As part of our tips and tricks series, we have already shown some great info on how to be more productive with Microsoft Word – read our previous post Tips and Tricks: Are you being productive in Microsoft Word?.
In today’s post, we will continue our trip though the Microsoft Office suite.
Microsoft Outlook is a widely used email client my small and medium enterprises, and also has some great features to help you make the most of your time. A Commit100 MS Outlook guru shared some of his tips, tricks, and shortcuts to work faster in MS Outlook.
Download the Tips and Tricks in PDF format: Commit100-MSOutlookTipsNTricks
-
A lot of the things that apply for Word (see the previous post) apply for Outlook as well. Namely,
- Text selection and navigation
- Easy text alignment
- Copy and Paste Text
- Undoing actions
- Finding and replacing text
- Spelling check
- Text formatting
-
Convenient Keyboard shortcuts:
- To create a new email message, Ctrl+N
- To reply to a message, Ctrl+R
- To Reply to All, Ctrl+Shift+R
- To forward a message, Ctrl+F
- To send a message, Ctrl+Enter (unless this option is disabled)
- Switch between mail, calendar, contacts, and other items in the navigation pane by hitting Ctrl + [the place number of the item],
- e.g. Ctrl+1 will open mail, Ctrl+2 will open the calendar, and so forth.
- Create a new item from the clipboard. Copy any text to your clipboard, then in Outlook press Ctrl+V. Outlook will create a new message (or note or appointment or whatever item, depending on the folder you’re viewing) with the text already pasted.
-
Inbox organisation. You can create inbox folders and rules to direct messages with certain senders to those folders, so the messages will automatically go to those folders.
- To create a folder, right-click on the Inbox, select New Folder, and type the folder name.
- To create a rule, select the email from the sender for whom you want to make the rule, right-click and select Create Rule.
- Select the “From …” checkbox.
- Select the “Move the item to folder:” checkbox and click Select Folder, and then select the folder you created for that person.
- You can do similar organisation based on subject, not recipient.
-
Managing Multiple signatures (signature for new messages, for reply messages):
- Go to File > Options > Mail > Click on Signatures.
- Click New, and type a name for the signature.
- Enter the text and formatting for the signature, when finished click Save.
- In the drop-down menus on the right, select from the dropdown the signature you want to use for
- New Messages (full signature)
- Replies/Forwards (shortened signature).
-
Using Follow-up flags to track messages / tasks. This is a convenient feature that lets you remember if you need to follow up on an email.
- For an email you want to track, click on the flag beside it (on the right).
- To select a different priority (time range within which to follow up), right-click on the Flag beside it and select the appropriate time range.
- The email will now appear in Tasks.
- To stop tracking the email (i.e. to mark the task as complete), in the list of Tasks, click on the flag – it will change to a check mark and disappear from the list.
- You can do the same in your inbox by clicking on the flag.
- For an email you want to track, click on the flag beside it (on the right).
-
Saving important emails as files.
- To save an email as a file, open the email, go to File > Save as, and select the location to which you want to save. The email will be saved as an Outlook message that can be opened with Outlook.
- To save as a PDF, simply print the email as a PDF (File > Print > Select Microsoft Print to PDF printer)
-
Manual Send/Receive. This allows you to have a second look through all your emails before you send them, but requires you to remember to do that.
- To set manual Send/Receive, go to File > Options > Advanced > Scroll to Send and Receive.
- Uncheck the box “Send immediately when connected” and press OK.
- Now, all emails that you send will appear in the Outbox.
- To send all emails in the Outbox, in the Home tab press “Send/Receive All Folders”.
Download the Tips and Tricks in PDF format: Commit100-MSOutlookTipsNTricks
Recent Comments