8 Tips To Make the Most of Microsoft Outlook
How much of your day is spent on e-mail? A study done by the ePolicy Institute found that the average worker spends a whopping one hour and 47 minutes a day on e-mail, but web workers often spend far more time than that on it. That’s why it makes sense to take a break from sending and receiving your e-missives and get to know some of the efficiency-boosting tips and tricks you can use. A couple of minutes spent studying these can make you faster, better organized and more productive.
Outlook is a fairly ubiquitous e-mail engine, and happens to be what I use all day. Here are eight Outlook tips that have helped save me lots of time and boost my efficiency.
Viewing Multiple Weeks in Outlook’s Calendar. Sometimes an aerial view of your time commitments for the next several weeks is a great way to make plans. When you open Outlook’s calendar, show two consecutive months of dates in the upper right pane, then hold down your mouse button and drag to select every date from the left- top-most date to a date six weeks out. When you let go of the mouse button, voila! You’ll see six weeks of appointments neatly arranged for you to view from the clouds. Select Print if you want the aerial view of the weeks on paper.
Set Reminders to Act on Messages. If you spend a lot of time in Outlook, this tip can really boost your efficiency. Easy as it is, it’s very underused. To set a reminder—visible in your Inbox–to act on or reply to any message, right-click on the message you want to set the reminder for, select Follow Up, and choose your Due By time and date. When you click OK, the message will be flagged for you to remember to respond to, and the date and time will be automatically kept track of. To clear the flag, right click on the message and choose Clear Flag.
Use Advanced Find. If you get tired of waiting for Outlook to search for messages, or you get sick of sifting through too many search results for any given search term, use Advanced Find. Click Ctrl-Shift-F to bring up a dialog for it, and select options such as searching only in the Subject field of e-mails to save time.
Quickly Peruse Related Messages. If you get a lot of e-mail, you’re familiar with the woeful feeling of wondering what was said before about any topic you’re currently reading about. You might even be wondering what you said about it if you said it a few weeks ago. For an on-the-fly look at all messages related to one you’re currently reading, open a message, select the Actions menu, choose Find All, and select Related Messages. A dialog will pop up and pertinent messages—sent and received–will be listed for you to review.
Permanently Delete Messages. You can avoid the multiple-step process of deleting messages, then emptying the Deleting Items folder by simply holding down the Shift key when you hit Delete for any message. You’ll be asked if you want to permanently delete the message. If you’ve selected lots of messages for deletion, it works the same way. Just hold down the Shift key as you click Delete.
Quickly Undelete a Message. If you have just deleted a message and want to bring it back, reach for the Ctrl key and press Ctrl-Z to make it reappear. Ctrl-Z is also the undelete tool to reach for in other Windows applications, and can be a lifesaver if you just deleted several pages of content in, say, Word.
Check Spelling in All Messages. Do you frequently misspell things or is the professionalism of your e-mails very important to you? You can easily have Outlook check your spelling in all outgoing messages. Just click on the Tools menu, click on Options, and select Always check spelling before sending.
Quickly Add a Contact from an E-mail. If you want to save the sender of an e-mail to your contact list, with the e-mail open right-click on the person’s name in the From field and select Add to Contacts. Especially if you delete e-mails frequently or haphazardly, this can ensure that your contact list stays organized.
Do you have any Outlook tips of your own to share?
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Ouch, this would be a good post on Desktop Worker Daily … This one may be a better choice for Web Worker Daily:-)
Outlook’s search function is horribly slow and cumbersome. I’ve been using Yahoo! Desktop Search (http://desktop.yahoo.com) since it was X1 (before the Yahoo! buyout). It indexes your entire PC and e-mail, it’s lightning fast and has a built-in viewer for most of the files you might encounter. I can’t imagine working without it.
Zoli, we’ve long established that “web working” doesn’t always mean using browser-based tools exclusively.
Two tools that compliments Outlook well are Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop.
Both of them are free and if you have a large number of emails, either of them can help you dig it out at a blink of any eye.
Outlook’s Advanced Find is way too slow when you have a large PST file.
I’ve personally used Copernic, and its very good.
I used Copernic too. I appreciate the desktop search tools because you don’t have to “pre-think” your query. You just type in a few words of what you think you remember of the text along with maybe the person’s first name and the email you’re looking for shows itself. Saved my you-know-what quite often.
step 9: install Disruptor OL
step 10: enable power user mode in Disruptor OL
save HOURS daily
Disruptor OL filter feature alone makes it worth using!
How about actually discussing a recent version of Outlook. The screenshots look like 2002, or perhaps 2003 at best! Office 2007 has been out for almost a year now …
The best tip for outlook is: don’t use it.
