Editing Subject Lines

Has this ever happened to you: You're scrolling through old email, trying to find that important letter from the boss,
but none of the subject lines seem to be what you're looking for? Try this: when you get an email without a
clearly written subject line, go ahead and edit it before you close the mail. That way, you'll always be able to find
what you're looking for!

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Inbox Direct

Did you know you could set Outlook Express to open your Inbox upon startup and display your received email? When you first open the Outlook Express icon on the Desktop, the Welcome To Outlook Express message greets you in the right message pane of a three-pane display. Go to the bottom of the message and click the box to the left of "When Outlook Express Starts, Go Directly To My Inbox." Shut down the app. Open the program again, and Outlook Express lists the email in the Inbox in a top-right pane while the actual email message displays in a bottom-right pane.

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Need Week Numbers?

Would you like to see the week number in your calendar? Simply turn on the week numbers in the Outlook Date Navigator. Choose Tools| Options. On the Preferences property sheet, click the Calendar Options button. In the Calendar Options panel, select the Show Week Numbers. In The Date Navigator checkbox, click OK twice. Now the Date Navigator shows the week numbers to the left of the first day in the week.

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Spellcheck To Impress

If you don't have Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint installed on your computer, you won't find the spelling tool included with Outlook Express because it relies on the spell checker provided with these Microsoft Office programs.

The first time you try to send an email message, click the Spelling button from the main toolbar in the message window to make sure the spell checker component is installed. Now configure it to check every message before it's sent. Sure, it's a bit of a hassle, but at least it'll look like your parents are getting their money's worth!

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Research Tools And Newsgroups, Part 1

Internet newsgroups are great for research, and Outlook is a great news client. A news client is a tool that lets you
view and post messages in newsgroups. A newsgroup is a virtual area reserved for the discussion of certain topics.
There are newsgroups about nearly every topic imaginable, from books to history to art. You can subscribe to any of
the thousands of newsgroups available and read the opinions of others on a given topic. If you're going to use a
newsgroup as a research tool, don't forget to cite your source. And check with your teacher or professor to make
sure he or she will allow Internet postings as credible sources.

Research Tools And Newsgroups, Part 2

Newsgroups are great for research. However, once you have subscribed to a newsgroup, you should set up many of the
same features that you already have with email. If you want to add a signature file to your newsgroup postings, choose
Stationery from the main Tools menu, and choose the News tab. Use the Signature section at the bottom of the tab to
create and attach a signature file.

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CATEGORIZATION CAN SAVE THE DAY

By tagging any new contact with at least one category, Outlook can better group together information and find it faster too. To do this (within the modules that categorization applies to), click Categories under the Edit menu and check the appropriate boxes. Now you'll always know who, what, where and when!

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CHECK THOSE NAMES

In Outlook 2000, Check Names will make sure that the names you enter with your Address Book are correct.
Unfortunately, it doesn't double-check the validity of theinformation, such as the email address, that is stored in the Address Book itself. You'll have to do that yourself.

- Mark Streton

RECEIVE MAIL ON ONE OF MULACCOUNTS
We showed you how to add a second e-mail aTIPLE ccount to Outlook 98: Select Tools, Accounts; in the Mail tab, click Add, Mail; follow along to complete the Internet Connection wizard; then click Close. We also pointed out that once you have multiple accounts, clicking Send And Receive--or allowing Outlook 98 to send and receive messages automatically, as defined in the Mail Delivery tab of the Tools, Options dialog box--retrieves messages from all accounts. Want to check just a single account for messages? Pull down the Tools menu, select Send And Receive, and in the resulting menu, select the desired account.

(Tip: If you plan to check for messages separately all the time, you should disable the Check For New Messages Every XX Minutes option in the Mail Delivery tab of the Tools, Options dialog box.)

