What's new for Arabic in Microsoft® Office Systems 2003
	Microsoft Office 2003 Online features
	What's new for Arabic in Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services
	Knowledge Base

This white paper describes how Outlook 2003 new features support the requirements for the Arabic region. It highlights the new features in Outlook 2003 and provides detailed information on how these new features handle the Arabic data.

Index

1. Introduction
2. Search Folders
• To create new search folder
3. Junk E-mail Filter
• To configure Junk E-mail settings
• To mark a message sender as Junk E-mail sender
4. Reading Pane
• To change the reading pane settings for specific folder
• To cancel the display of the reading pane for specific folder
5. Quick Flags
• To mark a message for follow up
6. Arrange by Conversation
7. Side-by-side Calendar
• To open a shared calendar
• To share your calendar with others
8. Desktop Alerts
• To enable or disable desktop alerts
• To adjust the desktop alert settings
• Working with Desktop Alerts
9. Integration with Windows Share Point Services
• Meeting Workspace
• Shared Attachments
• Linking Contacts
• Exporting Outlook Contacts to WSS
• Sharing Calendar Events
10. AutoComplete
• To turn AutoComplete feature On/Off

Introduction

Outlook 2003 is designed to increase productivity and help managing emails effectively. The new features of Outlook have great support for Arabic language. Office development team has worked hard to provide Arabic support in the way users expect. This article shows where and how you can use Access to develop and maintain Arabic applications.

Search Folders

Search folders are virtual folders that contain views of all email items matching specific search criteria. Your messages remain stored in the same folders and no additional space taken. You can start creating search folders using one of the predefined templates, such as Mail with attachments or Mail from specific people, or you can create your own custom criteria. Search folders always up-to-date. You do not need to refresh your query; Outlook updates it automatically. Outlook 2003 contains three predefined search folders Unread mail, Large Mal and Follow up.

To create new search folder

1. From the File menu, choose New then select Search Folder
2. From the dialog box New Search Folder, choose one of the templates or select the last option to create your own custom search folder.
3. From the dialog box Custom Search Folder, type the name of your new search folder.
4. Click on the button Criteria to enter your search conditions.
5. Click on the Browse button to select the folder(s) you want to search within its messages.

When entering your search criteria, Outlook 2003 matches the kashida and diacritics for text fields contain such as Subject and Message Text. For example, when searching for messages that contains in the subject line the word "مشــــروع" will not match messages with subject line "مشروع" neither "مشروعُ".

Note you can apply your search on either mailbox or personal folder; search folders do not support searching in both locations.

Fig. 1: Creating new Search Folder with Arabic name

Junk E-mail Filter

Outlook 2003 provides a great level of protection against junk e-mails. It uses state-of-the-art technology developed by Microsoft Research to evaluate whether a message should be treated as junk e-mail based on several factors, such as the time it was sent and the content of the message. The filter does not single out any particular sender or type of message; it is based on the content of the message in general and uses advanced analysis of the structure of the message to determine the probability that it is junk e-mail. Messages marked as junk e-mail are stored at Junk E-mail special folder where you can later review or delete.

Outlook 2003 enables you to specify recipients as Blocked senders, trusted senders or trusted recipients. Moreover, you can set the protection level and specify how Outlook moves or deletes Junk E-mail.

  To configure Junk E-mail settings

1. From the menu Tools,choose Options
2. Select the tab Preferences and Click the button Junk E-mail.
3. From Junk E-mail options dialog, you can set your Protection Level

To mark a message sender as Junk E-mail sender

1. Right click on the message from the recipient you want to mark as Junk E-mail sender
2. Select the option Junk E-mail and then select one of the following options

• Add sender to Blocked Senders list
• Add sender to Trusted Senders list
• Add sender to Trusted Recipients list
• Add sender domain to Trusted Recipients list

Reading Pane

The Preview Pane found in earlier versions of Outlook has been redesigned and optimized for reading e-mail messages. The enhancements goes beyond the layout, you can now respond to meeting requests and message with voting buttons without opening the message, all through the reading pane. Reading pane shows Arabic messages. You can set the reading pane location to the right, bottom or do not display at all. This is a per-folder setting, for example, you can display the reading pane for the folder containing your boss messages while not displaying it at all for junk e-mail folder.

To change the reading pane settings for specific folder

1. Click on the folder you want to adjust the setting
2. From View menu, select Reading Pane
3. Select the location to be Right or Bottom

To cancel the display of the reading pane for specific folder

1. Click on the folder you want to adjust the setting
2. From View menu, select Reading Pane
3. Select the location to be Off

Fig. 2: Reading pane displays Arabic message on the right side of the message

Quick Flags

In order to make it easier to follow up messages, Outlook 2003 contains multiple flags that can set for your messages. You can choose to organize your messages with six different colored flags. For example, you can mark the messages that require you to take action with a red flag, while marking those messages that you will read in your free time as yellow. You can view all messages marked with different flags by special pre-defined search folder called Follow up. When working with the Arabic localized version of Outlook 2003, the color names appear in Arabic.

