Some say that computer problems happen at the worst times. I’m not sure that is true, but I won’t argue. Without warning, my Outlook email stopped working last week. I could receive email, but I couldn’t open any items. Instead, I saw an error message that read “Cannot open this item. The text formatting command is not available. It may not be installed correctly. Install Microsoft Office Outlook again.”

Sometimes you don’t realize how much you appreciate a feature until it breaks. One example is Outlook hyperlinks in an email. It’s so convenient to click the link in the email and have the correct web page open. What I dislike is when a hyperlink in Outlook doesn’t work and I get some error or no action. Below, I’ve listed 4 solutions to this link problem.

The default email signatures for Windows Mail is plain text. With a little time, you can spice up the emails to include an image as well.

Do you ever wish that you had a good record of the times when you talked to a company? Maybe you needed to make notes about a support call to your PC manufacturer or a call to your insurance company. Regardless of whom you’re calling, Outlook’s Journal can help you keep good records and even dial the number in some cases.

Microsoft Outlook has some nice productivity features for email addresses called AutoComplete and AutoResolve. Each offers conveniences, but there are differences between the two. And if you’re not careful, one of these can cause problems.

One way to personalize your email or promote your corporate identity is with email signatures. Often I find people either don’t know how to create or edit these signatures in Outlook. This is unfortunate as the Signature area is a useful feature that can be used for many scenarios.