MS Office 2007 Questions--any help greatly appreciated

[bovinda]

I'm moving from Office 2003 on an XP system to Office 2007 on a Vista 64 system. I have a couple questions, and any answers or suggestions on where to look (quick googling has not been useful) is greatly appreciated!

1. Easiest one: how do I migrate all my settings in Outlook (contacts, calendar), Word (custom spellings, automatic corrections, etc.), and Excel (macros, etc.)?

2. Outlook specific question: is it possible to have two computers use the same contact and calendar information? So they can both modify it or at least access it, and so reminders pop up on both computers?
If this is possible, can it be done between two versions of Outlook (2007 and 2003, for example?)

3. Outlook specific question: is it possible to multiple contact databases on the same computer? Say, one for family and friends and another for school contacts, and another for business contacts? So it's easier to export one group or another in the future?

4. Outlook specific question: is it possible to send out an email to an entire group of contacts somehow from within Outlook? Any easy way to do this?

Thanks guys! I really am grateful for any help!

 

[mechBgon]

1) Export your stuff from Outlook using File > Import and Export and export it to a .PST file, then import it. For Word, try pasting your Custom.dic and autocorrect files (not sure what'll happen, never tried this).

2) Oh, you want Microsoft Exchange

3) Sure, go File > New > Folder and have it be for contact items.

4) Yeah, File > New > Distribution List and then add whom you want, name the list, Save & Close, and it'll show up in your Contacts. Add it as a TO: and everyone will get a copy. Add it to the BCC: line instead, and everyone gets a copy but the other recipients' email addresses will not be exposed (think Spam & viruses here).

 

[bovinda]

Re: #2: Yipes, Exchange is expensive!!! Is there any other way to do this? It would be on a local, home network, and just between two computers--I don't need remote access or more than that. Is Exchange the only solution?

Thanks for the help on the other questions, mechBgon!

 

[bovinda]

OK, here's another question. What would happen if I just pointed both Outlook programs to the same PST file, but just didn't use them at the same time, sort of like how is described here? Would that work as sharing? (Looking for the cheap workaround...)

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: bovinda
OK, here's another question. What would happen if I just pointed both Outlook programs to the same PST file, but just didn't use them at the same time? Would that work as sharing? (Looking for the cheap workaround...)

I think that could work, and also look in Outlook 2007's Help file, do a Search for the word "share" and note the Office Online option for sharing your calendar.

 

[bovinda]

All right, I will give all that a try, then. Thanks for the help!

 

[bovinda]

OK, I seem to have royally screwed up Outlook on both computers somehow. I tried setting them to share the same .PST file, but it wasn't working, so I tried to go back to the original .pst file on the XP computer, and now Outlook won't open because it can't access any .pst file. The Outlook on the Vista computer opens, but it doesn't display the contacts, and there are multiple calendars in the Calendar section, none of which display the original calendar information I had entered. *sigh* It seems like it's going to take a while to figure out how to fix this. At least I have back-ups of all the .pst files, but how do I get everything working again?

 

[mechBgon]

Go to Vista's Control Panel and click on View 32-bit Control Panel Items, then click on Mail in the next panel. Another panel should appear where you can munge around with the data files and set the desired file as the default.

On WinXP, the Mail applet should be right there in Control Panel, so try the similar procedure there. Hope that helps

 

[maxiorel]

Remember, that you need to backup your PST files and registry key with all Outlook setting. More information is here.