Originally Posted October 26 2008

Even after tweaking your computer screen resolution, the Font in your Outlook e-mail folders may still not be adjusted to a size that is large enough to read comfortably.  You can adjust the Font size in Outlook, but the menu to do this is not easy to get to.  Here's how.

In Outlook 2003 and 2007

1. View > Current View > Customize Current View...
   
   
   -The Customize View: Messages window appears
2. Click the 'Other Settings...' button
   
   
   -The Other Settings window appears
3. Click the 'Column Font...'
   
   
   -The Font window appears
4. Select a size that is easier to read - usually 10pt works well
   *You can even change the Font style if you wish
5. Click the 'OK' button when done
   
    
6. Continue by clicking the 'Row Font...' and 'Font...' buttons in the Other Settings window and change the Font size (and style) to match)
   -When done
7. Click OK
8. Click OK 
   -The Font size is changed

That's it!

Originally Posted September 28 2008

If you are like me, you probably try to minimize re-typing as much as possible.  One technique that you probably use is the Cut (or Copy) and Paste.  For example, if you are looking at a web page and need to copy a model number, serial number, or something with detail, you can merely highlight/select it, press CTRL + C to copy, open a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, or E-mail then press CTRL + P to paste it.  But, there may be a problem - the formatting of the text will probably transfer to what ever you pasted it in to.  Here's how you can overcome it.

When you paste, instead of pressing CTRL + P,
1. Edit > Paste Special
2. Select Unformatted Text
3. Click OK
*This process works in most Microsoft programs

Originally Posted July 6 2008

This three day weekend reminds me of a question that I am frequently asked, 'How do I setup an 'Out of Office message' in Outlook?'  I am a little reluctant to share the process for reasons I will explain a little later.  But, depending on how your e-mail is setup there are a few different ways.

If you use Microsoft Outlook and are in a company that has an Outlook Exchange Server (a piece of software your IT guys use to manage your company's emails), you can simply setup your Out of Office message in Outlook by:
1. Tools > Out of Office Assistant

If you don't have this option then you have to setup your Out of Office Assistant a different way.  Essentially, you have to log in to your e-mail management web page and create the message in there.  Each service has its own process.  Here are a few links to help.

GMail - Vacation Responder
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=25922

Network Solutions - Auto Responder
http://customersupport.networksolutions.com/article.php?id=326

Go Daddy - AutoResponder
http://help.godaddy.com/article/369

Yahoo - Vacation Response
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/basics/basics-52.html

The reason I am apprehensive to have people turn-on an Out of Office message is because your message will be sent to everyone including spammers.  So in your absence, you can be notifying a spammer that your email address is a live and valid address.  This is not so much of a problem if you (or your IT department) have some type of anti-spam protection.

The other reason is because of security.  Since so many people work from their homes, why tell everyone that you will be out of the office until ___?

As a reminder, be sure to turn-off your responder when you get back into the office.

That's it!

Originally Posted March 17, 2008

If you have taken the time to classify your Contacts in MS Outlook into Groups, you may have wanted a short-cut to expand or collapse your Groups.  Well, here's where it is:

In Outlook (all versions)
-In your Contacts folder when looking at Current View - By Groups:
1. View > Expand/Collapse Groups > Collapse Groups

All your Groups are collapsed

That's it!

Originally Posted March 9, 2008

I have gotten a few requests on how to attach your vCard to your outbound emails in Outlook (a vCard is an attachment to your email that contains your contact info you have previously entered).  It is very handy since the recipient can merely double-click on the attachment then click on Save and Close and your contact info is saved to their Contacts folder.  Here's how you do it:

In Outlook (This depicts versions through 2003.  The 2007 version is very similar)
Create a vCard for yourself in your Contacts folder
In Outlook:
1. Open your Contact folder

2. Click New
3. Enter your contact information
4. Click the 'Save and Close' button

Setup Outlook to include your vCard with all your outbound emails
1. Click Tools > Options...
 

2. Click the 'Mail Format' tab
3. Click the 'Signatures...' button

4. Select your default email signature
Note: in 2007, click the 'Business Card' button, then click 'OK'
5. Click the 'Edit...' button

6. Click the 'New vCard from Contact...' button

7. Select your contact record info (be sure not to select your entry for your Business Fax)
8. Click 'OK'
 

Caveat: Completing the above steps will send a vCard with every outbound email - which may be annoying to people you email regularly since it will appear like each of your emails has a file attached.  Instead, you may want to send your vCard selectively.  You can do that by:

1. Create a new email
2. Insert > Item...

3. Select your Contact
4. Click 'OK'

That's it!

