Changing Your View on Outlook

A common weakness for computer users is Screen Envy. Generally it can happen and strikes in your mind when you observe someone else desktop screen and notice that things are looking different or observe a little change in their screen. Unfortunately, some people accepts that different means better and take tension about how other’s computer screen is looking better as compared to their own computer’s screen.

Now, in this document we discuss about “How to Changing your Outlook Today”. The Outlook Today provides just a snapshot of the whole day you spend with the Outlook. It gives you the list of tasks and appointments, and a count of the unread email messages of various mailboxes.

You can directly access Outlook Today from the Navigation pane on clicking the Outlook Today icon that display next to the name of your data file as shown in the figure given below. Outlook Today icon appear left of the data file named as Tech Benders.

You can drill down by clicking the any item listed in Outlook Today. If you want more details about your appointments then click it and you are instantly migrate to the original calendar entry.

If you want to exit from the Outlook Today, click on any folder from the folder list. To return back to the Outlook Today click on the icon of Outlook Today once again. If you want to customize any feature of Outlook Today, click on the Outlook Today button and popup window will display on your screen.

The options given by the Outlook Today Customization dialog box are :

1. Start-Up: With this option you can start up your Outlook Today when you start your Outlook.
2. Messages: Select the mailboxes that you would like to include in it.
3. Calendar: Show the number of days if you would like to include it in calendar recap.
4. Tasks: Decided the sorted manner which you like as well as the tasks date range.
5. Styles: Choose the number of columns and color scheme for Outlook Today.

Customization of Quick Access Toolbar In Outlook

To control the Outlook we use commands and those commands are from the ribbon, placed in the top of the program window and each & every Outlook item window. As many people use Outlook most of the time so, they become familiar with the Outlook commands and their location. If you use many commands most of the time so to save your time you can add those commonly used commands to the Toolbar (Quick Access).The location of this toolbar is in the program window and upper left corner. To save more time, move the access toolbar above to below the ribbon from its default position.

Send/Receive and Undo button are displayed by the Quick Access Toolbar from the program window. If items are individually displayed by the Access Toolbar such as Redo, Save, Undo, Next and previous buttons.

• To customize the toolbar click the button at the end from right side of the Quick Access Toolbar. A menu will appear in the form of list including most frequent commands and popular Quick Print command.
• From the ribbon right click a command, and then click on the “Add To Quick Access Toolbar”. You can make a drop down menu by adding the options to the list or thumbnails gallery and add any type of command.

In “Outlook Options” dialog box from the Quick Access Toolbar page, you can modify the Access Toolbar in different ways:

1. Define custom a Quick Access Toolbar for specific document or for all documents.
2. Add a command from any tab or any group which includes tool tabs.
3. Use a separator between different types of button.
4. Quick Access Toolbar can be reset to its default configuration
5. Move the commands around Quick Access Toolbar until the commands are not in the order which you want.

If you are not using more than few buttons, than you can add those buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar and hide them by double clicking on the active tab to hide the ribbon. You can also do this by using the “Minimize The Ribbon” button. If you want to display the ribbon permanently, double click on any tab or click on the “Expand the Ribbon” button.

How to Create Macros with Outlook

Working with macros in Outlook will take you to the next level to understand the Outlook using macros. You can systematize the tasks which you regularly perform and enhance capability of Outlook functions along with your own planning.

You can simply say macro is a commands set which automatically run in a sequence. In terms of MS Office you can say that macros are small piece of VBA code, used to operate some of the office application. Each Office application includes its own IDE (integrated development environment) which allows you to write and run this code.  VBA is very easy to learn as its programming is simple to understand. IDE helps to create a code which has no error and quickly find the error in the code which you type.

If you want to learn about developing of complicated macros, search by using internet. There are many sources from which you can learn VBA. The following section will describe how to create macros.

Creating a Macro

• Start writing with macro by clicking on Tools and then select Macro.
• Choose the option “Macros”. And a Macros dialog box will appear on the screen.
• Now provide the name for Macro under Macro Name field. Like “Greetings From Outlook”.
• Then click on “Create” button.

Now Microsoft Visual Basic (IDE) appears on the screen. Have a look on the name you put in the Macros dialog box which is resulted in code added to the IDE. And you’ll see that a cursor has been blinking between sub header and End Sub.  Now type the code given below:

                MsgBox (“Greetings From Outlook”)

From the toolbar click on the play button looking like a green arrow pointing towards right, to view the output of your code. The output of code will appear in a dialog box. Click OK button to return to IDE.

