Outlook info gadget explained



Index

- Introduction
- Settings
- Outlook info gadget explained
- Skinning explained
- FAQ
- Known issues
- Version history


Introduction

Thanx for using the Gadget. Version 1.0 of the gadget is build in July 2006 when I discovered there wasn't any Outlook gadget. So I decided to build one myself. I got a lot of suggestions and ideas from people when the gadget came public in august 2006. Most of the ideas are implemented and new ideas are welcome. I hope you enjoy this gadget!
You can check for the latest version here: http://gallery.live.com

Kelly


Settings



Show nr of unread important mails (more CPU use!)
With this setting the gadgets checks if there are e-mails marked important. It counts only those which are unread. This settings is more CPU intensive, especially when there are a lot of items in the Inbox.

Count number of e-mails in subfolders
With this setting the gadgets will include counting of the e-mails and unread e-mails in the subfolders of the selected mailbox.

Number of calendar items to Show
With this setting you can change how many of the upcoming appointments will be shown on the gadget.

Number of chars to skip in date (remove year)
With this setting you can remove characters from the end in the date (and only in the date). if your date format shows like 15-5-2008 and you want to remove the year, enter 5. 4 characters to remove the year and 1 more to remove the '-' at the end.

Left
Choose if the characters should be removed starting from left. When not checked the characters will be removed starting from the right).

Number of task items to show
With this setting you can change how many of the tasks will be shown.

Show location at calendar items
If the checkbox is checked the location of the appointment is shown in line below the subject of the appointment. This setting needs 2 lines to show 1 appointment. (So less items will fit on the gadget)

Show date/time at calendar items
With this setting checked, the prefix of the appointment will be the date or time. The time will be shown if the appointment occurs today. Otherwise the date will be shown. The time format (12H/24H) will be the same according to your local settings.

Number of characters to show at one line (5-50)
A line on the gadget can contain approx. 20 characters before it wraps (depending on the font and font-size). If you do not want the gadget to break the line you can set this value higher. By default the line on the gadget will be cut off at 20 characters.

Skin docked
Choose your preferred skin when the gadget is docked.
The Button Edit will open the XML file where the skin is defined. You can change these settings. Be careful not to mess up the xml tags, because then the skin cannot be loaded and the gadget fails to run.

Skin undocked
Choose your preferred skin when the gadget is undocked.
The edit button works the same way as described above.

Use Search Folders
With this option the mailbox selections will consist of the search folders from MS outlook. You can select the 'Unread Mail' folder. This unread mail folder (or any other search folder) is configurable via MS Outlook. So you be very flexible in the count you want to show on the gadget.

Mailbox
Here you can set the inbox that the gadget should show. If this value is empty, the default mailbox is shown on the gadget. In the line above the combo box your current setting is showed. First choose the 1st combo box then choose the 2nd combo box. After choosing the 1st combo box you cannot reselect this combo box because of a lack of my programming skills. If you choose the wrong item in the upper combo box press OK or Cancel and re-open the Settings window.

Calendar
Here you can set the calendar that the gadget should show. If this value is empty, the default Calendar is shown on the gadget. In the line above the combo box your current setting is showed. The selection process works the same way as the mailbox.

Task filter
Use the first dropdown box to filter your tasks to a certain category. With the second dropdown box you can filter on Importance of the task (priority). This function only works with Outlook 2007.

Button Help
Your watching it.

Button OK
Save settings and exit settings window.

Button Cancel
Do not save settings and exit settings window.


Outlook info gadget explained


The Inbox part



This part is updated every 30 sec.

The above info will tell you that:
You have 410 items in your inbox.
8 items are unread.
0 of the 8 unread items is marked important (!).
(Important items will only be shown when this setting is checked. See settings.)
The Icon will change if you have new mail.
Clicking on the icon result into opening Outlook with the default mailbox.

The Calendar Part



This part is updated every 5 min.

The above info will tell you that:
Today 15:00 you have an appointment called "Fix Gadget" at location "Somewhere". :-)
etc...