Fig. 3: Marking messages for follow up with different color flags

To mark a message for follow up

1. Right click on the message you want to mark it with the flag
2. From the context menu, select Follow up and then select the color you want to set it for the message.
3. Optionally, you can let Outlook 2003 reminds you have a reminder for this message

Arrange by Conversation

If you receive a lot of e-mail messages, you can now group messages in an e-mail conversation together in an arrangement that makes it easier to find and respond to conversations or "threads." Because all messages in one conversation are presented together, you can avoid responding to an e-mail message only to discover later that someone else had already responded. The view supports sorting messages with the same Arabic subjects under the same conversation.

Fig. 4: Conversation view displays messages in a thread

Note: Outlook 2003 considers forwarded messages and replies belong to the same thread. On the other hand, changing the message subject during replies of forwarding will create a new conversation thread.

Side-by-side Calendar

With Outlook 2003, you can open more than one calendar in the same view. This makes it easier to organize meetings and appointments and allows you to see the best time that suits all the attendees. You can share your calendar with the others and open their shared calendar too, if you have the appropriate permissions. Outlook 2003 can open shared calendars for Arabic users and displays the user name associated with his calendar in a different color.

To open a shared calendar

1. From the Go menu, select Calendar
2. On the Calendar pane, click on Open Shared Calendar
3. The dialog box will appear to let you specify the mailbox that contains the shared calendar to open

  Note: Outlook 2003 uses the shared calendar feature only with Exchange mailboxes. The feature will not work on mail account configured with POP3/SMTP server.

Fig. 5: Shared calendar opened in a side-by-side view for Arabic user

To share your calendar with others

1. From the Go menu, select Calendar
2. On the Calendar pane, click on Share Calendar
3. From the Calendar properties dialog box, click on the button Add
4. The list of users will appear, select the person you want to share your calendar with and click OK

Desktop Alerts

With Desktop Alerts, you get better notification with each new message arrived. The alert displays the important information you need about new messages such as sender's name, subject and short text preview. The alert fades subtly while giving you the chance to open, delete or mark the message with the flag you want. You can adjust the number of seconds the alert remain visible before fading out as well as its transparency level.

Desktop alert supports displaying all the important information for an Arabic subject, content and sender.

To enable or disable desktop alerts

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Select the tab Preferences and click on Email Options
3. From the dialog box Email Options, click on Advanced Email Options button
4. From the Advanced Email Options dialog box, check or uncheck the checkbox Display Desktop alert for new mail (default Inbox only)

Fig. 6: Desktop alert displays Arabic sender, subject and content message

To adjust the desktop alert settings

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Select the tab Preferences and click on Email Options
3. From the dialog box Email Options, click on Advanced Email Options button
4. From the Advanced Email Options dialog box, click on Desktop alert settings
5. You can adjust the transparency level of the alert, as well as the duration to stay visible.

  Working with Desktop Alerts

While the desktop alert visible, you can perform a number of actions of on the new message arrived.

• Open the message itself by clicking on the desktop alert.
• Click on the small close button to close the alert.
• Click on the cross sign to delete the message. Outlook will move the message to the Deleted Items folder.
• Click on the flag icon to set a quick flag on this message with the default flag.
• Click on the down arrow button to display the list of actions you can perform with this new message.

Note: The desktop alert displays the flag icon in red mark regardless of the default color you choose as a default flag. Although, when you click on the desktop alert, it will use the correct color you set.

Tip: While seeing the alert visible, hover with the mouse pointer over the alert to keep it visible for longer time.

Integration with Windows Share Point Services

Information Workers can leverage the new integration features with Windows Share Point Services (WSS) version 2.0. Outlook 2003 knows well how to send information to WSS List, gets updates from WSS Events and much more. The following sections highlight areas of integration between both great products.

Meeting Workspace

Meetings requests now integrates with WSS Meeting Workspace. When start creating meeting request from Outlook 2003, you have the option to create a meeting request for that meeting. The attendees of your meeting become users on the Meeting workspace. As a meeting organizer, you become the Meeting Workspace owner.

You can customize the Meeting Workspace that you create, for example, choose specific name and set the default language for that workspace. You can create your Meeting workspace with Arabic name and select Arabic settings for the workspace language.

  To Create a Meeting Workspace

1. From the File menu, click New and then select Meeting Request
2. From the Meeting Request screen, click on the button Meeting Workspace
3. The Meeting Workspace task pane will appear, click on the link Change Settings
4. Select the WSS site you want to create the Meeting Workspace on
5. Select the Language for the new Meeting Workspace
6. Select the Meeting Workspace Template for the new items posted on the Meeting Workspace. The template you select specifies the elements included in the workspace.

  Note: Outlook retrieves the list of languages supported by the WSS site. You should enable the Arabic language on the WSS site first before creating the Meeting Workspace.

