Microsoft Outlook is a popular email program used by individuals and organizations alike as an efficient means of communication. Additionally, its calendar feature helps organize meetings or events.
This app enables you to easily create templates to save time composing new emails, as well as provides features for blocking spam mail.
Organize Your Emails
Email can be an inundation of information. Maintaining an organized inbox can help manage time and remain productive throughout the day, whether for work or personal purposes. There are various strategies and tricks you can employ in Outlook to keep your inbox under control.
One effective strategy for taking your inbox organization to the next level is using folders and color coding. By setting up separate folders for different kinds of emails, you can organize messages according to priority and make it easy to quickly locate what you need when needed.
Outlook comes equipped with four default folders – Inbox, Sent Items, Draft and Deleted Items. However, custom folders can also be created for specific projects, clients/team emails and meetings/other areas of work.
Use colors to further organize your folders by assigning emails according to their importance or urgency, for instance by assigning blue color for emails requiring immediate action from you or to mark as “To Do.” Or label emails “Follow Up,” where you can track replies you’re waiting on or tasks assigned elsewhere.
Use Outlook’s rules feature to effectively manage emails by setting rules that send or move them based on certain criteria you set; for instance, forwarding them directly to managers or coworkers or deleting when replies have been made may be two effective options for you.
Create a Signature
An email signature can make your emails appear more professional, making the entire email communication more seamless. Outlook makes creating one easy; just follow these steps and set one up right away – including company logos, personal photos and social media icons linked directly to their profile pages!
Customizing and automating your signature can make for more organized communications and save you time in reply/forwards. To do this, navigate to the Signatures and Stationery tab within the Options menu, click New Signature in Signatures and Stationery pane, enter name for signature in Signature Box then Format by Font button – selecting font style, size & color or adding borders (border options can also help your text look better organized) using text template if needed.
Alternately, you can also select to sign your email with a pen or image of your handwriting in the Signature field. Once your signature is selected, click Save in Signatures and Stationery pane to save it and set as default in Default Signatures section.
Create and back up email signatures easily in Outlook by saving them to an easily accessible location on your computer, then if your email address changes since creating them it’s just as easy to update them, making sure your contacts always have access to accurate contact info. Simply open a new message in Outlook and choose your signature from the drop-down menu before sending!
Save Emails as Templates
Email templates can save time when it comes to sending repetitive emails, such as those containing information that doesn’t frequently change. Use Outlook’s template feature to compose and save an email before saving it as a template, so that you can reuse it later.
To create an email template, copy and paste your desired text into a new email message before saving as a template by clicking File > Save As, naming the file with Outlook Template (*.oft). Saved templates can be found at C:UsersUserNameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftTemplatesOutlook Templates
Once you’ve designed an email template, reusing it in future emails is easily accomplished by selecting “New Email -> Reuse as Template.” Alternatively, to open previously saved templates from within Home tab > New Items > More Items -> Choose Form and then selecting User Templates in File System as your Look In drop down list in Choose Form dialog box before choosing desired template from within User Templates drop-down list in Choose Form dialog box.
Quick Parts provides another great way to save reusable chunks of text as templates in Outlook. Like AutoCorrect, Quick Parts lets you instantly insert certain text content via an assigned keyboard shortcut.
To use a predefined reply template, choose the Reply template quick step from the Quick Steps group on the Home tab or its keyboard shortcut and type out their email address and desired content in the body of your message. Adding files as attachments also speeds up replying quickly.
Block Junk Mail
Spam messages can be an unnecessary disruption that impedes productivity and threatens security. Microsoft offers ways to help manage junk emails and minimize their effect on work life.
One effective way of protecting yourself against unsolicited emails is using the built-in spam filter. You can either choose to block individual senders or domains in order to stop their messages going directly into your Junk folder, or configure more complex blocking settings.
To block an email address or domain, right-click a message and choose Junk > Block Sender. A confirmation window may pop-up asking if you’re sure about blocking them – click Yes in it to confirm.
Create a Blocked Encodings List to prevent messages with certain language encodings from making their way past your junk mail filter. For instance, if you receive spam that’s sent using international characters such as ISO 639-1 codes, adding them to this list will stop Outlook from automatically moving them into your Junk folder.
However, if an email from an intruder requires further investigation, you can move it out of the Junk folder by selecting it and clicking the Sender tab, followed by More Options, in which case a dialog box will open containing options to Move To another Folder or Set Rule directly for it to move there instead of staying in Junk Folders for too long a period. By setting rules you can quickly reach important messages quickly while eliminating manual sorting through of junk folders every day – saving both time and space! For larger amounts of unwanted emails consider Kernel PST Split to reduce mailbox size further freeing up space!
Create a Note
Microsoft Outlook features a Notes feature that acts like an electronic sticky note, making quick reminders and saving bits of information such as passwords or memorable quotes easy and fast. Keep a Note open on the screen while working and move it anywhere by dragging its title bar around – leaving its title bar at home or even moving it outside its boundaries to move between parts of your screen or outside Outlook itself! To delete a note simply press Delete on your keyboard or right-click and choose the Delete from its context menu; your note will then move into Outlook’s Deleted Items folder just like any other item removed from Outlook!
Add Note to Calendar Event
Need something reminding of for an upcoming event or meeting? Make a note in an upcoming calendar event by selecting its date in your calendar and clicking New > Event, when that opens you can add relevant details directly in its window. Alternatively you can double-click an existing event to open its Edit form where you can make any necessary edits, then adding details via its Notes field at the bottom.
Create a note from any message by selecting its date from the left panel, and selecting New > Note from the right column. This will open a note window that allows you to type directly, similar to Event and Task windows; however, unlike them it is not linked with any email account and won’t be saved with its associated message.
