You know when you use something over and over, and sometimes you forget how useful it is because it's just part of your daily routine? For me, over the last month or so, I've been using a little icon in middle of the Desktop Toolbar. It was titled "Elections 08" and it took me directly to election news coverage. I used it all the time.

2. Using my.aol.com
If the Setup Wizard gave you an error (e.g. "unable to import favorites") or you feel only a partial group of favorites was brought over, try going to my.aol.com and import your Favorite Places there. This usually kicks AOL Desktop into completing its migration, or "synching" with the host successfully. (What's happening? Well, there are two favorites databases: an old one used by AOL 9.0 and AOL 9.1, and a new one used by AOL Desktop. We need the two to talk to one another.)

You may need to sign out of AOL Desktop then sign back in to see the full results.

Full Instructions for trying the my.aol.com route can be found in this earlier blog post:
http://desktopblog.aol.com/2008/02/21/test-your-aol-favorites-import-functionality/

3. If you get stuck, we can help
If you're still having problems, please open up your old software and send us the error logs. Here's how you do that (see the screenshot, too):

1. Open up AOL 9.0 / AOL 9.1 (you don't need to sign on)
   
2. Click the "Help" menu at the top and choose "About AOL"
3. With the "About AOL" screen open, press and hold "CTRL" and press "E" (CTRL+E). This will open up all the error messages, including Favorites synching issues. (Favorites synch issues will have "FP" in the error comment.)
   
4. Select the text in the Error Messages window, then copy and paste it into an email.
5. Send the error message to "DesktopHelp265 (at) aol.com". (This email address will be monitored by me and a few other AOL employees, and you may get a response asking for some more information about your Favorites.)

Good luck!

Thank you for your help!

Laura

___
Laura Peterson
Product Lead, AOL Desktop

Click the "Favorites" link in the browser menu to expand the folders (as you can see in the screenshot below). You can also add, import, or manage favorites from this menu via the links at the top.



Favorites Menu view:

• Quickly expand folders and their contents
• Link to "Import Favorites"
• "Suitcase and heart" menu contains your AOL Favorite Places from a prior version of AOL

• Click the "heart" to open it.
• Sidepanel view also lets you view, edit, remove and add favorites.
• Double click folders to expand them.
• Click and hold to drag favorites or folders into other folders or to change the order
• "Suitcase and heart" folder at the top contains your AOL Favorites Places from an older version of AOL

How do I add links to Favorites, the Toolbar, or send in an IM or Email?

The heart menu from 9.1 is still around -- it's now the "add" button in the browser to the left of the URL field. Click this menu and choose one of the choices in the dropdown. Here's a screenshot:



In my next blog article, I'll take you through the steps to carry Favorite Places over from older versions of AOL as well as troubleshooting issues for anyone who has more questions.

Cheers,

Laura

As promised, here's a closer look at the Address Book simplifications and enhancements that you'll find in AOL Desktop version 10.1. (If you haven't downloaded version 10.1 yet, get it here.)

When you open the Address Book from your mailbox or a draft write mail form, you'll notice that the search, edit, and other action buttons are on top. Secondly, double-clicking on a contact will automatically create a new draft write mail form. (Alternatively, double-clicking when an existing draft is open will add that contact to the same existing draft rather than creating a new one. For example, if you're already writing a letter to one friend and you want to add a second friend from your Address Book, double-clicking on your second friend's contact details will automatically add their address to the existing draft.)

Here's a screenshot demonstrating the convenient auto-filtering search box and the new Address Book layout.

This screenshot shows you how to add a new or existing contact to a mailing list. (Are you looking for the "Groups" from AOL 9.0 and 9.1? Don't worry: Mailing Lists are the same thing as Groups!)

Finally, here are three steps demonstrating how to add the entire contacts in a mailing list to a write mail draft.

Do you have an Address Book tip that I haven't covered? Share it here by adding a comment!

Cheers,

Laura

____
Laura Peterson
Product Lead, AOL Desktop

AOL Desktop version 10.1 officially launched on Tuesday! It's available for download on Discover AOL.

You'll find more desktop themes and colors, enhancements to the Favorites and Address Book layout, and improvements in speed and stability in AOL Desktop v.10.1.

I'll go into more depth on Favorites and Address Book in the next few articles. Right now, I want to show you how to make AOL Desktop all your own.

Personalizations: With the Personalize menu in AOL Desktop v. 10.1, you can choose themes, customize the software with any color you want, apply your own personal photos to the background, and even set up a rotating photo slideshow.

Whenever you make changes inside the "Personalize" menu, your selections will be previewed in the software in real time.

Themes: Right-click on the background of AOL Desktop with your mouse to bring up the "Personalize" menu. This will bring you into the "theme" area, where you can select stock themes or modify and store your own.

Appearance: This is where you can change the color of the software using a number of pre-set colors. Or, select "custom" to launch the Windows color chooser to choose from even more colors.

Fraudulent email alert

A valiant AOL Beta tester just alerted me to a fraudulent spam email that appears to come from AOL, but is actually spam. I'm passing on what the email looks like, how to tell that it's fraudulent, and some more information for reporting fraudulent emails that appear to come from AOL.

The sender's address is "update@aol.com" and the subject is "AOL Notification: [ Account Update Needed ]". If you see an email with this sender and subject or any other fraudulent email that appears to be from AOL, forward it to TOSReports@aol.com. Below is a screenshot of the email.

