Office 97 - Outlook Tips

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Outlook on the Net
Hyperlink to Outlook Data	To jump to Outlook modules from Word or PowerPoint documents or Outlook email messages, follow the steps for linking to other Office documents, but insert specific codes in the "Link to file or URL" area of the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. To link to: Use this code: The Inbox outlook:inbox The Contacts list outlook:contacts The Calendar outlook:calendar A mailbox folder outlook:foldername\subfolder (for example, outlook:projects\completed) A specific message in your mail folder outlook:inbox/~subject of message A specific contact in your Contacts folder outlook:contacts/~name of contact If you're not concerned with how things look, you can type the above codes directly into your documents or email messages without designating another word to use as the hyperlink. Office recognizes these codes and automatically turns them into blue underlined hyperlinks. Note that if you type a code directly into a document or an email message, you may need to place angle brackets (< >) around the code. If you use a code with a space in it (for instance, a specific contact name), Office will not read the whole code unless angle brackets enclose it.
Using Word as Your E-Mail Editor	Want to edit the spelling, grammar, and formatting in your email messages with Word's automatic tools? Then use Word 97 as your email editor. In Outlook, select Tools/Options/E-mail from the menu bar, and check the box that says "Use Microsoft Word as the e-mail editor."
Make Outlook's E-Mail Compatible	If recipients of your Outlook Internet email are complaining about strange characters at the end of lines, try this fix: Select Tools/Services from the menu bar to open the Services dialog box. Make sure the Services tab is showing, then select Internet Mail, and click the Properties button. In the Internet Mail dialog box, make sure the General tab is showing, and click the Message Format button. Click the Character Set button, then change the character set from ISO-8859-1 to US ASCII. Click OK four times to save the new settings.
Delay Message Delivery	Just because you don't want to send a particular message today doesn't mean you can't go ahead and write it. If you use Outlook 97's Delay Delivery feature, you can write your messages while you're thinking about them, and then send them on a future date. Create the message you want to send in the future, and then click the Options tab. Click the "Do not deliver before" check box, and fill in the desired delivery date. When you click Send, the message will be held in your Outbox until the specified date, then delivered to all the recipients.
Create a Personal Distribution List	If you frequently send messages to specific groups of people, a Personal Distribution List (PDL) lets you address your message with one click. Here's how to create your own PDL: Select Tools/Address Book, and click the New Entry button. If you get a message telling you that you can't create new entries, you need to first create a Personal Address Book as described below. From the dialog box that appears, select Personal Distribution List, and click OK. Type a name for the list in the Name field, for example, Carpool group. This is the name that will show up in your address book. Click Add/Remove Members. Your existing contacts are listed on the left; click the names you want to add, then click the Members button to put them in your list. You can also add new contacts by clicking New and filling in the fields. Once you've set it up, using your PDL is easy. Create a new message, and click the To button. In the dialog box that appears, select your personal address book from the "Show names from the" drop-down list. From the list on the left, select the appropriate PDL (all the entries with a small two-person icon to the left are PDLs), click the To button, and click OK. Double-clicking a PDL in the list will show you the contents of the list and allow you to add new members.
Create a Personal Address Book	If you get an error message saying you can't create new entries when you are building your PDL, chances are that you need to create a Personal Address Book. This is a tool you use to organize your PDLs. To create an address book, select Tools/Services, and click the Add tab. From the Add Services to Profile dialog box, select Personal Address Book, and click OK. The Personal Address Book dialog box pops up with a default name and path; you can either keep these settings or enter your own. Click OK twice to exit the setup. You'll have to restart Outlook and perhaps your entire computer for the change to take effect.
Navigation and Organization
Customize Outlook	To customize Outlook's basic functionality, begin by exploring the Options dialog box, using the What Is feature to find out what each item does before you start tinkering. Simply select Tools/Options from the menu bar, and right-click various items to pull up additional information.
Open Multiple Modules	If you want to have two or more Outlook modules open all the time, but you don't want to switch back and forth between modules by changing views, do the following: Right-click any of the icons in the Outlook bar (or folders in the Folder List). Select "Open in new window." A separate window will open, letting you work in two different modules. This can be handy when you want to drag and drop items between modules.