 And save the macros by clicking the File menu and select Save.

Task Management in Outlook 2007

Today, many strategies and products are used for task management system that is possible to count and each one has at least one follower who swears by its merit. Most of the people use Outlook because of their convenience and simplicity. As many people use Outlook for email and calendaring purpose, so why not make it one stop for your to-do list as well?

Outlook improves its quality and offers numerous improvements over previous versions of the product. There are many topics to discuss about task such that how tasks in Outlook 2007 are managed, how to use new To-Do Bar, how to connect external program to Outlook tasks and many more.

Entering Task Item:

Outlook 2007 contains more simplicity to create a task in the system. First, Input panel for task is a simple way to enter a description in one line which item you want to track. The Task Input panel is the easiest and quickest way to do just that. Outlook 2003 widely used follow-up flags, which were operative as an email to-do list; however it was not provided to assimilate the deadline scheduling into that list. But Outlook 2007, associate with a date in an email which is simple to follow-up. Right-click on the flag placeholder alongside with each message and choose the reminded date for the item. Use the option “Hotlinks” which include Next Week, Tomorrow, Today and also by selecting the Custom define your own date.

Using To-Do Bar:

Outlook 2007 has no matter to put the entire task in the location of folder structure, on the To-Do Bar. But you may ignore the task from appearing into the certain folder on the bar to give a perfect and clear look or protect the complex task to be displayed in every view. To do so, follow these steps:

1. From To-Do Bar list, select “Arrange By header” and click the Custom.
2. Choose the Filter button in the Customize view dialog box.
3. Click on the advanced tab.
4. Under Fields, choose “All Task Fields”, and select the option “In Folder”.
5. Click the drop down list under Condition and choose Doesn’t Contain.
6. Type the name of the folder under “Value” which you want to ignore. And after providing the folder name, click on the button “Add to List“.

Creating and Editing of Outlook Notes

Working with Outlook Notes

Outlook provides a feature of Notes that designed specifically for fast and easy access to those small bits of information seem to be drowned with. You can say that these Notes are equivalent to those sticky notes that most people have pasted them on their monitor, refrigerator, wall, desk, etc. Notes are easy to understand and use.

Outlook Notes are designed with simplicity so, that it is easily used. They are designed for storing small amount of data or information. Outlook Notes does not contain large amount of information or organize information in an advanced way. They don’t contain any picture or items similar as picture. Notes only contain text and not allow for formatting. Many users use the notes for the following things:

• To maintain list of movies
• Keys of software installation
• Description of favorite things like restaurant, places, etc
• Bank, airline account number numbers

Creating a Note:

1. If you can view the Notes displayed in Outlook then click on the “New button” or press the keys Ctrl+N.
2. If you have seen the some different view is displayed, view the New menu and choose Notes. Or press the key Ctrl+shift+N.

Then a new blank note would be displayed by the Outlook. Now enter the title, to which your note belongs to and press Enter and then type the rest part of the note. Then click anywhere outside the note to save and close it or click the Note’s close button.

Open and Edit a Note:

Double click on the Note to open it. After opening the note you can made any change, which you want and by closing the notes save all the changes. Note title would be changed by changing the first line of the Notes.

After opening a note, you can take several actions by clicking on the menu icon from the top left corner and choose from the menu. The actions are as follows:

Save As: You can save the note in RTF file format without affecting the original note.

Delete: If you want to delete a particular note.

Forward: Forward the note with new email message by attaching the note file in it.

Categorize: Used to assign the note in an Outlook category or remove a note from previously assigned category.

Contacts: Associate more than one contact with the note.

Print: To print a note.

Apply Outlook Theme to All New Messages

Stationery and themes are two interrelated tools that provide a global design to an email message. Stationery contains background color and pattern whereas theme includes other elements such as fonts, list styles, effect along with background.  If you are using a theme or stationery it does not mean that message formatting is fixed. You can change the theme formatting according to your needs.

There are number of sources to get a theme:

• MS Word themes installed with Outlook.
• Themes you customize by yourself
• Themes download through Office Online.
• Themes defined that are built into Outlook.

The main difference between a Word theme and Outlook theme is that, you can customize a Word theme according to your needs but you cannot modified an Outlook theme. There is also a difference between both themes in applying them.