Note that if the appointment does not contain a location the gadget is smart enough not to show an empty line but will show the next appointment.
In the regional settings in the control panel you can change how you want the date to be shown. (short date format) Also you can skip a number of characters from the date to remove the year.
When you choose not to show date/time at the settings, "* " will be shown instead of the time or date.
When you choose not to show location at the settings, the next line will contain the next appointment instead of the location.
Something like this:
* Meeting
* Appointment

When the line is too long it will be cut of.
It looks something like this:
* very long appointm...
At a very long locatio...
* The Next appointm...
At the very next locat...

Clicking on the icon result into opening Outlook with the Calendar opened.

The Tasks part



This part is updated every 5 min.

Right of the text Tasks the number of total tasks is shown. Then just a list of the tasks is shown.
In this example the total number of tasks is 2 but in the settings is chosen to show only 1.

Clicking on the icon result into opening Outlook with the tasks opened.

Pause functionality

You can pause the gadget by double clicking it. Double clicking it when in pause mode will resume the gadget.

Skinning explained

The gadget is provided with a few skins. If you do not like these skins, which I can imagine, I'm not a graphic specialist, you can change about.... everything of the gadget! (well,... a lot :-)
One way to do this is to adjust the xml file from an existing gadget via the edit button on the settings window. This will open notepad showing the used schema. I strongly advise to use a better XML editor. Mistakes are quickly made in notepad. :-( (A free tool you can use is XML Notepad from Microsoft.)
An other way is to create a new skin. You can add a new directory in the Skins folder. You can find this folder by copying the URL shown in the browser you're currently watching and remove the last part '/help/Help.html') In the Skins folder you can create a new folder. This folder will be shown in the settings window. An easier way is to copy one of the existing folders and rename it. In this folder you can easily replace the pictures and adjust the xml file.


FAQ

Q) The gadget is not working (and it was working before) what to do?
A) Start the setup of Microsoft Office and choose repair.

Q) Can Outlook info run without Outlook running?
A) Yes, since version 1.5.1. this is working, but since SP2 of MS Office 2007 the MS Outlook application is started, instead of a background process. with MS outlook 2010 this is changed again and this is why the startup functionality of the gadget is changed. A popup will appear when Outlook is not running now.

Q) Can Outlook info gadget return info from multiple mail accounts?
A) Well,... sort of, Outlook info only returns info from 1 Outlook inbox, but you can add an additional instance of the gadget and configure it with an other mailbox or folder.



Known Issues

  • The gadget will return an error when sidebar is running in Administrator mode. (This is probably a combination of the Outlook script functions and the security model of Vista)

  • When text is too long, in undocked mode, the text is not cut off at the end of the area where it should be cut off.
  • When opening Outlook via the inbox, calendar or task icon of the gadget, a new instance of Outlook is opened.
  • Opening Inbox is fixed since version 1.6
  • Since v2.3 this is adjusted. Tested with Outlook 2010 and seems to work fine. All shortcuts should 'recycle' MS Outlook now.
  • When opening Outlook via the inbox icon, Outlook opens always with the default mailbox folder and not with the selected mailbox folder. No solution is found yet.
  • Some configurations have issues with the send/receive when the gadget is running.
  • To unlock this right-click on the outlook tray icon and choose exit, then restart MS Outlook. this lock should be gone now.
  • Since v2.3.1 the gadget asks to start the MS Outlook application to prevent these issues.



  • Version history

    v1.0

    initial version

    v1.1

    New functions:

    v1.2

    New functions:

    v1.3

    New settings New functions Resolved bugs

    v1.4

    New functions New settings

    v1.5

    New/adjusted functions
    New settings

    v1.5.1

    New
    Bug fixes

    v1.5.2

    Bug fixes/Technical improvements

    v1.5.3

    Bug fixes

    v1.5.4

    Improvements

    v1.5.5

    New settings

    v1.5.6

    New settings Tweaks

    v1.6

    New New settings Rework

    v1.6.2

    New New settings

    v1.6.3

    Bug fix

    v2.0

    New

    v2.1

    New Bug fix

    v2.1.1

    Changes Bug fix

    v2.1.2

    Changes

    v2.1.3

    Fixes

    v2.2

    Fixes Changes

    v2.3

    Changes/fixes

    v2.3.1

    Changes/fixes

    Found a bug? Have a feature request? Mail to: Kelly Daamen - daamen@hotmail.com