Outlook 2000,2003,2007 Tips

To get to the Options menu in Microsoft Outlook                                                                 click on “Tools” on the top, and select “Options…” at the bottom of the menu.

To change the color of your calendar:

- Select the “Preferences” tab at the top, and click the “Calendar Options…” button.

- Click the box to the right of “Background color:” and select which color you would like your calendar to be. Then click OK.

- From the “Options” menu, select the “Other” tab, and click “Advanced Option”

- Click “Browse…” to the right of “Startup in this folder”:

- Select the folder you would like to have opened when you start Outlook, and click “OK”

- From the “Options” menu, select the “Spelling” tab

- Check the box next to “Always check spelling before sending”

- From the “Options” menu, select the “Mail Format” tab

- Click the “Signatures…” button at the bottom:

- Create a new signature by clicking the “New…” button:

- Enter a brief name for your signature, and click “Next”

- A window will pop up. This is where you can type in your signature, and edit the font and paragraph settings. Click “Finish” when you are done:

- You will see your new signature in the “Signature” list. Click OK.

- Now you can set your signature to be automatically entered at the bottom of your emails. To make your signature automatically appear on new messages, or replies and forwards, make sure your signature name shows in the appropriate box, rather than “<None>”

 From the “Options” menu, go to the “Mail Format” tab. Check the box next to “Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages”, and click “OK”- Create a new email, and type in the subject and text of the message as you would like it to appear in the template:- When finished, go to the “File” menu, and select “Save As…”- In the “File name” box, type in a name for your new template. In the “Save as type:” box, select “Outlook Template”. Click “Save”

To create a message from your template                                                                  From the “File” menu, select “New” > “Choose Form”:- In the “Look In” box, select “User Templates in File System”. Your template will be listed. Select it and click “Open”:

When creating or modifying a calendar event, you can change its color by clicking in the “Label” box and selecting the appropriate color.- The event will then appear in the color you’ve chosen, as shown here:

Link items to a Contact entry (Outlook 2002/2003)

Link items to a Contact entry for reference purposes. Open or selectthe Contact           entry to which you'd like to link an item. To link an
Outlook item, choose Actions | Link | items from the menu bar.
Select the folder that contains the Outlook item you would like
to link. Select the item to link in the Items list box and
click OK. To open the Outlook item that's linked, click on the
Contacts form's Activities tab and then double-click on the item.
To link a file from outside Outlook as aWord document,                                           choose Actions | Link | File from the Contact form's
menu bar. Choose the file to link and click Insert. A
shortcut to this document is then created in the Journal Entry
form that displays. Click Save and Close in the Journal Entry
form. The journal entry then displays on the Activities tab of
the Contact form; double-click on the journal entry and then
double-click on the shortcut to open the linked file.

Color code meetings and appointments on your Outlook Calendar
using labels (Outlook 2003)
Adding a label meeting that you've set up previously with
your manager sets them apart on your calendar. To add a label
to an event, create a new appointment or meeting, and then click
on the Label dropdown menu. You can choose from several
predetermined labels and colors. To change the title of one of
the predefined labels, choose Edit | Label | Edit Labels from the
menu bar when your Calendar is open. Double-click on the label
name that you'd like to change, and then click OK to save the
change.

NOTE: Labels reside on your computer only, so if you send a
meeting request to someone else and you have labeled that
meeting, the recipient may not see the same colors.

Don't delete a task just because you've completed it (outlook 2000/2002/2003)

Deleting a task is sometimes a necessity. Click on the task to select it, and then click the Delete button. However, there may be times when you want to
retain a task in the Task list after you've completed it. Instead
of deleting it and losing potentially important information, mark
the task as complete. To do so, select the Complete check box for
that task. The completed task is then crossed off, but remains in
the Task list.

Text message a cell phone using Outlook (2000/2002/2003)

Virtually every mobile phone and carrier around these days offers Short
Message Service protocol, or phone messaging. It's a method of sending

text messages between the mobile phone and another device. Tediously entering

your message into your phone using the little keypads and then entering
the number to which you wish to send the note; this is a pain. However, most
people don't realize that you can send a short message from a
computer to the phone, since your email client doesn't accept
telephone numbers only, as a telephone does.