Thanks for this…
Anybody can tell me on how to completely delete ALL records (calendar/contacts)?
If you want to delete all of your calendar entries do the following.
1. Click on Calendar
2. Click on View and then “Current View” “View by Category”
3. Click on a calendar item and then press “Ctrl A”
4. Right Click and Delete
You have deleted all items in your calendar.
For deleting all of your contacts just click on one and then do the “Ctrl A”, Right Click, Delete
I really like gmail’s spam filter so I filter my day job address through my gmail account before forwarding it on to another account.
So my work address is fLast@corporateBS.com, I have gmail check the account, use a filter to forward it to my fName@corporateBS.com address and delete it from gmail.
To what Tatham Oddie said about Outlook 2007, I work in an area that creates software for Attorneys, of the thousands of people we have using it, I can tell you less that 1% are on 2007, and less than half have made the switch to Outlook 2003. As cool as new stuff is most people don’t get new software until they have to. Heck even my printers ask for things in Adobe Version 11 still not the CD packages.
Yes, Copernic is probably still the best desktop search software, really helped working in Outlook as well as other documents. But it got slower and slower. Now that I’m out of Outlook and basically off the desktop, Copernic can sleep happily, has barely anything to do.
Some of us are forced to use Outlook on machines that are locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Therefore no 3rd party helper software. These tips help. Thanks.
Kevin, I know what you mean. Many, many people have no choice but to use Outlook all day–and often versions earlier than Outlook 2007, because of the two-fisted grip of corporate IT departments, who are often hesitant to migrate to new versions because of security and “newness” concerns. Those of us who have to use Outlook need to optimize it as much as possible.
Samuel Dean
Search Folders! Skip the searching altogether for common searches. If you are working with a specific person or on a specific topic, you can create a Search Folder in Outlook that acts as a virtual folder containing all messages that meet the criteria – automatically (the messages remain in whatever folder you put them in, but also appear in the search folder). It’s even better if you pin it to your favorite folders list.
For example, I have a search folder for all messages to/from my boss.
Just look down the list of folders for “Search Folders”, right click, add search folder, and define the criteria. Then right click on your new folder and select Add to Favorite folders to make it easily accessible.
Search is MUCH improved in Outlook 2007… it integrates with the engine for Windows Desktop Search, with search boxes everywhere that are near instantaneous.
+1 for search folders too. I wrote a bit in the past about how I use search folders for feed reading and how I’m doing GTD in Outlook 2003. I guess I should update that post, because it’s even better in Outlook 2007.
Another favorite hack is to show incomplete tasks and tasks completed today to give you a sense of accomplishment.
If you are a GTD follower on moving action email to TaskList. Try Ctrl-Shift-V (move) on message and “T” for Tasks. Then tab over for date (today, tomorrow, next monday, 6 months) and Ctrl-S for save.
The same works for Copy(Ctrl-Shift-Y) if you want to leave a copy in orginal folder.
the best search for Outlook is from a third-party company, Lookout. Unfortunately MS bought Lookout and disappeared them. I have the Lookout installed in Outlook, it searches 2.5G of email in a couple of seconds. But it’s no longer available, and I didn’t keep the install kit, dang.
It may be that Lookout is integrated into Windows Desktop Search, in which case it would be worth downloading that beast and testing.
As an addition to MCTX’s tip, you can also drag and drop the messages to other folders or the Shortcut bar. Also try dragging selected text or dragging to the other folders.
(Edit: Try not to post comments while logged in with the Boss’s account.)
A tip for Microsoft Outlook? Hmm… I might have one:
Use Mozilla Thunderbird, not Microsoft Outlook.
:)
For those of you inhabiting the real world. Office currently has a monopoly, and whether you can admit it to yourself or not, it has some benefits. The Outlook .PST format is a handy little suitcase. I also like the MBOX format from Apple Mail, but they have not released that product for Windows.
I like the integrated Calender function and the newer abilities present in Outlook 2007. It is true to say that Outlook can be a great mail program, but when it misbehaves, Outlook can be ugly.
Thunderbird has it’s own shortcomings and for the average user, Plug-ins aren’t as easy to find or install. Outlook for all it’s faults, does an acceptable job of handling many things at once.
Doug, You can get lookout at http://www.majorgeeks.com/Lookout_d4808.html. Lookout is a must for outlook users.
uhm, my previous comment containing 2 link probably was labeled ad spam, can you check it ?
to save inbox space while keeping those huge picture and video emails that you can’t live without, create sub-folders in your Archive folder. This can be used for all files. Instead of keeping them in your in box, especially those emails with photo attachments that your friends and family can’t wait to fill your inbox with. Anyway, I have several sub-folders with different names to keep organized. Some people create their sub-folders in their in-box folder, but the problem (space) is that all the emails are still in your in-box. You can keep them in your archive forever if necessary.