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SEND MAIL FROM ONE OF MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS

A couple of tips back, we showed you how to add a second e-mail account to Outlook 98: Select Tools, Accounts; in the Mail tab, click Add, Mail; follow along to complete the Internet Connection wizard; then click Close. Then in our last tip, we showed you how to check a single account for messages: Select Tools, Send And Receive, then select the account you want to check.

You can do just the opposite--select the mail account you use to SEND a message. (Remember, a message's return address reflects the account from which you sent it.) Click the New Mail Message button and complete your message as usual. Then, assuming the account you want to use is not already the default (the one Outlook 98 uses automatically when you click the Send button), select File, Send Using, and choose the correct account name.

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REMOVE ONE OF MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS FROM SEND AND RECEIVE OPERATION

In the first tip in this series, we showed you how to add a second e-mail account to Outlook 98: Select Tools, Accounts; in the Mail tab, click Add, Mail; follow along to complete the Internet Connection wizard; then click Close. We also pointed out that once you have multiple accounts, clicking Send And Receive--or allowing Outlook 98 to send and receive messages automatically, as defined in the Mail Delivery tab of the Tools, Options dialog box--retrieves messages from all accounts.

Want Outlook 98 to send and receive messages from one account all the time, ignoring another rarely used account? Remove the alternative account from Outlook 98's Send And Receive operation, and it will remain inactive until you say otherwise.

Select Tools, Accounts to open the Internet Accounts dialog box. Select the account you want to inactivate, click the Properties
button, and deselect Include This Account When Doing A Full Send And Receive. Click OK, then Close. From now on, clicking the Send And Receive button sends and receives mail from all accounts but this one.

(Tip: To send and receive mail from the inactive account, select Tools, Send And Receive, and choose the account name.)

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CHANGE DEFAULT SENDING ACCOUNT

In the first tip in this series, we showed you how to add a second e-mail account to Outlook 98: Select Tools, Accounts; click the Mail tab, click Add, Mail; follow along to complete the Internet Connection wizard; then click Close. That way, clicking Send And Receive retrieves messages from all accounts and sends messages from the default account. Want to change this default so you always send messages using another account? Select Tools, Accounts, and in the Mail tab, select the desired account. Click the Set As Default button, and the selected account will now say Mail (Default) in the Type column. Click OK.

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SAVE YOURSELF

All too often you get interrupted when writing e-mail and have to come back to it later. Change your mail options to ensure that Outlook saves drafts of your unsent messages. Click Tools, Options. Select Email Options, then Advanced Email Options. Check the box next to Autosave Unsent Every [blank] Minutes and replace [blank] with your
preferred interval. Whew! No more lost messages.

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TODAY'S TIP: DELETE DELIGHT

Make sure to empty the Deleted Items Folder regularly to save space and provide security for your private e-mail. Right-click the Deleted Items icon and select Empty Deleted Items Folder. Outlook will ask you to confirm deletion; click Yes and you're safe. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the world isn't out to get you!

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ATTACH TO A MESSAGE

Adding attachments to Outlook 98 messages requires only a few mouse clicks. Start your new message, then address and compose it. When finished, click Insert, File. Locate the desired file on your hard drive, select the file, and click the OK button. Your attachment(s) will appear at the bottom of the message window.

You can add as many attachments to one message as you need, but bear in mind that too many attachments make the message slow to send and receive. To remove an attachment, simply right-click the icon at the bottom of the message window and select Remove.

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MICROSOFT OUTLOOK RTF SECURITY RISK

When a user sends an e-mail message in Rich Text Format (RTF) using Microsoft Outlook, the file winmail.dat gets sent as an attachment. If the recipient opens the e-mail message in a client other than Outlook, the file will appear as an attachment. This normally would not be a problem, except that winmail.dat contains the full path of the
sender's .pst file. This poses a security risk, since the path contains the user name of the sender as well as the domain name. There is currently no fix for this problem, but as a simple workaround avoid using RTF for your outgoing messages.