Each mobile phone carrier maintains a mail server that allows
them to handle short messaging between their phones and other
devices--even across carriers. And that means each mobile phone
has to have its own email address. For instance, if your mobile
number is (323) 555-5555 and you use Voicestream, you can instant
message your phone by simply entering the phone number and then a
domain specific to that carrier, which in Voicestream's case is
@voicestream.net. Therefore, to send a message to your phone,
you'd enter 3235555555@voicestream.net in the To field in
Outlook, and then simply continue with your email as normal.
You'll also need to keep your message short, since SMS only
transfers the first 110 characters of your message.
Each wireless carrier has a mail server specifically for
short message services. The most common ones are Voicestream,
@voicestream.net; Cingular, @mobile.mycingular.com; SprintPCS,
@messaging.sprintpcs.com: AT&T, @mobile.att.net; Nextel,
@messaging.nextel.com; and Verizon, @vtext.com.

Attach a read or delivery receipt to your Outlook 2002 messages

Outlook sends you an automated message when your message is delivered                     to the recipient's Inbox and when it is opened. You can set this option for individual messages or for all messages you send.  Obviously, this feature might not work across the internet. Please be awar that using this option may annoy users if you request them to confirm every message.

To set these options for one message, open the message and click
the Options button. In the Voting And Tracking Options panel,
select Request A Delivery Receipt For This Message and/or Request
A Read Receipt For This Message check box. Then, click Close.

To set tracking for all messages you send, choose Tools |
Options from the menu bar and click the E-mail Options button.
Then, click the Tracking Options button. In the Options panel,
select the Read Receipt and/or Delivery Receipt check boxes.
Click OK repeatedly until you return to Outlook. Now, every
message you send will have these features attached.

View others' Outlook Calendar details when scheduling a meeting (2000/2002/2003)

If you have the necessary permissions, you can see the Calendar
details of multiple users when scheduling a meeting. This can be
helpful when people's schedules are very full. You can
determine when the best time to schedule the meeting
depending on the importance of the attendee's other meetings. To
do so, start a new Meeting Request form, and then click on the
Scheduling tab. Next, add all attendees, and then click the
Options button at the button of the Meeting form window. Then,
choose Show Calendar Details from the resulting shortcut menu.
Also, you can enlarge the Zoom to see more details.

Remove names from Outlook's AutoComplete list (Outlook 2002/2003)

Beginning with version 2002 or XP, Outlook includes a handy
AutoComplete feature. When you begin to enter a name or email
address in the To, CC, or Bcc field of a Message or Meeting
Request form, Outlook offers a matching list of names or
addresses you've sent items to in the past, which is similar to
Microsoft Internet Explorer's URL AutoComplete feature. However,
if there's a name or email address that's no longer valid, or you
sent an Outlook item with an incorrect email address in the past,
those names and addresses continue to display in the dropdown
list until you delete them. Begin typing a name in one
of the before-mentioned fields, and then use the arrow keys to
select the invalid entry in the AutoComplete list. Finally, press
the Delete key to permanently remove it from the list.

Change the way Outlook displays items (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

Out of the box, Outlook displays your message items by Date. You
can easily switch to another view. Simply click on one of the other column headings at the top of the Message list. For example, to display messages grouped by date, click on the Received heading. For additional options for each view, right-click on the column header and make a selection from theresulting shortcut menu.

Setting the time interval your Calendar uses (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

Outlook is set up to display time increments in thirty-minute
periods. This affects appointments and meetings;
the time allotment filled into the form carries over from the
default thirty-minute time period. If your appointments or meetings
are often scheduled for one hour periods, you're better off
changing this setting. To do so, click on the Calendar icon in
the Navigation Pane Next, click either the Day or Work
Week button on the Calendar's standard toolbar to display six or
fewer days. Right-click on a time in the left column of the
Calendar, and choose sixty minutes from the remaining shortcut menu.

Size Matters in Your Outlook File (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

Have you run into a situation where your Outlook mailbox is full
and won't let you receive or create any new items? If this is the
case, you may be over your allowed storage limit. In Outlook 2003, your
PST file (the file that has all Outlook data unless you are using Exchange Server)can hold tens of millions of items. If you're usingOutlook 2000 or 2002, however, you're limited to 65,000 total items. If you're running Outlook on Microsoft Exchange Server, no
matter what version you're using, you're limited to the size allowed for your mailbox by your computer techs.

Editing the subject line of received messages (Outlook 2000)

Open the message and click in the subject text, then add or change the text as needed. Now, close the message and click Yes to save the changes.                                    

Create a task directly from an email message (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

If you need to create a task and already have the relevant information in an email message, use it to youradvantage. Just drag the email message from the Message list tothe Tasks icon in the Navigation Pane. A new Task form launches with all the text from the bodyof the email message at the bottom of the Task form. Outlookautomatically fills in the Subject line with the same text used in the email Subject line.

