Microsoft® Outlook® 2000 Step by Step

Author Catapult, Inc. Pages 336 Disk 1 Companion CD(s) Level Beg/Int Published 05/07/1999 ISBN 9781572319820 Price $29.99 To see this book's discounted price, select a reseller below.	More Information About the Book Table of Contents Sample Chapter Related Series Related Books About the Author Support: Book & CD Rate this book

Lesson 4: Organizing and Managing the Inbox

• Getting Ready for the Lesson
  • Start Outlook and copy the practice files

• Organizing Your Inbox for Fast Review
  • Sort e-mail messages
  • Sort your Inbox by topic

• Organizing Your E-mail Messages into Folders
  • Create a folder in the Folder List
  • Move an e-mail message into a folder
  • Find a missing e-mail message

• Flagging E-mail Messages for Follow-up
  • Flag an e-mail message for follow-up
  • Mark a flagged e-mail message as completed

• Creating Rules to Automatically Organize and Manage Your Inbox
  • Move e-mail messages to a separate folder immediately upon receipt
  • Forward e-mail messages to another person immediately upon receipt
  • Delete junk mail or other unwanted e-mail messages immediately upon receipt
  • Automatically empty the Deleted Items folder

• Using the Out Of Office Assistant
  • Turn on the Out Of Office Assistant
  • Finish the lesson

• Lesson 4 Quick Reference

In this lesson you will learn how to:

• Organize e-mail messages for fast reviewing.

• Set up file folders for organizing e-mail messages.

• Flag e-mail messages for follow-up.

• Create rules to handle e-mail messages automatically.

• Use the Out of Office Assistant.

Now that you know how to create and send e-mail messages, you can use Microsoft Outlook 2000 to organize and manage them even when you are away from your workplace. These organizational and management features help you read, store, and respond to large volumes of e-mail quickly and efficiently.

As the Impact Public Relations account manager, you have received a flood of e-mail messages from your client base, as well as some from your internal staff. You are concerned about being able to quickly sort through the e-mail messages and respond to them in a timely manner without anything falling through the cracks. In this lesson, you work with an e-mail message that you have received, setting preview options to review the e-mail message quickly, creating a file folder to organize it for future reference, and flagging it to remind you of needed follow-up actions. Next you learn how to automatically file and forward e—mail messages, identify and delete unwanted e-mail messages, and notify others that you are out of the office.

Getting Ready for the Lesson

In this exercise, you start Outlook 2000 and prepare the practice files and folders that you need.

Start Outlook and copy the practice files

1. On the desktop, double-click the Microsoft Outlook 2000 icon.
   Outlook 2000 opens.

2. If necessary, maximize the Outlook window.

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   Important
   Before proceeding to the next step, you must have installed this book's practice folder and created an SBS Practice Inbox folder and shortcut.

   ---

3. On the Outlook Bar, click the SBS Practice Inbox shortcut.

4. Drag the practice e-mail message files, indicated by envelope icons, from the Lesson04 folder in the Outlook 2000 SBS Practice folder to your SBS Practice Inbox folder in the Folder List.

Organizing Your Inbox for Fast Review

As you open your Inbox, you see several e-mail messages from prospective clients and internal staff on a variety of topics. By default, these are sorted by the date they were received. You can quickly sift through them by clicking any of the column headings to reorder the list and view them by importance, icon, attachment, flag status, sender, subject, or date of receipt. In this lesson, you practice sorting by color-coding and conversation topic.

Sort e-mail messages

You reorganize first by subject to see how many e-mail messages are from clients replying to your mailing about the new sales initiative. Then you organize by sender to see if those same clients sent you e-mail messages on other topics that you should review before contacting them.

1. On the Outlook Bar, click the SBS Practice Inbox shortcut, and then, in the SBS Practice Inbox Information viewer, click the Subject column heading.

   The arrow on the Subject column heading changes to point upward, and the files in the Information viewer are organized alphabetically in ascending order by subject.

2. Click the Subject column heading again.

   The arrow on the Subject column heading changes to point downward, and the files in the Information viewer are organized alphabetically in descending order by subject.

3. Click the From column heading.

   The arrow on the From column heading changes to point upward, and the files in the Information viewer are organized alphabetically in ascending order by sender.

Sort your Inbox by topic

You want to see at a glance how many of your incoming e-mail messages pertain to your top priority project, a new sales initiative. To see this tally without viewing the individual e-mail messages on the screen, you sort your Inbox by topic.

1. Be sure that the SBS Practice Inbox is open, and then on the Standard toolbar, click the Organize button.

   The Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel is displayed at the top of the Information viewer.

2. In the Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Using Views link.

   The Using Views page appears, showing the Change Your View list with a selection of options.

3. In the Change Your View list, select By Conversation Topic.

   The e-mail messages are sorted by topic, based on the Subject line of the message. Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

4. Locate the topic New Sales Initiative and then click the plus sign (+) in front of that line.

   The topic category expands to list all the e-mail messages with that topic.

5. In the Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, with the Change Your View list, scroll to select Messages, and then click the Organize button.

   The Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel closes and the Information viewer is restored to its original setting.

Organizing Your E-mail Messages into Folders

Once you have read your e-mail messages, you might want to keep some of them for future reference. Because retaining them in your Inbox would lead to a disorganized accumulation of unrelated e-mail messages, you create folders to better manage them. In this exercise, because you handle several clients, you decide to organize client e-mail messages by company name. Then once you have filed your e-mail messages in folders, you find a message misfiled in a folder.

