This week’s hint and tip is on Outlook folders. Most businesses use Outlook everyday for their emails and there are many useful features in the package. Any one person can receive many emails daily and so being able to organise them with folders can be a great tool. Creating folders in Outlook is covered in our Outlook training course but we also decided to do a hint and tip on it. We are going to go through it now below.

Why do you need folders in Outlook?

Folders are a way of organising your emails in Outlook, rather than having them all just in your inbox. It’s a good way of making it easier to find these emails later too. You can have as many or as little of these folders as you want, there isn’t a limit in Outlook.

How do I create a folder?

There are a number of ways in which you can create a folder. The way you choose is down to whichever you prefer and find easiest to remember.

One way is by right hand clicking on your email address on the left hand side or on an existing folder. When you right hand click on it, a menu will appear where there is an option to add a new folder. This will insert a folder down the left hand side and you will be able to give it a name.

Another way is via the Folders Tab at the top. From here you can click on the button called ‘New Folder’. This will bring up a pop up window where you can choose where you want the new folder to be created under and give it a name. Clicking OK will then insert the folder into Outlook.

Editing folders in Outlook

Once you have created a folder, you can then edit it if needed. Some options for editing are renaming, copying, moving or deleting the folder. All of these options can be done via the Folders Tab at the top of the screen or by right hand clicking on the folder you wish to edit.

The video below goes through the different ways mentioned above in which you can insert folders in Outlook. We hope that you find the video useful and enjoy learning about it!

Take a look below at the video to find out more!

We hope you liked this hint and tip on Outlook folders, why not take a look at our previous one on a inserting a table in Publisher?

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This week’s hint and tip is on Outlook searches. Outlook is used by many everyday for their emails and there are lots of features in the package to help you with your use of it. Finding a specific email out of hundreds can be a daunting task but there are ways in which you can search for them to make this task easier. Searching in Outlook is covered in our Outlook training course but we also decided to do a hint and tip on it. We are going to go through it now below.

Searching for emails in Outlook

Searching for emails in Outlook can be a very useful feature to use as sometimes you might not remember exactly where you filed an email away. We are going to go through two different ways in which you can search for an email in Outlook to help make this job easier for you.

Method 1 – Search toolbar at the top of the program

The first method you can use is the search toolbar that you can find at the top of the screen in Outlook.

You can search for a keyword and then further limit the criteria to just certain folders etc.

Method 2 – Create a Search Folder

This allows you to save away a search criteria to run time and time again.

Folder Tab, New Search Folder.

There are some set criteria for example large emails, unread etc but we are going to ‘Create a custom Search folder’ and select just Inbox (Browse).

We shall have 2 criterial in this search: high importance and subject contains enquiry.

This will then run the search on your inbox and also add an entry to the search folders section on the left hand side where your folders are.

The video below goes through the two ways mentioned above in which you can search for emails in Outlook with another example. We hope that you find the video useful and enjoy learning about it!

Take a look below at the video to find out more!

We hope you liked this hint and tip on Outlook searches, why not take a look at our previous one on a creating a style in Word?

For more hints and tips on Microsoft Outlook and other modules go to our web page here.

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This week’s hint and tip is about scheduling meeting rooms in Outlook and how you can use it to book a room for a meeting. This isn’t specifically covered on our Outlook training course, so we decided to do a hint and tip on it. We are going to go through it now below.

Scheduling Meeting Rooms

If you are booking a meeting to occur in a room that needs booking, you can check availability before sending the meeting to attendees. To do this, you start off by ‘inviting’ the rooms to the meeting as well as any attendees.

In calendar view, click on Open Calendar button and select option for ‘from Room list…’. Now select all rooms required and OK. This will add all the rooms into a group on the left hand side. This lets you see the availability of the rooms.

You can book a meeting in a room by doing it from your calendar. Firstly, ensure that all rooms are ticked to be shown on LHS and then follow the steps as below:

1. Click new meeting, new meeting for all (this will add in all the room calendars in schedule assistant to see availability)
2. Add in the people you are inviting to the meeting and then schedule assistant will show you all calendars for attendees and rooms to be able to check when all are free/available.
3. Once you’ve picked a time and room, untick all the unwanted rooms and click appointment. This will then update the appointment. Now click send.
4. Once you’ve done this, check on the details of the room calendar. You should now be able to see the appointment is booked in for the room.

Booking delegate

This is someone who is set to approve meetings and bookings of rooms, rather than the room just being booked straight away once you have sent the meeting, someone has to approve the room booking request before it goes through.

If there is a booking delegate assigned in your company, booking a meeting will have an extra step to it. Set up the meeting as before (see previous instructions on scheduling a meeting room).

Once you have sent the meeting, you’ll receive an email saying that the room has been tentatively booked and is awaiting approval.

The booking delegate will receive the email request as a meeting request but for the room booking. They will receive this room booking request with the option to accept, reject or propose a new time.

Once the booking delegate responds to your request, you will receive a response back by email.