Shared Attachments

One of the common scenarios is to receive email with an attachment that you should modify and send it back to the sender. The sender might send it to others to review and send you back the updated one. With Windows Share Point Services (WSS), such tasks become easier. Outlook offer you the option to create Document Workspace in WSS site for your attachments automatically. Moreover, Outlook gives your recipients permission to access the site and places the URL of the created WSS site to all recipients you include in the email. As the document updated from recipients, WSS keeps track of the changes and allows you to view the change history.

To Create a Document Workspace

1. Click on New Message to compose your message
2. Select the recipients you want to participate in the document workspace
3. Attach the document you want to include in your document workspace
4. When the Attachment Options task pane appear, select Shared Attachments
5. Type the URL of the WSS site and then click on Send button to send the email

Working with Document Workspace

Once you create the document workspace, you become the owner of this workspace and all your recipients become users that added to the workspace. Users can share the information and co-authoring the document contents while Document Workspace keeps track of the update changes. When recipients open the attachment created on Document Workspace, they can do the following

• Modifying the document(s) placed in the document workspace
• See the changes made by other users along with the changes history
• Create email alerts that notifies you when the document(s) changed by others
• Create tasks and assign it to participating users of the document workspace
• Add more documents to the workspace

Note: Document Workspace name is created based on the attachment name. When attaching more than one file, Outlook uses the first attachment name to create the Document Workspace.

Linking Contacts

Working with WSS provides centralized location for storing and managing contacts used in both Outlook 2003 and WSS. Contacts created in WSS can be linked and viewed within Outlook 2003. Contact names in WSS Arabic edition can contain Arabic data for contact names and other contact properties. On the other hand, if you used to create and manage your contacts in Outlook 2003, you can use WSS to import these contacts and work with it in WSS.

To Link WSS contacts to Outlook

1. Navigate to the WSS Contacts list
2. From the title bar, click on Link with Outlook
3. A prompt message will appear to confirm the Linking action, click YES
4. A new item will appear in the Contacts folder that displays the WSS contacts list.

Note: You can not edit contacts list in WSS from Outlook 2003. The WSS contacts list always read-only in Outlook 2003.

Exporting Outlook Contacts to WSS

If you use Outlook 2003 to store and manage your contacts, you can share it with WSS contacts list. You can export Arabic contacts from Outlook 2003 to WSS. The process imports the contacts from Outlook 2003 to WSS. Arabic contacts in Outlook are imported in WSS with their full information. You don't need to map the fields between Outlook and WSS, both applications knows each other well.

To Import Outlook contacts into WSS contacts list

1. Navigate to the WSS Contacts list
2. From the title bar, click on Import Contacts
3. The Address Book dialog box will appear allowing you to select the contacts you want to import into WSS.
4. Hold SHIFT or CTRL to select multiple recipients and then click the button Add
5. Click OK  to import the selected contacts into WSS contact list.

Note: WSS imports all the selected contacts from Outlook, even if they are duplicate with the current contacts in WSS. This includes the same Arabic contact name with and without Kashida and/or diacritics.

Sharing Calendar Events

You can use Outlook 2003 to display the events located in WSS site on your calendar. When configured, Outlook 2003 connects to the WSS Events list and retrieves the list of event to display it on the same calendar view beside your calendar. Calendar view follows the date settings of Outlook when displaying the events from WSS. For example, when setting Outlook 2003 to use Gregorian calendar with alternate Hijri date, the events from WSS will appear also with Gregorian dates along with the equivalent Hijri dates.

To display Events from WSS in Outlook:

1. Navigate to the WSS site that contains the Events list
2. On the title bar of the web part that has the Events list, click on Link to Outlook
3. Outlook 2003 will display a prompt when checking that WSS is trying to link the Events to its calendar. Click OK
4. Switch to Outlook; from the Go menu, click Calendar
5. On the left side, you will find a check box labeled with your WSS site name
6. Click to select this check box to display the events from the WSS site.

  Note: Events shared with WSS are read-only in Outlook. You should maintain the events from the WSS itself.

AutoComplete

No need to remember all your contacts' emails, Outlook 2003 will remember the list for you. The AutoComplete name suggestions keeps track of your recipients and automatically suggest completing the rest of the recipient name while you type the first few letters of the name or the email address. You can turn AutoComplete On/Off.

To turn AutoComplete feature On/Off

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Click on the tab Email Options
3. From the Email Options dialog box, click on the button Advanced Email Options
4. On the section When Sending a message, clear or select the check box Suggest Names while completing names in To, CC, and BCC fields

AutoComplete works well with Arabic recipient names with intelligent behavior for displaying the recipient name along with the email address or the alias name. This way avoids selecting the wrong person in situations where you have two persons with the same name.

Fig. 7: Addresses AutoComplete for Arabic recipients

Note: Special Arabic characters such as kashida and diacritics may not allow AutoComplete to find the person name. For example, you may have a person named "طارق" in your address book. When you start type the two letters "طا", Outlook will display "طارق" as AutoComplete suggestion. While if you type the same letters with extra kashidas "طــــا", Outlook will not find a similar match.