Microsoft Outlook tricks

Outlook offers some powerful features for managing your e-mail,meetings, and contacts. The problem is, it offers so much that learning to useit all efficiently can take time. Some options are buried several menus deep. Othersjust aren't as intuitive as they should be. The key to using Outlookefficiently is to customize its many views and options to suit your workinghabits. (If you're using a version earlier than 2003, you might have to adjustthe steps a bit.)

Tip #1: Save a few keystrokes when entering dates

When entering the start and due dates for a new task, youdon't have to type the entire date. If a date is in the current month, justenter the day and Outlook will enter the rest of the date for you. Forinstance, if the current month is March and you enter 14, Outlook assumes youmean March 14 of the current year and fills in that date.

When a date isn't in the current month, you can still save afew keystrokes by entering the month and day. Outlook will fill in the year asfollows:

• If the month and day haven't occurred in thecurrent year, Outlook uses the current year.
• If the month and day have passed, Outlook usesthe next year.

Tip #2: Control how you print notes

If you use the Notes feature to jot down questions, ideas,or quick reminders, you might also want to print them occasionally. By default,Outlook prints each note on a separate page, which might or might not be whatyou want. You can force Outlook to fill each page, to save paper or to keeprelated notes together. Select the notes you want to print and then choosePrint from the File menu. In the resulting Print dialog box, deselect the StartEach Item On A New Page check box in the Print Options and click OK.

If the option is disabled, you're using HTML format. Youmust switch to plain or text format to enable this option. To do so, chooseOptions from the Tools menu. Click on the Mail Format tab and choose Plain Textfrom the Compose In This Message Format option's drop-down list. Then, clickApply and OK. Repeat the print instructions, and you'll find the Start EachItem On A New Page option is enabled. After printing the notes, just retraceyour steps to reset your format setting.

Tip #3: Print e-mail when it arrives

For a variety of reasons, some of us end up printing e-mailmessages. If you print most of your messages, or all of your messages from aspecific source, opening each message to print it manually interrupts yourwork. Setting a rule to print the desired incoming mail might be moreefficient. To do so:

1. Fromthe Tools menu, choose Rules And Alerts.
2. ClickNew Rule on the E-mail Rules tab.
3. ClickStart From A Blank Rule at the top of the resulting Rules Wizard dialog box.
4. Inthe Step 1 box, highlight the Check Messages When They Arrive option (it shouldbe the default) and then click Next.
5. Inthe Step 1 box, select the Where My Name Is In The To Box check box (orwhatever option applies, if you don't want to print all you messages) and clickNext.
6. Inthe Step 1 box, click the Print It option and click Next.
7. Atthis point, you can identify exceptions to the rule, but we won't do that here.Just click Next, and then Finish, Apply, and OK to return to Outlook.

After setting up the new print rule, Outlook will printevery incoming message that meets your requirements. Now, the chances are thatyou won't want to print every message. So make good use of the conditionsoffered in steps 5 and 7 to limit the messages Outlook prints.

Tip #4: Store sent mail efficiently

When you reply to an e-mail, Outlook stores a copy of thatmessage in the Sent folder. If you're like me, your Sent folder has thousandsof messages. If you need to find a specific message later, you must sortthrough all those messages, and that takes time. Instead, store your replieswith the original message. For instance, suppose you automatically route allyour messages from your boss into a folder named, appropriately enough, MyBoss.If you want Outlook to store your replies in MyBoss with the original messages,do the following:

1. Fromthe Tools menu, choose Options.
2. Onthe Preferences tab (which should be selected by default), click E-mail Optionsin the E-mail section.
3. ClickAdvanced E-mail Options at the bottom of the Message Handling section.
4. Inthe Save Messages section, select the In Folders Other Than The Inbox, SaveReplies With The Original Message check box and then click OK three times toreturn to Outlook.

Outlook will apply this setting to all of your personalfolders. Just remember that Outlook saves replies with the original message andnot in the Sent folder only when theoriginal message is in a folder other than the Inbox. Outlook continues to saveall replies sent from messages in the Inbox in the Sent folder

Tip #5: Create a Flags toolbar

Quick Flags help you categorize your messages, usually bysome level of importance or by task. For instance, you might use a red flag tomark messages that need a quick response and a blue flag to mark messages onwhich you've acted and are waiting for a response.

The problem with Quick Flags is that there's no way tocustomize their descriptions. Outlook identifies them only by color. You can'tchange the name of Red Flag to Critical. Remembering what each color representscan become burdensome.

