Outlook 2007

Do you find it hard to prioritise emails when all you are looking at is a long list of who the email is from, and what the email subject is?

Well using the “Auto Preview” feature in Outlook 2007, you can now view the first couple of lines of an email – giving you all the information you need to triage and prioritise the long list of emails in your inbox.

To turn on (or off) Auto Preview in Outlook 2007:

1) Click on “View”

2) Click on “AutoPreview”

Simple as that!

‘till next time!
TNP

Have you ever noticed whenever you reply to an email the font colour isn’t black, but a dark blue?

Well like most things in Outlook 2007, if you want you are able to change the default reply font color.

To do so:

1) Click on “Tools”

2) Click on “Options”

3) Click on the “Mail Format” tab

4) Click on “Stationery and Fonts” – about half way down the “Options” dialog box

5) About half way down the “Signatures and Stationery” dialog box that appears, you will find  a section called “Replying or forwarding messages”.  Click on the “Font” button directly below that, and then select the font colour you would like to use. 

6) Click “OK” three times to close all the boxes.

You can also change your default reply font and size using this technique

‘till next time!
TNP

If you regularly use the quick search feature of Outlook 2007, you will be very familiar with the yellow highlight that is used to highlight search terms found in your inbox.

But did you know, if yellow isn’t your favourite colour, you can change the search highlight to any colour you want?

To change the search highlight color in Outlook 2007:

1) Click on “Tools”

2) Run your mouse over “Instant Search” to expand the menu

3) Click on “Search Options”

4) Look just over half way down the “Search Options” box, and click on “Change…”

5) Select your favourite colour from the “Color” box that appears

6) Click “OK”

Now you can highlight your search terms in pink, blue, red, orange or any other colour under the rainbow!

‘till next time!
TNP

Are you sick of those extra long forwarded emails that seem to go on forever and ever?  Did you want to keep all that content for reference, but make sure that what you have to add to the forward is clearly delivered?

One way to do that is to forward an email as an attachment.  Instead of a long email thread appearing below your message, it is neatly tucked away in an attachment so your message gets all the attention!

To forward an email as an attachment in Outlook 2007:

1) Select the email you want to forward

2) Click on “Actions”

3) Click on “ Forward as Attachment”

4) Compose your message, and hit Send

‘till next time!
TNP

If you are like me, or anyone else that I work with, in fact if you are anyone in business today – chances are you use Outlook EVERY DAY!

And if you are like 99% of the population, you will double click on that Outlook icon every morning to open it.  Talk about wasting time! 

Did you know that we can automate things so Outlook will automatically start whenever you log into your computer. 

All you need to do is find the “Startup” folder in your Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 start menu.  Once you have found it, simply drag the Outlook icon into that folder.

Actually this works with any program, not just Outlook.  So if you want to automatically start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer… in fact any application on your computer – just drag the icon into the Startup folder.

So there you have it – one less thing for you to do in the morning!

‘till next time!
TNP

If you follow @thenewpaperclip on Twitter (or @paulwoods – the guy behind The New Paperclip), you would have known that I was presenting at TechEd Australia the past week.

My session (with Microsoft Australia’s Andrew Lowson) was titled “Personal Productivity for the IT Pro” and was one of the level 100 sessions in the Office System track.

It was never meant to be a deep dive – simply a session to highlight some quick productivity wins you can get simply by getting to know the tools you already have in front of you – in this case, Microsoft Office.

The best part of the session was that about about half way through we handed it over to the audience and started crowd sourcing productivity tips.  It was obvious that there are some very smart, very passionate people out there – and plenty of knowledge was shared

For those of you who could not make it to TechEd, or are unable to access the session I delivered via your TechEd Online subscription, whilst on site at the Gold Coast Convention Centre I did record a TechTalk just for you.

Titled “The Productivity Myth”, this interview with Alistair Speirs from Microsoft Australia will give you a taste of what the session was all about.

If you want to read more about “The Productivity Myth” – check out this blog post. 

Looking forward to seeing you all at TechEd next year!

‘till next time!
TNP

Do you receive those loooooooooooooong emails at work which have about 14 different message replies or forwards included in the body of the email?

Wouldn’t it  be good to start from scratch and have all that content in an attachment?  Well in Outlook 2007 you can do just that – forward an email as an attachment.  What does that mean?  That the recipient of your message can focus on your message, and not all the boring messages that came beforehand

So how do you forward an email as an attachment in Outlook 2007?

1) Select your message

2) Press CTRL + ALT + “F”

3) Type your message and hit send!

