TOP 10 OUTLOOK TIPS

If you’re an Executive Assistant or working in the administrative field, you’ll no doubt be familiar with our old friend Microsoft Outlook.  This key software package for EAs involves inboxes, calendars, task lists contacts and much more.

Here are my top ten shortcuts/tips to make daily life with Outlook a little simpler…

1. CLEAR THE ‘CC’ EMAILS FROM YOUR INBOX
   • If you’re anything like me, you will be copied into many messages that are not directly related to you. You can move these messages to a separate folder to de-clutter your inbox.
   • On the Home tab, head to Rules, Create Rule and click Advanced Options. In the Rules Wizard, select the box entitled “where my name is not in the To box” and then on the next screen select “move it to the specified folder”. You will need to set up a sub-folder for these emails within your inbox.

2. DE-CLUTTER THE “REPLY ALL” EMAILS –
   • Outlook enables you to group associated emails into conversations. This helps to de-clutter the “reply all” group emails about annual leave, coffee runs, or other such things (and delete them with one click if appropriate!).
   • Head to the View tab and select the Show as Conversations All associated emails will be grouped together as one.

3. DELAY DELIVERY OF YOUR EMAIL
   • This can be a useful one if you need to send something whilst you’re on annual leave. Head to the Options tab and selecting Delay Delivery. In the “Do not deliver before” field, input a date and time for your email to be delivered. Then click Close.
   • When you send your email, it will deliver at your selected time.

4. RECALLING EMAILS
   • We’ve all done it! Sent something containing a mistake, or forgotten to attach a document. Providing the recipient hasn’t opened it yet, you can recall the email and it will automatically delete from their inbox.
   • Simply go to Sent Items, click on the email you want to recall, and go to Messages, Actions, Recall This Message. This will provide you with the option to either “Delete unread copies of this message” or “Delete unread copies of this message and replace with a new message”.
   • You can also select the box that lets you know if the recall has succeeded or failed – it’s better to know!

5. VOTING EMAILS
   • If you’re sending out an email to your team that requires a simple yes/no answer (e.g. are they attending the Christmas party), you can set “Voting Buttons” on your email allowing them to simply click yes or no. The responses will then get sent back to you as special email messages.
   • Open a new email, go to Options and select Use Voting Buttons. When the email is sent, it will give the recipient the option to vote (it might also be worth pointing this out to them when you send the email!).

6. SAVE REGULARLY USED WORDS/PHRASES AS “QUICK PARTS”
   • If you are regularly using the same words (e.g. for me, Exec Angels), you can save these words as a Quick Part. This allows you to automatically insert them into your emails rather than typing them out every time.
   • To do this, select the text you want to add, head to the Insert tab, select Quick Parts and “Save selection to Quick Parts gallery”. Outlook will then recognise that particular word or phrase when you start to type it in.

7. MOVE EMAILS TO CALENDAR APPOINTMENTS
   • If you want to move emails into a calendar appointment (e.g. to enable your director to refer to a related email when attending a meeting), right click on the relevant email and select Move from the drop-down menu. Click on Other Folder and then Calendar – this will then move the email from the inbox and open up a calendar appointment containing the relevant email – obviously set the time and date of the meeting in the calendar appointment as appropriate.

8. CREATE A CALENDAR GROUP
   • If you regularly view the same calendars of your executive team, it is possible to set up a calendar group.
   • Click Calendar. On the Home tab, click Calendar Groups and Create New Calendar Group. Enter the name of your group (e.g. Executive Management Team). Select the names of the contacts that you want to add to your group, then Group Members and click OK.

9. SET TIME ZONES
   • If you regularly set up conference calls with people in different time zones, you can set a second-time zone in your calendar.
   • Head to File, Options, Calendar, Time Zones and select Show a second-time zone.

10. DON’T FORGET PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
    • Outlook can add public holidays, including those in other countries, to your calendar. I regularly forget bank holidays, so find this really useful.
    • Go to File, Options, Calendar, Calendar Options and click Add Holidays. Choose the countries you wish to add.

For detailed guidance on all things Microsoft Outlook, our Exec Angels e-book “Expand Your Outlook” is now available for download for free at https://www.execangels.org/downloads.