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Outlook Tips MS Outlook 2000: Technology Quick Tips #1 - 43
1. Adding Your 2 Cents to a Discussion Folder If you use Outlook on a network at work, you may find some interesting info is posted in public folders. Many public folders are organized as open discussions in which anyone can put in his or her two cents' worth. All the messages can be read by anybody, so everybody reads and replies to everybody else. If you view a folder and find it's full of messages from different people all replying to one another, you're looking at a discussion folder. To add new items to a public folder, follow these steps: 1. Choose View, Folder List or click the Folder List button in the toolbar. The Folder List appears. 2. Click the name of the folder. The list of messages in the folder appears. 3. Choose File, New, Post in This Folder. The New Item form appears. 4. Type a subject and your message. 5. Click Post. Now your message is part of the list of items in the folder. ~~~~~~~ 2. E-Mail Archive Are you one of those people who hate to delete your old e-mails? Maybe you're convinced that as soon as you throw them away, you'll need some critical info from one of them. Here's how to archive your e-mail to create space WITHOUT having to throw them away: - Click File, Import
And Export ~~~~~ 3. Rules Wizard Want all messages from a particular sender to go to a special folder? Here's how: Begin by clicking Tools, Rules Wizard. Next, click New. The Rules Wizard will walk you through creating your rule. The first screen asks which type of rule you want. Choose Check Messages When They Arrive, and click Next. On the next screen, scroll down and select the option From People Or Distribution List. In the Rule Description box, click on the highlighted text, and choose which people Outlook should look for (in this case, your boss). Now, select With Specific Words In The Subject Or Body, and again, click on the highlighted text in the Rule Description box. Type in the name of the project, for example, "Profits." Click Next. The next dialog box asks what you want to do with the messages. Click Move To The Specified Folder, and choose the folder by clicking on the highlighted text in the Rule Description box. Click Next. Finally, you'll need to name your new rule. Choose a name, then click Finish. ~~~~~ 4. Keeping an Outlook Calendar in Your Wallet Here is a nifty trick in Outlook! One handy calendar style is a tiny billfold-sized calendar that contains your schedule, a convenience calendar, and a list of your tasks. Follow these steps to create a billfold calendar you can use every day: 1. Click the Calendar icon in the Outlook bar, if you're not already in the Calendar module. 2. Choose View, Current View, Day/Week/Month. 3. Click either the Day, Work Week, or Week button on the toolbar. 4. Click the Print button on the toolbar (or press Ctrl + P) to open the Print dialog box. 5. In the Print dialog box, choose Trifold from the Print Style list. 6. Click the Page Setup button to open the Page Setup dialog box. 7. Click the Paper tab in the Page Setup dialog box. 8. Click Billfold from the Size list. 9. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box. 10. 10. Click OK to print your schedule. Note: The Billfold style prints your schedule in an area about the size of a dollar bill, so if you print on normal-size paper, you have to take a pair of scissors and cut off the excess. ~~~~~ 5. Outlook Autostart Do you check your e-mail first thing after booting your computer? Then why not have Outlook launch upon start up? Just put it in your StartUp folder: Click Start, Settings, Taskbar (If you're using Windows 98, click Taskbar And Start Menu.) Select the Start Menu Programs tab and click Add. Choose Browse. In the Look In box, click the drive on which Outlook 2000 is installed. This will usually be C, but not always. Find the folder that contains Outlook. Double-click Outlook, then choose Next. In the folder list, click StartUp, then click Next. Type a name for the shortcut and click Finish. ~~~~~~ 6. Mission: Attachment Deletion Want to delete all those bothersome e-mail attachments that are taking up disk space? Here's how to rid yourself of those annoying, possibly virus-ridden files: - select Tools,
Advanced Find Outlook will find the messages with large attachments, and you can delete them from there. ~~~~~ 7. Safe Place It's a good idea to save your important documents in a safe place, and that goes for Outlook items, as well. Whether it's an e-mail folder, your Calendar, your Address Book, or Notes, you can export it to a file for safekeeping. - Select File, Import
And Export ~~~~~~~ 8. Folder Organization It's easy to move folders around so they're inside other folders. For example, you might want your "Meeting Notes" folder to reside inside your "Meetings" folder. Just make sure the folder list is displayed. If it's not, click View, Folder List. Click the folder you want to rename, then select File, Folder, Move Folder. Click the new location in the Move The Selected Folder To The Folder list, then click OK. You can also simply right-click the folder in the folder list, select Move Folder from the shortcut menu, and choose a new location from there. ~~~~~ 9. Calendar Print Don't want to turn on your computer just to check your schedule? Then print it out! Here's how: - Click Calendar Note: If you're printing less than a week's worth, choose the Daily print style. If you choose Weekly, you'll get a full week even if you specify less time than that in the Start and End boxes. ~~~~~
