BlogOffice

RSS Feeds in Outlook

For some reason my RSS feeds jumped from one place to another recently and made the feeds on a couple of my blogs null and void. (I think this was due to a folder reorg on my server, but oh well.) I was sleuthing out the problem and trying to get everything working again and realized I hadn't yet added a couple of my blogs to Outlook 2007. It's pretty simple but to save you the trouble of looking for it, here's the process:

1. Add the RSS feeds to Internet Explorer as you usually do, by clicking the RSS icon and clicking Subscribe to This Feed.

2. In Outlook 2007, open the File menu and choose Import and Export.

3. In the Import and Export dialog box, click Import RSS Feeds from the Common Feed List and click Next.

4. The list displays all the RSS feeds that are currently in your Common Feeds list (the RSS feeds shared with Internet Explorer). Click the checkbox(es) of the feed(s) you want to add to Outlook, and click Next.

You can make sure your RSS feeds in Outlook 2007 contine to be sychronized with your Common Feeds List by choosing Tools > Options > Other > Advanced Options. In the General Settings area, make sure the option Sync RSS Feeds to the Common Feed List is checked. (If not, click to select it.) Click OK to save your settings.

Now all your favorite posts will come directly to your Inbox, ready for you to scan at your leisure. Nice. :)

Solving the Gray Column Mystery

I am currently working on preparing a curriculum that brings together the work of university faculty from all across the country. The breadth of thought is fascinating and I'm loving it. But, like anything in life, it's the little things that can hang us up. I just spent about 30 minutes trying to get rid of a mysterious gray column that appeared along the right side of the document whenever I copied one person's work into the master document I'm using for the curriculum draft. I tried adding content a paragraph at a time and all would be going well until...there's that dratted column again! It appeared in Print Preview and Print Layout view.

Through trial and error, I discovered the culprit. Buried deep within the hundred-page document was one tiny little comment, and that created the gray column throughout the entire file.

If you want to do away with balloon comments so that gray column never appears, click the Review tab and click the Balloons arrow. Choose Show All Revisions Inline. Now you can display the comment by hovering the mouse pointer over it; or you can display comments and changes in the Reviewing Pane, which you can display at the bottom of along the right side of your document.

There. Now I can get back to being productive again.

Have a good weekend!