Outlook Notes (or All The Things You Wish You Knew About Outlook But Probably Do Not)

Introduction

The notes that follow are intended to help users make better use of Outlook at a Personal Information Manager (PIM) because that is what it is specifically designed to do. Outlook is much more than an email and calendar program. If you understand and can use the ideas in this document, you will be able to integrate, view and share phone lists, calendars, notes, emails, and other information to improve the way you do your job. If you are using Outlook and keep wondering if there is a better way to send and access information, there probably is and you just do not know about it. These notes try to rectify that situation for some of the more important features of Outlook, but there are a few others that are a bit more obscure than these that I can train you on if you just ask me.

These notes assume that readers have already had a basic introduction to Outlook and can use it to compose and send emails. The notes are not a substitute for basic knowledge of how to use Outlook.

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Table of Contents

OUTLOOK NOTES (OR ALL THE THINGS YOU WISH YOU KNEW ABOUT OUTLOOK BUT PROBABLY DO NOT ) 1

INTRODUCTION 1TABLE OF CONTENTS 2BASIC OUTLOOK ORGANIZATION/STRUCTURE 3WHERE TO PLACE INFORMATION SO YOU CAN FIND IT AND USE IT 3WHAT ARE OUTLOOK FOLDERS? 3TOP LEVEL FOLDERS 3MAILBOX FOLDERS 3PERSONAL FOLDERS 4PUBLIC FOLDERS 5STORAGE LIMITS 5ARCHIVING 6PROCEDURE FOR ARCHIVING 6ACCESSING YOUR ARCHIVE 6WHY AND HOW TO MANAGE NAME/ADDRESS/PHONE/EMAIL INFORMATION 7HOW TO USE CONTACT LISTS 8HOW TO BACK UP OUTLOOK DATA 8REMINDERS AND TASKS 8FLAGGING EMAILS FOR FOLLOW UP 9CREATING TASKS 9MEETINGS AND APPOINTMENTS (CALENDAR) 10HOW TO SET REMINDERS IN THE CALENDAR WITHOUT ADDING THE APPOINTMENT TO THE CALENDAR 12FINDING ANY KIND OF OUTLOOK INFORMATION 13ADVANCED FIND 13OUTLOOK TIPS AND TRICKS TO IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY 15CHANGE THE NUMBER OF DAYS VIEWED IN OUTLOOK 15VIEW A MONTH CALENDAR WITH THE WEEKEND DAYS DISPLAYED AS LARGE AS THE WEEKDAYS. 15CUSTOMIZING/ORGANIZING OUTLOOK 15MOVING AND COPYING ITEMS FROM ONE FOLDER TO ANOTHER 17FOLDER PROPERTIES 17SORTING ITEMS IN VIEWS 17TEMPLATES IN DRAFTS 17SUB FOLDERS 17HOW ALL THE OPTIONS SHOULD BE SET UP. 18Using a Flash Drive to Improve Your Outlook Productivity 19

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Basic Outlook Organization/Structure

Users should think of Outlook as an Information Center. It should be the center piece of how they access, use, modify, and share information.

Where To Place Information So You Can Find It and Use It

Outlook keeps ass the information you work with in a set of folders you can access from the Outlook window. In the Tips and Tricks section, you will see ideas for customizing this window so you can access your information easier.

What Are Outlook Folders?

Folders are just locations or containers in which Outlook information (such as appointments, emails, to do lists, deleted items, etc.) is stored. Just like you have many types of places where you save things you want to keep, such as paper calendar, check register, front of refrigerator, desk filing cabinet, safe, stand alone filing cabinet, Outlook information can be stored in many places called Folders. Outlook as four categories of folders:

Top Level Folders

These are things such as your mailbox and the mailboxes of other users (if they have granted you access such as CDR Soule as done in Code 152). These are mailbox folders, personal folders, public folders, and shared folders.