Steps to Apply an Outlook Theme to all New Messages

If you select a default theme it will automatically use all new HTML email messages.

1. Click on Tools then Options from the Outlook menu. And Options dialog box will appear.
2. If needed select the mail format tab.
3. To display the Stationery dialog box, click the Stationery & font button.
4. Click on Theme button to display the Theme or stationery.
5. To see the preview in sample area, click on your desired theme.
6. More than one options which depends on the selected theme are available in the bottom left corner of the popup box:

• Vivid Colors: It uses a bright color scheme.
• Active Graphics: It determines the active graphics in use contain by the theme.
• Background Image: If you want to use the theme without background image, turn off this feature.

To exit from the dialog box click OK three times.

Note: If you want to create a new message without a theme, remove the default theme by following the preceding step and select No theme in step 5.

Steps to Apply Theme to a Single New Message

By overriding the default theme you can apply a theme to a single new message:

1. Choose the Action after that click on New Mail Message from the Outlook’s main menu.
2. In next menu, click on the More Stationery option. A Theme or Stationery popup box will appear on the screen.
3. Select the theme of your choice.
4. And click on OK.

Applying a Word Theme to a Message

First create a new HTML message to apply the Word theme to an email message:

1. Click the body of the message.
2. Click on the “Theme” button from the Options ribbon and again click on the Themes from the menu. A menu will be shown by the Outlook. All Built-in themes are listed in the Built-in section of the menu. And Customs themes are listed in the Custom Section of the menu.
3. Choose your desired theme.

If you noticed that, there are several commands given at the bottom of the Theme menu. Their functions are described as follows:

• Reset to Theme from Template: If you have customized any selected theme, it reset to its original settings.
• More Themes on Microsoft Office Online: Its feature is to look for an additional theme on Microsoft Office Online.
• Browse for Theme: This feature provides you an additional theme available on your local network or computer.
• Save Current Theme: If you have customized the selected theme and want to save it. Through this feature you can save your customized theme into the disk.

Set Outlook to Start with Calendar Folder

Outlook Calendar Tricks

In today’s scenario everyone use email to connect to others. Also they can share information through email in which Outlook is the most popular emailing system used by most peoples. They maintain their appointments and meetings schedules in Outlook to remind their schedule timing in their regular work done between crises. Scheduling management makes our work easy to manage our meeting, appointments time and date. That’s where Outlook Calendar features come in. Calendar is just like as an electronic version of your day planner.

In other words we can say that Calendar helps in spending less time in scheduling process, which provide more time to do your work.  In this section we mention some tricks and techniques that help you to understand Outlook Calendar feature.

Starting Outlook in the Calendar Folder

When we start Outlook, by default it starts with Inbox folder because most of the people use Outlook for email. If you spend your most of the time with Outlook Calendar then we prefer to display the Calendar automatically when you start up the Outlook. Here are some steps describe how to do that:

1. Select Tools, click on Options. An Options dialog box will appear.
2. Choose the “Other” tab.
3. Click on Advanced Options and a dialog box will appear on the screen.
4. Select Browse. A “Select Folder” dialog box will open.
5. Choose Calendar folder.
6. Click OK and you’ll return on “Advanced Options” dialog box.
7. Click OK again and return to “Options” dialog box.
8. Click OK to save changes made for new setting.

Change the Number of Days Displayed by the Calendar

Outlook shows an option of Calendar in Navigation Pane, if click on that it will show you the calendar grid for today’s date. To view the other date, you select that date from the Date Navigator. The date selected by you, is shown by the Calendar in a grid view. This must be known as Day Calendar which is default view of the Calendar. Outlook provides you multiple patterns to view the Calendar. You can choose from those patterns that are suitable for your needs to work with. Here we mention some simple steps to change the number of days displayed in the Calendar grid.

• Choose View, Click on Work Week to view the Calendar in Work Week view, which shows Monday to Friday for whatever date was selected in the Date Navigator. For example: If today’s date was selected in the Date Navigator, and you want to switch to the Work Week view. Then it displays Monday to Friday for current week.
• Choose View and select Week to switch to Week view, which shows Sunday to Saturday for whatever date you had selected in the date navigator.
• Click View and select the Month to switch to the Month view. This view displays the five weeks surround whatever date was selected in the Date Navigator.
• Choose View and click on Day to switch to the Day view.