Tricks for Microsoft Outlook

When entering the start and due dates for a new task, you don't have to type the entire date. If a date is in the current month, just enter the day and Outlook will enter the rest of the date for you. For instance, if the current month is March and you enter 14, Outlook assumes you mean March 14 of the current year and fills in that date.

When a date isn't in the current month, you can still save a few keystrokes by entering the month and day. Outlook will fill in the year as follows:

If the month and day haven't occurred in the current year, Outlook uses the current year.

If the month and day have passed, Outlook uses the next year.

For a variety of reasons, some of us end up printing e-mail messages. If you print most of your messages, or all of your messages from a specific source, opening each message to print it manually interrupts your work. Setting a rule to print the desired incoming mail might be more efficient. To do so:

When you reply to an e-mail, Outlook stores a copy of that message in the Sent folder. If you're like me, your Sent folder has thousands of messages. If you need to find a specific message later, you must sort through all those messages, and that takes time. Instead, store your replies with the original message. For instance, suppose you automatically route all your messages from your boss into a folder named, appropriately enough, MyBoss. If you want Outlook to store your replies in MyBoss with the original messages, do the following:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options.

2. On the Preferences tab (which should be selected by default), click E-mail Options in the E-mail section.

3. Click Advanced E-mail Options at the bottom of the Message Handling section.

4. In the Save Messages section, select the In Folders Other Than The Inbox, Save Replies With The Original Message check box and then click OK three times to return to Outlook.

Outlook will apply this setting to all of your personal folders. Just remember that Outlook saves replies with the original message and not in the Sent folder only when the original message is in a folder other than the Inbox. Outlook continues to save all replies sent from messages in the Inbox in the Sent folder.

Quick Flags help you categorize your messages, usually by some level of importance or by task. For instance, you might use a red flag to mark messages that need a quick response and a blue flag to mark messages on which you've acted and are waiting for a response.

By default, the Work Week calendar view displays the five days of the traditional business week, Monday through Friday. To include Saturday and Sunday in that view, choose Options from the Tools menu. In the resulting Options dialog box, click Calendar Options in the Calendar section. In the Calendar Options dialog box, check Sat and Sun in the Calendar Work Week section. Then, click OK twice to return to the Calendar.

By default, Outlook displays incoming mail as bold text until you read it. If you need a bit more help, consider displaying unread mail in a bright color. To do so, you'll work in a view, not a rule:

1. In Mail, choose Inbox.

2. Choose Arrange By from the View menu.

3. Select Current View and then Define View from the subsequent submenus.

4. In the Custom View Organizer dialog box, check the option and click Modify.

5. Click Automatic Formatting.

6. In the Automatic Formatting dialog box, click Font.

7. In the Font dialog box, choose a color from the Color dropdown list, and click OK three times. Then, click Apply View.

Outlook will display all unread mail in the Inbox in the color you choose in step 7. Doing so won't display unread messages automatically routed to other folders. Since this is a view, it works only on the current folder. However, you can set up a similar view for any folder you like. In addition, the unread mail formatting takes precedent over colors used to identify mail from a specific sender.

Expecting important mail? Identify it as soon as it comes in by displaying it in a distinctive color. Start by select an existing message from the sender in question, if you have one. If you don't, that's okay; you can enter the sender's name manually. Now follow these steps:

The Work Week calendar view displays a week view, and you define what constitutes a work week (see Tip #6). If you need to see more or less than the usual work week, you can temporarily change that view. In the Date Navigation pane, click the first date you want to view. Then, hold down the [Shift] key and press the last date in the period. Outlook automatically adjusts the Calendar Work Week to include all of the dates in the selected time period. Alternately, you can view a group of noncontiguous dates by holding down [Ctrl] instead of [Shift] as you click dates. Outlook will display the days in order, regardless of how you select them. - Useful for those who use outlook