Using Multiple Profiles

Using Outlook 2003, you can create as many profiles as you need. You'll most often create more profiles when more than one person shares a computer. Because Outlook 2003 supports multiple email accounts, you'll need more profiles only when you need to connect to more than one Exchange server or want to keep email from different accounts separated without using rules.

Changing Windows logons just to check email can be annoying when you're using Windows 2000; it's easier to use one Windows logon and multiple Outlook profiles. Windows XP's Fast User Switching (FUS) allows other Windows users to log on without closing the first Windows session. They can switch to their Windows account and check their email.

When using separate Windows user accounts, each user can have her own Outlook profile, including separate email signatures.

New profiles are also used for troubleshooting problems, such as when you have problems loading Outlook. One of the first things you should try when troubleshooting is a new profile (not a copy of your old one). Start with your default account and if Outlook loads properly, add any additional accounts to the profile, configure your signatures and other settings for the new profile, and then delete the old profile.

There are two ways to access the profile dialog:

• Use the Control Panel Mail applet by Choosing Start, Control Panel to open the Control Panel. If you use Windows XP and Control Panel categories, look in the User Accounts group for the Mail applet.

• Right-click on Windows XP Start Menu Outlook icon and choose Properties.

Choose S how Profiles to open the Profiles dialog as shown in Figure 2.9. Choose A d d to create new profiles, or P r operties to look at the settings of the selected profile. Either choice opens the dialogs shown.

Figure 2.9. Use the Mail dialog to manage your Outlook profiles. Select a profile to use as your default profile, if desired.

If you have old profiles you no longer use, select the profile name and then click D e lete to remove it. Use Cop y to create a copy of an existing profile. However, it's often better to create a new profile instead of copying an existing one, especially if Outlook seems to hang or crash often.