AUTO-respond automatically while you're out of the office
(Outlook 2002) (this has problems per our experience)

(This feature requires that Outlook use Microsoft Exchange server.) When you're out of the office, you might want to have Outlook automatically reply to all incoming messages, letting the recipient know you aren't currently around to read your mail. The
Out Of Office Assistant feature makes allows this to happen.From the                                 Tools menu, choose Out Of Office Assistant.In the Out Of Office Assistant dialog box, select the I AmCurrently Out Of The Office option button. In the first text box,
enter the message you want to send out. If you would like to set a rule to organize or handle incoming messages while you're gone, click the Add Rule button and create the rule. These rules are only applied when the Out Of Office Assistant feature is active. Finally, click OK. Just remember to disable the feature when you return by launching the Out Of Office Assistant, deselecting the I Am Currently Out Of The Office option button, and clicking OK.

Sending an email to a distribution list minus a few names (Outlook 2003)

In Outlook 2003, you can expand a distribution list by clicking on the plus sign that precedes the list's name once you've entered it in the To, Cc, or Bccf ield. From there, you can simply delete any names that you'd like.

Locating unread messages (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

If you receive a large numbers of email messages daily, it's
easy to lose track of them. Oftentimes, you may want to go
back and check for any unread messages. To do so, click on the
Mail icon in the Navigation Pane (in 2000 and 2002, click on the
Inbox folder in the Folder List). Then, choose View | Arrange By
| Current View | Customize Current View from the Outlook menu bar
(View | Current View | Customize Current View in 2000 and 2002).
Click the Filter button in the Customize View: Messages dialog
box (View Summary in 2000 and 2002). Next, click on the More
Choices tab in the Filter dialog box. Select the Only Items That
Are check box, and then select Unread from the corresponding
dropdown list. Click OK twice. Now your Inbox shows only unread
messages. Click on any subfolder to see its unread contents as well.

In Outlook 2003, you have the additional option of using Search Folders.
This feature has a default folder that shows unread messages. To
use this feature, click on the Mail icon in the Navigation Pane,
and then click on the plus sign preceding the Search Folders
folder in the All Mail Folders list. Then, click on the Unread
Mail folder.

Sending all or multiple emails from one folder at once (Outlook 2003)

Outlook allows you to send all of the messages in a specific
folder in one email. Simply select all the email messages that
you want to forward by [Ctrl]-clicking on each message. Or, click
on the first message in the folder, hold down the [Shift] key,
and then click on the last message to select all the messages at
once. Or, select folder you would like, click on the top email hold down                      [Ctrl]-click A on your keyboard. Then, click the Forward button on the                        Standard toolbar and Outlook creates a new message with all of your selected             emails attached. Just address the new email as you normally would and
click Send in the message window. Be careful as not all email serverswill                    allow you to send large messages with too many attachments.

Displaying multiple Outlook windows at once (2000/2002/2003)

Perhaps you want to have easy access to your email
while you're viewing your Calendar. Well, it's simple to view
multiple windows at once. For example, right-click on the Mail
icon in the Navigation Pane (right-click on the Inbox icon in the
Outlook Shortcuts Bar in 2000 and 2002), and then choose Open In
New Window from the resulting shortcut menu. Outlook then opens
another window, where you can display whatever you'd like,
without closing what you previously had opens.

Using Outlook as your Internet Explorer to the Internet (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

To view web pages, display the Web toolbar by choosing
View | Toolbars | Web. Then, in the toolbar's text box, enter the
URL and press [Enter]. The web page is displayed within the
Outlook window--close the Folder List for more room to display
the web page. In Outlook 2000 and 2002, you can easily add the
displayed web page to your list of Favorites by choosing
Favorites | Add To Favorites. Make sure the Save In location is
the Favorites folder and click OK (Add in 2000). When you've
finished surfing the web, open your Inbox or other folder by
clicking on its shortcut in the Outlook Bar (Navigation Pane in
2003) or by choosing View | Go To (Go in 2003) and selecting the folder.

Marking an entry as private in your Outlook Calendar (2000/2002/2003)

If a particular meeting or appointment contains information you
don't want to share with others, you can make the item private so that no one
can view its details. While you have an appointment or meeting open, simply select the Private check box in the bottom-right corner of the form.

