10 Tips To Help You Save Time While Using Microsoft Outlook

10 Tips To Help You Save Time While Using Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an application mainly used to receive, send, and store emails. Provided by Microsoft as a stand-alone application and as part of Microsoft 365, you can use Outlook to manage personal data, including calendars, contacts journals, to-d0-lists, notes, and files. Microsoft Outlook is not free. To use it, you must pay a subscription fee.

With many organizations currently using Microsoft Outlook, having a faster and more efficient way of accessing features and tools on the application has become crucial.

Check out our latest video to learn ten time-saving tips to use on Microsoft Outlook:

Which 10 Quick Tips Can You Use To Better Manage Your Time While Using Microsoft Outlook?

Rules

A rule is an action automatically performed on sent or received emails based on the conditions you specify.

Rules in Outlook help you to:

• Delete messages.
• Move messages from particular contacts into a separate folder other than your Inbox.
• Forward specific emails to a particular contact or group.
• Flag or assign emails with a specific word in the subject to particular categories.

To create a rule in Outlook: Right-click on the email and select Rules > Create Rule.

You can also:

• Click Home > Rules.
• Select Create Rule from the drop-down menu.
• Select a condition and what to do with the email based on the condition you want.
• When you’re done creating the Rule, select OK.

Your message will now appear in the folders you’ve selected.

Favorite Folders

Favorites is a section located at the top of the folder pane where you can keep frequently used folders.

There are several ways to add your folders to Favorites:

• Click the folder and drag it to Favorites (the top of the folder pane).
• Right-click the folder you want to add, and then click Add to Favorites.
• Click on the folder you want to add, go to the Folder tab and click Add to Favorites.
• To remove a folder from Favorites: Right-click the folder you want to remove, and then click Remove from Favorites.

You can easily drag emails into your folders in Favorites and also rearrange your folders in Favorites.

Converting an Email into a Task

If you get an email and the sender wants you to complete a task, you don’t need to manually create a new task. You can quickly create a task right from within the email itself.

To create a task from an email:

• Click on the email and drag it to Tasks on the navigation bar.
• Hover over the email, right-click on the flag display that appears on the right-hand side of the email, and set up an appropriate reminder.

The task created will contains all the information as provided in the email. Although flagging an email also converts it into a task, it doesn’t make a separate task. Deleting the email will also delete the task.

Converting an Email into an Appointment

To create an appointment from an email:

• Drag the email from your Inbox to the Calendar icon at the bottom of the navigation pane.

Read Aloud

Read Aloud in Outlook desktop allows you to hear the text of an email read out loud as you follow.

To turn on Read Aloud:

• Select File > Options > Ease of Access.
• Under Application display options, select the Show Read Aloud checkbox.

To let Outlook read your messages:

• Select an email.
• From the Home menu, select Read Aloud.

Dictation

Dictation enables you to use speech-to-text to create content using a microphone and a reliable internet connection. Dictation provides a quick way to send replies and draft emails. To use Dictation, Start a New Email and go to message> Dictate.

Delay Delivery

You can delay the delivery of emails by having them held in your Outbox for a specified time after you click Send.

To delay the delivery:

• While composing your email, go to the Options tab and on the More Options group, select Delayed Delivery.
• Under Delivery options, select the Do not deliver before check box, and then set the delivery date and time you want.
• Click Close.
• When you’re done composing your email message, select Send.

Your emails will remain in the Outbox folder until the delivery time.

Quick Steps

Quick Steps help you to save time when performing routine tasks.

To create a Quick Step:

• Go to the Home tab.
• In the Quick Steps group, select the Create New.
• In the Name box, type a name for the new Quick Step.
• Under Actions, choose an action for the Quick Step to do.
• Select Add Action for any additional actions.

Quick Parts

Quick Parts is a collection of reusable content that you can quickly insert into your email as you compose.

To add new content to your Quick Parts gallery:

• Select the content that you want to store.
• On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Quick Parts > Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.
• Click OK.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar is a customizable toolbar that sits above the ribbon tab and contains commands.

To add a command to the Quick Access Toolbar: Click Customize the Quick Access Toolbar and select the command you’d like to add.

To add a command to the Quick Access Toolbar that isn’t on the ribbon tab:

• Click Customize the Quick Access Toolbar > More Commands.
• In the Choose commands from list, click Commands Not in the Ribbon.
• Find the command in the list, and then click Add.

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