Have you ever received an e-mail that had a winmail.dat attachment?  Have you ever wondered what it is?

The winmail.dat attachment is created when the sender of the email has set their Outlook to format new emails in RTF (Rich Text Format).  The sender doesn't see the attachment when they create the email, rather it is generated as it makes its way to your Inbox because of a variety of reasons.  The winmail.dat attachment appears with their email and there really isn't much much we can do about receiving it.

On the other hand, if your email recipients say they keep getting winmail.dat attachments, you can change your email format to keep from sending this attachment again.  Here's how:

In Outlook:
1. Tools > Options
2. Click the 'Mail format' tab
-In the 'Compose in this message format' field
3. Select 'HTML' from the drop-down list
4. Click 'Apply'
5. Click 'OK'

When you send your next email, you'll be good to go!

August 19 2007
Don't you hate it when you get those 'The message sender has requested a read receipt.  Would you like to send one now?' when you are checking your e-mail in Outlook?  Even if it is from someone you know, acknowledging when you read an e-mail is a little intrusive.  If you are tired of dealing with these requests, you can suppress this request automatically and prohibit a message from being sent to the Sender for all e-mails with this request.  Here's how:

July 16, 2007
Lately I have been doing a lot of training in Outlook. One of the most popular hints that I have been sharing is how to resend a sent email - Usually, saving time spent trying to cut & paste an email into a new email in order to resend.

In Outlook 2003 and older:
1. Open your Sent folder
2. Find and Double click on the email you want to resent to open it
-In the Toolbar
3. Actions > Resend This Message...
-Your message is re-queued
4. Click Send to resend

In Outlook 2007:
1. Open your Sent folder
2. Find and Double click on the email you want to resent to open it
3. Click 'Other Actions' in the Actions portion of the toolbar
4. Click 'Resend This Message...'
-Your message is re-queued
5. Click Send to resend

This is helpful especially if you send an email with an attachment  and forget the attachment (like that never happens)!

February 18 2007

Q: I use Microsoft Outlook to manage my appointments. Is there a way to change the default duration for new Appointments from 30 minutes to 1 hour?

A: Unlike other Schedule Management programs, Outlook doesn’t have an option to change the duration of new Appointments – In my opinion, this is a short-coming of Outlook. The way you can get around it is by changing the time increments of your Calendar, then by default the default for new Appointments changes to 1-hour.

Here’s how:

-In Outlook (all versions)
-Change the default duration of your calendar
1. Click on the Calendar button or your Calendar Folder in your Folder tree
2. View > Day (to change to the Day view if you aren’t already there)
3. View > Arrange By > Current View > Customize Current View >
-In the Customize Current View Day/Week/Month window
4. Click the ‘Other Settings…’ button
-In the Format Day/Week/Month window
5. Change the ‘Time scale:’ to 60 minutes
6. Click ‘OK’
7. Click ‘OK’
Now when you schedule a new appointment, it will automatically be scheduled for an hour.

That’s it!

1. Open MS Outlook
2. File > Work Offline
3. Shut down Outlook
4. Unplug your network cable from your computer (or turn off your wireless card)
   -Delete the stuck email
5. Open MS Outlook
6. Open your 'Outbox' folder
7. Find and Delete the stuck email
   -Permanently delete the stuck email
8. Open your 'Deleted Items' folder
9. Find and Delete the stuck email
   -Change MS Outlook to Online
10. File > Work Online

Mar 6 2006
Q: I receive so many emails every day and many of them I want to keep for a later follow-up, but it is a little hard for me to remember which ones.  Is there a way in Microsoft Outlook to help manage this?

A: Outlook has a handy feature to do exactly this, called the ‘Flag’.  Simply, the Flag feature will Flag any email with a priority color of your choice.  You can then prioritize each outstanding email at your leisure.

Here’s what you need to do:

In Outlook, in your Inbox:

1. Right Click on the email you want to Flag

2. Select ‘Follow up’ from the Pointer Menu

3. Select the color of the Flag you want to mark the email

When you are done

1 .Right Click on the email that you flagged

2. Select ‘Follow up’ from the Pointer Menu

3. Select ‘Clear Flag’

That’s it!

