Missing "Accept" and "Decline" buttons on tasks

[Dave L]

We're a small office and just started using MS Outlook 200 to assign tasks.
We composed and sent the first group of tasks. However, the recipient of
the task doesn't have the "accept or "decline" buttons showing. Do we need
to MS Exchange installed for this function to work or is there something
else missing?

 

[JR]

Dave:

You do not need exchange for this to work. Make sure that you have fomatting
set correctly. The messages have to be sent in in RTF or Rich Text Format.

 

[Dave L]

I double-checked. The formatting was set to RTF. Any other ideas?

 

[JR]

Dave:

Based on your first question, I assumed you are not using Exchange or Small
Business Server. Is this correct?

I am having a similar problem. But the issue has something to do with
exchange.

Which version of Outlook are you using. It is cutoff on your original
message.

 

[Dave L]

MS Outlook 2000 SP-3 Not running Exchange or SBS

Thanks for any help.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

But were the recipient addresses set for RTF? DOuble-click them to check.

 

[JR]

Sue:

Is there an option in Outlook 2003 to set the format in each contact? If so,
I cannot find it. I am looking for it to see if it will solve a similar
problem with SBS/Exchange.

JR

 

[JR]

Sue:

I see the check box for plain text in the contact form in Outlook 2000. I
just don't see anything related to this in Outlook 2003.

JR

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Double-click each underlined email address.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[JR]

Sue:

Thanks! That was nicely hidden by Microsoft.

Could this be my issue with SBS?

JR

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I don't know. What's your issue with SBS?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Dave L]

Thanks for your help. I did double check both sides (sender and receiver)
and they are set for RTF. Here are more specifics on each setup.

Both machines running WIN2K SP4
Both machines running MS Outlook 2000 SP3 in Corporate or Workgroup mode.
Both machines are Tools>Options>Mail Format =Microsoft Outlook Rich Text

Are there other settings that I should check in MS Outlook or should this be
working?

Thanks again,

Dave L

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

But what aobut the recipient addresses themselves? Double-click the
underlined address before you send the item.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Dave L]

Sue,

Please bear with me as I'm don't understand what I should be seeing. I
created a test task, clicked on "Assign To", clicked on the contacts button
and brought up the recipient. Then I added the recipient to assign them the
task. When I double-click on the recipient, up pops their contact
information from the contacts folder. It sounds like you are expecting
something different to pop up. Or should I be looking somewhere in the
contact information?

Thanks for your patience.

Dave L

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

When the contact record pops up, double-click the underlined email address
in the contact record.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Dave L]

Eureka! When I clicked on the test mailing address, the checkbox for always
send to this person in rich test was NOT checked. I checked it and it
works! Now the question is how many people haven't been able to use this
functionality in Outlook because this is such an obscure process. The
global feature for RTF simply doesn't apply (I guess) to contact addresses
and you have to know to set this parameter. I think it is a great feature
but probably greatly underused.

Thanks for your patience, Sue.