Microsoft Outlook Part 1: E-mail in a Nutshell

Microsoft® Outlook is a powerful tool that offers office professionals endless opportunity to organize and communicate. In this four-part series, we will introduce you to some of the features Outlook 2007 offers, beginning with e-mail.

Outlook E-mail

If your Outlook is currently shut down, it may be helpful to open it as you follow these steps. Also, to jump back and forth from this article to Outlook, you can use the shortcut Alt+Tab.

E-mail messages are in limbo until you open your e-mail program and check for new messages. A "server" is a processor that holds e-mail messages after they have been sent from the sender's computer to the receiver's computer. Once you open your e-mail program, the server then releases the messages, and sends them to the receiver's computer. When discussing e-mail, think of the server as a post office.

The first time you access Outlook, you may have to configure your e-mail account settings. If you're using a company PC, your IT department may have already done this for you; if not, the setup is fairly easy to follow. Contact your e-mail provider with any questions you have during the initial setup. You will need to be able to provide the following information:

1. Your name

2. Your e-mail address

3. The type of account your e-mail server runs (i.e.,POP3)

4. Your server's incoming and outgoing address

5. Your user name

6. Your e-mail password

The Option to Customize

When Outlook is first opened, it should look similar to other Microsoft applications. However, to change the layout of the windows, select the View option in the main toolbar. There, you can choose to only view portions of the applications that you want to see and in the format you're familiar with. For example, when I click on an e-mail message, I like to see the preview below the list of messages. So in the View menu I click Reading Pane --> Bottom.

The Outlook tool bar may be customized by right-clicking anywhere on it and selecting Customize. In the Commands tab, you can click and drag Commands and Categories so that the toolbar shows only the buttons you choose.

To create a custom e-mail folder in your Favorites Folders list, right-click anywhere below Personal Folders and select New Folder. A pop-up dialogue box will then appear. Select the folder under which you would like your new folder to appear, give it a name, and then click OK. Folders can be rearranged by clicking and dragging them up or down the Personal Folders list.

In addition, mail rules can be set up in Outlook to automate the processing of the messages in your e-mail inbox.

If you would like to see more or less of any portion of the screen, you can customize the section dividers within Outlook. Simply click on the blue lines that divide each section, and drag them until you achieve the desired width.

To automatically add a personal signature to all of your e-mails, perform the following steps:

1. Click on Tools --> Options --> Mail Format tab --> Signatures.

2. Click the New signature button, enter a name like My Signature and click OK. In the Edit Signature box, enter your signature as you would like it to appear. Don't be afraid to be creative with font options.

3. If you would like a few spaces to appear above your signature, add a few spaces here. Then, click OK.

Remember: You can display your list of e-mails according to sender, subject, date received, size and category by clicking the column heading at the top of your e-mail list (where it says Arranged By). This is especially helpful when searching for a particular e-mail. Also, right-clicking your mouse is very powerful within Outlook. For example, when you right-click on an e-mail message, you have a multitude of options including Print, Open, Reply, Forward, Mark as Unread, Move to Folder, and more.

Stay tuned for many more Outlook tips!