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In my last article I talked about one of my favorite new features in Outlook 2007: Integrating RSS Feeds which gives you the added benefits of eliminating spam and saving you some precious time.
Today I decided to write about another one of my favorite new features in Outlook 2007: text and picture messaging – which allows you to integrate your mobile phone service into Outlook. How cool is that?
Just as integrating RSS feeds allows you to manage your feed content in Outlook — bringing the two services together — with Mobile Services you’re combining your mobile phone with Outlook. You can manage your contacts and correspondence from both of these media, which means you can send and receive messages from both your mobile phone and your Outlook.
Here’s what you can do with Outlook Mobile Service:
Besides being cool, this new Outlook feature offers many advantages.
Your mobile phone becomes completely integrated with Outlook, so that the text and picture messages that you send will be saved in your Sent Items folder along with all your sent email messages.
And the text and picture messages that you receive are sent to your Inbox, just as your email messages. You can also save unfinished text messages in your Drafts folder — just like you would save your email messages.
You also get a new address book in your Outlook that is created automatically and holds all of your mobile contact information. There’s also an AutoResolve feature that helps you find the contact information that you’re looking for when sending a mobile message.
And when you’re away from your computer, you can set up Outlook to forward emails and calendar appointments to your mobile phone, so you don’t miss a thing!
In this article I’ll walk you through the steps on:
Before you get started, make sure you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007 and that you have your mobile phone ready.
1. Open up your Outlook, go to Tools and click on Account Settings
2. On the first tab - which is the E-mail tab click on New:
3. A window will come up that says Choose E-mail Services. Click Other, select Outlook Mobile Service (Text Messaging), and click Next:
4. In the next window, you will need to enter your Account Setttings. Click on the link that says Fill in this information using Microsoft Office Online configuration and make sure that you’re connected to the Internet so that you can access the next page.
5. Start by choosing your country/region from the first drop down menu, then choose your wireless carrier from the second drop down menu:
Note: If you get the message below, this means your wireless provider does not offer this service in your country/region (sorry, there are only a couple that don’t, and you can get notified when the service will be available for you).
6. If you don’t see the above message, you can move on by clicking on the SMS Link for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007:
7. Next you will be asked to setup your Username and Password. If you have a Hotmail, MSN, Windows Live ID, or Passport account, select Yes and click Next. If you select No and you’ll go through some additional steps to create an account.
8. Now you will be taken to the appropriate sign-in page. I have a hotmail account, so I need to enter my email address and password.
9. After you’re signed in, you will need to enter your mobile phone number and the email address that you would like to use your Outlook Mobile Services in. Read the Terms of Service, select accept and click Next:
10. Now make sure that your phone number is correct and check your phone to see if you’ve received a four digit text message code. If you did, select Yes and click Next:
11. On the following page enter the four digit code you’ve received and click Next:
12. Now check your Outlook for an email message from SMS Link Customer Service which will confirm your email address.
13. Click on the link that you’ve received in your email message and then click Next in the box below:
14. The next step is Outlook Configuration where all you have to do is click on the link that says Click here to involve Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, as seen below:
15. The dialogue box from Step 1 will come up with your information already filled in — so all you have to do is put in your password and click Okay.
16. To start using your Mobile Services you need to restart your Outlook:
17. That’s it you’re done! On the page below click Finish to complete the set-up.
If, for any reason, you need to get rid of your Mobile Services Account here’s what you need to do:
1. Open up your Outlook, go to Tools and click on Account Settings
2. On the first tab - the E-mail tab - select the Mobile Services Account you want to delete and click Remove
3. Click Yes to confirm and you’re done!
Note: Whe you remove your Mobile Services account from Outlook, that does not have an effect on your wireless service account — all you’re doing is removing the option from your Outlook.
Sending text or picture messages using your Mobile Services Account is easy, here’s what you need to do:
1. Click New, and scroll down to Text Message
2. In the To line, type in the phone number of the person receiving your message or look up the phone number in your Address Book. After you’ve composed your message, click Send and you’re done!
Note: When sending a text message you have a 160 character limit and you can preview your message on the left in the preview pane:
3. You can also forward a message as a text message by simply clicking forward and selecting Forward as Text Message.
Note: You can do the same with your calendar appointments or contacts from your Address book. All you have to do is right click on the item you want to forward and select Forward as Text Message.
There’s a lot more you can do with Outlook Mobile Services — this great new feature has much to offer.
I hope this information has been helpful and if you’re looking for more articles like this one, subscribe to our RSS Feed and you’ll get them sent directly to you! If you’re new to RSS see this post for more information and easy instructions.
The new Outlook 2007 has more features and gives you more control — if you know how to use it. Some of the topics covered in the training include:
So if you want to take advantage of everything the new Outlook has to offer check out Train Signal’s Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training Videos!
Hakim Says:
November 22nd, 2007 at 11:38 am
Hi,
Thanks for your nice articles I’ve been reading in this blog.
Well, now I have a question:
How do “Integrating RSS Feeds” give us “the added benefits of eliminating spam”?
Thanks again!
Hakim Says:
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Oops sorry for the question above!
I know now what you are talking about because I reread your last article -you are linking to!- in which you compared the benefits of RSS feed vs Newsletter subscription which of course is one of the sources of a great amount of spam, and that’s because when you give your email when you subscribe to some newsletters you are doing exactly that ‘giving away your email so it’s no long yours’!