Certain views of your Contact list are more useful when you organize the items according to a single piece of information, such as the contact's last name, company affiliation, city, or province/state. You can quickly sort some views, such as Phone List view, by clicking the heading of any column you want to sort. For example, you can sort your phone list according to the company for which each person on your Contact list works. To sort your phone list by the contact's company, follow these steps: 1. In the Contacts module, choose View, Current View, Phone List to show your phone list. 2. Click the heading of the Company column to reorder the whole list according to the name of each contact's company. ~~~~~
While it's important that you spell check your own messages, it's sometimes a drag to have to correct some else's spelling when replying to a message. So don't. Here's how: - Select Tools,
Options, then click on the Spelling tab. ~~~~~
Do you use the status bar? No? Then git rid of it! Here's how: - Click View, Status Bar and deselect it. If you want to bring it back, repeat the same steps and select it. ~~~~~~
At the bottom of each note, Outlook displays the date and time when you most recently changed the contents of the note. You may start to notice that you change a lot of notes on Mondays around 9:45 a.m. You may not want to notice that fact, so you can turn this handy little feature off. Here's how: 1. Choose Tools, Options so that the Options dialog box appears. 2. Click the Other tab. 3. Click the Advanced Options button so that the Advanced Options dialog box appears. 4. Click the check box that says, "When viewing Notes, show time and date." A check mark appears in the check box if you click once, then disappears if you click again. If you don't want to see the time and date display, make sure the box doesn't contain a check mark. 5. Click OK. ~~~~~
If you're using the AutoArchive feature in Outlook, make sure that your folders are being archives correctly: - Right-click the folder you want to AutoArchive, then select Properties - Click the AutoArchive tab, check the box next to Clean Out Items Older Than, and enter a number in months. This is how often archiving will run. ~~~~~
If you need to create another rule that's similar to an existing rule, why start from scratch? Simply copy the old rule and make a few modifications. Here's how: - Select Tools,
Rules Wizard ~~~~~
Tired of all those stacked-up buttons and tool bars at the top of the Outlook screen? Change 'em! Click on the move handle and drag 'em around to where you want them. If there's not enough
room to display all the buttons next to each other, Outlook will automatically
display only the ~~~~~
It's your Inbox, and you should be able to arrange it any way you choose. So why not decide which mail rules will run first? It's easy to change the order in which rules are applied. Here's how: - From the Inbox,
select Tools, Rules Wizard ~~~~~~
Do you only use a few buttons on the toolbars? Then why keep them all? Here's how to create a custom toolbar, using only the buttons you want: - Select Tools, Customize, and select the Toolbars tab - Select New - Type the name you want in the Toolbar Name box, then select OK - Select the Commands tab - To add a button to the toolbar, click a category in the Categories box, and then drag the command you want from the Commands box to your toolbar & after you've added all your favorite buttons, select Close. ~~~~~
Want Outlook 2000 to automatically archive your e-mail messages? Here's how: - Select Tools, Options, then select the Other tab - Select AutoArchive - Select the AutoArchive Every box to have AutoArchive run when you start Outlook - Enter a number in the Days box to specify how often the archiving process should run - Type a filename in the Default Archive File box. - Select OK. ~~~~~
Folders are a great way to organize your e-mail messages and keep your Inbox uncluttered. Just make sure you give your folders useful names, like "DAWN Tech List" rather than "Folder #1." Also, make sure the folder list is displayed. If it's not, select View, Folder List. Select the folder you want to rename, then select File, Folder, Rename Folder; type the new name; and press Enter. You can also simply right-click the folder in the folder list, select Rename Folder from the shortcut menu, and type the new name. ~~~~~~
To archive items manually, click File, Archive. To archive all your folders, choose Archive All Folders According To Their AutoArchive Settings. Type a file name for the archived items to be transferred to, or click Browse to find an existing archive file. Enter a date in the Archive Items Older Than box. Any e-mail or item from before the specified date will be archived. Then, just select OK. ~~~~~
You can use BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) to send e-mail to a group of people so that each recipient doesn't know there are other recipients. To do this, send e-mail to yourself with all the recipients listed in BCC. Several people have pointed out that their copy of Outlook Express 6 has no BCC entry box. To display BCC choose View | All Headers. If you want to hide it again, repeat the process -- this is a toggle command. ~~~~~