Mailbox Folders

Think of these as file folders for containing information that only you (and the system administrator) can access, much like the folders in your desk file drawer that other people do not routinely see. These are the sub-folders that are in each user’s own mailbox. Like a file folder you keep on your desk that you can alert co-workers contains information they may need, you can make some or none of these sub-folders available for other users to access (see). These folders reside on the network or LAN and are only accessible when the LAN is functioning unless you have made other arrangements in Outlook (see). Outlook provides some standard sub-folders for all users, but you can add your own just like you add a new file folder to your personal desk file drawer for some subject you might want to track such as CVN 68 Cannibalization (although I do not recommend this since it is more cumbersome than most realize, see). The standard sub-folders that Outlook supplies (which cannot be deleted or modified) are Calendar, Contacts, Deleted Items, Drafts, Inbox, Journal, Notes, Outbox, Sent Items, and Tasks. To make best use of these sub-folders, you need to what they are designed to hold:

Calendar. Schedule and appointment information.

Contacts. Name, address, phone number, and email information for people with whom you work.

Deleted Items. Everything you delete from Outlook goes here.

Note: To take full advantage of the suggestions and information management strategies in these notes, I strongly recommend you disable the “Empty deleted items upon exiting” Outlook option. This is done by

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selecting Tools/Options and selecting the “Other” tab. Make sure there is no “x” in the box next to “Empty the Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting.”

Drafts. If you start composing a message, but do not have time or the information you need to finish it, you can save your work by pressing escape or clicking on the close window “x” in the upper right hand corner of the message. Outlook will ask if you want to save a copy of the message in Drafts. Select “yes” and your work will be saved in the Drafts folder until you are ready to finish the message.

Inbox. This is where all your incoming messages come unless you have set up rules to process certain kinds of messages automatically.

Journal. Think of this as a record of all the things you do in Outlook. Outlook can automatically keep a record of such things as email messages you send and receive and each time you work with an office document. You can manually use the Journal to record other activities such as letters/memos/faxes you receive, telephone calls made/received, notes from conversations you have had, and just about anything else you do. Journal appears to be available for people who have the need to keep detailed records of the activities for billing (such as lawyers) or accountability on certain projects. I process so much information and have so many phone calls and conversations both at and away from my desk that I do not see how I could use these folder effectively. Most users will be able to document the results of meetings and important phone calls with follow up emails and will not need to use this folder.

Notes. This is where you would put the electronic equivalent of Post-It notes. Short notes that tell you the locations of things (such as the DOD personnel locator web-site). I do not use this very much.

Outbox. When you are using Outlook off-line, because the network is down or you have a laptop, this is where your sent messages go until the network is available or you send and receive your email from the laptop. Most users who will only use Outlook from their desk top machines will never use this folder (but you still cannot delete it since it is built-in to Outlook).

Sent Items. This is where all the emails you send go, if you have Outlook properly configured (see the Tips section).

Tasks. This is where Outlook stores the tasks you assign yourself and others. Unlike notes you write on paper to remind yourself to do something, Outlook tasks placed in this folder can have a reminder associated with them that can pop up in a separate window on the date you choose to remind you to do them. A very handy feature.

Personal Folders

Personal folders reside in a file whose name ends in “.pst” on your computer, not the LAN. The information you place in them does not count against your LAN storage limits and is not accessible to other users. In all other respects, these folders look and behave just like the folders in your Mailbox. The built-in sub-folder in a Personal Folder are the same as those in a Mailbox folder. You can create or delete as many additional sub-folders as you desire.

Note: You create a personal folder by first telling Outlook where the file is located. The default location for a personal folder is in your “c:\winnt\(your last name, initials)\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook” directory and that is where Outlook is “hard-wired” to look for them. I do not recommend creating or keeping personal folders there because most users will not remember to back up this file (which you must do from time to time to avoid losing your data if your hard drive fails). A better place to keep Outlook Personal Folder files is in a standard location where you already keep the files you should be backing up regularly. The location I choose is:

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My Documents\Computer\Outlook Archives

Note: For reasons explained in …, I do not make use of Personal Folders other than Archives and back up copies of my Mailbox.

