What ‘Read Aloud’ feature in Office applications like Outlook does, is fairly easy to understand. It reads back to text, that’s it! Officially, this feature is a part of Windows’ TTS ‘text-to-speech’ capability and is beneficial for people suffering from hearing or visual disability. How is it configured, used and activated when not working in Outlook? We’ll see all that in this post.
Configure Read Aloud feature in Outlook
When you’re looking at mail or reading it either in the main Outlook window or an individual message, the Read Aloud button can be seen towards the far right of the Home tab under the ribbon menu.
Select the File tab and then from Backstage View, select the Options category. The Outlook Options dialog box appears displaying various options.
Select the ‘Ease Of Access’ category from the left. There, under the ‘Ease Of Access’ category, locate ‘Applications Display Options’ and under its heading, activate ‘Show Read Aloud’ feature by checking the box marked against it.
When done, press the OK button to return to Outlook.
Now, open a Message that you would like to be Read Aloud. Position the cursor to a place from where you would like Outlook to start Reading Aloud. Then, hit the Read Aloud button.
Using Read-Aloud Control Player settings, you can set the speed of the Speech. Other commands visible under the ‘Control Playeer’ include-
Outlook Read Aloud feature is not working
If you find Outlook Read Aloud feature isn’t working as desired then, try isolating the issue by launching Outlook in safe mode. This helps in finding add-ins that might conflict with the feature. Follow these steps.
Find the shortcut icon of Outlook. Press and hold the CTRL key and click the application shortcut to launch Outlook in Safe Mode. If prompted with a message, click ‘Yes’.
Next, choose File > Options. Stalker shadow of chernobyl speedrun. Select Add-ins from the left sidebar menu and hit the ‘Go’ button adjacent to Manage: COM Add-ins option.
Clear the checkbox against add-ins, if seen. This will temporarily disable them.
Now, close the Outlook app and relaunch it. Check if the erroneous behavior is resolved or persists. In most cases, it is resolved.
Outlook Search Only Works In Safe Mode
To exit Outlook Safe Mode, close Outlook and restart the application. It will start in normal mode unless there’s a problem opening the application.
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Outlook is currently the de facto standard email/calendaring client in the business world. Generally speaking, it works like a champ. But there are times when Outlook goes down in a ball of flames. When that happens, if you don't have a bevy of tricks to pull out of your pocket, you might find yourself in a world of pain.
But troubleshooting Outlook doesn't have to be a nightmare. In fact, you can almost script out the troubleshooting process with these 10 handy tips.
1: Scan PST
Those PST files will inevitably develop errors. When they do, they can prevent Outlook from working properly. When Outlook is starting to fuss, one of the first things I do is run scanpst.exe against each PST file used within Outlook. But be warned: Scan PST can take some time to run. It has to back up your data file, scan for errors, and repair any errors found. If the data file is large, this process can take quite some time. To run Scan PST, you'll need to locate the scanpst.exe executable. (Its location will depend upon the version of Windows being used.)
2: Archive
Although not really a troubleshooting tip per se, there are times when a PST file will grow so large it causes problems with Outlook. Instead of letting that PST continue to get unwieldy, it's best to set up archiving. When the data file has reached the excess of users' allocated space, I always encourage them to archive by year. This method ensures that they will be archiving the largest amount of data to their local directory (thereby clearing up space on the server). This will also shrink the PST and alleviate issues associated with a too-large PST. After this is done, I recommend running Scan PST.
3: Rename OST
If users take advantage of a locally cached data file, sometimes renaming their current OST file is enough to resolve plenty of issues. Just close Outlook, open the folder that houses their data files, make sure you can see extension names, and change the .ost extension to something like .old. The next time Outlook opens, it will rebuild that .ost file and Outlook should be good as new.
4: Delete/rebuild profile
When all else fails (just shy of an uninstall/reinstall), delete the Outlook profile. Now you need to use caution with this. If Outlook is working with a POP account, the current Inbox (and calendars, etc.) will need to be exported as a data file (which can then be reimported after the POP account is re-created). If Outlook is connecting to either an Exchange server or IMAP account, this process is just a matter of deleting the profile and re-adding it. To do this, open the Control Panel, go to Mail | Profiles, and delete the profile.
5: Disable add-ons
The more add-ons that are connected to Outlook, the slower it becomes. If you have any doubt, start Outlook in safe mode (issue the command outlook.exe /safe) and see how much faster (and smoother) Outlook runs. If you find this to be the case, go into the Trust center, disable suspect add-ons, and restart Outlook normally. You'll know when you've found the culprit, as Outlook should run normally. This is a tedious exercise, but one that will generally bear fruit.
6: Disable virus scan
Many antivirus tools have an Outlook connector that scans emails as they come and go from a system. In some cases, this can slow Outlook to a crawl. If you're unsure where an Outlook issue is stemming from, temporarily disable the antivirus Outlook connection to see whether that solves the issue. If it does, you might need to update the antivirus software to fix the problem. Just remember, if you leave that connection broken, Outlook will be vulnerable.
