Web Worker Daily

If you work in Microsoft Outlook, whether you choose to or are required to by an IT department, you probably waste much more time in it than you should. It’s also very common for Outlook users to ignore the features available to them other than e-mail and calendars. In this post, I’ll gather up eight tips that can boost your efficiently with Outlook. Also, see the many excellent reader comments in my previous Outlook tips post.

Open Folders from Windows. You can open any Outlook folder that you use frequently directly from your Windows desktop for convenience. Just create a shortcut to the folder on your desktop by dragging the folder from Outlook to the desktop. Press CTRL before you release the mouse to create the shortcut.

Customize Your Contact Information. The vast majority of Outlook users use the fields listed in Contacts exclusively and never add any customized fields. You can easily add custom fields. To do so, in a contact, click the All Fields tab, click New and then specify a field name, type and format.

Plan Ahead a Few Weeks. Want an overhead view of your time commitments for the next several weeks? In 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. Upon letting go, you’ll see six weeks of appointments arranged for you to view at once. You can print this view.

Start Outlook in Any Folder. By default, Outlook opens up into your Inbox folder, but you can easily have it open in any folder you want. To customize this, click the Tools menu, select Options, select Other, and in the Advanced Options box, specify the folder you want opened.

Use Advanced Find. Especially if you’re like me and you often let your inbox grow to a huge size, use the Advanced Find dialog box to narrow down your searches and save time. To bring it up, hit Ctrl+Shift+F.

Quick Printing. Did you know that you don’t even have to open an e-mail message or contact to print the contents out? Right-click on any item and hit Print for a super fast way to get hard copy.

Quickly Delegate Tasks. To quickly organize a project in Outlook go to Tasks and make a list of key milestones to the project, with each milestone entered as a task. Then right-click on each task, click Assign Task and enter a name in the To field.

Use Reminders. One of the most common Outlook problems is that messages just stack up, making it easy to forget to follow up on items. Set reminders for yourself by right-clicking a message, pointing to Follow Up, and then clicking Add Reminder. Set the time and date for your deadline. Select a flag color and click OK, to flag the message and set your reminder.

Do you have any good Outlook tips?