Note: To create Personal Folder,

Select Tools/ServicesSelect the Add buttonSelect Personal Folders, then OKSpecify the location and name of the file. Make sure the name makes it easy for you to tell what type of information you intend to keep in the file.

Public Folders

These contain information for access by all users made available by the LAN administrator.

Storage Limits

All the information in your Mailbox folders counts against your network storage limit. This includes emails that you think you have deleted. Outlook keeps all the emails you have “deleted” in the Deleted Items folder unless you have a check in the “Empty Deleted Items folder upon exiting” box accessed through Tools/Options/Other Tab/General. Just as a disk can only hold so much information, the servers on the LAN have limited storage capacity. The Network Administrator will assign you a storage space limit that will require you to periodically delete information from your Mailbox folders (brute force approach, not recommended) or back up your information to Personal Folders on your hard disk called Archives, then delete the information (much better approach since it does not require you to know in advance which information you generated or received in the past that you will want to access in the future).

To check how big your Outlook folders are

To determine just how big your Mailbox is: Right click on "Outlook Today - [Mailbox - Last Name, First Name]" Select "Properties for Outlook Today" Under the "General" property tab select "Folder Size" You will then be presented with a list of sub-folders and their size.

To find your large email messages add the Size column to your view of the mailbox.

Adding size column to message view:

o Select View menu, Current View, Customize Current View...

o Select Fields Button, choose from Available Fields window, add 'size' field

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Archiving

If you want to use Outlook to access and manage the information you receive and generate, you need a strategy to manage the volume of data that results. The paper version of archiving is to place old file folders from your desk in a large file cabinet that will take years to fill up, but this only defers the problem. Another method is to review all the information in your paper files and throw away the things you do not need to keep. Most users do not do this very often since it is cumbersome and it is very hard to know in advance what might be useful later. Another technique is to have files microfiched to reduce their size, but it is an expensive process not available to most users and still makes it difficult to find the information later unless you create a very organized filing system. The key benefits of using Outlook to manage your information is that:

1. You do not have to know in advance what you want to keep because you can save nearly everything2. Outlook has a very sophisticated search engine for finding the information later3. Off-line storage of the information is relatively cheap.

Archiving is the process of backing up Outlook information older than a date you choose to a file (called an archive) on your hard disk whose name ends in “.pst” You need to do this periodically to make sure the information in your Mailbox does not get too large. You can either archive on a pre-determined periodicity (such as weekly), whenever you get the system warning that you have exceeded your storage limits (my choice), or have Outlook archive automatically based on parameters you choose (not recommended since it makes it difficult to find your Outlook information easily when you need it). The only information I routinely archive is email that I keep in my sent and deleted items folders.

Note: the only difference between a Personal Folder pst file, an exported data pst file, and an Archive pst file is how they are created. The type of information in them is exactly the same and they can be used equally well by Outlook after they have been generated.

Procedure for Archiving

Select File/Archive Select the sub-folder, such as Inbox, that you want to archive Ensure the buttons next to “Archive this folder and all sub-folders” and “Include items with ‘Do not

auto-archive’ checked have dots or checks in them Choose a date (all items generated before this date will be moved to the archive) Select the file name of the archive you are creating or adding to (use Browse to specify both location

and name). By default, Outlook enters the name of the last archive you accessed, but this may not be correct for what you are backing up.

If you are asked for a password for encryption, choose “No encryption” because the archive will be useless if you ever forget the password.

Note: since I only use two folders for long term filing of my Outlook information, Sent Items and Deleted Items, I only have two archives: sent_archive.pst and deleted_archive.pst.

Accessing Your Archive

Once you have created an archive, the next task is making sure you can access and retrieve the information that is there when you want it. You need the information to be searchable and accessible within Outlook, which is not automatic.

Step 1. Install the archive as an information service. Select Tools/Services. Add. Select Personal Folders, then Ok.

