Tuesday 19 March 2013

Outlook 2013 - Create a inbox all button to view all mailboxes

1920x1080 Outlook 2013 All Inbox view


How to create your own “Inbox All” button in Outlook 2013


1) In Windows 8, use selfcert.exe to create a certificate

1a) on Windows 8 64 or 32 bit, highlight the following single line of text, and copy it to your clipboard (Ctrl+C)
 %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office15\SELFCERT.EXE

1b) press Win+R to launch the Run dialogue box

1c) press Backspace key to delete whatever you already have in there

1d) now just Paste (Ctrl+V) and click OK

Run Dialogue - SELFCERT.EXE path pasted in, click OK

1e) type any name you like, perhaps your user name, or full name, and click OK, I used “Inbox All cert”

selfcert-Your-certificates-name

Successfully created a new certificate

1f) optionally, if you’re curious about where this cert is saved, just paste this into your Start, Run dialogue (Win+R)
 %AppData%\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\My\Certificates
 
2) In Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), create your new macro that does the custom inbox search
 
2a) visit Diane Poremsky’s site to read all about the short macro she created, as well as excellent training videos on using VBA, at www.slipstick.com/how-to-outlook/how-to-create-a-unified-inbox
 
2b) I’ve found one fresh-install system doesn’t seem to like it when any dates are specified, coming up blank, so I’ve removed the ” received: (this week)” from Diane’s macro, and now it works, so just copy just the 6 lines of plain text below into your clipboard (no trailing carriage return is necessary) (Feb 5 2013 version)
 
Sub UnifiedInbox()
 Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
 txtSearch = "folder:Inbox "
 myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
 Set myOlApp = Nothing
 End Sub
 
2c) in Outlook 2013, from any view at all, just press Alt+F11 to bring up VBA
VBA-editor-top-left


2d) expand the “Project1″ section, “Microsoft Outlook Objects” section, then double-click on “ThisOutlookSession”
 
2e) click on the “VbaProject.OTM” window’s blank area, then Paste (Ctrl+V)


VbaProjectOTM macro code by Diane Poremsky modified by Paul Braren


3) Add the self-signed certificate to your new macro
 
3a) certify it by clicking the “Tools” menu, then selecting “Digital Signature”

Tools - Digital Signature


3b) choose the digital signature you already created

Digital Signature - Choose

3c) with the proper just-created “Inbox All cert” certificate single-click highlighted, click OK on the “Windows Security” dialogue:
Inbox All cert

3d) confirm all the info, click OK

Digital Signature - summary

3e)  be sure to save the VbaProject.OTM now, by clicking on the floppy icon at top left

Save VbaProect.OTM


3f) close it

Close-the-editor

4) In Outlook 2013, allow certified Macros to run
 
4a) click FILE, Options,

Options menu

4b) “Trust Center” tab, “Trust Center Settings…” button

Outlook Options Trust Center Settings

4c) on the “Macro Settings” tab, select “Notifications for all macros” and click OK

Trust Center

5) In Outlook 2013, add “Inbox All” macro to the toolbar
 
5a) at the very top left of Outlook, you’ll see the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” down-arrow symbol, left-click it
 
Customize Quick Access Toolbar


5b) choose “Show Below the Ribbon”

Show Below the Ribbon

5c) Yes, it’s now below the Ribbon. Next, on the blank area to the right of the down-arrow symbol, right-click then choose “Customize Quick Access Toolbar…”

Right-click then choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar

5d) from the Choose commands from drop-down menu, select “Macros”

Quick Access Toolbar - Choose Macros

5e) with “Project1.ThisOutlookSession.UnifiedInbox single-click selected, click Add to move it to the right “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” window

Quick Access Toolbar - Click Add

5f) click the “Modify…” button

click Modify

5g) change the Display name, I used “Inbox All, then click on the mail icon, then click OK

change Display name to Inbox All then click mail icon then click OK


5h) you may want to adjust the order by selecting “Inbox All” and clicking the “Move Up” button

click Move Up until it's at the top of the list, then click OK

5i) optionally, there are very useful icons that are not always easy to find from all ribbon views, like “Print”, so if you’d like, grab it from the All Commands view seen below, you may also want to adjust the sorting order of the Quick Access Toolbar items in the right pane, when done, click OK

you may also want to choose Popular Commands, Print, to add a printer icon, when done tinkering, click OK

5j) now it’s time to test it, just click your new little tiny “Inbox All” button:

left-click the new Inbox All button


and you should see this warning only once, click the “Trust all documents from this publisher” button, and you won’t get nagged again (CLOSE A REOPEN OUTLOOK)

ThisOutlookSession warning, just click Trust all documents form this publisher

you’ll also now see the last week’s worth of email from all your accounts appear very quickly, just a few more cosmetic tweaks, and you’re done



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