What is the Orb? And other new outlook questions

[Barry Watzman]

I just reinstalled Outlook (same version (2003) that I was previously
using), and there is some behavior that is new that I don't understand.

First, when I look at (read) a message, there is an "orb" (ball) to the
left of the address in the "From" line, if I put the mouse on it I am
shown some information about the sender (including his online/offline
status). Where did this come from, can I turn it off.

Also, I now have a line at the top of the header area showing me the
"zone" of the message ("You are now looking at this message in the
internet zone"). Same question, where did this come from how do I turn
it off (it wasn't present previously).

Finally, I now see a return address of:

[orb] (e-mail address removed); on behalf of [orb]
(e-mail address removed)

Previously, the return address would have been just "(e-mail address removed)"

Guess what the question is: Where did that come from and how do I turn
it off?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

the orb is the messenger indication - tools, options, others to disable it.
Prior to SP2, it used a messenger 'little person' icon, but they updated the
icon in sp2.

You can't remove the infobar - although it sounds like you have your outlook
security settings set too low - you shouldn't be reading mail in the
internet zone.

You also can't remove the on behalf of stuff - that indicates there is more
than one possible sender.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

It's a personal names smart tag. I find it handy. To disable it look in
Tools | Options | other tab "Enable the Person Names Smart Tag".
The info bar where you see the Zone you are reading in shows a lot of useful
information. What it is telling you now is that you have changed your Zone
settings to read in the Internet Zone which is not advisable. I'd reset your
zones to default and pay attention to what it says.