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THE TASKMASTER

Outlook's Calendar can provide an invaluable tool for those of us who aren't blessed with a good memory. The Calendar allows you to make a Task list of things to do on any given day. Start Outlook and open the Calendar (click Go, Calendar). With the mouse, select a day for which you need a reminder to do something. Click the Taskpad and type in your task, making it as descriptive as your memory requires. Press Enter to add your new task to the list. When the date arrives, Outlook will remind you of your impending tasks for the day. Although the Calendar was intended for a more business-oriented application, it works quite nicely for personal use.

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ON THE BUSINESS END

Today's tip deals more with the Outlook Calendar's intended application in a business environment. In addition to planning your
entire day using the main Calendar pane, you can assign tasks to various people in your workgroup or address book.

Once you have a list of tasks for the day (see previous tip), you can right-click them and select Assign Task. Outlook will open a new window much like that of a new e-mail message. Enter the e-mail address (or address book alias) of the person to whom you would like to assign the task. Fill in any details such as due date, priority, or a brief description, and click Send. The person will receive a message outlining the task, along with any special instructions you've provided. Later, when the task has been completed, you will be informed, and your task list for the day will note the completion.

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ATTACH NOTES TO MESSAGES


Just type a masterpiece of a long note* you'd like to share with someone else? You have two options. You can copy and paste the text into an e-mail message, or you can forward the note as a message attachment (much more efficient).

Inside the Notes folder, right-click the note you want to forward and select Forward. Immediately, a new message window appears with the note attached. Complete the message as you would any other, then click Send.

* In case you aren't familiar with notes, you create one as follows: Select File, New Note, type the text of your note, and click the X in the note's upper-right corner. The note takes its place alongside any others in the Notes folder.

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TURN A NOTE INTO A DOCUMENT

In our last tip, we showed you how to forward a note* as a message attachment: Inside the Notes folder, right-click the note you want to forward, select Forward, complete the message as you would any other, then click Send.

Just as you might deem a note important enough to send to someone in an e-mail, you might decide that a note should become its very own document (for example, if the notes you were taking for a report suddenly look pretty close to the final version).

Inside the Notes folder, select the note you want to save as a file and choose File, Save As. Navigate your way to the desired location, type a name for the file, choose a file type (for example, Rich Text Format saves it as a Word file), then click Save. You can open and edit that note--now a document--inside your word processor.

* In case you aren't familiar with notes, you create one as follows: Select File, New Note, type the text of your note, and click the X in the note's upper-right corner. The note takes its place alongside any others in the Notes folder.

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SEPARATE NOTES INTO CATEGORIES
by Paul Dmytrewycz

In our last tip, we showed you how to color-code notes* to make it easy to distinguish one type from the next (for example, work from personal): Right-click a note, select Color, and choose from one of five available colors. Do you have more than five different categories of notes--for example, one for each of eight ongoing projects? Then divide your notes into--you guessed it--categories.

Right-click any note and select Categories. (If the note is open, click the icon in its upper-left corner and select Categories.) Under
Available Categories, click the check box next to as many applicable categories as you want, then click OK. Repeat these steps for any other notes you want to categorize. (Tip: To save time, apply categories to more than one note at a time. Hold down Ctrl as you click each note, right-click the selection, select Categories, and so on.)

What's the point of all this categorizing if you can't see it anywhere? In our next tip, we'll tell you how to view your notes by
category (or color).

* In case you aren't familiar with notes, you create one as follows: Select File, New Note, type the text of your note, and click the X in the note's upper-right corner. The note takes its place alongside any others in the Notes folder.

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VIEW NOTES BY COLOR OR CATEGORY
by Paul Dmytrewycz

In our last two tips, we showed you how to separate notes by color or category to make it easy to tell one type apart from the next: Right-click a note, select Color, and choose from one of five available colors; or select Categories, select the applicable
categories, and click OK. Either way, once you've done your separating, you'll want to group all like notes together to make them
easy to locate.