An easy way to remember what each flag represents is tocreate a custom toolbar that displays each flag with text that means somethingto you. Fortunately, the process is easy:

1. Fromthe Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. Onthe Toolbars tab, click New and name the new toolbar appropriately (for instance,you might name it "Flags") and click OK.
3. Inthe Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab.
4. SelectActions from the Categories list box.
5. Next,drag the appropriate flag color buttons from the Commands list to the customtoolbar. (If you can't find the toolbar, look behind the dialog box.)
6. Afteradding all the flags you want, change the text for each flag button.Right-click a flag button and replace the Name setting, e.g., &Red Flag,with something more helpful, such as "Critical." Select the Image And Textoption so that Outlook will display the button's name on the toolbar.

Completesteps 6 and 7 for each flag button in your new toolbar.

Tip #6: Modify the scope of your Calendar work week

By default, the Work Week calendarview displays the five days of the traditional business week, Monday throughFriday. To include Saturday and Sunday in that view, choose Options from theTools menu. In the resulting Options dialog box, click Calendar Options in theCalendar section. In the Calendar Options dialog box, check Sat and Sun in theCalendar Work Week section. Then, click OK twice to return to the Calendar.

You don't have to view a seven- ortraditional five-day work week. Check the days of the week that apply to youfor a custom work week view. For example, if you work Wednesday through Sunday,you can make those selections to build a view that reflects your schedule.

Tip #7: Use color to identify messages from specific senders

Expecting important mail? Identifyit as soon as it comes in by displaying it in a distinctive color. Start by selectan existing message from the sender in question, if you have one. If you don't,that's okay; you can enter the sender's name manually. Now follow these steps:

1. InMail, choose Organize from the Tools menu.
2. Inthe Ways To Organize Mail pane, click the Colors link on the left side.
3. Inthe first condition statement (we won't use the second), choose From in thefirst drop-down list.
4. Ifyou chose a message before starting, the sender's name will appear in the textbox to the right. If it's the wrong name, enter the right name or the person'se-mail address.
5. Choosea color from the second drop-down list.
6. ClickApply Color and close the pane.

Afterward, Outlook will display allmessages, existing and new, from the person you specified in step 4 in thecolor you selected in step 5.

Tip #8: Distinguish incoming mail from existing mail

By default, Outlook displaysincoming mail as bold text until you read it. If you need a bit more help,consider displaying unread mail in a bright color. To do so, you'll work in aview, not a rule:

1. InMail, choose Inbox.
2. ChooseArrange By from the View menu.
3. SelectCurrent View and then Define View from the subsequent submenus.
4. Inthe Custom View Organizer dialog box, check the <Current View Settings> optionand click Modify.
5. ClickAutomatic Formatting.
6. Inthe Automatic Formatting dialog box, click Font.
7. Inthe Font dialog box, choose a color from the Color dropdown list, and click OKthree times. Then, click Apply View.

Outlook will display all unreadmail in the Inbox in the color you choose in step 7. Doing so won't displayunread messages automatically routed to other folders. Since this is a view, itworks only on the current folder. However, you can set up a similar view forany folder you like. In addition, the unread mail formatting takes precedentover colors used to identify mail from a specific sender (see Tip #7).

Tip #9: Force replies to reach multiple recipients

A problem arises when you needrecipients to reply to everyone receiving a message. The responding recipientmust remember to click Reply All instead of Reply. If the recipient forgets toclick Reply All, you're the only one who will see the reply, forcing you toforward it to everyone else, which is inefficient. Before you send the message,you can configure it to reply to everyone:

1. Whencomposing the message, click the Options button on the Formatting toolbar.
2. ChooseOptions from the resulting drop-down list.
3. Inthe Message Options dialog box, check the Have Replies Sent To option in theDelivery Options section, which will automatically enter your e-mail address.
4. Next,click the Select Names button to the right and select all the appropriaterecipients.
5. ClickClose to return to your message.

When any recipient responds to themessage, regardless of which reply choice they click, the reply will go toeveryone you specified in the Have Replies Sent To option.

Tip #10: Create a temporary work week in the Calendar

The Work Week calendar viewdisplays a week view, and you define what constitutes a work week (see Tip #6).If you need to see more or less than the usual work week, you can temporarilychange that view. In the Date Navigation pane, click the first date you want toview. Then, hold down the [Shift] key and press the last date in the period.Outlook automatically adjusts the Calendar Work Week to include all of thedates in the selected time period. Alternately, you can view a group of noncontiguousdates by holding down [Ctrl] instead of [Shift] as you click dates. Outlookwill display the days in order, regardless of how you select them.