Get Creative with Columns	You can change the column layout in most Outlook tables (such as a Task List) by clicking a column label and dragging: If you want to completely remove a column, click the column's label, and drag it above or below its current level. A large black X appears. Release the mouse while the X is showing to remove the column from the current view. (If you accidentally delete a column this way, select View/Show Fields from the menu bar, select the field you want from the Available Fields list, click the Add button, and click OK. The column reappears in your table.) If you want to rearrange columns, click the label of the column you want to move, and drag it left or right along the other columns. As you drag, sets of red arrows pop up, showing where the column will be placed if you drop it. When you've dragged the column where you want it, drop the label, and Outlook inserts the column where the red arrows indicate.
See What's Going On	Outlook automatically resizes columns to fit all of a table's information into one view. Unfortunately, this resizing can make the information inside the fields impossible to read. If you don't want your columns resized, but instead, want to use a horizontal scroll bar to see all the fields, do the following: Select View/Format View from the menu bar. In the Format Table View dialog box, uncheck the Automatic Column Sizing option. Conversely, if you want to see all the fields in a particular table, use the same procedure to turn on Automatic Column Sizing.
Make Outlook look like Exchange	Microsoft Exchange users may notice that things appear a little differently in Outlook. Instead of the hierarchy view of Exchange folders, you'll see the Outlook bar--which contains large icons for the various modules--as the main navigational tool. If you like the old way better, you can change it back. To see the folder hierarchy, select View/Folder List from the menu bar.
Speed Up Performance	If you're suffering from slow Outlook performance caused by a lack of RAM, try these tweaks to get things moving along a little faster. Turn off WordMail You don't have to use Word as your email editor. To revert to the default Outlook editor, select Tools/Options, and click the E-mail tab. Deselect the "Use Word as the e-mail editor" box. Turn off journaling You can pick and choose what events, documents, and activities the Journal records by selecting Tools/Options and clicking the Journal tab. To completely shut off journaling, deselect all the check boxes on the tab. Download the "E-mail forms fix utility" The "E-Mail forms fix utility" is a tool for users who use both the Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange email clients on a regular basis. The two clients use slightly different forms technology, and the utility eliminates the resulting slowdown in performance. Download the fix from the Microsoft site. Download the Internet Mail Enhancement Patch (IMEP) The IMEP is for users who use a dial-up ISP rather than a Microsoft Mail post office or Microsoft Exchange server. The patch provides support for multiple POP3 accounts in the same user profile (which means you can dial into several accounts from the same computer), improved support for storing messages on POP3 servers, the use of an angle bracket (>) to mark original text when replying to messages, and full email message headers. Download the patch from the Microsoft site.
Drag and Drop Information Management	It's easy to move important information between the different tools in Outlook 97. For example, you can store an email message as a journal entry, a task, or a meeting. Just drag the mail message onto the appropriate icon in the Outlook 97 toolbar, and a new entry is automatically created. Similarly, dragging an icon from the journal or task screen into the Mail Toolbar pastes the item's contents into an email message, ready to be addressed and sent.
Integration
Copy Settings Between Folders	You can copy views, forms, rules, and other special settings from one folder to another. This feature is useful if you maintain more than one contact list and want to copy custom view settings or access privileges among them. To copy the settings: Open the folder to which you want to copy the settings. Select File/Folder/Copy Folder Design from the menu bar. In the Copy Folder Design dialog box, select the folder from which you want to copy the settings. Choose the different properties (Permissions, Rules, Descriptions, and/or Forms & Views) you want to copy, and click OK.
Clone Outlook Items	One of Outlook's best time-saving features is its ability to clone a new Outlook item from an existing one. For example, you can: Drag and drop an email message from the Inbox to the Tasks icon on the Outlook bar. This automatically creates a task with a due date and a stored copy of the message you can refer to later. To create a preaddressed message, drag and drop a contact item from the Contacts list to the Inbox icon on the Outlook bar. To create a message with the note's contents already in it, drag and drop an Outlook note onto the Inbox icon. To designate a time to work on the task, drag and drop an item from Tasks module to the Calendar icon. Once you've dropped the task, the dialog box lets you adjust the start and end times for the scheduled work.