To view your notes by color, select View, Current View, By Color. To group your notes together by category, select View, Current View, By Category. (If you've given a note more than one category, it will appear once inside each.) Click the plus sign (+) on any line to view all notes in that group. To ungroup your notes, select View, Current View, Icons (or Notes List).

* In case you aren't familiar with notes, you create one as follows: Select File, New Note, type the text of your note, and click the X in the note's upper-right corner. The note takes its place alongside any others in the Notes folder.

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CHANGE APPEARANCE OF AUTOPREVIEW TEXT
by Paul Dmytrewycz

Two tips ago, we showed you a quick way to preview messages in your message list: Select View, AutoPreview. Wish the preview text appeared in your favorite color, or that it was a bit larger? You can change the color, font, or point size of the preview text.

Pull down the View menu and select Current View, Customize Current View. Click Other Settings, and under AutoPreview, click the Font button. Use the resulting dialog box to change the appearance of your text as desired, then click OK three times (to close all dialog boxes).

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MARK PREVIEWED MESSAGE AS READ
by Paul Dmytrewycz

If you want to know which Inbox messages you've read and which you haven't, all you need to do is look at the text in the message list. Unread messages appear in bold, while read messages don't. Great. The only problem with this setting is that it's determined by whether you've opened the message in a separate window. So if you tend to read messages in the preview pane only, they all remain bold.

To resolve this confusion, instruct Outlook to mark any message previewed for a certain amount of time as read. Select Tools, Options, and click the Other tab. Click the Preview Pane button, select Mark Messages As Read In Preview Window, then set the number of seconds you need to preview a message before Outlook marks it as read. Click OK twice. The next time you select an unread message and leave it displayed in the preview pane for the specified amount of time, Outlook will mark it read.

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SEND A TASK REQUEST
by Paul Dmytrewycz

Do you and the people who work for you all use Outlook for e-mail? (If you answered no, ask yourself, "Why doesn't everyone use Outlook?" Well, we can't all be enlightened [or brainwashed by Microsoft], can we?) The next time you need to delegate tasks, stay right where you are--in front of your computer. The Tasks feature makes it a snap to assign tasks right through the mail.

To create a task request, press Ctrl-Shift-U (or select File, New, Task Request). Type the recipient's address on the To line; or if he or she is already in your address book, click the To button, double-click the recipient, and click OK. Now, just complete the
remaining fields: Type a Subject, select a Due Date and Start Date, and so on. Type any instructions in the big white box at the bottom.

When you're finished creating the task, click the Send button and off it goes. Way to delegate.

Just receive a task request? In our next tip, we'll show you how to accept it or--and this is much more fun--reject it.

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RESPOND TO A TASK REQUEST
by Paul Dmytrewycz

In our last tip, we showed you how to create a task request or assign someone a task: Select File, New, Task Request (or press
Ctrl-Shift-U), fill out the resulting dialog box, and click the Send button. If you happen to be on the receiving end of a task, you have two choices: Accept it or reject it (we know what we all want to do, right?).

Open the message containing the task and click Accept or Decline. Click Send The Response Now, then click Send. If you have something to say about this task (like "Are you kidding?"), click Edit The Response Before Sending, type your message, and click Send. Keep in mind that rejecting tasks is much more fun, but it can be detrimental to your career.

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REASSIGN A TASK
by Paul Dmytrewycz

Two tips ago, we showed you how to create a task request or assign someone a task: Select File, New, Task Request (or press
Ctrl-Shift-U), fill out the resulting dialog box, and click the Send button. Then, in our last tip, we showed you how to accept or decline that task on the receiving end: Open the message with the particular task, click Accept or Decline, and so on.

Don't feel like completing a task, but don't want to be so bold as to decline it? Assuming you have the power to do so, you can always assign it to someone else. Open the message that contains the task request and select Actions, Assign Task. Type the address of the desired recipient on the To line, then click Send. Go ahead--flex those seniority muscles.