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Step 2. Browse until you find one of your archives (mine are located in D:\My Documents\Computer\Outlook Archives). Select Open. In the Name: blank, enter something like Z_deleted_archive. The reason for starting the name with Z is so your archives will all appear at the bottom of your Outlook Folder list which is sorted in alphabetical order. Otherwise, your archives will be in alpha-order mixed in with your other folders and be hard to find when you want to access them.

Repeat the above two steps for all your archive folders. You can now see your archive folders at the bottom of your folder list, click on them to see their contents, and search on them (the most important part of archiving, covered in more detail in Finding Any Kind Of Outlook Information)

Note: For reasons explained in Finding Any Kind Of Outlook Information, I do not make use of Personal Folders other than Archives and back up copies of my Mailbox.

Why and How to Manage Name/Address/Phone/Email Information

Why should you use Outlook to keep a list of people you frequently contact? The same reason you used to keep such a list in your address book or on a piece of paper you kept on your desk or in a file folder: to have ready access to the information so you can contact the people you need to do your job. The extra benefit of using Outlook to do so is the information is readily accessible when you are at your desk, you can share the information with others, and you can easily send email to your contacts without having to look up their email address.

Unfortunately, there are several locations where Outlook can store such data, but they do not all have the same capabilities and most documentation does not explain why you should use which.

Contacts folder. An outlook folder that contains contact items you create. This is where I place much of my contact information. You can create a sub-folder of contact information beneath this folder by selecting File/New/Folder and specifying the name of a folder (such as Nimitz) and selecting it as a sub-folder of Contacts. This is where I keep all my contact information. The easiest way to add contact information to the Contacts folder is to right click on the email address of someone in an email sent to you and select “Add to Contacts.” This will bring up a window that will allow you to enter detailed contact information (name, phone number, organization, etc.), but the email address will already be filled in for you.

Note: I have done this with many contacts lists. I have contacts sub-folders for PEO Carriers, Nimitz, CNAP, CNAL, Enterprise, SOS Military, and SOS Code 152. The last folder is particularly useful if customers need to know contact information in Code 152. I can just send them the file and they have all the information they need. How did I decide when to create a sub-folder of contacts information instead of putting all the information in my main Contacts Folder? There is no hard rule, but I decided to create a sub-folder when I had more than about 10 names from one organization in my Contacts Folder.

Outlook Address Book. A list that Outlook needs to keep of the names and email addresses of contacts in your Contacts Folder (or sub-folders like Nimitz). More on how to use this later.

Global Address Book. This is provided by the LAN administrator (as well as other address books as users may request). It is the default place Outlook checks when trying to find email addresses.

Personal Address Book. This can also have contact information, but the only reason for having this installed is so you can have distribution lists. Distribution lists are names for standard groups of email addresses so you do not have to type them in each time. I have distribution lists called 152 (all personnel in Code 152) and APOs (all Assistant Project Officers in Code 152). This is the only information I put in my Personal Address Book.

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How To Use Contact Lists

Step 1. Install the Outlook Address Book if not already done. To check, select Tools/Services. Look on the Informaton Services tab and you should see Outlook Address Book. If not, use the Add button to add it.

Step 2. Install the Personal Address Book if not already done. Check it the same way you did the Outlook Address Book. If you have to add it, make sure you create it in the My Documents\Computer\Outlook or Outlook Archives Folder.

Step 3. Ensure you Contact Lists are installed as Outlook Address Books. To do so, right click on the Contacts (or other sub-folder) sub-folder and select Properties. Click on the tab that says “Outlook Address Book.” Make sure the box next to “Show this folder as an email address book” is checked. Do this for all your Contact List folders and sub-folders.

Step 4. Make sure Outlook knows to look in your Contact Folders for email addresses. Do this by selecting Tools/Services. Select the Addressing tab. In the “Show this address list first:” box, use the down arrow to select Contacts. In the “Keep personal addresses in:” box, select Personal Address Book. In the “…check names…” box, list, in order, the address books/contact lists you want Outlook to search when trying to find email addresses. My order is: Personal Address Book (for distribution lists), Contacts, SOS Military, SOSNN Code 152, CNAP N43, CNAL N43, PEO Carriers, Nimitz, and then the Global Address Book.

