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Saving a Contact Group in Outlook 2016

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Outlook 2016
Image ©Office.com

Have you ever received an Outlook 2016 contact group from someone and weren’t sure how to handle saving it into your contacts so that you could use it?  I know that I have, and others I’ve worked with have as well.  You would think it would be as simple as opening the group (which usually arrives as an attachment in an email) and saving it.  In fact, as this screenshot shows, “Save & Close” is one of the options available to you.

Outlook 2016

But the key here is at the top, with the red arrow pointing at it.  It’s the dreaded “Read-Only” message, hiding in plain site like malware hidden in a steganography file. What that tells us is that, no matter how many times we click the “Save & Close” button — over and over and over again, we’ll never save that contact group into our contacts.

So, how do we get around this?  Well, there may be multiple ways around this, but for me, the simplest way for me is this.

  1. Open the message up in it’s own window.  So, when you do this, you’ll have one window with your main Outlook program running, and another window with the mail message that contains the contact group.
  2. In the main Outlook 2016 window, click on your contacts.
  3. Switch back to the mail message with the contact group, and click and drag the attachment to your contacts in the main Outlook window.  The contact group will be created in your contacts, and all of the names and their email addresses will be there.

So there you have it, a simple way to add a contact group from someone else into your Outlook 2016 contacts.

NOTE: Another option for doing the same thing is to drag the contact group directly to the contact icon.

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Watch Out for Pokemon Go Scams!

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Pokemon Go
Image ©Pokemon.com

Pokemon Go is seemingly all the rage since it’s release this week, but beware – there is a great risk in spending all your time with this game and losing track of your surroundings in the process. There have been reports of robberies in the St. Louis area, reports of two men falling off a cliff while playing the game, reports of a player coming across a dead body, and now, from our friends at the NC Department of Justice, concerns over Pokemon Go scams. From the alert email I received today:

WANT TO CATCH ‘EM ALL? HAVE FUN BUT AVOID POKÉMON GO SCAMS

The new mobile game Pokémon Go has attracted millions of excited new users, but unfortunately scammers aren’t far behind. A new scam is out to trick Pokémon Go users into giving up their personal information and paying money to play the game that’s actually free. If you’re trying to catch ‘em all, make sure you know how to avoid Pokémon Go subscription scams.

The scam begins with a phony email claiming that because of a record-breaking number of users, game developer Niantic has begun charging players $12.99 per month to play Pokémon Go. The email claims that anyone who doesn’t pay the upgrade fee immediately will have their game accounts frozen within one day. Concerned users who click the upgrade link are asked to provide their email login credentials, giving the scammers access to information in their email accounts that can be used for identity theft.

Remember:

  • Don’t be fooled by logos, websites, or links that seem like the real thing. Many scam emails use real company’s logos to seem authentic. Past phishing emails have claimed to come from major companies like Paypal, eBay, banks, credit card companies, non-profits, charities, and even government agencies like the IRS.
  • Report phony emails to the legitimate business directly. Contact the company using a telephone number or web address you know to be right, not using the contact information in the phishing email. Also, forward the entire email to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov.
  • Never share your personal or financial information by email. Be wary of any email that asks you to key in login credentials to one of your personal email or financial accounts. Instead, use legitimate, secure login websites to access your accounts, not links included in questionable emails.
  • If you receive one of these phony emails, report it to the Attorney General’s Office at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or online at ncdoj.gov.

This message brought to you on behalf of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The point of all of this is to remind you that you need to make sure that you are aware of your surroundings, make sure that you are not falling into some sort of scam, and you need to make sure that you use good old common sense when playing games like this and others.  Remember, there are a lot of different apps out there that track location, Pokemon Go is not the first by any stretch, so just be thoughtful when playing these games.  Have fun, but don’t do something that could end up getting yourself or someone else hurt.

Choosing the right Internet Device for your child

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Internet Device

In today’s world, our children are going to be exposed to technology at a much younger age than we were as kids. I remember my daughter as a toddler being given a LeapFrog type system which she loved to play with and did a great job helping her to learn some stories.  While this wasn’t an Internet device, it was her first exposure to technology, and was definitely a precursor to her exposure to the Internet.

In this day and age, there are a lot of different options available for everyone to get connected, so what type of Internet device should you get for your child so they can connect? This post will explore some of the options you have available and what you should look for in a device.

Computers and Laptops

For most users, when it comes to a computer or a laptop, the main question becomes “Do I want a desktop or a laptop?”  After that question, the followup usually revolves around whether to use Windows operating system or Mac OSX.  The answers to these questions often revolve around such thoughts as the amount of desk space, whether or not your computer will travel with you, and whether or not you want a bigger display than a laptop screen can provide.

  • Desktop Pros
    • Permanent setup
    • Bigger display
    • More natural keyboard and mouse
    • Cost is usually cheaper
    • More easily upgraded as needs evolve
  • Desktop Cons
    • Space constraints
    • Mobility — can’t easily transport to other locations.
    • Usually requires either a computer desk or home office setup
    • Usually requires hard wire connection to network
  • Laptop Pros
    • Small form factor, can work from anywhere
    • Battery power source, less need to be constantly plugged in to wall outlet
    • Wi-Fi enabled
    • All shapes and sizes, very flexible configurations
  • Laptop Cons
    • More rigid in terms of upgrades
    • Price is sometimes more because of small components

Tablets and Phones

When it comes to tablets and phones, the options are many and varied.  In the one corner you have the Apple products — the iPad series of tablets and the various iPhone models.  In the other corner you have the Android line of devices, which includes a whole host of manufacturers.  Then, in a smaller third corner, you even have some devices that are built based on Windows operating systems.

For me, my tablet and phone of choice is from the Apple side of the ring, primarily out of experience and the past history I’ve had with them.  I’ve worked with and on both Apple and Android products, and for me, the reason I choose Apple over Android is because the components work better.  For example, in my experience, on an Android phone inevitably there will some issue with the email and calendar setup that will cause the calendar to stop syncing data with the server.  On Apple devices, I’ve not experienced this issue.

I know that there those that swear by both platforms — those that love Apple products and those that love Android products.  I also know that you aren’t going to change the minds of one over the other very easily, if at all.  So, in the end, the best advice I can give for this is to do your homework, check out multiple products on both sides of the aisle, and try them out to see which one you like best.  When you have that figured out, go with it, and don’t look back.

Other Devices

Lastly, there are other devices besides desktops and laptops, tablets and phones.  There are also internet ready gaming systems such as the Nintendo 3DS, music devices such as iPod Touch, and others.  These devices will also provide access to the Internet, although in my experience that appears to be more limited in scope, although I haven’t explored these as much lately.  For a device that you are going to be using for your schoolwork, though, I would imagine that these wouldn’t be the best choice.

Conclusion

In the end, the device you choose for your child’s Internet activities for school or other use will in large part be determined by three components:

  1. The cost of the device and your budget to spend
  2. The requirements for the school, if any.
  3. The durability and length of use you’ll expect to get out of it.

For my family, when it became time to get an Internet device for our daughter, we ended up going with the Apple MacBook Air.  She has had it for approaching 3 years, and it has been a great system for her.  She uses it for school, she uses it for writing, and by following the rules that we have in place for online safety, I expect that it will last her for several more years.  While it is a more expensive up-front cost, the long term value has been realized and then some.

What Internet device do you have for your child?  Please let us know in the comments, and thanks for stopping by today!