Dec 12 2005
Q: My Company uses Outlook 2003.  When I open the calendar it always starts at 8a.  My schedule is off-set where my day starts at 7a.  Is there an option to make the Day Calendar in  Outlook start at 7a too?

A: Well, you have more will power than I.  At 7a I am barely through my first cup of coffee!
Anyway, here’s how you do it:

In Outlook
1. Tools > Options…
2. Click the ‘Calendar Options…’ button
-Under the Calendar Work Week section
Change the ‘Start time:’ field to 7a or the time you desire

In here you will also find options to change the work week and even display dual time zones!

I hope this Tip saves you time!

Nov 21 2005
Q: When I create an email in Outlook, I type in the first few letters of that’s person’s name in the ‘To:’ field and it provides a drop-down list of all the people to whom I have previously sent an email with the same first few letters in their name.  I have a few incorrectly entered names that I need to correct, but this list does not seem to correlate to the names in my Contact folder or even Global Address list.  How can I fix it?

A: This list is called the AutoComplete or Nickname cache and your deduction that this list is actually a separate list is correct.  It list is saved deep within your computer.  It is accessible, but cumbersome to do so.  When you are facing a problem with incorrectly entered names, there is a faster way to fix it.  Delete the incorrectly entered names from the drop-down list.  Here’s how:

-In Outlook:
1. Create a new email
2. Type in the first few letters of the listing that you know is incorrect (enough so Outlook displays the drop-down list)
3. Use the Up/Down Arrow keys on your computer to Select/Highlight the one that is incorrect
4. Press the Delete key on your keyboard
That’s it!

Sept 12 2005
Q:I attach files to my emails that are usually located in a Folder on my company’s server (Our ‘Z:’ drive).  I use Outlook and it opens to my ‘My Documents’ Folder by default.  I then have to click several times before I even get to it.  Is there a way to access that Folder faster that doesn’t take so many clicks?
A: A simple way to solve this problem is to create a Shortcut your ‘My Documents’ folder that points to your Z: drive.  This way, when you want to attach a File to an email you just double–click on the Shortcut in you ‘My Documents’ and you are immediately taken to your Z: drive!

To create a Shortcut to the Z: drive in My Documents:
1. Find the Z: drive
2. Right Click on the Z: drive icon
3. Select ‘Create Shortcut’
-A Shortcut is created for the Folder and placed at the end of the list
4. Right click on the new short-cut and select ‘Cut’
5. Find and open your ‘My Documents’ folder
6. Right click anywhere within you ‘My Documents’ folder and select ‘Paste’
-A short-cut for your ‘Z: drive’ is placed in your ‘My Documents’ folder

July 18 2005
Q: I would like to create a calendar to track my personal events and keep them separate from my business activities in Outlook 2003. But, I would like to view them side-by-side so I make sure that I don't schedule myself for a business meeting and a personal appointment at the same time.   Is there a way to do this?
A: Yes, Here's how:

First you have to create a new Calendar by:
1. Click on the 'Calendar' button to open your default Calendar in Outlook 2003
2. File > New > Folder...
3. Type in a Calendar name Ex. 'Karate Schedule'
4. From the 'Folder contains:' drop-down menu, select 'Calendar Items' (at the top of the list)
5. Click on 'Personal Folders' in the folders list window
-This will place your new Calendar at the same hierarchy level as your other folders

Now, you can display your new Calendar side-by-side to your default one by:
-Under the 'My Calendars' box at the upper left hand side of the screen, your Calendars are listed.  The default Calendar is selected (has a check mark by it)
6. Place a check next to your new Calendar (Ex. Karate Schedule)
-Both your default Calendar and new Calendar are displayed side-by-side!
That's it!

June 27 2005
Q: My company has a firewall that includes a Junk Mail Filter.  We use Outlook 2003 which also has a Junk Mail Filter feature.  Consequently, many 'friendly' emails are diverted into the Outlook Junk Mail folder.  How can I turn this feature off?
A: The Junk Mail filter feature is great if you have a stand-alone computer, but becomes redundant if you have a filter that your IT department has installed or even if you installed a 3rd party filter like Norton Anti-Spam, McAfee Anti-Spam, or similar).  Here's how to turn-off the Junk Mail filter in Outlook:

-In Outlook:
1. Tools > Options...
2. 'Preferences' tab, under the E-Mail section
3. Click the 'Junk E-Mail...' button
4. Select ‘No automatic filtering’
5. Click ‘Apply’
6. Click ‘OK’
That's it!