How to Back Up Outlook Data

After you spend sufficient time entering useful information in Outlook, you need to take care to back it up from time to time. I regularly back up my contact, notes, and tasks information. I do not back up my email folders because I do not use any folders besides Sent Items and Deleted Items and I archive those regularly (about once every 6 weeks).

Step 1. Select the folder in Outlook you want to back up, such as Contacts. Then select File/Import and Export. Select Export to a File. Select personal folder file as the format. Select the one folder you want to back up (or export), you can only do one at a time.

Step 2. Use the Browse button to tell Outlook where to create the back up. I place my back ups in D:\My Documents\Computer\Outlook Archives for reasons stated earlier. Name the file “backup” or “soule_backup” or something else appropriate. The option I use is “replace duplicates with items exported” so the file does not get too big after repeated backups. For “Encryption Setting” I use no encryption.

Go back to step 1 for all the other folders you want to back up. After the first time, Outlook will remember that you want to back up to the backup.pst (or whatever name you chose) file.

The procedure above backs up the data you have created with Outlook. You also need to have back up copies of the pst files you create. This is done in Windows, just like you back up any other kind of file.

Reminders and Tasks

Outlook allows you to keep track of large quantities of information. You can also program it to remind you to follow up on tasks, create action item lists, and let you know when tasks are past due. There are three

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ways to create reminders: calendar appointments (to be covered later), flagging emails for follow up, and creating tasks.

Flagging Emails for Follow Up

I use this type of reminder for very short term projects or tasks (less than two weeks) that are initiated by an email from someone other than myself. You activate this either by clicking on the little red flag in the menu bar or via Actions/Flag for follow up. This allows you to specify in the Reminder box the time and date that Outlook will remind you to follow up on the affected email. After clicking OK in the follow up box, close the email and make sure you save the changes you made. Even if you delete the email (as long as Outlook does not empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting, the reminder will still function.

Creating Tasks

I use this feature of Outlook to manage long-term projects that I assign either to myself or someone else. If they are initiated by an email, you can just drag the email from the Inbox to the Task folder and the contents of the email (without attachments) are placed in task item. I do not “assign” tasks to others because I do not like the way that works (or probably do not understand it well enough). You can get similar functionality by granting other users view access to your Tasks folder. The subject of each task I create starts with the name of the person of the assigned to complete, for example: Jones: Future Carrier Project Teams. I do this because you can sort the tasks by subject line and this gives me the ability, at a glance, to see which tasks I have assigned each person to do. See the example below (note the red text is how Outlook shows that a task is past due):

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Meetings and Appointments (Calendar)

First, why use Outlook to manage your calendar at all? Is it not more convenient to use a calendar note book? Yes and no, it really depends on your job and how important it is for others to know what your schedule is. If you do not attend many meetings or have a very open calendar, there is probably no need to use Outlook’s calendar besides its ability to generate reminders to alert you to attend a meeting. If you do attend a lot of meetings and the people who work with you need to know when you are available to attend other meetings, then you really should be using the Outlook calendar. You should also make sure that you have given your team permission to view your calendar in Outlook (see Tips and Tricks for how to do this). When you use Outlook to manage your calendar, you need to have a portable version of it with you (unless you have a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). What I do is print both weekly and monthly views of my calendar and keep it with me at all times since I seldom need access to more than four weeks of calendar information when I am away from my desk. To make the weekly printed version of your calendar most useful, so that you can write in appointments as they come up during the week (which you need to add to Outlook when you get back to your desk), make sure you print your calendar in left to right format in landscape mode:

Step 1: while viewing your weekly calendar, select File/Page Setup/Weekly

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Step 2: on the Format tab, click in the radio button next to Arrange left to rightStep 3: on the Paper tab, select Landscape mode

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There are two especially useful features of Outlook for scheduling meetings. The first is Meeting Requests and the other is called vCalendar. When users receive one of these items, they can quickly and easily check to see if they are available and put the meeting on their calendar just by opening the email. Because of these capabilities, Outlook users should never use an email to invite other Outlook users to a meeting using an email like the one below:

