For some reason, Microsoft decided to remove advanced email signature editing functionality that were available with Outlook 2003 which  made installing a custom HTML email signature a breeze. Although nowhere in the email signature feature of Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2011 is HTML mentioned, the signature is still in HTML format, it just takes a less direct approach to get it accomplished.

To setup a custom email signature, you’ll need the design first coded in HTML and ideally posted on a public Web server. If you need our services to create the HTML email please contact us for more information.

If you’ve had us design a email signature for you, or if you have one designed elsewhere, here are the instructions for setting it up in Outlook:

1. Open the HTML file / URL that contains your signature in a Web browser such as FireFox. (For Risingline Clients, we would of emailed you this info already).

2. Left click at the top left of the page, then while holding down the shift key left click in the lower right area of the page. If you don’t see anything obviously highlighted you may need to left click at the top then hold down your left mouse button as you move to the lower right.

3. Right Click and select copy.

4. Create a new signature in Outlook 2007, 2010, or 2011 and then within that blank signature window right click and select paste or press ctrl-v.

5. Save your new signature and set your desired parameters.

Screencast Walk-through

For more insight into working with custom signatures in Outlook  feel free to check out these additional resources.

• Free Outlook 2007 email signature training from Microsoft
• Outlook 2010 Email Signature Overview from Microsoft
• Training Presentation – How to Use Email Signatures in Outlook 2010 (Power Point Presentation)

Normally, when you paste text content from MS Word it pastes with it MS Word background code which can distort your CMS styling or cause other undesirable effects.

Here are the instructions for using the CMS Made Simple Word Paste Tool:

1. Highlight the content in Word, right click copy.

2. In your CMS page edit view, look for the MS Word Paste icon and click on it.

3. After the Paste from Word window opens, right click paste or CTRL-V, then click insert.

4. Your text now appears in your CMS edit window formatted without the MS Word background code. Adjust the styling and content if needed and press Submit or Apply to save.

Note: You should use this tool when pasting from any other source, not just MS Word.

For some strange reason Entourage 2008 adds your email signature at the very bottom of all replies and forwards in an email string. Not only will recipients not see your signature next to your more recent reply, if you reply to the same email string multiple times you end up getting a "stack" of your same email signature at the bottom of the message strings which looks quite unprofessional.

Although Microsoft has made it as un-intuitive as possible, there is a fix for this issue that allows your email signature to appear only after your replies. 

1. Bring Entourage into focus, then just go to the top menu Entourage -> Preferences ->

2. Then highlight "Reply & Forward" and check the box with the verbose description "Place reply at top of message and include From, Date, To, and Subject lines from original message" 

Lion will allow users to resize a window from any corner instead of being forced to use only the lower right hand corner. Yes it’s really true. Buried at the very end and classified in the lonely “Other Features” category we find:

Resize from any edge. You can now resize a window from any side or corner.

Is there really any questions as to why this would be an incredible benefit? Why it took Apple decades to do this I’ll never know but dragging my mouse across my 27″ iMac screen gets old real quick and I hate thinking anything that Microsoft makes is better than Apple. Thanks Apple, it’s about time!

Now if Apple can only fix the other major downfall in Finder by allowing one to sort alphabetically by folders first then files. While I love Macs I hate Finder primarily because it sorts files and folders as if they were the same animal. Apple makes it sound like this might change with Lion, but this is probably just wishfull thinking on my part.  Here’s what Apple says about the new Finder in Lion:

Sort files – A new button in the Finder toolbar lets you sort files by category, making it easier to find what you’re looking for. Sort files by kind, application, date modified, date added, or size.

I don’t have my hopes up that this will make Finder much better, however anything they do to change Finder will be an improvement.

The other bit of good news is the Lion upgrade is priced at $30. Click here for a full list of the new Lion OS X features.

You may of found that after the mandatory reboot your Internet Explorer and Firefox will open and freeze up, display a blank window with no menus or control menu or buttons, or display the normal interface but not allow you to access the Web.

This problem is likely being caused by the incompatibility of one of your existing Windows 7 third party services or start-up items. Following is the process to resolve this issue:

• Read but do not yet follow the instructions from this Microsoft knowledge base article: Computer freezes when i launch Firefox or Internet Explorer

• Rather than start the troubleshooting by enabling half of the services and rebooting as the article describes, do the following first:

1. 1. On the services tab check the box “Hide all Microsoft Services” then Disable all, then Apply. Note: always click “Hide all Microsoft Services” before enabling or disabling any service through this troubleshooting process.
   2. On the Startup Tab, disable all, apply then ok and reboot.
   3. Check your Internet Explorer and Firefox; they are probably working again.
   4. Now go into msconfig (using the Microsoft support article instructions) and go to the services tab, hide all Microsoft services, enable all the services, OK, and reboot (notice that all the startup items are still disabled).
      • If IE and Firefox are working normally still, then you know the problem is with an incompatibility in one of the Startup items. Proceed to that tab and use the instructions provided in the Microsoft article for “enabling half the services” (but you will be enabling half of the startup items).  Eventually you’ll figure out which third party startup item is causing the problem. After you find the offending Startup item then enable all of your Services and reboot a final time.
      • If IE and Firefox are not working then start the process of “enabling half of the services” until you either find the service causing the problem. After you find the offending service then enable all your Startup items and reboot a final time.

• I don’t recommend proceeding to the last step in the Microsoft article “To restore your Normal startup” which if taken will nullify all the troubleshooting you just performed.  Leave the settings on “Selective startup” However, you may need to manually enable future services or startup items in the future for them to work properly.

Internet Explorer 6 no longer supported

Mar 11, 2010

We would like to inform you that as of the end of March 2010, we will no longer develop Seller Account pages to be compliant with Internet Explorer 6.

