Ever created a new signature file in Microsoft Outlook and when you go to send a new message an ActiveX control box appears telling you of an error? Here’s a quick fix that will stop the error from appearing but let you keep your fancy signature.
The Error Message
One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either:
1) Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page, or
2) You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls.
As a result, the page may not display correctly.
The Fix
Firstly, let’s locate your signature folder. Copy one of the following lines (starting at the first %) depending on what your operating system is.
- Vista: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
- XP-2003: %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
Click on Start and then Run - paste the line you copied into the Run box and hit Enter.
You should see 3 files created for your signature file (in .htm, .txt and .rtf formats). If you can’t see the file extensions, go to Tools / Folder Options / View and untick ‘Hide extensions for known file types’, or right-click the file and select ‘Properties’ to determine the file type.
Open the .htm signature file in Notepad or any other text editor. Then go to Edit > Find and type in “object”. You should see that the text editor has highlighted a bit of the signature code. Look for the bit that looks something like this:
<OBJECT id=ieooui classid=clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D></OBJECT>.
Simply remove that whole bit - everything from <OBJECT to /OBJECT>. Save the file and to make sure the ActiveX object doesn’t come back I recommend making the file read only - do this by right clicking the file, going to Properties and making ‘Read-only’ checked.
Go back to Outlook and when you go to send a new message, no more annoying ActiveX object warning.
I’ve been using Microsoft Office 2007 for a few months now and I’ve come to hate the default font used among the different products. They use Calibri size 11 (so bad I won’t show you what it looks like) which wasn’t even a default font in Office 2003. So let’s change it quick.
Change the default Office 2007 font for Word
- In Microsoft Word make sure you you have the Home tab selected at the top of Word
- In the Styles section of the menu right click in left most text box and then click Modify. See the image below.
- You’ll get the Modify Style dialogue box appear. See the image below.
- Scroll through Font stypes and various styling.
- At the bottom of the image below you’ll see two radio buttons. If you want to permanently change the default font in Word then choose the “New documents based on this template” button.
- Click OK to confirm.
Now you no longer have to format your Word 2007 font document each time.
Change the default Office 2007 font for Outlook
It’s easy in Word 2007… but in Outlook 2007 it is a little more long winded. Here’s how…
- In Outlook 2007 click Tools then Options.
- Select the Mail Format tab highlighted in RED at the top of the image below.
- Click the Stationery and Fonts button again highlighted in RED in the image below.
- A dialogue box will appear that will let you change your default font in Office Outlook
Select your favourite font, style, size, colour, and effects… and then click OK to confirm.
When you create a signature in Outlook 2007 it creates 3 separate files (.htm, .txt and .rtf). To create a more custom signature you can write it in HTML - this is especially useful for when dealing with graphics and advanced formatting.
To create a signature in Outlook 2007:
- In Outlook go to Tools > Options and the Mail Format tab.
- Click the Signatures button.
- Click the New button.
- Give your signature a name like ’sig1′
- Click on OK
Outlook doesn’t require any content to be added and will create the 3 individual files.
Click OK and close Outlook
Locate your signature folder:
Copy one of the following lines depending on what your operating system is.
- Vista: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
- XP-2003: %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
Click on Start and then Run - paste the line you copied into the Run box and hit Enter
You should see 3 files created for your sig1 file (in .htm, .txt and .rtf formats). If you can’t see the file extensions, go to Tools / Folder Options / View and untick ‘Hide extensions for known file types’, or right-click the file and select ‘Properties’ to determine the file type.
Replace the HTML file created by Outlook:
Take your HTML signature file and use it to replace the .htm file in your signature folder (i.e. save it as in this system folder, using the same filename as the .htm signature file created by Outlook ).
To start using your new signature:
Restart Outlook.