Choose the Best Match	Outlook automatically checks names in the address fields of email messages, meeting requests, and task requests against the names in your address books before you send a message. If you see a wavy red line under a name you typed in, it means Outlook has found multiple matches for that name. Just right-click the name to bring up a list of contacts with the same moniker; select the correct address from there.
Print Better on Old Printers	If you're sending a fax or printing to a dot matrix printer, try turning off gray shading. This option tells Outlook to print the forms without trying to shade the fields, which will make them more legible when printed on low-resolution printers: Select File/Print from the menu bar. Click the Page Setup button. Under the Format tab, uncheck the "Print using gray shading" box. Click OK twice.
Share with Users of Older Offices	Just because you have Office 97 doesn't mean that everyone else does. If you plan to share the information in your Personal Folder or to create new folders with information needed by poor slobs still using Exchange, you can set Outlook to generate two sets of files. One set retains fields for all the new features in Outlook; the other is compatible with Exchange. Here's how: Right-click the banner menu (the horizontal area right below the toolbar containing the name of the current folder, such as Inbox); select Properties. Under the General tab of the Properties dialog box, check the box labeled "Automatically generate Microsoft Exchange views," and click OK.
Calendar Tricks
Choose the Best Match	You can easily change the start and stop dates of an existing event or appointment in Outlook's Calendar module: Double-click the event or appointment to open it. Click the Start Time drop-down box. A calendar will pop up. Select a range on the displayed calendar by dragging the pointer over the desired dates. Outlook automatically updates the start/end time values.
Discontinuous Dates	To select discontinuous dates in the Calendar module, hold down the Ctrl key while you click in the monthly date navigator in the upper right corner. You can even select discontinuous weeks by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking to the left of different weekly rows in the month display.
Change Views Instantly	You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly change your main Calendar views. Alt-1 displays one day, Alt-2 displays two days, and so on to Alt-9, which displays nine days side by side. Alt-- (Alt and the minus key) gives you Week mode, and Alt-= (Alt and the equals key) serves up Month mode.
Mouse Shortcuts	In Calendar's one-day view (see "Change views instantly"), right-click in the area above the time-interval labels (for example, 8 a.m. or 9 a.m.) for a list of shortcuts, such as quickly adjusting the time scale of your daily view. You can also right-click in the date header (Tuesday, October 1, for instance) in one-day view--or on a blank space on the calendar grid in any view--for another list of shortcuts, such as instantly adding a new appointment.
Request and Schedule a Meeting in One Step	You can request a meeting and mark it down on your calendar all in one step. Drag a contact from your list to the Calendar icon in the Outlook 97 toolbar. A combination email/calendar screen appears, with the email address already inserted. Type the message, then set the time, date, and whether or not you need a reminder about the meeting. When you click Send, the appointment goes onto your calendar. You can edit the status of the meeting using the Calendar, and any time you make changes, you'll be asked whether you want to send an update to the attendees.
Make Recurring Events Invisible	If you have recurring events that you want to be alerted about, but don't want to print out on your calendar, you can use filtered views to hide those events. For example, if you need to take medication at the same time every day, but don't want it listed on your printed calendar, you can create a filtered view that will keep that item hidden. To create a filtered view, you'll first need to assign the recurring event to a category. If you are creating a new event, select File/New Appointment, and fill in a new detail screen. If the event is already listed in your calendar, double-click it to open its event/appointment detail screen. When you've filled in the information, select Edit/Categories or click the Categories button at the bottom, and choose a category from the dialog box that occurs. If none of the provided categories matches your event, create a new one: in the Categories dialog box, click Master Category List, then type the new category name (for example, Exercise or Medicine). Click Add, and then click OK to add it to the available check boxes. Every time you schedule an event of this type, make sure you assign it this same category so that your filtered view will work. Once you've assigned a category to the event, you need to create a filter for it: From the main Outlook screen, select View/Filter, and choose the Advanced tab. Click Field, select Frequently-Used Fields, then select Categories. In the Condition box, select Doesn't Contain. In the Value box, enter the name of your category. Click Add to List. Click OK. When you return to the calendar screen, all events in the filtered category will be invisible. But they are still there, and their alerts will sound as usual.
