How to Install Salesforce for Outlook
Let us thank our lucky stars that Microsoft standardizes their interoperability functionality across versions, and doesn’t break it with updates in newer versions until pure obsolescence is achieved. Because that makes how to install Salesforce for Outlook possible to explain, regardless of what version of Microsoft Office you are using past ’97 or so. This’d be a mess if they took a page from Apple’s book, and disregarded common sense and standardization pretty much all the time.
First, know that this pretty much applies to every version of Salesforce except the personal version, which it seems nobody really uses beyond a trial basis. You also need to have active configuration, a valid data set and an Outlook profile set as your default Mail Settings target in Windows. If these things are amiss, then you need to talk to your administrator, as a whole host of problems could be causing these, which I can’t diagnose here.
Please note that when doing this, at any point along the way, Windows may ask you to install .NET 4. If it asks to do this, please allow it to. If it does not, it means you already have it installed, so the absence of this phenomenon, or the presence of it, are neither causes for alarm.
First, open the installation download, and complete it. This is the most likely stage where the .NET 4 installation will want to run, if it does at all.
Next, open Outlook. The setup wizard will open, and the Salesforce for Outlook icon will appear in your tray. If the setup wizard doesn’t launch itself, you can manually wake it up, by right clicking on that tray icon, and clicking “Settings”.
If you need to login to a different Salesforce instance than the default, simply click “Change URL” and pick the one you need. If you have problems resolving this step, consult your administrator now.
Enter your login information either way, and once resolved, click “Approve”. Now, click “Next”, and if you need to change folder settings, click “Change Folder”, and use the dialog to select folders that apply.
Click “Next”, and choose your sync method. You may select manual or automatic. If unsure, consult your administrator. Click “Next” once more, and select the items you wish to sync. Again, if unsure, consult your administrator.
Finally, click “Save”. A welcome icon will appear in your system tray, along with menus for it that contain the new functionality that comes with syncing Salesforce and Outlook together.
If you are unsure of any of the steps in how to install Salesforce for Outlook listed above, it will be things specific to your situation I cannot predict or even guess, in which case as I said, consult your administrators, as they’d absolutely be able to clarify for you. Other than that possibility, it’s pretty easy, isn’t it?