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DELETE SHORTCUTS FROM OUTLOOK BAR
by Paul Dmytrewycz

If your Outlook Bar is getting a little too cluttered, you might want to delete some of those shortcuts you never use. To do this,
right-click any shortcut you want to remove from the bar, select Remove From Outlook Bar, then click Yes to confirm. If you change your mind, you can always put it back by dragging its folder icon from the folder list (select View, Folder List) over to the Outlook Bar.

Here's another tip: To make even more room on your Outlook Bar, right-click it anywhere and select Small Icons.

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REARRANGE OUTLOOK BAR
by Paul Dmytrewycz

Does your Outlook Bar need a little rearranging? Wish some of the shortcuts in the My Shortcuts section of the bar were in the Outlook Shortcuts section, or vice versa? You can move any shortcut to any location on the bar using a simple click-and-drag operation.

Click and hold the shortcut you want to move, then drag it up or down the Outlook Bar. When a black line appears in the desired location, let go, and Outlook will slide the shortcut into place, shifting everything else up or down to make room.

In the same way, you can move a shortcut from one section to another. For example, to move a shortcut from Outlook Shortcuts to My Shortcuts, click and drag the item directly over My Shortcuts at the bottom of the bar. When this section appears, drop the shortcut in your location of choice.

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ADD FOLDER SHORTCUTS TO OUTLOOK BAR
by Paul Dmytrewycz

If you've just imported some message-filled folders from another email program into Outlook 98, they won't appear on the Outlook Bar automatically. You'll need to put them there one at a time, by hand. Here's how:

First, select View, Folder List to view all Outlook 98 folders. Right-click any folder you'd like to add to the Outlook Bar, and
select Add to Outlook Bar. You can also click and drag any folder from the list to your location of choice on the Outlook Bar. The folder takes its rightful place at the bottom of the Outlook Shortcuts list.

Repeat these steps to add more folders to the bar. When you're finished, click the X in the upper-right corner of the folder list to
make it disappear.

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FINDING IMPORTED FOLDERS AND MESSAGES

Outlook 98 can import messages and their folders (among other things) from other email programs, such as Outlook Express. You can perform this operation during setup by selecting your old email program during the setup process; or at any other time by selecting File, Import And Export, choosing Import Internet Mail and Addresses, and so on. Regardless of when you choose to import messages, it may seem at first glance that nothing has changed. You won't find those imported folders on the Outlook Bar, but if you select View, Folder, List, you'll see that they actually did make it over.

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IMPORT INFO FROM ANOTHER PROGRAM ANYTIME

If you've already installed Outlook 98 and you'd like to import
information from another email program, you're in luck. You can import settings, messages, and address book entries from another email program at any time.

First, select File, Import And Export. Under Choose Action to Perform, select Import Internet Mail and Addresses. Click Next, select the program from which you want to import the information, and deselect any of the three import options (if you wish). Click Next again; set the appropriate options in the Import Addresses dialog box, if applicable; then click Finish. All the information from your other program is now inside Outlook!

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IMPORT INFORMATION FROM ANOTHER PROGRAM DURING SETUP
by Paul Dmytrewycz

Are you about to install Outlook 98 on a system where you already use another email program, such as Outlook Express? Outlook 98 can import all your important information--for example, your address book, email messages, and configuration settings--from your other program so you don't have to enter everything by hand.

During the setup process, in the E-mail Upgrade Options dialog box, select Outlook Express (or your email program). Follow the steps to complete the installation, and when you start Outlook 98 for the first time, a wizard appears to ask if you'd like to accept the selected settings. Click Accept Settings (or click Change Settings, if you see something you need to change), then follow along to complete the Internet Connection Wizard. When asked if you'd like to import addresses and messages from your old email program, select Yes.
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