Customize the TaskPad	You can tailor the Calendar's TaskPad to so that it contains all the fields of Outlook's regular Tasks section. The default TaskPad layout shows only the task icon, status, and subject. But you can easily add other fields: right-click any blank area of the TaskPad, then select TaskPad Settings/Show Fields. In the dialog box that appears, add the fields you use most often. For example, to add the Due Date, select that entry, click Add, and then click OK. That field and its corresponding information now appear in the TaskPad. You can further customize your settings and rearrange the order of the TaskPad fields by clicking the header of a field and dragging it to a new position.
Contact List Tips
Customize Your Catagories	If you have a large Contacts list, use categories to create subsets that you can use to sort and group entries. It's a simple three-step process: Open a Contacts item, and click the Categories button at the bottom of the form. In the Categories dialog box, check all the categories you wish to assign to the contact, and click OK. Click the Save And Close toolbar button. You can even create custom categories. For example, salespeople might want to break down their contacts by Hot Lead, Warm Lead, and Ice Cold. They could then sort by these categories, getting a prioritized list of whom to call. To create a custom category: Open a Contacts item, and click the Categories button at the bottom of the form. In the Categories dialog box, click the Master Category List button. In the Master Category List dialog box, type the name of the custom category in the New box, and click the Add button. Repeat the process for each custom category you want to add. When you're done, click OK. Back in the Categories dialog box, check the new categories you wish to add to the current contact, then click OK. Click the Save And Close button on the toolbar.
Make Mass Mailings	Ever felt the urge to spam? Outlook makes it easy to send a mass mailing to contacts in a category you've previously set up: In the Contacts module, select View/Current View/By Category from the menu bar. Select a category, and drag it to the Inbox icon on the Outlook bar. Outlook will generate an empty email message and fill the To field with the email addresses of all the contacts in that category.
Select Your Sort Order	Sometimes you're interested in finding people by their company; other times you want to find all the sales reps you know. Customizing your sort order lets you group contacts by the fields you choose rather than simple alphabetical order. To customize the sort order of a contact list: Open the contact list, and choose View/Sort from the menu bar. In the Sort dialog box, select the field or fields by which you want Outlook to sort your contact list. Click OK.
Create a Rolodex	The Address Card view of the Contacts folder creates the closest thing Outlook has to a Rolodex. You can find specific contacts by typing the first letter of the contact's last name. If you have customized the sort order of your list, the first or highest-order sort field will be the one indexed by your key press. For example, if you are sorting by company first, pressing C will bring you to the first company that begins with the letter c.
Disable In-Cell Editing	To achieve a Rolodex-like effect in the Phone List view, you must disable in-cell editing. (In-cell editing starts editing the current contact item when you press a key, inserting the letter or number you type into the current field.) To disable in-cell editing, select View/Format View from the menu bar, uncheck the Allow In-Cell Editing box, and click OK.
Transfer Contacts to Other Users	It's easy to forward a contact to another Outlook user: Select the contact, right-click, and choose Forward from the pop-up list. Outlook puts the contact item in a mail message. Fill out the mailing information, then send the email. On the receiving end, the recipient can automatically add the contact by simply dragging and dropping the message's included item onto the Contacts icon.
Journal and Notes Tips
Track it all with the Journal	Outlook's Journal keeps track of all your activities in Office modules, letting you see when you last updated a certain Word or Excel file or sent an email message. The Journal also records all outbound calls made with Outlook's automatic dialing feature, including information on whom you called, when, and for how long. To record a phone call not dialed through Outlook: Select the contact you want to call (or the one you just called). In the main menu, select Tools/Record in Journal. A Journal Entry dialog box pops up. If you're making the call as you record it, click the Start Timer button, and the Journal will time the call for you. If you've already made the call, select a start date, time, and approximate duration of the call. Add whatever notes you like in the text box below, then click Save And Close.
Track Your Phone Calls by Contact	To view a history of your phone calls to a particular contact in the Journal module, select View/Current View/By Contact from the menu bar. Double-click the contact.
