How to add an Outlook New Email button to your quick launch toolbar

Because I write a lot of emails, I don’t like to fish around for my outlook program then create an email from within the program. Granted, it isn’t all that hard, but I like to speed up common operations as much as possible, so I came up with this slick shortcut. I can create emails directly for my quick launch toolbar. This is how you can do the same…

1. Right-click in a clear spot on your desktop and in the popup menu, select New->Shortcut

2. In the Create Shortcut dialog that appears, type the following:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE” /c ipm.note

(The “/c ipm.note” at the end of the shortcut is a switch to the outlook executable that tells outlook to create an email when this shortcut is launched.)

Click “Next”

3. In the next dialog, change the name of the shortcut to “New Email”

Then click “Finish”

4. You will notice that the outlook icon is displayed for the shortcut

We now need to change the icon to an image of a new email. To change it, right click on the icon, then select properties.

5. In the properties dialog that shows up, select the “Change Icon…” button

6. In the “Change Icon” dialog, type this:

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\FORMS\1033\RESENDL.ICO

Then select the new mail icon that appears. Then press “OK” and press “OK” in the “Properties” dialog. You now have a “New Email” shortcut on your desktop.

7. I personally don’t like minimizing the applications that are in the way to access this shortcut since I write emails all the time, so I’d rather have the icon in the quick launch tool bar. To get it there, just click the icon and drag it to the quick launch bar:

8. If you would like, you can now delete the desktop icon.

You now have a very nice way to quickly write emails!

Development Philosophies for Both Beginners and Experienced Professionals

These are language-independent issues that I have seen over and over again. They are philosophical in nature, so you probably didn’t hear any of this in college…

1. Occam’s Razor For Design
2. Don’t Stop Learning
   1. Master The Tools
   2. Use The Right Tool For The Job
3. Don’t Abuse Encapsulation
4. Avoid Repetitive Error Checking

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Occam’s Razor For Design
(Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Elegance)

Occam’s razor is a scientific observation that states, essentially, that the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. Well, I think there is an equivalent principle for design which is, “The most straightforward algorithm is probably the best solution.”

When working on a problem…