7: Run in safe mode
As I mentioned before, running outlook in safe mode is a good way to troubleshoot. The one caveat is that a number of features will not work. This obviously means that running in safe mode is not a solution for a problem — just a way to help debug it. Sometimes, just the act of running Outlook in safe mode will resolve the problem at hand.
8: Run with resetnav
When you issue the command outlook.exe /resetnavpane, you reset all customizations to Outlook's navigation pane (the left pane, with the folder hierarchy and app buttons). This is necessary when users have done something to the navigation pane (something they don't remember doing) that causes Outlook to malfunction or have problems starting. Note that users will lose any customizations that have made to the navigation pane.
9: Migrate PSTs from the server
I've seen this happen so often. A user will have unusually large PST files (especially archives) housed on a shared (or redirected) drive on a server. Those files are best served from the local drive. If you have more than one PST file having to connect to a remote location, chances are Outlook is going to bog down. Move those archives to the C drive of the local machine to improve performance.
10: Adjust calendar permissions
If someone sends an invitation for others to use his or her calendar, but they can't make or edit appointments, you need to change their permissions. Open the calendar in Outlook, right-click the shared calendar, click Properties, and then go to the Permissions tab. There, you can add users to the calendar and give them specific permissions that will allow them to do anything from reading to owning the calendar.
Also read..Other tips?
What techniques have you found useful when troubleshooting Outlook problems? Share your suggestions with fellow TechRepublic members.
I'm running Office 365 and just got a new computer (on the second one actually). I setup everything yesterday and things were running fine. This morning I was in outlook, sent received mail, etc. all fine. I closed outlook and about an hour later tried to run it again and I get an error message during the startup process saying:
Microsoft Outlook has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.
If I rerun Outlook, I can get in in safe mode, but when I get out and run it again, I loop back and get the same error.
I did not install any software or make any system changes in the interim between yesterday and this morning when Outlook worked fine and now.
When I said I'm on my second PC, its because this happened on the first one I bought last week, the same thing happened but recovery failed and I could not even remove Outlook 365 fro the system to try and reinstall. I returned it to Best Buy and got a new one since I didn't know if I had a lemon.
The only addin to Office I have is iCloud , which was running on my old PC with the same mix of software products for a couple of years and specifically with Office 365 since January.
Any ideas on how I can troubleshoot or get support?
Microsoft Office applications have a built-in Safe Mode feature. This helps when you can’t use Office normally. Perhaps Word crashes every time you open it, or maybe Excel crashes when you open a single file. You can start the application in Safe Mode and there’s a good chance it will work normally.
What Is Office Safe Mode?
When you start an Office application in Safe Mode, it will load without any add-ins or extensions, and without toolbar or command bar customizations. Any recovered documents that would normally be opened automatically will not open. AutoCorrect and various other features won’t work, and preferences can’t be saved.
If Office is crashing every time you open it, it’s probably the result of a buggy add-on—but it may also be the result of an issue with your customizations. Safe Mode loads without all these features that can cause you trouble.
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RELATED:How to Use Safe Mode to Fix Your Windows PC (and When You Should)
This is different from Windows Safe Mode. In Windows Safe Mode, your whole Windows operating system is restarted without third-party drivers and other startup software that can cause problems. This is a similar idea, but for Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint only.
Launch Safe Mode with a Keyboard Shortcut
To open any Office application in Safe Mode, press the Ctrl key and hold it down while you launch the program’s shortcut.
For example, to launch Word in Safe Mode, you’ll need to locate the Word shortcut in your Start menu, on your taskbar, or on your desktop. Press and hold the Ctrl key and either single-click it (if it’s in your Start menu or on your taskbar) or double-click it (if it’s on your desktop).
You’ll see a message saying “You’re holding down the CTRL key. Do you want to start [Application] in Safe Mode?”.
You can release the Ctrl key when this message box appears. Click “OK” to launch the application in Safe Mode.
Launch Safe Mode with a Command Argument
You can also launch Office applications in Safe Mode by launching them with the
/safe option.
For example, you can do this from the Run dialog. Press Windows+R to open it, and then type one of the following commands:
Press Enter or click “OK” and the application will launch in Safe Mode.
If you need to open an Office application in Safe Mode regularly, you could make a new desktop shortcut to the Office application and add
/safe to the end of the Target box on its Shortcut pane. That shortcut would then always launch the application in Safe Mode.
How to Leave Safe Mode
To leave Safe Mode, you will need to close the Office application and launch it normally.
If Office loads fine in Safe Mode but crashes in normal mode, the problem is likely a buggy add-in. You can view these by selecting File > Options > Add-ins in Office 2016. You may need to uninstall, reinstall, or update one or more add-ins of Office keeps crashing.
Outlook 2016 Instant Search Only Works In Safe Mode
If Office still crashes in Safe Mode, its files may be corrupted. You may want to uninstall and reinstall Office on your computer.
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