How to Make Outlook Work Like Your Personal Assistant

MS Outlook is not just an email receptacle. Take a look at the features this hard working business software has to offer you and your staff.

Have it sort your mail as it comes in

Create folders for particular contacts, groups or projects. Create Message Rules to direct all incoming mail to automatically be filed in a specified folder if it comes from a particular email address. The unread mail will be indicated by a number next to the folder as well as being collected in the Unread Mail folder. Bonus: when you reply to the sorted email, your answer will be filed in the same folder if you set that up as an option. To start, make sure you have all the folders you need to capture mail from different projects, clients, etc. Then use Tools -- Rules & Alerts to direct the flow of incoming mail into the proper folders.

Have it screen your mail before it hits the inbox

Have a particular sender who constantly bombards your inbox with meaningless junk? Create a Message Rule to identify that sender and then choose to permanently delete the message without it ever hitting your inbox. You can further filter these messages if it contains certain words in the Subject Line.

Remind you of issues to follow up

Use your Follow Up Flags to remind you that there is an outstanding task associated with that message. You can designate when the follow up is due. The item will turn color when it is past due. You can file the messages in their proper folder (or they may be pre-filed if you put a Message Rule into play) but they will also be collected in a For Follow-up folder.

Highlight important mail coming in

If you need to see any messages coming in from a particular person or displaying a particular set of keywords in the subject line, use Message Rules to have those messages: a) turn a particular color; b) trigger a pop up display on your screen; c) play a brief sound.

Tell everyone when you're out of the office

It used to be that only MS Outlook working with an Exchange Server had an "out of office" message function. Now, you can set one up manually on your own Outlook copy:

1. Create a message
2. Save it as an email template
3. Set up a message rule to reply to incoming mail using that email template.

Make sure you're not disturbed when you're busy

If you need to get a project completed without being disturbed, simply turn off the new mail notification. Use ToolsàSend/Receive SettingsàDisable Scheduled Send/Receive

Just turn it back on when you want to. You can also schedule your mail to be picked up less or more often as your scheduling needs change.

Remember that the calendar feature doesn't just store your appointments, it can remind you a few minutes, hours or days in advance. It can also be set for regularly recurring events. These are just a few ways Outlook can work for you. A training session will definitely uncover some other time saving features you can really put to work for you.
Susana Fonticoba
President, Home & Office Computer Training
Helping Clients Control Their Computers With Confidence Since 2004
Email: susana@njpctraining.com
Web: http://www.njpctraining.com/
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