Sending an email to an entire category of Contacts (Outlook 2000/2002/2003)

If you use categories to help organize your Outlook items, you
can easily send email to an entire category of Contacts. To
start, click on the Contacts icon in the Navigation Pane (click
on the Contacts folder in the Folder List in 2000 and 2002).
Next, click on the folder that contains the Contacts to which you
want to send email. Then, choose View | Arrange By | Current View
| Categories from the Outlook menu bar (View | Current View | By
Category in 2000 and 2002). Finally, click on the category header
that contains the entries you want to send email to, and then
choose Actions | New Message To Contact from the Outlook menu
bar. A new Message form launches containing all the Contacts
within the selected category. Simply enter the pertinent
information, and then click Send on the Message form.

Removing a sender from your Outlook junk email list (2003)

At times, emails get shifted to Junk Email accidentally. There's aneasy                          way to put a sender back on your safe list. Click on the Mailicon in                                 the Navigation Pane, and then click on the Junk E-mail folder in
the All Mail Folders List. Next, in the Message list, click on a
message from the sender that you want to make safe. Then,
choose Actions | Junk E-mail | Add Sender To Safe Senders List.
Now messages from this sender should now remain out of the
Junk E-mail folder. Please be sure to check you Junk Mail folderfor                               new emails from people that have not previously sent you an email.                  Sometimes, needed emails are accidentally dumped into the Junk Email folder.

[Ctrl]Z to undo actions in Outlook (2000/2002/2003)

Pressing [Ctrl]Z reverses many actions in Outlook. You must press

[Ctrl]Z, however, before performing any other actions. This doesn't

work for everything (you can't undo sending a message or meeting
request), but give it a try next time you accidentally perform a
step.

Show two Calendars side by side in Outlook (2003)

One new feature in Outlook 2003 is the side-by-side Calendar
display, and it's easy to activate. Perhaps you like to keep
separate personal and office calendars in Outlook.
Right-click on the Calendar check box in the My Calendars List,
and then choose New Folder from the resulting shortcut menu.
Next, enter a name you wish to give the new Calendar, such as Home,                            in the Name text box of the Create New Folder dialog box. Confirm by                              clicking OK. Select their corresponding check boxes in the My
Calendars List.

Saving multiple Outlook messages to a text file (2000/2002/2003)

Select the messages you'd like to save in the text file from the
Message list; use [Ctrl]-click to select several items. If
feasible, select them in the order that you'd like them to appear
in the text file. Then, choose File |Save As. Enter a name for
the file in the Name text box of the Save As dialog box. Browse
to the location you'd like to save the file, and then click Save.
Click Delete to get delete the email messages; you no longer need
them since they're now all contained in a single text file for
easy reference.

Closing all open Outlook items at once (2000/2002/2003)

Time to go home at the end of the day. You have a pressing matter to attend to but several Outlook items open. One by one you start closing them, OR just choose File | Close All Items from the Outlook menu bar to close every open Outlook item. Now, get out of there! FYI holding down ALT and hitting F4 key closes programs one by one every time you strike F4.

Hiding Outlook's toolbar in other Microsoft Office documents (2000/2002/2003)

Let's say you're working in Microsoft Word and then decide to
send the document to someone via email; you'd just choose File |
Send To | Mail Recipient or File | Send To | Mail Recipient (As
Attachment) from the Word menu bar. Then, you realize
that you aren't ready to send the document or it's the wrong
document altogether. But now you can't get rid of the irritating
Outlook toolbar -- it's even there when you reopen the document.
Simply choose File | Send To | Mail Recipient from the menu bar
once again to send the pesky toolbar packing.

Link items to a Contact entry (Outlook 2002/2003)

It's often helpful to link items to a Contact entry for
reference purposes. You can link all types of items to a Contact
entry in just a few easy steps. First, open (or just select) the
Contact entry to which you'd like to link an item. To link an
Outlook item, choose Actions | Link | items from the menu bar.
Next, select the folder that contains the Outlook item you'd like
to link. Then, select the item to link in the Items list box and
click OK. To open the Outlook item that's linked, click on the
Contacts form's Activities tab and then double-click on the item.

To link a file from outside Outlook (such as a Microsoft Word
document), choose Actions | Link | File from the Contact form's
menu bar. Next, choose the file to link and click Insert. A
shortcut to this document is then created in the Journal Entry
form that displays. Click Save And Close in the Journal Entry
form. The journal entry then displays on the Activities tab of
the Contact form; double-click on the journal entry and then
double-click on the shortcut to open the linked file.