Internet Explorer 6 is no longer supported by Microsoft and is widely considered to be obsolete. It has multiple security flaws and is considerably slower than recent browsers.

This decision allows us to use all modern web development technologies and create an up-to-date user experience.

Although existing seller tools might continue to work for some time with older browsers, if you are still using Internet Explorer 6, we strongly recommend updating your browser to a more recent version now to make sure all Seller Account pages work properly on your computer.

If you are unsure which browser version you are running or how to update your brower, please contact your local system administrator or help desk for assistance.

If you’re still using Internet Explorer version 6 (or earlier) for public Web browsing it’s imperative that you upgrade as soon as possible to a modern standards compliant browser. It’s not hard to find lots of reading material regarding the myriad of security (and many other) issues inherent to Internet Explorer 6. For those who want to take my word for it, Internet Explorer 6 is an obsolete Web browser that is incompatible with the modern Internet and may present serious security risks. Using IE6 might be compared to driving a Model T down the 405 in LA. This analogy sounds a bit exaggerated but is really quite accurate in reflecting just how outdated and dangerous IE 6 is in the modern Internet Environment.

This is not just my opinion; there’s a consensus (including Microsoft itself) that IE6 users have clear and compelling reasons to upgrade. It’s easy to find this information through a Google search, but here are a few quotes and sources to get you started:

• Microsoft Security Advisory (979352): Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
• PC Magazine: Microsoft Warns of IE[6] Flaw That Compromised Google
• ARS Technica: After Google hack, Microsoft asks users to abandon IE6, XP
• Information Week: France, Germany Say Stop Using Internet Explorer 6
• PC World: Google to End Support for IE6
• The Register: IE6 exposed as Google China malware unpicked
• Secunia reported 24 unpatched vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 as of February 9, 2010. These vulnerabilities, which include several "moderately critical" ratings, amount to 17% of the total 144 security risks listed on the website as of February 11, 2010.
• ARS Technica: Microsoft warns of IE bug used in Chinese attacks on Google

How do you check to see if you’re using Internet Explorer 6 / IE6?

1. Open Internet Explorer, and look in the upper right hand corner it will often indicate "IE 6".
2. To to help -> About Internet Explorer and look for a version number

How to get rid of Internet Explorer 6

Recommended: Install one of the following non-microsoft modern standards compliant browsers. During the upgrade process you will have the option to import your prior bookmarks from Internet Explorer.

• Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Safari for Windows

Alternate Option: If you choose to upgrade to the newest version of Internet Explorer (not what I personally recommend) you can go to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer site and go initiate the download process for the most recent version of IE. When you upgrade your old versions are removed.

TinyMCE Text Editor

Blog and Content Management platforms such as WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, Drupal and CMS Made Simple all offer great WYSIWYG text editors that allow site owners and authorized users the ability to login to their Website and add text and photo content themselves.

These text editors are suburb, but there is one very common frustration that manifests when users  cut and paste content from MS Word. When content is pasted directly from MS Word to your blog a bunch of “bad” code often gets carrying over in the process. This proprietary Word styling code is veyr likely to mess up the HTML/CSS styling of your Webpage .  Some CMS editors offer additional features for “cleaning” word code while pasting which work to varring degrees. Regardless of what other options you might have, following is a fail safe method for cleaing MS Word content on paste for any blog/CMS system:

1. Don’t paste Word content that includes photos other embedded elements. To include those elements in your blog or CMS you’ll want to upload and position them individually using the upload and layout capabilities of your Website.
2. For Windows users, open Note Pad (NOT Word Pad) then cut and paste your content from Word to Note Pad, and then from Note Pad to your blog/CMS text editor.For Mac users you’ll need to get a free text editor (I recommend Text Wrangler) and do the same cut and paste routine as mentioned above.
3. After you cut and paste the cleaned text content, you’ll need to go through and add paragraph or line breaks. Just go to the end of your first paragraph text and hit enter/return, repeat for all remaining paragraphs. If your Word content had other styling (bold text, italic text, lists, etc.) you’ll need to go through and use the CMS text editors styling features.

The best way to avoid the hassle of restyling content after a cut and paste from Word is to get into the habit of creating your content in your blog .  If you need to send that content in a Word document or email cutting and pasting the other direction, from your blog’s text editor directly to Word, usually carries over styling and paragraph breaks with no adjustments necessary.

As I understand it, the program allows registered members of the Microsoft Partner Program (the basic membership is free) to participate in the MAPS program for an annual subscription price of $299.

With that subscription you get a majority of the major Microsoft titles for internal business use, including:

• 10 licenses of Windows Vista
• 10 Office Enterprise 2007
• 10 Outlook 2007
• 10 Project Professional 2007
• 10 Visio Professional 2007
• One licence of Small Business Server 2008
• One SQL Server 2008
• One Exchange Server 2007

This is just a sample, the complete list of software titles is here.

One copy of Office Professional 2007 is $379 on Amazon so obviously a MAP subscription could save your company an exceptionally large amount of money. The caveat on the program is it’s intended, “For businesses whose primary function is to sell, service, support, or build solutions on the Microsoft platform, or to provide solutions based on Microsoft products and technologies to independent third-party customers.”

• Additional information and program registration can be found here.
• More information on program eligibility can be found at the “Download Program Details” link at the bottom of  https://partner.microsoft.com
• If you have questions about if your company qualifies you can also contact MS directly.

If you’ve used this program or have any insight on the details please let me know.

Facing Mean Streets of Information Highway by Connie Skipitares.

One of relatively easy way of monitoring your good name against the type of online identity theft mentioned in the article is to set up a Google Alert on your name. Unless you have an exceptionally unique name (like I guy I met once named Blender G. Shoulders in Tanner, Alabama) just throw in your city or state to the search query.