting on other blogs. So much so, that I have to restrict my time allotment for this activity. I had never heard of CommentLuv but I LOVE the idea!
7. Email signatures: Darren suggests including links to recent posts, instead of just your blog’s front page URL. This had never occurred to me but I think it's an excellent idea. I do use my blog URLs in my email signature and often get comments from people, so I know they click on it.
8. Follow-up posts: write a new post that picks up where another left off, like a series, or adds new information to a previous post, then inter-link them. I've done several series  such as
• Using Land Records To Solve Genealogical Problems. I made one post to act as a compendium and then kept adding links as each installment was written and posted.
9. Advertise your post: You might consider a small ad campaign for a post you are particularly proud of, using AdWords, StumbleUpon, or similar services. This probably isn’t something most geneabloggers would consider, but it might be worthwhile for those who are professional genealogists. Not something that particularly interests me.
10. Pitch Mainstream Media: You might want to do this for a really interesting post. Again, I think this would be more suitable for the pros. Hmmm, I'll have to think about this one.
11. Article Marketing: Rewrite some key articles and submit them to article marketing sites. Not something that would have occurred to me but I could see myself doing it.

Action Item - Just as soon as I come up for air and catch my breath, I'm going to look into CommentLuv.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

10 Reasons Why I Haven't Blogged Much Lately - #31WBGB

I have been wanting to write this post for several weeks now but haven't had time! Here's my assignment for Week 2 of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog, Making List Posts Work for Your Genealogy Blog.

I've been rather busy the last couple of months and will be for several more weeks. It's been cutting into my blogging time! Here's why:

1. Youngest Child graduated from high school.
2. We've had several waves of company (see #1 above).
3. I spent several days helping Oldest Child move.
4. We put the Family Home on the market and had one last final push to get it emptied out.
5. We've been involved with several softball tournaments.
6. We attended Freshman Orientation with Youngest Child.
7. I have been working hard to sort through the contents of the Family Home (see #4).
8. Did I mention that we have been very involved with softball tournaments?
9. Those darn bills, household tasks, etc. have been really piling up.
10. By the end of the day when I realize I never got around to writing up the latest blog post idea, I am exhausted and my brain is fried!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Onward and upward!

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Elevator Pitch - 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog

Tonia Kendrick over at her blog, Tonia's Roots, has kicked off  Week 1 of 31 Weeks of Better Genealogy Blogging with the challenge of writing an Elevator Pitch for your blog.

Here's my Elevator Pitch:

Having been blessed with ancestors who saved everything, I originally created The Turning of Generations blog to share what I've learned while sorting through the contents of the family home. I particularly enjoy piecing stories together starting with what was discovered at home (the exciting part), coming up with questions about the heirloom or document (usually the fun and easy part), and then researching other records to find the answers (the challenging but very rewarding part).

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum