Feb 17, 2014

Microsoft Outlook is probably the most widely utilised Microsoft Application in the world and in my opinion, it is also the application that should have the most training allocated to it. Unfortunately, that is not the case and most users think it is simply used for sending and receiving emails, but there's so much more to it! In today's post, I'll share some easy time saving tips that you can utilise in Outlook every day.

Outlook is command central for planning your day, week, month, and year. It combines electronic mail with your daily planner, contact list, appointments, meetings, tasks and/or to-do-list. It also has an excellent notes feature.

These days, many of our tasks are sent to us via email, and if we cannot undertake the particular task immediately, we need to ‘remember’ to do them later. Outlook has a very good system in place that allows you to convert emails into tasks or appointments and here's how to do it.

Once you have read an email and determined that it is a task (i.e. something you need to do) or an appointment (i.e. something you need on your calendar), click your right mouse button on the email and drag it to either the 'Task' object or the 'Calendar' object. When you release the right mouse button, you will be asked if you want the following options:

If you 'Copy Here as Task (or Appointment)' with an attachment, your email becomes part of the task (or appointment) and any attachments in the email also move. This means that you will have all the instructions and items that you require to complete the task, and you can answer the email from within the task when you have completed it. The task remains in your task list until you have marked it as complete, keeping a history of what you have accomplished with a timeline.

You can also arrange your email view to show the 'Calendar' and 'To-Do-List' will keep you informed and aware of what you need to do. To enable this view, go to the 'View' tab and in the 'To-Do Bar' select 'Normal.'

The last and final tip for today would be using your 'Mailbox' link to view your Outlook for the day. This will show a summary of your calendar planning for the upcoming days, your tasks and messages.

To learn more about how to maximise Microsoft Outlook, I recommend that you take a look at New Horizons' Microsoft Outlook training programs.