How to: From “.phone owner” instead of correct user

How to: From “.phone owner” instead of correct user

The problem is that in Entourage, emails are saying that they’re from “.phone owner” instead of the correct (usually yourself.)

This comes about from iPhones synching contacts in a Enterprise environment. The “default” contact on the phone is the user who owns it. So this issue comes up when contacts are synched between the iPhone and Entourage.

Luckily this is easy to fix. In Entourage, go to Address Book. Look for .Phone Owner. Open the contact (double click or right click) then go to “Name & Email”

Change the contact name to the correct name, save and close and you’re all good!

Automatically Insert Signatures into Entourage

Automatically Insert Signatures into Entourage

By default Entourage does not automatically insert signatures.

Here are directions on how to set it up to do so.

First, make sure that a signature is setup:

1.) Click on “Tools”
2.) Go to “Signatures”
3.) If none are present, click on “New” otherwise double click on “Default”
4.) Create signature
5.) Close and save signature.

To make it auto insert:
1.) Click the menu option “Entourage”
2.) Choose “Account Settings”
3.) Double click on the account (usually the bolded one)
4.) Click on the “Options” tab
5.) Under the heading “MESSAGE OPTIONS” change the option from None to Default

How To: Change Default Mail Client on OSX

How To: Change Default Mail Client on OSX 

When I moved away from Entourage to Thunderbird I had a huge issue with mailto: html links still attempting to open Entourage to send emails. OS X itself simply does not provide a simple way to change this default behavior.

So, the trick is to open OS X’s Mail Client and use that. Simply create a dummy account, it doesn’t matter what info you put in as you won’t be using it. Once Mail is opened, go to Preferences then click on the General Tab. There will be a “Default Mail Reader” drop down menu. Choose your default client (even Firefox or Safari if you have something like Zimbra or another web mail) and exit the client.

The other, and possibly better trick if you’re going to make this change across multiple computers such as an entire Enterprise setup is to edit one of the plist files.

In ~/Library/Preferences/ look for com.apple.LaunchServices.plist

Add

    LSHandlerRoleAll
    com.mail.client
    LSHandlerURLScheme
    mailto

Just under
LSHandlers


Options for mail client would be com.mozilla.firefox or com.microsoft.entourage or the preferences name of any other mail client. These can easily be found in the same folder. Once this is done, mailto: links will then open in your preferential mail client!

How To: Create and Import vcf VCards

How To: Create and Import vcf VCards

VCards are simply virtual business cards used to exchange contact information. They are easily recognizable with the .vcf file extension. Vcards have rapidly become a universally excepted way of transferring contact information between devices. They can be sent to most phones such as Blackberries and iPhones, or to all the popular Email programs and multiple contact collection programs.

The first step in creating a VCard is actually the hardest. Below is an example of my own VCard:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
FN:Rick Hamell
N:Hamell;Rick;;;
TEL;PREF;CELL:971.555.5555
EMAIL;INTERNET:rick@hamell.net
URL:http://RickHamell.com
URL:http://www.1nova.com/blog
URL:http://www.1nova.com/photoblog
UID:efc38667f3b9ab04495f9c54d2587950
REV:2008-10-27T20:47:59Z
END:VCARD

As can be seen it shows all the important contact info that would be found in any contact program. In addition to Email addresses it includes my phone number and URL to my website.

Many programs such as Apple’s Address Book, or Microsoft Outlook will allow exporting a contact to a VCard file. They can also be edited with a text file as long as the conventions in structure are observed. The easiest method is to use an online generator. I prefer Wacomenance.co.uk but the one at Vicintl.com is more streamlined and compatible. Keep in mind that while MOST programs should read all the fields in a VCARD, some will drop fields such as second and third email addresses.

After creating a card the next step is to import it in to the preferred Contact Program.

Microsoft Outlook:

  • Click on File menu, then choose Import And Export.
  • Click to select the Import a vCard file (*.vcf) check box, and then click Next.
  • Select the vCard file, and then click Open.

Microsoft Entourage:

  • Open Entourage
  • Click on Address Button
  • Drag .VCF file to upper right hand window of Entourage

Apple Address Book:

  • Simply Double Click on the .VCF Card

Mozilla Thunderbird:

  • Attach VCard in Email to self
  • Click on VCard
  • Click OK in “New Card for” Dialog Box

Keep in mind that VCards only really work well with one contact at a time. This is not the way to export or import a fully populated address book. Also, it’s best to be careful where the file goes as it could be used for malicious purposes. Only send the file out to people known to you.

How To: Synchronize Blackberry and Zimbra on OS X

How To: Synchronize Blackberry and Zimbra on OS X

At first looks there is no obvious way to synchronize RIM’s Blackberry devices with the Zimbra mail client. Blackberry already has a huge following in the business world while Zimbra is starting to become extremely popular as an Exchange replacement.

But, out of the box neither will talk to each other directly on OS X.

This can be resolved, but it’s actually a two step process so it will take a little bit of extra work to be sure that data does not get out of date.

Zimbra provides Apple iSync Connector which is currently bundled in the Network Edition Professional Server download, available in the trial version (signup required) or from the Admin Console in an already existing Zimbra install.

Install the iSync Connector with the directions here.

Once the connector is installed it’s a good idea to go ahead and do the initial synchronization. This will sync Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and the Address Book to the corresponding OS X Application. Email will of course not sync since the Blackberry can be setup as an email client and can receive the emails directly.

After the initial synchronization between Zimbra and the desktop, it’s now possible to sync the desktop with the Blackberry.

This is done with the PocketMac Application which is a free download for those who already have a Blackberry. It is not free for any other phone or PDA, although it does work with a wide variety of other systems.

Install PocketMac, plug in the Blackberry, hit the sync button on the dock and watch it all happen like magic.

Using this scenario it’s possible to get out of sync very easily though. I highly suggest getting in the habit of only making changes to one device ever, or doing this two step sync process immediately after adding or making changes.