Simple as that!  If you want to forward multiple emails as attachments, just select all the messages first before typing CTRL + ALT + “F”

‘till next time!
TNP

Hey do you remember how awfully slow searching for emails was in old versions of Outlook? 

Well thank you to the folk at Microsoft who fixed this up and gave us a far superior search feature!  But are you getting the most out of Outlook 2007 search?

Obviously you can do a standard basic search for keywords in your emails, and that works quite well.  But did you know you can get quite granular with your search and find the email you are looking for much quicker?

For example, it is quite simple to search for emails that are from your boss that had the subject “Payrise” in them – and get the results very quickly without having to scroll through dozens if not hundreds of results.

So with that in mind, I thought I would run through some of the different search criteria you can use to get the most out of search in Outlook 2007.  I can’t go through every single possible search query, but you will get the idea.  Just remember that you can combine any of the searches below, and include keywords at the end to really target the email you are after.

Search for emails from an individual

Simply type “from:insert name or email address here” and that will return all the emails from that person.

For example – from:bill, or from:bill@abc.com, or from:"Bill Smith"

Search for emails sent to an individual

Simply type “to:insert name or email address here” and that will return all the emails sent to that person

For example – to:bill, or to:bill@abc.com, or to:"Bill Smith"

Search for emails received in the last x number of days

Simply type “received:timeframe" and that will return all the emails in that particular timeframe

For example – received:yesterday, or received:last week, or received:this year

Search for emails with a particular subject line

Simply type “subject:subject line” and that will return all the emails with include that subject line

For example – subject:payrise, or subject:(leave application), or subject:(lunch on thursday)

Search for emails with particular words in the body

Simply type “body:keyword” and that will return all the emails that include that keyword in the body of the email

For example – body:payrise

There are plenty of other search criteria you can use… here is a list:

• If the email has been read
• If the email has an attachment
• Who was BCC’d on the email
• Who was CC’d on the email
• What categories the email was placed in
• The due date for any follow up on the email
• The importance of the email
• The flag status of the email
• What folder the email is in
• What size the email is
• When the email was last modified
• What sensitivity level the email has
• When it was sent
• When the start date of the email follow up is

So there you have it, a quick introduction to the possibilities with Outlook 2007 search.  Now you can be confident that you will always be able to find emails when you need them!

‘till next time!
TNP

Search folders are one of the great new features of Outlook 2007 that can really help you be more productive.  Essentially they are a view of your inbox based on certain criteria that you can pick yourself. 

For example, maybe you want a search folder that shows you all your emails from your boss?  Or a folder that shows you all the emails you have over 200kb?

Outlook 2007 comes setup with a few default search folders, like “Unread Mail”.  That being said, it is really easy to set up your own.

1) Click on the little arrow beside the “New” button in the top left hand corner of your Outlook 2007 window

2) In the drop-down menu that appears, click on “Search Folder” (or just use the shortcut – CTRL+SHFT+P)

3) In the box that appears, start to select the criteria you want to use

4) Depending on what you just chose, fill in the box below – for example, if you want to show all the emails from your boss… put their email address in there

5) Click “OK”

Now you can keep track of your email by looking at it in different ways… and make sure you know where your boss’s emails are just in case they come asking questions!

‘till next time!
TNP

Has this ever happened to you?

You morning starts off great.  You beat all the traffic, get into the office precisely at the time you are supposed to start, and enjoy the best cup of coffee you have had in months.

You open up Outlook, and put that appointment in your calendar that you had thought of on the way into office.

But then something horrific happens.  When you go to check your email, there is a new meeting request in there – for the exact same time you just set the appointment in your calendar.  What are you to do????

…

Ok… I might be getting a little dramatic here, but this has happened to me a couple of times over the last few months – and today thanks to my friend Alistair Speirs (Australia’s premier Microsoft Office Client Technology Specialist – try Googling/Live Searching that now Al!), I have found a way to avoid this exact situation in the future.

There is a command line switch for Outlook 2007 which will start Outlook, force detection of all the new meeting requests that people sneakily invited you too overnight, and push them straight into your calendar before you get a chance to look at it.

The outcome being that you have a clear and accurate picture of how your time will be used today – before you start digging into your email.

And the best part is, the switch has a cool name… /sniff

For those that don’t know how to use switches, my advice would be to visit the Microsoft Office Online page that talks about Command-line switches for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

And if you want to take a look at some other switches that will make you more productive – check out the original post on Alistair’s blog.

‘till next time!
TNP