In Outlook 2007, profiles store the configuration of e-mail accounts, data files, and other settings you use in a given Outlook 2007 session. For example, your profile might include an Exchange Server account, an Internet mail account, and a set of personal folders. Outlook 2007 either prompts you to select a profile at startup or selects one automatically, depending on how you’ve configured it.
In most cases, you’ll probably use only one profile and will configure Outlook 2007 to select it automatically. In some situations, however, multiple profiles can be useful. For example, you might prefer to keep your work and personal data completely separate on your notebook computer because of privacy concerns or office policies. In this situation, you maintain two profiles: one for your work data and a second for your personal data. You then configure Outlook 2007 to prompt you to choose a profile at startup. The profile controls which set of data files and configuration settings are used for that specific session. For example, when you’re working at the office, you use the office profile, and when you’re using the computer at home, you use the personal profile.
It’s important to understand that Outlook 2007 profiles have no relationship to the other types of profiles you’ll find in a Microsoft Windows® operating system, which include hardware profiles and user profiles. Hardware profiles store hardware settings and allow you to switch between different hardware configurations without reconfiguring your system. User profiles store the unique working environment (Desktop, My Documents, and so on) that you see when you log on to your computer. Outlook 2007 profiles, in contrast, apply only to Outlook 2007.
Each profile can contain multiple accounts and services, which means that you can work with different e-mail servers at one time and use multiple sets of data files (such as a set of personal folders, or .pst file). The following list describes the items stored in an Outlook 2007 profile:
Services. These include e-mail accounts and data files, along with their settings. For example, your profile might include an Exchange Server account, two Internet e-mail accounts, a .pst file, and a directory service account. When these accounts are in a single profile, you can use all of them in the same Outlook 2007 session.
Delivery settings. The profile specifies the store to which Outlook 2007 should deliver new mail when it arrives. With the exception of Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) accounts, which use their own .pst files, all accounts use the same store location. You also can specify the order in which Outlook 2007 processes accounts.
Note
To learn how to configure these delivery properties for a given profile, see "Setting Delivery Options" later in this chapter.
Address settings. You can specify which address book Outlook 2007 displays first, where Outlook 2007 should store personal addresses, and the order of the address books that Outlook 2007 uses to check e-mail addresses when the profile includes multiple address books. In earlier versions of Microsoft Outlook, you accessed these settings through the profile properties, but in Outlook 2007, you configure addressing in the Address Book window.
Note
For detailed information about configuring and using address books in Outlook 2007, see Chapter 6.
The first time you run Outlook 2007, it creates a profile named Outlook even if you don’t add any e-mail accounts to the profile. If you do add an e-mail account, Outlook 2007 uses the name you specify in the account settings as the name for the profile.
As mentioned earlier, you can use multiple profiles. The following sections explain how to create new profiles, copy existing profiles to new profiles, and perform related operations.
You don’t have to be in Outlook 2007 to create a profile—in fact, you can’t create one in Outlook 2007. You can create profiles from the Start menu or through Control Panel. In addition to specifying a profile name, you can also (optionally) add e-mail and other services to the profile. You can create a profile from scratch or copy an existing profile to create a new one.
When you have no existing Outlook profile or no profile that contains the accounts or settings you need, you must create a profile from scratch.
Follow these steps to create a new profile:
On the Start menu, right-click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon, and then choose Properties. Alternatively, open Control Panel and double-click the Mail icon. If you are using Category view in the Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista™ Control Panel, the Mail icon is located in the User Accounts category in Windows XP or in the User Accounts And Family Safety category in Windows Vista.
In the Mail Setup dialog box, shown in Figure 3-4, click Show Profiles. If no profiles exist, the Mail dialog box appears; continue with step 3.
Click Add, specify a name for the profile in the New Profile dialog box, and then click OK.
The Add New E-Mail Account Wizard starts. Add accounts and other services to the profile. Enter requested data such as e-mail address and password. To create a new profile without adding any services (useful if you are not using Outlook 2007 for e-mail), click Cancel, and then click OK. In this situation, Outlook 2007 automatically creates a set of personal folders (a .pst file) to store your Outlook 2007 data.
In addition to creating profiles from scratch, you can also copy an existing profile to create a new one. When you copy a profile, Outlook 2007 copies all the settings from the existing profile to the new one, including accounts and data files.
Follow these steps to copy an existing profile:
On the Start menu, right-click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon, and then choose Properties. Alternatively, open Control Panel, and then double-click the Mail icon.
In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
Select the existing profile that you want to use as the basis for the new profile, and then click Copy.
In the Copy Profile dialog box, specify a name for the new profile, and click OK.
You can modify a profile at any time to add or remove services. You can also remove a profile altogether if you no longer need it.
Follow these steps to modify or remove an existing profile:
On the Start menu, right-click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon, and then choose Properties. Alternatively, open Control Panel, and then double-click the Mail icon.
In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
Select the profile to be modified or removed.
Click Remove if you want to remove the profile, or click Properties to modify the profile settings.
For situations in which you need to create many profiles, such as when you are installing the 2007 Microsoft Office system for multiple users or setting up a server to allow users to install the Microsoft Office system automatically, you can turn to the Microsoft Office Resource Kit for some helpful tools. One of these tools is the Custom Installation Wizard, which helps you customize the Microsoft Office system setup process, apply security settings for Microsoft Office system deployment, and provide the means to create and deploy preconfigured Outlook 2007 profiles.
You can configure Outlook 2007 either to use a specific profile automatically or to prompt you to select a profile at startup. If you want to change profiles, you need to exit Outlook 2007 and then restart, selecting the appropriate profile.
Follow these steps to specify the default profile and use it automatically when Outlook 2007 starts:
On the Start menu, right-click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon, and then choose Properties. Alternatively, open Control Panel, and then double-click the Mail icon.
In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
In the Mail dialog box, on the General tab, select Always Use This Profile, as shown in Figure 3-5. In the drop-down list, select the default profile that you want Outlook 2007 to use.
Click OK.
If you work with multiple profiles and switch profiles relatively often, you’ll probably want to configure Outlook 2007 to prompt you to choose a profile at startup. This saves you the trouble of changing the default profile each time you want to switch. For example, assume that you use one profile for your personal accounts and another for your work accounts. Have Outlook 2007 prompt you for the profile when the program starts, rather than configuring the settings each time to specify the default profile.
Follow these steps to configure Outlook 2007 to prompt you to choose a profile:
On the Start menu, right-click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon, and then choose Properties. Alternatively, open Control Panel, and then double-click the Mail icon.
In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
In the Mail dialog box, select Always Use This Profile, select the profile that you want Outlook 2007 to display as the initial selection in the list, and then select Prompt For A Profile To Be Used.
Click OK.