Phishing and how to detect it

Attempting to obtain financial and other sensitive information by pretending to be a trustworthy organization via email is called "phishing". "Phishing" is when a spammer literally tries to "fish" for information by baiting an unsuspecting person with an email that looks reputable at first glance.

The good news is that many phishers leave themselves open to detection by including spelling errors and other dumb mistakes on their emails which valid corporate communications would never include. The trick is to be sensitive to these things so you don't get dragged in, just as you would be alert to a possible pickpocket or con artist on a street.

Case in point: spammers hope that you'll just quickly glance at the email and click on the link they've embedded without a further thought. By adding the blue AOL graphics that make the email look fairly professional, they're trying to distract you so you won't notice all the errors that the email contains.

A good rule of thumb: even if you're sure the email is legitimate, read it carefully before taking ANY action! Additionally, AOL would never threaten to suspend your account if you failed to verify your details. (Your account would only be at risk if you violated the AOL terms of service by failing to pay for your dial-up, or, for example, by using AOL to spam other members. You would in most cases be given an opportunity to immediate rectify the situation via a pop-up linking to an official AOL website.)

Here's that email in question with some tips to show you why it's spam and not a real email from AOL.

Groups in AOL Desktop are called Mailing Lists, which are accessible from the "Mailing List" button in the bottom right of your Address Book. When you click on "Mailing Lists", a new window will open with all of your existing groups appearing as tabs on the left side.

To edit the contacts inside your mailing lists, click on the tab to bring that mailing list to focus. Then, use the buttons at the bottom to edit or remove contacts, or to add new ones to that mailing list. Use the text field at the top (where "type a screen name" appears) to begin typing the name of someone from your address book to easily reference and add contacts to a mailing list.

Clicking "new contact" in the Mailing List area will let you add a brand new contact to an existing or new mailing list. Choose which mailing list you want to add your new contact to in the "Categories" section. Click the box to the right of the "Mailing List" label. This box will expand and let you select your preferred mailing list or create a new one. You can also assign a single contact to multiple mailing lists by clicking the "+" and repeating the process I just described.

Cheers,

Laura

update 2/22: After completing the myAOL import, you may need to sign out and sign back in again in order for the host (myAOL) to finish synching up with AOL Desktop.

Hi everyone,

I'm writing to you today to ask for your help in checking the favorites / bookmarks migration process in AOL Desktop.

We've heard that a few people are having problems transferring their favorites over from 9.0 or 9.1 -- either the Setup Wizard doesn't complete, or some of the favorites don't show up in AOL Desktop. (The Favorites don't get lost or deleted, they just don't seem to be be "seen" by the AOL Desktop software.)

The AOL Desktop team and I are trying to get to the bottom of these problems, and we'd like some information so we can improve the experience for everyone.

If you're up for it, we'd like you to try going to myAOL (my.aol.com) and "importing" your AOL favorites to that site. MyAOL is the web version of the AOL favorites / bookmarks system.

If you can get all your AOL Favorites to appear on myAOL, we'll have some more information to go from.

Below are the directions for loading your AOL Favorites onto my.aol.com as well as a refresher on how to get to all your Favorites within the AOL Desktop browser. Please send me an email or share your experience by posting a comment (about this issue only, please) to this blog post.

Testing your AOL Favorites import functionality:

Before you begin: Make sure you know how to find all of your favorites in AOL Desktop: Please ensure you're signed into AOL Desktop, then click on the "Favorites" button between the URL and search field in your Browser. Your Favorites sidepanel will expand on the left. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the favorites list, if necessary, and look for the "portable favorites" folder (which also includes your screenname in its title). Click on the blue arrow to the left to expand the "portable favorites" folder. It should include all the Favorites you had in previous versions of AOL which have been transferred over. If it doesn't, please let us know, then do this test by going to myAOL to see if the rest of your favorites do come over to AOL Desktop. Thanks!!

After you go through these steps, please email me or share your comments on this blog post (about this specific issue only, please).

The questions we have for you:

Q. Did the import to myAOL work?

Q. In your new "imported on...<date>" folders, do you have favorites in AOL Desktop that didn't make it over before? (In other words, have all your AOL Favorites from 9.0/9.1 been transferred over now to AOL Desktop?)

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,

Laura

AOL Desktop, previously codenamed Helix, is AOL's freshest all-in-one software for Windows. It combines email, Web browsing and instant messaging into a single, easy-to-use application, letting you multi-task with fewer hassles.

AOL Desktop's sleek interface includes a toolbar with shortcuts to mail, AIM, the browser, search, and favorite browser links. AOL Desktop also incorporates convenient new features like tabbed browsing, multiple email and IM account support, and the ability to add MapQuest maps and directions straight into your emails.

Here's a screenshot of the software to put it all in perspective:

AOL Desktop – main view

Some things in AOL Desktop can't really be described with words. When I think of functionality you really need to see to believe, "App Map" comes to mind. App Map is a button on the toolbar which instantly displays clickable thumbnails of all your open windows, and words just don't do it justice. Your IMs and emails won't get "buried" under other windows again!

Below is a screenshot of "App Map mode" with three browser tabs, the mailbox, the BuddyList®, three emails, and one instant message. I could click on any of those thumbnails and immediately interact with the full-size version.