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MS Outlook Tips

Outlook 2000 Quick Tips

MS Outlook 2000: Technology Quick Tips #91 - 101

 

91. 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
* Choose Import From Another Program Or File
* Click Next
* On the next screen, choose Personal Folder File (.pst)
* Click Next
* In File To Import, enter the name of your archive file
* Click Next
* Under Select The Folder To Import From, click on Archive Folders
* Click Finish

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92. What's A Rule?

In Microsoft Outlook, a rule is a set of conditions, actions, and exceptions that processes and organizes messages automatically and that is triggered by an event.

Learning to use rules effectively can increase your productivity, and help you to avoid unwanted junk mail.

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93. Get Rid Of Space-Stealers!

When it's time to clean up their mailboxes, most people have trouble finding and deleting the messages that take up the most space, such as those with large attachments.

Here's a quick and easy way to expose the space stealers hiding in your Outlook folders.

* In the Tools menu, click Advanced Find, and then click the More Choices tab

* In the Look for box, click Messages

* In the Size list, click greater than, and then type a number such as 800

* Select the remaining search options you want, and then click Find Now.

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94. Using Vcards To Send Your Business Information

Microsoft Outlook supports the use of vCards, the Internet standard for creating and sharing virtual business cards. By adding a vCard to your e-mail signature, you can include your business contact information with each e-mail message you send.

Here's how:

* On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab

* Under Signature, click Signatures, and then click New

* Select the options you want, and then click Next

* Under vCard options, select a vCard from the list or click New vCard from Contact

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95. This tip applies to Outlook 98, 2000, and 2002

Keeping Appointments to Less Than 30 Minutes with Outlook

When you use the drag-and-drop method to change the length of appointments in the Outlook Calendar, you can make appointments begin and end only on the hour and at 30 minutes after the hour.

When you have appointments that you need to begin and end at other times, you have to open the appointment and enter the times you want, just as you did when you first created the appointment, like this:

1. Double-click the appointment.

2. To change the time the appointment begins, click the Start Time box and type the time you want.

3. To change the time the appointment ends, click the End Time box and type the time you want. You also can change any other details about the appointment while the Appointment form is open.

4. Click the Save and Close button (or press Alt+S).

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96. This tip applies to all versions of Outlook

Dealing with Floods of E-mail

There's good news and bad news about e-mail. The good news is that e-mail is free; you can send as much as you want for virtually no cost.

The bad news is that e-mail is free; anybody can easily send you more e-mail than you can possibly read. Before long, you need help sorting it all out so you can deal with messages that need immediate action.

Outlook has some handy tools for coping with the flood of electronic flotsam and jetsam that finds its way into your Inbox.

You can create separate folders for filing your mail, and you can use Outlook's view feature to help you slice and dice your incoming messages into manageable groups.

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97. Outgoing Message Storage

This tip applies to all versions of Outlook.

If you use Outlook to send mail to online services, such as the Microsoft Network or CompuServe, or through an Internet service provider (ISP) you reach by using your telephone line, your outgoing messages are stored in the Outbox until you choose Tools, Send/Receive, All Accounts (or press F5) or click the Send/Receive button on the toolbar.

Your messages are then dispatched to your online service and sent on to your recipient.

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98. Saving Multiple Attachments

When you receive an Outlook message containing several attached files, you don't have to open and save each file separately.

You can save multiple attachments to the same location in a single step.

Here's how:

* Click Save Attachments on the File menu

* When the Save All Attachments dialog box opens, click OK

* Then select the folder where you want to save the files, and click OK


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99.
Adding the Outlook Address Book to the Word Toolbar

This tip applies to Outlook 2000 and 2002

You can insert an address from your Outlook Contact list into a Word document, such as an invitation to your holiday soiree, by clicking a single button.

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't put that button on the Word toolbar, so you have to add it.

To add the Address Book button to the Word toolbar, follow these steps:

1. Open MS Word and choose Tools, Customize to open the Customize dialog box.

2. Click the Commands tab to view the list of available commands.

3. Click Insert in the Categories box to reveal the list of Insert commands on the Commands list on the right side of the screen.

4. Scroll down to the words Address Book near the end of the Commands list box.

5. Drag the Address Book icon up to the Word toolbar. The Address Book icon joins the other icons on the toolbar!


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100. Displaying Nonconsecutive Dates

The Outlook Calendar displays dates consecutively usually in single week or month view. But sometimes it's useful to see several nonconsecutive (but key) dates at a glance:

- On the right side of the window in the Date Navigator click the first date you want to view

- While holding down the CTRL key, click any other dates you want to view

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101. The Outlook Information Viewer (and Changer)

This tip is for Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000

The biggest part of the Outlook screen, on the lower-right side, is the information viewer. Whatever you ask Outlook to show you appears there:

* dates in your Calendar;
* messages in your Inbox;
* names on your Contact list, and so on.

The Outlook bar is the rectangle on the left that contains shortcut icons to various functions of Outlook.

Remarkably, you can drag items from the information viewer to icons on the Outlook bar to create new types of Outlook items from this information you already have.

After you drop an item from one Outlook module into another, Outlook transforms the information and makes the item useful in a whole new way. For example, an e-mail message can become a Journal entry, and vice versa.

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