Did you know you can create a rule based on an existing e-mail message? Any of that message's defining characteristics, such as the sender, the list it was sent to, the subject, or the importance, can be used to help define the rule. Here's how: - Open the message on which you want to base a rule - Choose Actions, Create Rule - Now follow the instructions in the Rules Wizard to create the new rule. ~~~~~
You can remove a contact or update the information for a contact at any time. To delete a contact in the Contacts module, click the contact you want to delete, and then click the Delete button on the toolbar. The contact disappears from the list. To update the information on a contact, double-click the contact. The Contact dialog box appears, displaying all the information you currently have on that contact; update whatever you need to and then choose the Save and Close button. ~~~~~~
It's possible to exchange e-mail through more than one e-mail address with Outlook and Outlook Express. You may have different e-mail addresses for business use and personal use. All you have to do if you want more than one address is to set up a separate account (follow your ISP's instructions for that) for each address. Normally, Outlook and Outlook Express send replies to e-mail messages through the account from which you received the message, so you don't really have to think about which account you're using. When you're creating a message from scratch, though, Outlook and Outlook Express send the message through the account that you marked as the default account. If you want to check which account a message will be sent through, click the Accounts button on the message form toolbar and look at the box labeled "Send Message Using." ~~~~~
As long as you're
composing mail using HTML format (rather than plain text / rich text
format, it's easy to insert Say you want to send a picture of your child to your friend: Compose a new message. Next, click in the message where you want Junior's picture to appear. Select Insert, Picture. Type the path and filename of the graphic you want to use or better still, you can use the Browse button to locate it. Any text you type in the Alternate Text box will appear as the image is loading (or, if for some reason the picture can't be displayed on your friend's screen, she'll see the text instead). Then, click OK. Finish composing your message and send it on its way. ~~~~~~
To change the format of your outgoing e-mail messages, choose Tools, Options. Select the Mail Format tab and choose from the available options in the drop-down list box or list of radio buttons at the top of the dialog box. Select OK or Cancel to save or not save your changes, respectively, or select Apply to save your changes and go on exploring the other tabs. ~~~~~
Did you know you can use a keyboard shortcut to modify the number of days visible in your Outlook calendar? Just press ALT and any number between one and 10. The number determines how many days will be displayed, starting from the current date. So, for instance, to see an eight-day span, just press ALT+8. Note: For this tip to work, you must use the number keys on the keyboard, not the numeric keypad. ~~~~~~
The default Calendar view shows you several important features--the Appointments pane and Time bar, the Date Navigator, and the TaskPad. But Outlook offers several other views, each of which highlights different features and tools. Select View, Current View. You'll find that Outlook offers many different ways to view your calendar, each of which can be customized. Look around to find which one works best for you. You can always come back to the default Day/Week/Month view. ~~~~~
Did you know you don't have to actually open an e-mail message to get to the attachment inside? Simple Right-click the e-mail and select View Attachments from the shortcut menu. The name of the attachment (or names, if there is more than one attached file) will appear in the menu. Just select the one you want to look at. ~~~~~~
Did you know that Outlook comes with several stationery designs, from "It's a Baby" to "Happy Birthday?" To start a new e-mail using Outlook stationery, select Actions, New Mail Message Using. The menu that appears includes any stationery you've already used, plus a More Stationery option. Select More Stationery to see the Select A Stationery dialog box. Choose the design you want, then click OK. (Did I mention how VERY annoying I find it to receive emails with stationery backgrounds?) ~~~~~~~
If you have more
than one e-mail account, you may not intuitively recognize each one
by its proper name. Rather than trying to remember the difference between
jdoe1345@isp.com and jdough987@isptoo.com, you can rename these accounts
something Follow these steps to change an account name: 1. Choose Tools, Accounts. 2. Select the View or change existing e-mail accounts option, and then click Next. 3. In the account list, select the account you want to rename by clicking it. 4. Click the Change button. 5. Click More Settings. 6. Type a new name for the account in the text box. Go for something
memorable this time.