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Meeting Requests should be used when you are inviting others to a meeting and it matters to you whether or not they come. The easiest way to do this is create the meeting in Outlook, filling in all the normal blanks like time, date, subject, and location. You should include the proposed agenda in the remarks block. Prior to “saving and closing,” click on either Invite Attendees on the menu bar or Actions/Invite attendees. In the addressee block, enter the email addresses of the people you wish to invite to the meeting. When you are done, click “send” to send the meeting request to addressees. Outlook gives you the ability to check attendee schedules to see if they are available to attend the meeting, but so few people keep their calendars in Outlook that this feature is seldom useful. As attendees reply to the meeting request, Outlook keeps track of who has replied and what their responses were.

The vCalendar feature is used when you are inviting others to a meeting and it is not necessary to keep track of who is coming. Create the meeting in Outlook, filling in all the normal blanks like time, date, subject, and location. Prior to “saving and closing,” click on Actions/Forward as vCalendar. This brings up an email, ready to be addressed, that has an attachment containing all the meeting information you just entered. You can now address the email to anyone you think would be interested in attending. When they receive the email, they open it and double click on the calendar attachment. Once users see whether they have a conflict, they can add the meeting to their calendar by clicking on “save and close.”

How To Set Reminders In The Calendar Without Adding The Appointment To The Calendar

If you need to do something daily or multiple times per day that you do not want showing up in the Calendar as appointments, e.g. take medicine at 8am, noon, and 5pm every day (thus recurring), but do not want to display this task as meetings on your Calendar. You can do so using a Filtered View to suppress

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displaying this appointment. First, open the Outlook calendar. Second, create the appointment "Take 8am medicine" using File/New/Appointment. Assign the recurring item to a category in the box at the bottom of the New Appointment window. It doesn't matter which category you use, you can create a new one (e.g. Reminders). Use the Recurrence tab or Actions/Recurrence to make the appointment recur daily. In the medicine example used above, you must create three separate appointments, starting at 8am, noon, and 5pm, and set them each to recur daily. Save and close each one. Now, while still in the Calendar window, go to View|Current View|Customize Current View... |Filter|Advanced Tab to filter out items belonging to the category you just created (and only show the items that are not assigned the Category = Reminders). For example, in the define more criteria area, "Categories_does not contain_Reminders." Press Add to List and OK. This view is then permanently set to filter out these items.

Finding Any Kind Of Outlook Information

One of the hardest aspects of Outlook to understand is how to find your information when you need it. It is actually very easy, but you would never know it from how hard it is to figure out. You just need to know how to use the Advanced Find feature. Advanced Find is so useful that I have created an icon on my Outlook Toolbar so I can access it directly. You do this by View/Toolbars/Customize. In the window that comes up, select the Commands tab. Click on the Tools category. Scroll down on the Command side of the box until you see Advanced Find. Click on Advanced Find once, then drag it up to the Toolbar and place in right next to Find.

Advanced Find

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The box/requester that comes up when you select Advanced Find is one of the most powerful in Outlook. It requires some detailed explanations of the various options:

Look for: this defaults to the type of outlook information that is stored in the folder you were in when you selected Advanced Find. For example, if you selected Advanced Find in the Inbox, it will be filled in with “Messages.” Most of the time, this will be fine, but there may be times when you want to search for all types of outlook items, in which case you should change this to “Any type of Outlook Item.”

In: tells Outlook where you want to search. The default is the name of the folder you were in when you selected Advanced Find. For example, if you selected Advanced Find in the Inbox, it will be filled in with “Inbox.” I always change this to Mailbox by selecting Browse, clicking in the box next to Inbox, then clicking in the box next to Mailbox. This allows you to search for what you seek in every Outlook folder in your Mailbox and this is why I do not use folders for storing email other than Sent Items and Deleted Items.

