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Before you wonder how you can fix a problem of a product in another product that isn’t even out yet, let’s see what the hubbub is about. In Microsoft’s loved and hated Outlook program, the Internet Explorer engine was used to render HTML e-mails up through version 2003. Starting with Outlook 2007, however, Microsoft started using Word to both create and render HTML e-mails.

The decision to do this has a valid argument–content created and rendered in the same program will look identical for consistency. Unfortunately, Word’s support for HTML is deeply lacking compared to IE, causing many previously working e-mail messages to not be rendered correctly when Outlook 2007 was unleashed on the world. Even though there have been many complaints from users, this problem was never fixed as it was a design decision and not a bug.

Fast forward to today and Outlook 2010 is on the horizon. Microsoft has announced that they will continue to use Word as the rendering engine in the new Outlook, meaning there will be poor HTML e-mail support well into the future.

How You Can Help

The only thing we can do right now is to let Microsoft know how consumers feel about this decision. FixOutlook.org is a site dedicated to fighting for change on this issue. There are few possible solutions that Microsoft could implement, including reverting to IE as the rendering engine (unlikely at this point) or to boost Word’s rendering capabilities to be more standards compliant and closer to the level of IE. The site also lets you conveniently tweet a message on twitter to show your support and let others know of the cause. Let’s all make a racket about the issue until they agree to address it!

Backing up data is something everyone knows should be done, but often don’t due to laziness. That is, until disaster strikes and important data is lost. Those who have experienced such a scenario quickly learn to make regular backups to prevent a re-occurrence in the future.

Even if you know you should, backing up data can be time consuming and inefficient. Many data backup programs compress archives, which both takes a long time (and much processing power) to create and also makes the data harder to retrieve at a later time should you just need a missing file or two.

This guide shows you a method to easily backup your important files using jFileSync, free software that synchronizes files between different locations. I also recommend an external hard drive. Should you happen to already have a hard drive or other place with which to perform the backup, skip down to step 2. Let’s get started!

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If you are a fan of the 2-line, 3-column view first introduced in Microsoft Outlook 2003 and wished that Apple Mail supported it, you’re in luck. WideMail is an add-on for Mail that enables custom 3-column views, including the one used by Outlook/Entourage.

After downloading and installing the plugin, you may notice that the view does not yet show up properly. While it enables 3 columns automatically, an extra step is required to get the 2-line functionality. Simply right-click (or Command-click) on the column header and enable “WideMail Column.” You may also want to disable the other columns to get it to look right.

Before uninstalling, however, you will want to be sure you’ve re-enabled the Subject column, as there is no way to get that back after WideMail is removed.

Alternative: Letterbox

There is also another widescreen Mail plugin available called Letterbox. While this one came first, there was no Leopard compatible version for a long time, paving the way for the introduction of WideMail to satisfy user demand. Now, a Leopard version is available, and you may want to give it a try to see if it suits your taste.

By default, OS X Leopard’s handy Quick Look feature does not support archives such as zip files. There was no way to know what was inside of one until you extracted it. The Archive Quick Look Plugin enables Quick Look support for all sorts of archive files, allowing you to preview the contents quickly before extraction. The web site is in both Japanese and English and contains installation instructions. Enjoy!