Category: Outlook SupportMicrosoft Outlook is the number one used software program for businesses for a reason. It’s great, works well and usually does what you need it to do – manage your email, create rules and help manage your day to day. Not every computer repair technician knows Outlook well enough to service your calls quickly, though. This is where I step in. Since the 1990’s, I have been supporting email programs. I started off with a program called “Mulberry” and it worked great, but only managed email. Then in 2000, when I graduated college I got my first job in the corporate world supporting Lotus Notes for American Express. Lotus worked ok, but was clunky at that time. Two months later I secured a new position with Honeywell and they were a Microsoft shop and this is where my love for Outlook began.
For 13 years I have engaged in all the Outlook versions and in the past two years moved into supporting all types of email, not just Outlook, but Mac Mail, Entourage, Outlook 2011, Thunderbird, Windows live mail, you name it…I can support it. Outlook is my love, though. I know it very well and am fast at repairing and training my clients to use it most efficiently.
Is your Microsoft Outlook giving you just too many headaches? Let’s schedule a tune-up for you and your Outlook program to learn how to use it better, repair your minor glitches and get you back on track…and back it up! Most people have no idea that they need to back it up.
Schedule an appointment today for a one hour session with Lisa for $99 (Save $30)
During this appointment we will cover the following:
To book an appointment, please click here or call 612-865-4475
When you set up Outlook for the first time, welcome to RSS feeds friends! You get them set up in the installation process. You sometimes have a chance to not turn them on, but most people just blaze right by that option, so most people have RSS feeds in their Outlook. Let’s start with what RSS feeds are…and what they can do for you and how to turn them off.
RSS means “Rich Site Summary” or the average person calls it “Really Simple Syndication” or just RSS.
RSS feeds are a way to get updates from your favorite websites in your Outlook. It could be news alerts from MSN or a blog post from your favorite blogger (like me!). If you look down the folder list in your Outlook, you may see RSS with tons of blue numbers. This is common, I see it everyday here with my clients. See the example to the right for where my RSS feeds lives. For the purpose of this blog, instead of removing RSS (which you can do and we will cover in a bit) I saved up a bunch to show you. See that MSNBC News one? 8794 feeds that I didn’t really sign up for, Outlook signs you up by default when you agree to RSS feeds in the setup process. This will be removed now!
How to remove RSS feeds
In your Outlook, you need to find your email settings. See pic below. You can click on the “remove” button on each and get rid of them.
Now how do you add an RSS feed from your favorite blog? Go to the top of my website and you will see the RSS feed button. My site says “Posts” but on some websites you may see “Feeds or RSS” with the commonly known logo. If you are new, you can click on the “subscribe” button and then those feeds will be in your Outlook or whatever other program you use.
I will start with the main reason – knowledge. Not every computer repair or support company has the knowledge to support what you need help with. These software support companies put in the time and energy to learn the products on their own so they can support you. But there are few people that know it, so the rates are higher. Compare this to knick knacks you buy at Target. Their section for fun house decor is full of cheap, under $50 trinkets for your home. But if you want something really unique, you go to an antique store where people hand-picked cool stuff. You pay $500 for that one piece that wows people and gives your home a little something extra. Specialty software companies are like antique stores, we know what we are doing and can get things done faster. We know people, the software and how to scoot past first level support (when we call into companies if need be). We also know the quick bugs that the software can create and how to fix them fast. We work in these applications all day, fixing, repairing and supporting is what we know well.
Basic tech support should be relatively affordable; the rates at CTG are competitive in our market and offer quick fixes. But if you are using specialty software such as ACT, CRM systems, Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 or need server work done, expect higher expenses with your tech support.
Does this make sense? I hope so. I’ve had some clients ask why my Outlook pricing is now a bit more expensive. I have spent 13 years working with Outlook on many different levels; I am fast and fix many problems in 15 minutes or less. If you asked the technician down the street in a local repair shop to fix it, even though their rate may be very low…they could spend hours trying to figure out the problem and not fix it. The may even need to do other things to your Outlook that would make your head spin, like reinstalling, starting from scratch or worse. Their expertise is probably not in Outlook and that costs you more time and money. Hire a knowledgeable software technician and get back to work faster – it will cost less in your time and money.
Call That Girl offers Outlook (all versions), Hosted Exchange Transition Assistance (old POP/IMAP email to exchange, where everything synchs) and is now in training for Microsoft Office 365. If your company is interested in working with us on a beta testing level, we are very interested in talking to you about your company and moving to the robust work of online cloud application support for your IT needs. Call today for a consultation if you’re in need of any of the above. I look forward to helping! 612-865-4475
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Please email me for help Lisa@callthatgirl.biz
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Just a heads up to all of our followers, Comcast had a port switch some time ago… that may cause your email to stop working properly. You probably received a notice from Comcast on this issue and for many people, it will work. For some of you, the instructions DO NOT WORK.
If you have an older version of Outlook or some other host, you may be having problems sending email. First, close and re-open your email, then try sending again to make sure Comcast is the root of your problem. If it’s still not working, check out this site for instructions on how to fix it, .
I got two Facebook emails this past week. Both looked legit, but luckily they were in my junk folder and I could see the spam underneath. I thought it would be fun to share with you all how sneaky these email spammers can be.
Now if you notice in the 2nd picture (click on the pictures to enlarge), it states in my Outlook program that it might be a phishing site. But would you notice that? Like most people, we just see that we have a problem with our email and our precious Facebook account. This is just one of the many ways hackers get into your account. But the question is…how did they get my Facebook email account in the first place to send me this information?
Hackers can easily make fake emails that look like they’re coming from Facebook with legitimate-looking credentials; after that, all they need is your email…
Your email address may be visible in the contact information section of your profile or it might be downloadable by ‘Friends’, so make sure it is inaccessible. Go to Account Settings > Email and make sure the appropriate boxes are selected. Another suggestion is to change your primary email address to one that only you know. If you have to, go make a free email account specifically for Facebook.
Also, make sure the password for your email is different from the password for your Facebook account (and all of your accounts for that matter)- and make them complicated! It makes hacking more difficult.
Another possibility is that the security of your browser is making you susceptible to hackers.To make sure you are using Facebook securely, go to Account Settings > Security > Secure Browsing and make sure that this is enabled (https). For general protection on the internet, type in https instead of just http in the URL when going to websites. The “s” in https stands for secure!
It is also important to make sure that your browser is up to date. If the version you are using is old, you may have missed some important security updates, so don’t ignore those browser update notifications.
The hackers will always be out there trying to make our lives more complicated, but if you take the time to make sure you are being safe, it will be much more difficult for them to attack you.
Here is a bit more about how we can help the hearing impaired with computer problems and such.
All of Call That Girl’s computer services can be offered with TTY for those who are hearing impaired. Call That Girl is dedicated to providing the best tech support for all of our customers, and can accomplish this with the help of TTY and remote service. Everyone needs Outlook support, virus removals or a computer tune-up now and again, so Call That Girl for the best computer repair for the hearing impaired.