I contend that it is a waste of time to create sub-folders and move messages to them when you have access to a search feature this powerful. In addition, some subjects cut across more than one folder (if you have enough) so you have to remember where you filed it. In my case, I can remember if I sent the email my self (hence it will be in the Sent Items folder) or if I received it from someone else (and will be in the Deleted Items folder). For mail items that are still in your Mailbox sent/deleted items folders, this does not matter. It does matter after you have archived the messages because then you do have to know where to look as Outlook will not search more than one archive at a time. If you only have two archives, one for sent items and one for deleted items, searching archives is fairly easy. Why use more than one archive? Because the volume of email I get makes these files get rather large and I envision that I may need separate CD ROMs to store them some day.

Note: for this system to work (only storing emails in Sent or Deleted Items folders), you need to make sure every email message you send or receive has a good subject line. This is easy when you compose the email, but what about emails others send to you with no subject or poorly worded subjects? You can change the subject line of an email you have been sent! Just open the email and click in the subject line. You can add any key words you want. You can even delete the entire original subject by selecting all the text in the original subject line and typing your own. Now attempt to close the message by either pressing Escape or clicking on the “x” in the upper right hand corner and Outlook will ask if you want to save the changes you have made. Select yes and the email now has your new subject.

Note: you cannot simultaneously search in your Mailbox and an archive. They must be searched separately because Outlook considers them to be separate “Information Services.”

For specifying the details of the search, I typically only use the Messages tab.

Search for the words: enter the words you want to find.

To search for messages that contain a specific word or have specific text properties, in the Search for the word(s) box, you can do any of the following to locate a file.

To find Use this operator ExampleAny single character ? Typing s?t finds "sat" and "set."Any string of characters * Typing s*d finds "sad" and "started."

Note: If files do not appear in the Advanced Find dialog box, the Integrated File Management component probably wasn't loaded during Outlook Setup.

In: you can search the subject line only (the default and one I use most often) or you can search the subject and frequently used text fields (like the message body). The latter takes more time, but is more successful if you have not made sure all your subjects are suited for searches or you cannot remember whether the subject was TOI or Temporary Operating Instruction.

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You can use the From: or Sent to: boxes to speed the search, but I do only use them when I am certain the email I want to find is from a particular sender.

Press Find Now and Outlook will attempt to find the information for you. Once I have found what I want, I do not close the Advanced Find window. I just minimize it so it will be ready for a new search rapidly and I do not have to change the default In: folder to Mailbox.

Automatic Message Handling or What To Do When You Will Be Out Of the Office[reserved for future use]

Outlook Tips and Tricks To Improve Your Productivity

Change the Number of Days Viewed in Outlook

When you are in Outlook's calendar view you can change the number of days being viewed. Just hold down the Alt key and press the number of days you want to see.

View 1 day: Alt + 1View 2 - 9 days: Alt + single number keyView a week: Alt + 7View 10 days: Alt + 0 (zero)

View a month calendar with the weekend days displayed as large as the weekdays.

To uncompress the weekend days, follow these steps: 1. Open your active calendar. 2. On the View menu select Month to open the month view. 3. On the View menu select Current View|Define Views. 4. Click the Modify button. 5. Click the Other Settings button. 6. Uncheck the Compress weekend days checkbox. 7. Click Ok, Ok, Close.

Customizing/Organizing Outlook

The window below shows two important things. First, it shows the Outlook “bar” which is how Outlook is first starts up. I do not use the Outlook bar, but rather the Folder List. To shut off the Outlook “bar,” select View/Outlook Bar. This turns off the Outlook bar if it is turned on. To display the folder list, select View/Folder List. The second thing the window shows is the inbox folder organized with colors. There are many options for organizing your folders, but the one I like best is colors. I display emails from Captains in Red, shipyard managers in Green, and some of the people on my team in Purple. This color scheme give me the ability to quickly prioritize my inbox and respond to certain users faster than others. To display an email from a certain user in color, select an email from that user with the mouse, then Tools/Organize. Click on Using Colors, then choose the color you want. Click on Apply Color. Keep selecting emails from others and colors as desired.

