CEO Blog - Time Leadership

Outlook Time Saving Tips

I have had many people ask me what tips I learned from the Outlook mini-seminar I took. Some of them follow. Not sure this is the easier to follow but here you go:

Re Outlook Menus: With the standard installation of Outlook it shows just a portion of the menu when you click on it. To change this so you see the full menu, just click on:

• Tools
• Customize
• Options
• Always show full menus
• Close

Let Outlook do the typing for you; for example, I type "107" and the system automatically types out our full office address.

• Tools
• Options
• Spelling
• AutoCorrect Options
• Options
• Replace: (type in the abbreviation of the word you want to be typed out in full; for example, 107)
• With: (type in the full word or words; for example, 107 Woodlawn Rd W, Guelph ON N1H 1B4)
• OK, OK

Change the colour of incoming emails; for example, any email that I receive from my assistant appears in green.

• Tools
• Organize
• Using Colors
• Color messages (fill this in and choose the color)
• Turn on
• Close

Are you in a hurry to see a map of an address in your Outlook Contacts?

• Open the specific Contact
• Click on the yellow diamond shaped icon with the black curved arrow in the menu bar and it will automatically show you a map of the location. You can also get driving directions.

To quickly add a name and email address of someone who just emailed you:

• From "Inbox" just drag the person name’s from the "From" column to your "Contacts" folder
• Save and Close

To show statutory holidays in your Outlook Calendar:

• Tools
• Options
• Calendar Options
• Add Holidays
• Click on the country
• Ok, Ok, Ok

In addition to tips on how to use Outlook, we need to use good email etiquette:

· Only use "Reply to All" when everyone in the originating email needs to know the information.

· Know when to pick up the phone and call the person instead of continuing a long trail of emails.

· Only use "Cc" when absolutely necessary. It is frustrating to receive emails that you don't need to read.

posted by Jim Estill @ 7:31 PM