If you’re using Microsoft Office Outlook for your email, it’s a virtual certainty that you’re not using all of the robust features offered through the product. Of course, it’s also a virtual certainty that you will never have enough time to learn of all of those robust features anyway, even if you took two lifetimes. However, if you’re using Outlook only to send and receive email, there are some easy-to-use additional features that you can apply to your use of the program in order to increase your efficiency and in order to control your email flood. (If you have a deep interest in learning about email archiving and more about email control tips, I will be speaking on these matters at a June 1 Worcester County Bar Association program. The program will also feature Alan Klevan and Rodney Dowell on PDF, and Channing Migner and James Gavin Reardon, Jr. on Google collaboration/cloud computing. To register, contact the Worcester County Bar Association.) Some of these quick fixes involve creating email signatures, sending emails directly to designated spaces outside of your inbox and setting and resetting your junk email folder options.
You can learn about these features, and many others, at the clearinghouse for all things Microsoft Office (including Microsoft Outlook), the Microsoft Office Online homepage. From the homepage, you can search for specific topics, wend your way through how-to presentations and find particular product pages. Use your product homepage to maneuver through the learning options for your version of Outlook. Favorite your product page. Make it a point to learn one more new thing about Outlook every month. You use email everyday, all day long. A minimal time investment in training can produce big net results over time.
There are also a couple of other web hotspots you can check out, too, if you wish to improve your fluency with Outlook. The official Outlook team blog is a great resource, that’ll learn you straight from the horse’s mouth. Adriana Linares frequently presents Outlook tips (in a winning style, by the way) at her blog, I Heart Tech.
And, when you learn to embrace Outlook, you’ll heart tech, too.
