Prerequisites:
The following applies to Outlook 2003 although this method will work for Outlook 2007 as well.
This method also assumes that you have Microsoft Excel installed and you have created a custom calendar in Outlook.
Problem: Suppose you’ve gone to your favorite teams website and downloaded the season schedule as a vcs file. And let’s assume you have created a custom calendar called Sports and you want to import the downloaded calendar file into your custom Sports folder. By default the items will be imported into your Outlook default calendar NOT your Sports folder.
Solution 1:
Drag & Drop from your default calendar
You could import the items into your default calendar then drag and drop them into your Sports folder. However this can get tedious when dealing with a large number of items across many different dates.
Solution 2:
Import & Export via Excel
1. Create a new Outlook profile (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Add>create your new profile and you can put in a real email address or just a fake one as only the calendar will be used)
2: Change Outlook to prompt for a profile when starting up (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Prompt for a profile to be used)
3. Start Outlook and when prompted, select the new profile that you created
4. Import the calendar file into Outlook (File>Import and Export>Import an iCalendar or vCalendar (.vcs) file>browse to the calendar file you want to import, highlight and click OK. Open the calendar and verify that all the items were imported successfully.
5. Export the calendar file (File>Import and Export>Export to a file>Microsoft Excel>Calendar>Give the file a name and make sure it’s saved as an Excel file with the .xls file extension
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When a domain name expires, assuming the current owner is either unaware or does not want the name any longer, it typically takes 75 days before that name will become available for re-registering. If the name is one which would have little value to anyone else then in fact you may be able to just wait it out and register the name when it becomes available. But the dirty little secret that’s happening is that grabbing and registering expired domain names is BIG business and the registrar where the name was registered may in fact become your biggest competitor! The registrar may simply re-register the name themselves and either auction it off if there’s enough interest or point you to one of their name grabbing services (think Snapnames exclusive deal with Network Solutions) which will most definitely cost you more than the normal under $10 registration fee. Fair – hardly, especially considering that some less than scrupulous registrars may tinker with the release date to give themselves an advantage. If you don’t want your own domains to end up in this shady underworld then monitor their expiration dates closely and renew BEFORE they expire.
As an alternative to grabbing an expired domain name, you may have better luck contacting the current owner of a domain name you desire and inquire as to their interest in selling the name to you. There are even professional brokerage services (e.g. sedo.com) that will help you – for a fee – in acquiring your dream name. Do a web search for domain name brokers for more info.
You can always pick up the phone and call your domain name registrar to obtain details on your account. You may be required to supply some identifying info for security purposes. Alternatively, you can log on to a service such as who.is. Using who.is simply type in the name of your domain – e.g. mydomain.com – and click on the Who is search button. You’ll be presented with the details of your domain such as where your domain name was registered, when it expires and the name servers. You may or may not see details on the registrant depending on whether they have a public or private registration. Private registrations are an option when registering a domain name and as such will keep the domain name owners name and particulars hidden from public view.
In my next post we’ll discuss a little dirty secret of the domain name industry.
You contacted your web guy/gal, instructed him/her as to what domain name you wanted for your company’s website and once the site was up and running you assumed all was well. But your web guy/gal had a hard time staying on top of things. Response was sometimes, well , non existent. Changes and updates seemed to take forever. That is if they ever got done at all. Of course they were always expedient in sending you the bill! Enough is enough, this is business, so you contact your “new” web guy/gal, explain the situation and arrange for moving forward. No problem says the new hire, just supply me with the user name and password for your hosting account and they’ll get started straight away. What? You don’t have the user name or password. No problem, just contact the hosting account provider and they’ll take care of it. No problem says the hosting provider, just provide them with some simple security verification info and they can take care of it. Hmmmmmm….seems you’re not listed on the account, anywhere! Read the rest of this entry »
I like to carry a flash drive with me in the field that contains useful utilities, docs, etc. Because I often update my portable utils directory on my computer, I use Microsoft’s free SyncToy to quickly copy/sync my portable utils directory to my flash drive. There are a number of similar utilities – SyncBac, Allway Sync, PowerFolder and many, many others with advanced features. But I use SyncToy due to it’s simplicity. I don’t need to sync across a network or the Internet or via FTP. Just a simple sync of one local directory to my flash drive. SyncToy’s user interface is clean and super simple – a quick sync and go.