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on scheduling meeting rooms in Outlook. Why not take a look at our previous one on an example of a nested XLOOKUP function being used in Excel?

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This week’s hint and tip is about the Outlook scheduling assistant and how you can use it when setting up meetings in Outlook. This isn’t specifically covered on our Outlook training course, so we decided to do a hint and tip on it. We are going to go through it now below.

Scheduling Assistant for Creating Meetings

The scheduling assistant is a useful feature to use in Outlook to help you set up meetings efficiently.

This feature allows you to check the availability of attendees for a meeting before you send it out. Arranging a meeting for when multiple people are all free can often be an hard work in companies. So using this assistant can cut down the time it takes to organise a meeting with a group of people.

To use this assistant in Outlook, just follow these steps:

1. Firstly set up a meeting and add in attendees but do not send it
2. Once you have done this, then click scheduling assistant tab in the meeting window
3. This will show calendars of the attendees you have invited overlaid with the time of the proposed meeting at the top.

If the time of the meeting will not work, you can either change it manually or click on the auto pick option and Outlook will pick the next time everyone is available.

Once you have finished here you can then go back to the meeting tab and check that all the details for the meeting have been filled in and then send it off.

This should have hopefully cut down on the time it’ll take to book the meeting as you will have already worked out dates that do not work for everyone through using their calendar availability.

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on using the Outlook scheduling assistant when setting up a meeting. Why not take a look at our previous one on how to create a meeting in Outlook?

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This week’s hint and tip is about creating meetings in Outlook and the ways you can create them in Outlook. This is covered on our Outlook training course, but we also we decided to do a hint and tip on it. We are going to go through it now below.

Meetings in Outlook

Meetings are very similar to appointments but they require another person or persons to accept the event so that both events (meeting dates) appear in both calendars. The invitation is sent by email requiring a response.

When creating meetings it’s sometimes useful to have both emails and calendar open at the same time. To do this, right hand click on calendar icon and select open in new window option (when closing Outlook down use File, Exit rather than the cross as Outlook will remember the view next time you open it up)

How to set up a meeting

When creating meetings, you can either create them by using the meeting option under New Items (this will open a window like that seen below) or you can create an email straight from an email. To create a meeting from an email, click and drag the email over the calendar icon and set up the details when the meeting window comes up.

When creating a new meeting in Outlook there are a number of fields that you will fill in. These are:

• Title: this is where you type in the title of the meeting
• Required: this is where you insert the email addresses of the attendees that are required to attend the meeting
• Optional: this is where you can insert any email addresses of attendees to which this meeting is optional
• Start and End time: this is where you put in the details of the date and time of the meeting
• Location: this is where you put in the location in which the meeting will occur
• ‘White space under location field’: this is where you type in a message for all the attendees with any extra information or important details

Once you have set up the meeting, click on the ‘Send’ button. This will then send out the meeting request that you have just set up.

The attendees will then have the option to accept or reject the meeting request that you have sent to them. It will appear as an email in their inbox in Outlook.

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on creating meetings in Outlook. Why not take a look at our previous one on printing a custom range of pages in Word?

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This week’s hint and tip is about creating signatures in Outlook. This looks at how to create signatures for when you send emails as well as how to set up defaults for email accounts. This is covered on our Outlook training course but we decided to do a hint and tip on it too. We are going to go through it now below.

What it is and where to find it

An email signature is something you can set up in Outlook that will insert information automatically for you at the bottom of your emails. It is where you can put information about yourself, some examples being your job title, company name and contact number. Rather than having to keep typing this out each time you send an email, setting up a signature will insert it automatically for you.

To find the area for setting up a signature, you need to go to File Tab, Options, Mail and then click on the signatures button.

Creating signatures in Outlook

Once you have got to the area in options in Outlook, you will then be able to create a signature. Click on the new button and give your signature a name (normally your name). Underneath there is a box that will currently be blank, this is where you can type in the details you want included in your signature. You can either type these all in yourself or if you have them already saved in a document you can copy and paste them over. Once you have typed in the details click save to make sure you save the signature.

Setting up default signatures for email accounts

In the top right hand corner of the signatures settings box there is a default area. This is where you can set the default signature you wish to be used for each email account that you have in Outlook on your computer. Firstly select the email account you want from the drop down list and then from here select the signature for each default setting.

The video below shows you how to set up a signature in Outlook and also how to assign the default signatures for email accounts. Both of these features are very useful and will save you time when composing and replying to emails.

Take a look below at the video to find out more and then try it out on your own computer!

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on creating signatures in Outlook. Why not take a look at our previous one on using the FV financial function in your spreadsheets in Excel?

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Outlook may not be as functionally large a module as Excel or Word but it still packs a punch in terms of features to save time. It often a ‘go to’ software package for businesses to use as their mailing system for within the business and to customers. As it is part of the Microsoft Office package it has lots of features in it that copy across from Excel and Word, so using it is sometimes easier as you have already used a lot of the features before!

