If you are working outside the US, you likely do not need to be prompted for an area code every time you add a phone number to your contacts.  I have used Outlook since the days it was called Schedule Plus (this is why we at Microsoft call it s+ when we send invites).  Even still, I have hard time finding the option to turn this off every time I repave my machine.   A second annoyance is that Outlook will remove the plus sign (+) you place in front of an international number.

The reason why this option is difficult to find in Outlook is because it is not set from Outlook. You will need to go to Control Panel, Phone & Modem and select a country.

For area code, I use 00 to represent the +1.  This resolves the second issue and stops Outlook from deleting the plus (+) prefix when entering numbers in Outlook.  That’s it!

How can you eliminate “noise” when you are reviewing emails?  One way is to turn your Outlook view into a photographic darkroom. You can change the view to darken the folder pane and task panes. This way your eye immediately can focus on the important content.  The critical content is bright white, whereas the chrome and secondary information blends into the background.

It is easy to set this setting. Go to File, Options and from the General tab, select Black as your color scheme.

I could use some help finding a great tool that helps show many time zones in a guide similar to the beauty I created in MS Paint. Basically I want to be able to schedule meetings with people in more than 4 time zones and need a guide to see overlapping business hours. Right now, the yellow highlights indicate working hours (9am-6pm), and I have drawn red lines to try to find common times between multiple countries. The problem is that I have to adjust this seasonally. Right now, you are seeing the adjusted one for US Daylight Savings time & Israeli summer time.

Is there any client-side application that shows unlimited time zones side by side? I explored other options but it’s not enough. I suppose I could write one… I will add that as a to-do to my calendar, but, how will I know what time zone I will be in at the time? Now we need an app for that.

Windows 7 time zone management

Windows 7 supports 3 time zones in the system tray or you can place a gadget on your desktop for 8 time zones (thanks to the development team – aka Bryant Griffin Sr. for AGS Digital MultiClock).

Outlook 2010 time zone management

Outlook can show my meetings with two time zones side by side as well as schedule an appointment against a different time zone (very useful when you are on the road or whwn someone gives you a convenient time to meet according to their time zone).