Make Colorful Notes	You can change the color of individual Outlook notes from basic yellow: Open an existing note or click the Note button in the toolbar to create a new one. Click the Note icon in the upper left corner of the note. Select Color, then choose a new color from the menu. Voil�! Your note has a new background color. If you really hate yellow, you can change the default color of your notes: Select Tools/Options from the menu bar, and click the Tasks/Notes tab. In the Note Defaults area near the bottom of the dialog box, select a different color from the Color drop-down box. You can also choose a different default size and/or font for your notes in this area.
Task Tips
Create a Task	Creating a new task for your Tasks list is easy. Select File/New/Task from the main menu or click the New Task button (shown at right). In the Task dialog box, name your task, and give it a due date and a start date, if applicable. Here you can also record the task's status, assign it a priority, and ask for a reminder on or before its due date. When you're done, click the Save And Close dialog box. If you want to change any of the task's information at any time (say, to change its status from In Progress to Waiting On Someone Else), just double-click the task in the Tasks list to reopen its dialog box, then edit away.
Sort Tasks	By default, tasks appear in the Tasks list in the order you create them. But once you get a few piled up, it can be confusing to scroll through them all. Never fear: Outlook lets you sort tasks into a more logical order--for instance, by due date or in groups of related items. Outlook provides several built-in sorting options. Click the Current View box, and you can select from a variety of views. In most of these (such as Detailed List), you can click a column header (such as Due Date) to sort the tasks by the information in that column. If your sorting needs go beyond these simple sorts, select View/Sort from the main menu. In the Sort dialog box, choose a parameter from the Sort Items By drop-down list. If you'd like to further refine your sort, select second, third, and (if you must) fourth sort parameters. Click OK.
Assing Tasks to Others	Have too many tasks to take care of by yourself? Outlook lets you assign tasks to your coworkers. Just open a task, and select Task/Assign Task from the Outlook main menu to turn the task into an email message. Type an email address in the To field or click the To button, and choose a name from your contacts list. If you'd like to track the progress of the project, check the box marked "Keep an updated copy of this task on my Task List." Any changes the recipient makes to the task as it progresses will appear in your Task List. (Note that you will be unable to make changes to a task that you've assigned to someone else.) And if you'd like to be notified when the project is complete, check the box marked "Send me a status report when this task is complete." You can also add any comments you'd like in the window at the bottom of the dialog box. Click the Send button, and your task is automatically assigned to your coworker via email.
Include Shortcuts	You can add a shortcut from any Task entry to a contact, event, note, journal entry, and so on. For example, if your task is to mail your sister-in-law a thank-you note for your birthday present, you might want a shortcut in that Task entry linked to her contact information. To add a shortcut to a Task entry, double-click the task to open it, then select Insert/Item. Under Insert As, click the Shortcut radio button. In the Look In list, click the folder that represents the Outlook 97 area you need, and select the entry you want to link to from the Items list. Either double-click the item or click OK to close the Insert Item dialog box. The shortcut icon will now appear in the Notes section of the Task screen, where you can save and close the task.
Regenerating Tasks	You've probably used recurring tasks to schedule events like weekly meetings that occur on a regular schedule. But what if you have tasks that you repeat only once after you've completed them the first time? For example, you may want to back up your computer files every two weeks, but sometimes the process gets delayed by a day or two when you are busy. With Outlook's Regenerating Tasks feature, your task list will know when you complete the task and will then insert it again x days later. If you never complete the task, it will remain on your list only once. Here's how to set up a regenerating task: Open an existing task by double-clicking it, or start a new one. In the task's detail screen, select Task/Recurrence. Under Recurrence Patter, select how often the task should occur. Select the Regenerate New Task radio button, and fill in the appropriate increment of time for regeneration. Click OK to close the dialog box. You'll see the regeneration criteria listed just under the Task tab on the specific detail page. Save and close the task.
Color-Code Your Tasks	You can color-code your tasks list to make it easy to see which tasks are overdue. To change the color of overdue and completed tasks, select Tools/Options, and click the Tasks/Notes tab. Under Task Color Options, choose colors from the drop-down menus to signify completed and overdue tasks, then click OK. Your tasks list will now be easier to read.