Get to grips with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Outlook 2007 not only looks different from Outlook 2003, it's also a much better package. It's much simpler than ever before, and is intuitive for the user. Like Office Word 2007 and Excel 2007, the main difference is the new Ribbon feature. This makes things much easier for the user.
Improved features in Outlook 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 has a host of brand-new features, and also puts a new slant on existing features. One returning feature that has been improved is the option of dragging individual emails to different parts of Outlook, like the Calendar or Contacts section. If you drag an email to the Calendar and drop it there a new Event Invitation will be added, allowing you to easily schedule an appointment. You will then need to fill in another few options (such as date, time, and venue) and then the Appointment will be added to your Calendar.
You can also drag and drop an email to the Tasks section. A new Task will be created, and will have the same subject line as the email. However, you can easily change this to something that's easier to remember. You can similarly drag an email to the Contacts section, thus adding that person to your Address Book. After this you can also add their address, phone number(s), and any additional information.
The new To-Do Bar and how to Flag Emails
One of the best new features in Outlook 2007 is the To-Do Bar. Under default settings, the To-Do Bar is at the right of the screen and shows your Calendar, upcoming events, and all email you have flagged as important. The To-Do Bar highlights everything deemed important, so you'll never miss another meeting or forget to follow-up a particular email! The To-Do Bar lists Flagged emails by date: The ones you have to do today are always first in the list.
Flagging emails is simple in Office Outlook 2007. If an email needs a response by the end of the day, you can simply flag it for "Today" by clicking the see-through flag icon after the "Date" and "Size" columns in the email folder. Once you've completed the task, click on the flag again and it will be marked with as complete, with a tick symbol.
You can also flag emails for completion at a later date. To do so, right-click on the email and select "Follow Up". Alternatively, you can right-click on the flag symbol. You can select options such as "Today", "Tomorrow", "This Week", "Next Week", or else input a particular date in the future. If you incorrectly flag an email, you can easily delete the flag by right-clicking on it and select "Clear Flag". Immediately after being flagged, emails appear automatically in the To-Do Bar.
When you change the flag into the tick symbol after completing a task, it will appear crossed out in the To-Do Bar, so you know you don't have to complete it again. It also shows everything you've completed for the day so far. This serves as a great feature when working on group projects. Note: Do not delete items from the To-Do Bar. If you do so, they will also be deleted from your inbox..
Arrange your Inbox
Many of us get dozens or maybe hundreds of emails every day. It's often hard to keep track of them all. To make it easier to keep an eye on things, you can create folders and sub-folders so you can organize your inbox better. To create a folder, simply right-click on Personal Folders in the Email window on the left of the screen. Choose "New Folder", and rename it however you choose..
If you wish to create a subfolder within this folder, follow the same process. Right-click on the folder you want to create the subfolder and follow the directions above.
Once your folders are created, you can drag and drop emails into them. Alternatively, you can create a rule to move all received and future emails from a certain address "john@example.zz" to a folder "Emails from John". To do this, right-click on an email from John and select "Create Rule". Tick the box beside John's name at the top, and then choose "Move the item to folder". You'll need to pick the destination folder, and then click OK to complete.
Once you have a few folders in use, you can choose "Favourite Folders". These are located at the top left above the regular folder list. To add a folder to your favourites, right click on it and select "Add to Favourites" or else you can simply drag it to the Favourites section.
Categorize your emails
If, like me, you have emails for certain different categories, you can create folders to arrange them. However, sometimes this may cause you to lose track of certain emails i.e. once it's gone from your inbox, you seem to forget about it. Well, not any more. Now you can create custom coloured categories for your emails, turning your inbox into a rainbow-coloured filing system! If an email falls into more than one category, you can also choose extra coloured categories for it. In Outlook 2003, you could give emails particular colours, but Outlook 2007 goes one further - now you can name your categories. There will be no more questions like "What were red emails again?"
To categorize an email, right-click on the email and select "Categorize". Alternatively, you can right-click in the Categories column, and select the colour you want. The first time you use a particular colour, you will be given the option of naming it. You can give categories any name you like.
Removing categories is just as easy, follow the same steps you went through when adding a category, and when you click on the colour again, it will be removed.
Renaming Categories is also a pain-free process, right click and select "All Categories", then you can simply rename any or all categories. You can create a total of 25 different coloured categories, meaning you'll never lose track of an email again.
Now you know how to sort and arrange your Inbox into categories and folders, you'll never lose an email again!
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