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This window shows how Outlook appears with the Outlook Bar turned off and the Folder List turned on.

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Moving and copying items from one folder to another

When you click and drag an email from the inbox to the Calendar, Tasks, or Contacts folder, you create a calendar/task/contact item and you do not move the email from the inbox. If you drag an email to the Sent or Deleted Items or Drafts folders, you actually move the email to those folders. If you click and drag an entry from one calendar like folder to another, this will move the item from the one folder to the other. To copy the item instead of moving it, hold the control key down before you drag the item.

Folder properties

You can use the folder properties to give others permissions to view the contents of you folders. I share my calendar with everyone on my team this way. You access the folder permissions by right clicking on the folder in the folder list and selecting Properties. Click on the Permissions tab and you can grant others the ability to read your folder.

Sorting Items in views

Nearly all Outlook windows (or views as Outlook calls them) can be sorted. I often sort the inbox by the From field when I am looking for an email from a specific user. You sort the inbox this way by clicking on the word FROM in the inbox. You can restore the default sort on date/time received by clicking on the Received field. You can sort on multiple fields by sorting on one, holding down the shift key, then clicking on another field.

Templates in Drafts

For repetitive emails I send, I keep a standard form email in a sub-folder of the Drafts folder that I call Templates. Before I open one of these emails to send it, I copy the email (select the email, then Edit/Copy) and then paste it back into the folder (Edit/Paste). Now when I open the email to send it, I still have a copy of the template in the Template folder.

Sub Folders

I use many sub-folders in Outlook. You create sub-folders to a basic folder, such as Calendar, by selecting the folder in the Folder List, then right clicking the folder and choosing New Folder. Name the folder and it will be created beneath the base folder. Here are the sub-folders that I use:

Base folder Sub-folder Purpose/RemarksCalendar

Carrier Major MeetingsCode 152 Leave/TDY Leave/Travel calendar for all members of

the code, very useful for keeping track of personnel and scheduling meetings

ContactsSOSNN Code 152 I use separate contact lists to make it

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easier to share the information with othersSOSNN MilitaryCOMNAVAIRLANTCOMNAVAIRPACSpecific ships

DraftsTemplates

How all the options should be set up.

Outlook has many options that can be accessed via Tools/Options. Here are the most common options and how I configure them:

Tab Section Option RemarksPreferences

Email Options

After moving or deleting an open item, return to inboxClose original message on reply or forwardSave copies of messages in sent items folderAutomatically save copies of unsent messagesAdvanced Email Options

Automatic name checking

Allows you to type in just the first few parts of someone’s name and Outlook will complete the rest

Delete meeting request from inbox when responding

Calendar Options

Calendar work week Allows you to specify the days you want printed on your weekly schedule and working hours to display as well as an alternate time zone

Calendar options Allows you to display an alternate time zone on your calendar

Mail Services Do not mess with thisMail format Message format I change this to Microsoft WordSpelling Set this up the way you wantSecurity Do not mess with thisOther General/

Advanced

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OptionsStart up in this folder: inboxMake sure the box next to Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting is not checked

Delegates Allows you to designate others to send email on your behalf. I do not recommend this.

Using a Flash Drive to Improve Your Outlook Productivity

OutlineIntro (taking email to access messages (read and reply) from home), need to have Outlook 2003 at homeData File ManagementFolders I useAction, Contacts, Deleted (include Really Deleted and Sent), Inbox, Outbox, Print, Save As File, Useful Email Addresses, Waiting ForTaking “sent” email out of home Outlook Outbox and placing it into Flash Drive OutboxBack at work, you need to “Forward” email out of your flash drive outbox to actually send it from your work account.

http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/ss/et091505.htm

Select "File | Data File Management..." from the menuClick "Add..." (I title my pst data file “Work Email Processed.”Leave "Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst)" selectedUnder "Save in:", go to the place where your archived messages are storedClick "OK" againClick "Close"Open the newly added archive location in your Outlook navigation pane

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