Outlook Tips and Shortcuts

Just about everyone who uses Microsoft Word and Excel also uses Outlook, Microsoft’s software for managing your email, time and other information.

Most users of Outlook use only a small portion of its capabilities and are missing many of its productivity tools. This month, we’ll look at some quick ways to get Outlook working harder for you.

• Create a calendar, contact, task or note from an email message - This time saver is very simple. Just drag an email message to the appropriate button on the navigation pane. A window appears for the new item and contains the text of the email message. Your original email message is not moved or deleted.
• Using flags to track messages for follow up - Ever notice the flag outlines at the right of each message? Clicking on it flags the message for follow up tomorrow. If you want additional options, such as setting the follow up date for a different day or clearing the flag from the message, right click on the flag and a menu will display with options.

Want to see all of your flagged messages? Just click on the “For Follow Up” icon in your Favorite Folders list.

Outlook 2007 also has the To-Do Bar on the right side of the window. All of your items flagged for follow up are listed below the calendar in the To-Do Bar. You can also drag a message directly to the To-Do Bar.

• Use categories to organize your mail - Outlook 2003 introduced color coded categories to organize mail; Outlook 2007 improved the feature by allowing you to provide a descriptive name for category as well. Here’s how to assign a category to a message. Remember how to flag a message? The category icon is immediately to the left of the flag. Just click the icon and the default (or “Quick Click”) category is assigned. Right click the icon to select another category.

You can change the category names and add new categories by right clicking the icon and selecting All Categories. From the dialog box that appears, make the additions or changes you need.

It’s also possible to assign more than one category to a message; just right click and select an additional category.

Once you’ve created the categories, use the “Create Category Search Folder” wizard to quickly organize all your categorized messages into a view that’s accessed from your Favorite Folders list. Access the wizard by right clicking on any category icon.

Have these tips given you some helpful ideas to make your work in Outlook more organized and productive? We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s available. Give us a call at (949) 481-1232 for more suggestions to help you get out from under that mountain of email.