If you're browsing your calendar in Day/Week/Month view and want to get back to today quickly either click Go To Today button on the Standard Toolbar or right-click in the Appointments pane, then choose Go To Today from the shortcut menu. ~~~~~
If you like the Back and Forward buttons for navigation that browsers provide, you can make Outlook 2000 act more like a browser. Simply select View, Toolbars, Advanced. Now The advanced toolbar, with Back and Forward buttons is on your desktop. ~~~~~~~~
Want to add automatic signatures to all your e-mails? Here's how: - Click Tools-Options - Click the Mail Format tab - Click the Signature Picker button - Name your signature and click Next - Type in your signature block in the Signature Text section - Click Finish - Click OK twice ~~~~~~
Stardate 2002: On Star Trek, the captain of the starship Enterprise faithfully makes daily entries in the star log. Now it's your turn. Just like Captain Kirk, you can record your daily interactions with strange beings in bizarre environments under stressful circumstances, even if the aliens are all in your own office. The Outlook Journal is your star log. The Journal automatically records any document you create, edit, or print in any Office 2000 application. The Journal also automatically tracks e-mail messages, meeting requests and responses, and task request and responses. You can set Outlook to make journal entries for nearly everything you do, or you can shut off the Journal entirely and make no entries at all. Just go to Tools, Options, Journal Options to set your preferences. ~~~~~
Did you know you can open menus with expanded views? Here's how: - Select Tools, Customize - Select Options tab - Deselect option Menus Show Recently Used Commands - Click Close ~~~~~
Most of the time, you need only a word or two to jog your memory about a task, something like Call Mom. You don't need much detailed information about how to do that, so you jot it down in the Outlook TaskPad to the side of your Calendar. But suppose that you need to enter more information about your task, such as driving directions, or you want to have Outlook remind you just before the task is due. There's no limit to the information you can add to a task if you go the slow, complete way. To open the full New Task form, follow these steps: 1. Click the Tasks icon on the Outlook bar to switch to the Tasks module if you're not already there. 2. Click the New Task button on the toolbar (or press Ctrl+N) to open a new form. You can also double-click the TaskPad in the Calendar view to open this form, or press Ctrl+Shift+K from any other Outlook module. Now you can fill out as many details and miscellaneous notes about this task as you like: due date, status, priority, category, and so on. ~~~~~~
Ever need to print out a blank calendar? Here's how: Select File, New, Folder. Type a name for the folder, try "Blank Month" In the Folder Contains drop-down list, choose Appointment Items. Click Calendar in the Select Where To Place The Folder list. Click OK. Click the new folder, which is called Blank Calendar, in the folder list. Click File, Page Setup, and choose the Monthly Print Style. Then, click Print. ~~~~~~
To sort the messages in your Inbox by the person who sent them to you, click the From button above the list of messages. The messages rearrange themselves in order by sender. To switch to descending order by sender, click the From button again and the messages appear in reverse alphabetical order. To go back to having your messages sorted by date, click the Received button until the messages are in ascending or descending order by date, whichever you prefer. ~~~~~~
Here's another way to create custom stationery in Outlook: (I personally dislike stationery) - Create your email
message using Word ~~~~~~~
To sort the messages in your Inbox by the person who sent them to you, click the From button above the list of messages. The messages rearrange themselves in order by sender. To switch to descending order by sender, click the From button again and the messages appear in reverse alphabetical order. To go back to having your messages sorted by date, click the Received button until the messages are in ascending or descending order by date, whichever you prefer. ~~~~~~~
Here's another way to create custom stationery in Outlook: - Create your email
message using Word ~~~~~ Go to MS
Outlook 2000: Technology Quick Tips #44 - 59 |