SmartSite Technology Tech Tips

1-Create and use an email template
Creating an email template is a real time saver when you suspect that you will send a similar message in the future. Follow these steps to create your template:

Create a new message and enter the desired template Subject: and content
Select File | Save As from the menu
Select Outlook Template under Save as type
Type the desired template name (if different from the email subject) in the file name box
Click Save

To compose a message using the new template:

In the Outlook Inbox, select Tools | Forms | Choose Form... from the menu
Select User Templates in the File System under Look In:
Double-click the desired message template
Address, make changes and send the email

2. New Contacts from Incoming E-mail
Adding people to your Address book is a piece of cake if the person has either sent an email to you or is included as a recipient in any e-mail you get. The name can be in either the From, To or the CC field. To add a contact record from an e-mail, right click the name you want to add to the contact list. Click on Add to Contacts in the context menu and a new entry for the contact will open with the name and e-mail address already filled in. Fill you other details if required and save the contact.

3. Customize Your Startup
If you always want to see the Calendar or the Inbox folder as soon as you start Outlook, then make it your default folder. You can choose Today, Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, Task, Journal or Notes as your start up folder when you run Outlook. Click on Tools > Options > Other. Click Advanced Options and select the folder that you want to start with in the Startup in this folder dropdown list. Click OK to apply the changes.

4. Send a message to multiple people without revealing other recipients' identities
To send a message to someone without other recipients of the message knowing, use the Bcc line in the message. Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. If you add someone's name to the Bcc line, a copy of the message is sent to that person, but his or her name is not visible to other recipients. You must have a valid email address in the To: field, so if you do not have at least one address in the To: field, add your own email address there.

5. Streamline with Categories
Outlook distribution lists are handy for sending to a group of people fast. But, they are impossible to search and hard to administer. Fortunately, Outlook also lets you assign any number of categories to your contacts. You can then sort your address book by category to create a new elegant, versatile and stable distribution list.

You can also use categories to help you organize active messages in your Inbox. To group related messages with categories:

Just right-click on any message, left-click on Categories...

Assign a category by checking one or more of the choices in your list. Click OK to apply. Groups of messages can be more quickly categorized by sorting and selecting first, and then by following the steps above.

To compose a new message or meeting request to all members of the category-run distribution list:

Go to Contacts in Outlook
Select View | Current View | By Category from the menu
Click the desired list category's heading
Select Actions | Create | New Message to Contact or Actions | Create | New Meeting Request to Contact from the menu
Click OK if Outlook notifies you that your action will apply to all items in the group

Outlook puts all address in the To: field. To send a message to a long list of recipients, it is usually better to have all addressees in the the Bcc: field to avoid revealing addresses. Move the addresses to the appropriate field. For contacts with multiple email addresses, Outlook inserts each. It is best to delete the unneeded addresses.

Compose the message or meeting request and send.

6. Managing the Outlook Auto-Complete List
To remove a name or email address from Outlook's auto-complete list:

Create a new email message in Outlook
Start typing the name or address you want to remove
Use the down arrow key to highlight the desired (undesired) entry
Press Delete

7. Save attachments to create a leaner mailbox
Attachments can be the most important part of incoming emails, but they are also frequently what makes your email archive grow big quickly. While a typical email message is 10 to 20 KB, attached files are often in the MB range. Saving the attachments to a folder and removing them from the emails can make things cleaner, clearer and speedier. Once the attached files are saved, you can remove them from the messages in Outlook.

To delete attachments from messages in Outlook:

Double-click on the desired message to open it in its own window
Click on the attachment you want to remove with the right mouse button
Select Remove from the menu
Close the message window
Click OK in the Do you want to save changes? dialog

Of course, once you have saved the attachment to your hard disk, you can often just delete the entire message.

8. Create a shortcut for repetitive email
Do you send a daily report to your boss via email? If so, you may want to create a shortcut to a pre-written email with fixed recipient and CC email addresses. NOTE: This function is limited because the Windows command line cannot be longer than 255 characters. Nevertheless, you'll have plenty of space to write a nice standard e-mail.

First, create the shortcut and place it on your desktop:

Right click on your desktop
Select New
Select Shortcut from the menu, a wizard will appear to help you create your shortcut
In the location box, type mailto:recipient@domain.com (using your recipients email address)
Click Next and enter a name for the shortcut
Click Finish

You have created the shortcut, now it's time to create the standard email.

First right click on the shortcut icon you created
Select properties
Then Type "mailto:recipient@domain.com?subject=today's_report&cc=anotherrecipient@domain2.com&body=Hi Boss, here is today's report."

When you are ready to send the report to your boss, click on the shortcut on your desktop, attach the report and send it off to your boss.

The symbols used in this tip mean:

& - Marks the end of a field
; - Is used between multiple e-mail addresses
? - Is needed to separate the e-mail address from the "CC" and "subject" field.

9. Displaying your mailbox items in the way that you prefer.
Outlook has two options for displaying mailbox items, in blue "()" and in green "[]". The Blue parenthesis "()" are for displaying the number of unread messages. And the green brackets "[]" are for displaying the total number of messages in your inbox.

Follow these steps to change the display property for your Outlook mail folders:

Select the mail folder
Right Click
Select properties
Select the general tab
Now select which value you want to have displayed: "show number of unread items" or "show total number of items".
And click on apply and OK

10.Quick Spelling Check
To quickly check the spelling in a message, press [F7].

These MS Outlook Tips and Tricks were tested in Outlook 2003. If you find these "cool" tips useful and would like more information about using MS Outlook more effectively, SmartSite Technology can provide training documents or a live class for your employees. For additional information, contact us.