As well as features copying over from other packages within the Microsoft Office suite, there is also a lot of help that you can get through the Microsoft Office website with troubleshooting. There are times that things can go wrong with Outlook and so having this help option is a real bonus as you have an expert on the other end who can give you a helping hand in case something goes wrong!

7 Features to use in Outlook

We have recently run courses at a clients premises in Bromsgrove, where all those who attended the course benefited from these 7 features which they were unaware of.

Each of these topics above are useful and beneficial in the day to day use of Outlook but a lot of people do not realise that they are available for use in Outlook! A lot of these features are present in other packages within the Microsoft Office suite, but being able to bring them in to Outlook is an added bonus and can really make your emails more beneficial to what you might want to get across to someone.

For more information on any these Outlook features above please email us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk or give us a call on 07903 840105 and we would be happy to chat to you about them. All the topics above are covered in our Outlook training course.

Why not take a look at our previous post on a new course coming and a macro hint and tip?

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This week we bring you some hints and tips form Outlook that are sometimes not the most used. Have a look below at them!

Email follow up red flag tasks/manual tasks

When you create new tasks, or if you flag an email, they will all appear together in your tasks list. A task is different to flagging an email as you create a task from scratch and it’s not attached to an email, whereas flagging an email by default creates a ‘to-do’ item on the task list. (You can always choose to show your to do list on the right hand side) Flags are mainly used when you want to remind yourself to follow up an email.

Exporting Contacts into Excel for Word mail merge or pull contacts from Outlook straight into Word

To export your contacts to Excel, you can add the Import/Export button to your QAT and click on it there or you can click on File, Open & Export and click on the Import/Export button. You will then be able to follow through a wizard to create an exported file in Excel.

Create a new Search folder for ‘often searched words or contacts’

For phrases you regularly search for across mailboxes in Outlook you can create your own search folder from the Folder Tab, Create new Search Folder command. You will then be taken through steps to decide upon your search words, who sends the emails or anyone and who to. After you’ve created the search folder it appears on the left hand side under your mail box near the bottom and simply click on it to initiate the search.

Schedule view in calendars allows you to quickly arrange a meeting for several people who are free

Schedule View allows you to see which dates and times are free across multiple calendars. It displays your calendar in a horizontal layout. You can change the view of your calendar to this view by clicking on the ‘Schedule View’ option in the Arrange gallery in Calendar mode. Once you have seen what time and date are free simply click on the bar at the top of the top most calendar and a meeting request dialogue box appears for you to fill in . The recipients of the meeting request are those whose calendars you’ve chosen to show.

If you are interested in learning more about using Outlook and making more efficient use of your time in this package, take a look at our Outlook training course page.

If you want to know more about Outlook or any of our other Microsoft Office packages, you can take a look at our website here or alternatively contact us by email and we will be happy to chat to you!

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For years Word was the number one software package that everybody used, a standard for anyone in business to compose a letter, fax or documented procedure. It was used as the template for invoices, despatch notes and quotations. With the growing interest in Outlook for emailing and Excel not just for calculations but for forms also, Word has lost some of its importance in the business marketplace.

Some where does Word still fit in inside the working environment and where can Outlook take precedence? Here is a simple table showing where perhaps each is best suited, along with techniques in each.

What do you think? Do you think that the boundaries between these three Microsoft Office packages have become blurred in their use in businesses over recent years? Have you blurred your use of them? Let us know what you think!

To find out more about any of these and more functions please visit our website for details of courses we can run. If you have any queries about our courses, Word training Leicestershire or any other county and package, you can use our contact page on the website to send us your query. Otherwise you can email us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk or give us a call on 07903 840105.

We hope you liked this post, why not take a look at our previous one on text functions you can use in Excel?

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Outlook sometimes gets overlooked a bit as a Microsoft Office package, a lot of people just see it as their inbox for collecting emails in but there is so much that you can do with this package! There are lots of features that you can use to make your use of Outlook easier and simpler for your emails as well as using the great Calendar area in the package too!

Here’s a simple tick list of five features in MS Outlook 2010 you may find helpful.

1. Start using Conversations in the View Tab to link together emails sent back and forth over a period of time
2. Create your own personalised Search Folder for the searches of words or phrases you use most often
3. Use Autotext to save typing!
4. Use Schedule View in Calendars to see who is available for meetings before you send out the request
5. Use Quick Steps as a way of quickly filing and categorising emails

Quick Steps

We are now going to look in to the Quick Steps feature in a bit more detail for you!

These allow a number of actions to take place via the simple quick step of a button. In the Quick Steps gallery click on the DBL to show quick steps settings. From here you can create a new quick step by clicking on ‘New’ at the bottom of the dialog box and selecting the type of quick step you want to create.

Examples of actions in a quick step may be as follows:

• Move to folder
• Categorise an email
• Mark as high importance

We hope you liked these five tips in Outlook, for more tips please see our website here.

All our courses are posted on our web site here we offer individual and groups based training.

If you liked this post, why not take a look at our previous one on five tips in Word?

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