I like Lookout became Outlook 2007’s instant search. I agree with Copernic for DS … as for making Outlook really tick … ClearContext. It absolutely rocks!
And here is the hack to make Outlook 2007 run faster: http://www.pimpyourwork.com/finally-a-real-tip-to-speed-up-outlook-2007/
Best recent discovery was figuring out how to color code messages from different sources so they pop better in my main view pane.
You can customize color, font, treatment, whatever. By person/address or groups of people or whatever. Very helpful.
View > Arrange by… > Custom… > Automattic formatting…
Thank you for the permanent delete tip. After wondering why Office was locking up, I realized I had a huge amount of deleted emails in my send and deleted folders – and spent most of the morning cleaning it up.
Use categories instead of folders to “store” email. That way, you can add as many categories to each message as you want, then you can build as many Search Folders in Outlook as you need to find the message categories. You can then use a Search Folder that looks for uncategorized email as replacement for your main inbox.
Since it’s difficult to store email in multiple folders in Outlook (without mucking about with making copies of email and having duplicates crowding your folders), categories will allow you to, in a sense, tag your email and have it show up where/when you need it, as you use Search Folders to slice and dice your email.
re. flagged e-mails [To set a reminder—visible in your Inbox–to act on or reply to any message, right-click on the message you want to set the reminder for, select Follow Up, and choose your Due By time and date. When you click OK, the message will be flagged for you to remember to respond to, and the date and time will be automatically kept track of.]
*** further to the above…right click on grey toolbar in your inbox (From/To etc), Customise Current View/View by/then choose ‘Flag Status’ on Dropdown menu.**** this groups all flagged emails together according to colour you choose (urgency etc). Click and drag out of this grouped view when dealt with.
Enjoyed the tips, even though only 2 were new, they served as good reminders. Question on the OUtlook Calendar- when I pull in multiple weeks, all I get is a bunch of little boxes which I need to scroll over in order to read the entries. How do I get a list view or something that is remotely readable without having to use the mouse?
More on: Control-Z.
It’s actually “undo,” a convention used across Microsoft’s products and is helpful for undoing many actions, including when your elbow hits the keyboard and you have no idea how to undo the resultant random keystrokes.
It can reverse typing, formatting, moving between folders, and, as mentioned in the article, sending something to the deleted items folder. Unfortunately, it cannot be used in conjunction with the permanent-delete shortcut, shift-delete (also highlighted above). Once you shift-delete, it cannot be undone using control-z.
2 tips. Forget Outlook search and install Copernic Desktop Search. Couldn’t work without it. Secondly install Speedfiler, for those of us who have multiple projects and multiple folders it’s a god send.
guys this is cool advice, thanks for sharing it with me; i am new to the whole GTD thingy – which i think by way is brillant. what i can not underdstand is WHY AREN’T MORE BLUE CHIPS taking it up and making it mandotary process. any way happy hunting – Nym
Quickly Peruse Related Messages.
Please correct Action menu to Tools Menu.
For those on the lookout for lookout, you’ll find that the previous link above no longer works.
At the time of posting this comment, the following link does, however, work:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060831223528/http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html
(if I have managed my A HREF properly…)
I am having a problem emptying my deleted items folder. I am also having issues with deleting items from some of my folders. I get the message “The folder is Full” when deleting from folders and “The messaging interface returned an unknown error”
What can I do to fix this?
Can anyone tell me – can I see who has viewed my calendar and when? Is ther a way?
Does anybody know a good replacement for Lookout, which works with vista and outlook 07?? If yes, let me know, because I need one immediatly!! THANKS A LOT!
Charlie
Hi,
a good replacement for Lookout is Lookeen.
It is simililar to Lookout but has much more functions and is still faster.
Perhaps you try Lookeen under http://www.lookeen.com
greets pete
Does anyone know the maximum number of contacts you can have in Outlook 2007. What are the pitfalls of having a large database in excess of 2,000?
Thanks Pete!!
I downloaded the 14days-free version of Lookeen and it is great! I am definitely going to buy it! The search is amazing and it is so clear and easy to handle!
Thanks again for the tip!
Does anyone know the maximum number of “recent searches” that are listed under the Instant Search window in Outlook 2007?
And how to delete them?
Thanks for the tip! Now my speelin will neva be rong again!