ClearContext (makers of a very popular Outlook add-in) have posted their annual email usage survey, which they use to aggregate email usage trends and determine what email users need most. For taking the survey, you'll earn yourself a coupon worth $15 off the purchase of a ClearContext product, and will be in the running to be one of a randomly picked selection of users who will receive a full license for ClearContext IMS Pro. Considering they graciously share the results of the survey, it should be worth your time to take part.

Chris Pratley is they guy that is in charge of OneNote at Microsoft, so when he talks about OneNote features, we listen. Today he's got a great post on his blog about the different ways in which OneNote 2007 and Outlook (both 2003 and 2007) are more tightly integrated than ever before. For those of you that haven't had the pleasure, OneNote is a dark corner of Microsoft Office that many people don't know about, but should. It's a note taking application, but to characterize it in that way is to do it a disservice; it's really an information collection and organization framework. Do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself with OneNote, and you'll soon find why it is very interesting to see why OneNote and Outlook have become "best buddies".

Although Microsoft Outlook has come a long way in the past ten years (wow, has it been that long?), there are still times when we get bit by an annoying behavior that requires a creative solution. Sometimes the solution is to go back and find a tool that we haven't had to use in ages. 

But first I should mention that ever since Google Calendar came out, I've been living a bit of a dual life. I still attempt to maintain my Outlook calendar to keep my Pocket PC up to date, but I've converted to using Google Calendar as my default - which means that when I forget to enter a date in one of my calendars, it's almost always Outlook that gets forgotten.

Today I realized that I had so many missing appointments that it was time to do something about it. So I exported my Google Calendar and imported it into Outlook, and in the process introduced hundreds of duplicate entries in my Outlook calendar. Removing a few duplicates manually is no big deal, but removing literally hundreds did not sound like much fun. A quick search on Slipstick found the old favorite, Outlook Duplicates Remover (scroll down a bit to find it). It's a utility built for previous versions of Outlook where duplicate items could become a problem due to synchronizing Pocket PCs via ActiveSync. Although development of the utility has stopped, it worked great on my Outlook 2003 setup. It boasts a number of options for configuring what should or shouldn't be considered a duplicate, for email, tasks, appointments, contacts and notes. 

Note that there is no preliminary preview phase when using this utility; it cuts straight to the removal of items, so make sure you're comfortable with the filter you've set, and also make sure you've backed up your PST file.

In a rebranding effort, Microsoft has launched a refreshed version of their FrontBridge service as Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services. Why use one word in a product name when you can use four, right? Actually, in this particular case I actually think the new name does a better job of communicating what the service is all about. This isn't a consumer product or service, and can therefore afford to be branded in a more practical fashion.

Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services allow small and very small businesses to take advantage of the enhanced collaborative features and data security that users of Microsoft Outlook enjoy when using an Exchange server. Even one-man shops can benefit from hosted Exchange services due to Exchange support for many of the handheld devices available that run on Microsoft operating systems.

Why does Outlook block pictures and make you respond to let them through? In short, it is because Outlook is trying to protect you from potentially harmful (read: virus or spyware carrying) images. Believe it or not virus writers have figured out how to embed viruses even in certain types photos. In reality, these photo types, including WMF, and RLE bitmaps among others are the most vulnerable yet more rarely used. Usually jpeg, gif, png, and tiff files are okay. The Philadelphia daily news has a short piece on how to fix images displaying correctly in Outlook and more on why and how to use Outlook's security features regarding images.