June 13 2005
Q: My company has anti-spam filters on our network.  My Outlook 2003's Junk Email filter is capturing legitimate emails.  How do I turn-off this filter?
A: Here's how:
-In Outlook 2003
1. Tools > Options...
-In the 'Preferences' tab
2. Click 'Junk E-Mail...'
-In the 'Options' tab
3. Select 'No automatic filtering'
4. Click 'Apply'
5. Click 'OK'
6. Click 'OK'
That's it!

June 6 2006
Q: I have my Contacts arranged in the default Address Card mode in Outlook.  I want to eliminate some of the fields that are displayed.  How can I do that?
A: Here's how:

In Outlook:
1. Open your Contacts folder
2. View > Arrange By > Current View > Customize Current View…
3. Click the ‘Fields…’ button
-You are presented with the ‘Show Fields’ window
-In the left Column are the Available fields for display
-In the right Column are all the Contact fields currently displayed and their order of display
4. Use the ‘Add ->’ and ‘<-Remove’ buttons to choose what fields you want displayed
-You can then adjust which field is displayed first, then the next one below that one, and so on by
5. Select/Highlight the fields you want to move then
6. Click either the ‘Move Up’ and ‘Move Down’ buttons
Now, you can customize your Contacts folder to your specific needs!

May 2 2005
Q: In Outlook, how can I quickly move ahead several months with in the Mini-Calendar (for clarification, I consider the Mini-Calendar the month calendar either at the upper right or left hand side of your screen when you are looking at your calendar folder)?’
A: All you need to do is:
1. Click on the name of the month in the Mini-Calendar
-A list of months before and after the current month are displayed
2. Drag the Pointer to the desired month then
3. Let go
That’s it!
*Bonus: This Tip also works in ACT! 6.0 - 2006 if you Right Click on the name of the month.

To revert to the current day in Outlook:
1. Right Click on the Day displayed (Ex. ‘Sunday, May 01, 2005’)
2. Select ‘Today’

I hope this Tip saves you time!

February 21 2005
Q: Is there a faster way to reschedule my Appointment in Outlook than opening the meeting and entering in the new day & time?
A: Yes, you can just drag and drop the Appointment/Meeting to the new date.  Here's how:

In Outlook:
1. Open your Calendar folder
2. Find the Appointment you want to reschedule
3. Click once on the Appointment to select/highlight it
-It is outlined in blue
4. Click on the left vertical blue margin of the Appointment and drag it to the new time within the same day or onto the new day in the mini Calendar.

February 7 2005
Q: When I am looking for an email in my Inbox in Outlook, sometimes I need to open my Contact folder to look up an important contact.  When I go back, I loose the spot I was in in my Inbox.  How can I keep this from happening?
A: You can avoid this minor frustration by opening a separate window for your Inbox.  Here's how you do it:

-In Outlook
1. Right Click on the Folder you want to open in a new window
-You can even Right Click on the short-cut buttons at the lower left-hand side of Outlook in the 2003 version
2. Select ‘Open in New Window’
Note: You can actually open several windows at the same time!

April 25 2005
Q: I use Outlook as my email management program.  Even though I am a pretty good speller, my typing needs improvement.  How can I get Outlook to automatically check all my emails spelling before it sends them?
A: All you need to do is turn on the spell checker feature.  Here's how:

1. Open Outlook
2. Tools > Options...
3. Click the 'Spelling' tab
4. Select 'Always check spelling before sending'
5. Click the 'Apply' button
6. Click the 'OK' button
*The same process works for Outlook Express.  Now there are no more exqcuses

April 4 2005
Q: I was working on an Excel spreadsheet and the right hand margin the 'Search for:' help field disappeared.  How do I get it back into view?
A: The margin is called the 'Task Pane' and it was a new feature in Microsoft Office 2003.  Here's how you get it back:

If you use Microsoft Office 2003 version software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc).  Perhaps you noticed with this flavor of Office there is a new Window that appears in the right hand side of the screen that (tries to) provide you with instructions on how to complete a task or as a help reference-this Window is called the Task Pane.

If you are like me, perhaps you have been in the middle of the process (maybe finishing mail merge), following the instructions in Task Pane, you mash a key, and it disappears.  Now you are left trying to coax its reappearance.

Well, to bring it back all you need to do is this:
Press the F1 key on your keyboard.
-The 'Task  Pane' reappears