Create a folder in the Folder List

In this exercise, you create a file folder for Miller Textiles and move Dale Carter's e-mail messages into the Miller Textiles folder.

1. On the Outlook Bar, click the SBS Practice Inbox shortcut.

2. In the SBS Practice Inbox Information viewer, click the RE: New Sales Initiative e-mail message from Dale Carter.

3. If the Folder List is not displayed, on the View menu, click Folder List.

4. Click the Organize button.

   The Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel is displayed with the Using Folders page open. Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

5. On the Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the New Folder button located in the upper-right corner of the screen.

   The Create New Folder dialog box appears.

   Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

6. Be sure that the Folder Contains box displays Mail Items, and then in the Name box, type Miller Textiles and click OK.

   A message appears on your screen, prompting you to add a shortcut to the Outlook Bar.

7. Click No.

   In the Folder List, a new folder named Miller Textiles appears as a subfolder of the SBS Practice Inbox folder. In the Ways to Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, Miller Textiles appears in the Move Message Selected Below To box.

8. In the Information viewer, click the From column heading to sort by sender.

   All of Dale Carter's e-mail messages are now grouped together.

9. Select the first e-mail message in the group of Dale Carter's e-mail messages. Hold down the Shift key, and then click the last e-mail message in the group of Dale Carter's e-mail messages.

   All of Dale Carter's e-mail messages are now selected.

10. In the Ways to Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Move button.

    Dale Carter's e-mail messages are moved to the Miller Textiles folder.

11. Click the Organize button.

    The Ways to Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel closes.

Move an e-mail message into a folder

Now when you receive an e-mail message from another client at Miller Textiles, George Ruter, you transfer it directly into the Miller Textiles folder.

1. Be sure that the SBS Practice Inbox is open, and that the Folder List is displayed on your screen with the Miller Textiles subfolder showing.

2. In the SBS Practice Inbox Information viewer, drag the e-mail message titled Upcoming Meeting from George Ruter to the Miller Textiles folder in the Folder List.

   The e-mail message from George Ruter is moved from the SBS Practice Inbox folder to the Miller Textiles folder.

Find a missing e-mail message

Unable to find an e-mail message in your file, in this exercise you use Outlook 2000's Find and Advanced Find features to locate the missing e-mail message.

1. Be sure that the SBS Practice Inbox is open.

2. On the Standard toolbar, click the Find button.

   The Find Items In SBS Practice Inbox panel is displayed. Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

3. In the Look For box, type Urban League

4. Be sure that the Search All Text In The Message check box is not selected, and then click the Find Now button.

   Outlook 2000 searches the From and Subject areas of all of the e-mail messages in your SBS Practice Inbox folder. In the Information viewer, the message No Items Found appears.

5. In the upper-right corner of the Find Items In SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Advanced Find button.

   The Advanced Find dialog box opens, with the Messages tab active.

6. In the Advanced Find dialog box, in the Look For box, be sure Messages is displayed, and then, in the Search For The Word(s) box, type Urban League

7. In the In box, click the drop-down arrow, select Subject Field And Message Body, and then click the Find Now button.

   The Upcoming Meeting e-mail message from George Ruter is listed in the Information viewer.

8. In the Advanced Find dialog box, click the Close button.

   The Advanced Find dialog box closes and the Find panel appears.

9. In the Find Items In SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Close button.

   The Find panel closes and the Information viewer appears.

Flagging E-mail Messages for Follow-up

Some e-mail messages in your Inbox might require follow-up action on your part, such as placing a phone call, replying to the e-mail message, or checking further on information presented in the e-mail message. To note and track follow-up activities, you use the flag feature.

In this exercise, you practice flagging an e-mail message from George Ruter to remind yourself to call him. When you place the call, you then mark the flag as complete, enabling you to track it with your other completed flags to assist you in preparing your weekly report.

Flag an e-mail message for follow-up

In this exercise, you flag George Ruter's e-mail message with a note to call him tomorrow.

1. Be sure the Folder List is displayed, and then click the Miller Textiles subfolder.

   The contents of the Miller Textiles subfolder are displayed in the Information viewer.

2. In the Miller Textiles Information viewer, double-click the Upcoming Meeting message from George Ruter.

   The Upcoming Meeting e-mail message opens.

3. On the Message form Standard toolbar, click the Flag For Follow Up button.

   The Flag For Follow Up dialog box appears.

4. In the Flag For Follow Up dialog box, in the Flag To box, click the drop-down arrow, and then select Call.

5. In the Due By box, click the drop-down arrow, and then click the next day on the calendar.

   The Due By entry is changed to tomorrow's date.

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   Tip
   You can scroll through the Due By calendar by clicking one of the arrows next to the month title, using the right arrow to move to future months and the left arrow to move to the preceding months.

   ---

6. In the Flag For Follow Up dialog box, click OK.

   The reminder to call tomorrow appears in the Comment area below the Message form Standard toolbar. Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

7. On the Message form, click the Close button.

   The e-mail message closes. In the Miller Textiles Information viewer, a red flag appears in the Flag Status column to the left of the e-mail message Upcoming Meeting from George Ruter.

Mark a flagged e-mail message as completed

Having completed the call to George Ruter, you mark the flag as complete, intending to use your list of completed flags to prepare your weekly activity report.

1. Be sure that the Miller Textiles folder is open, and then in the Information viewer, double-click the Upcoming Meeting e-mail message from George Ruter.

   The Upcoming Meeting from George Ruter opens.

2. On the Message form Standard toolbar, click the Flag For Follow Up button.

   The Flag For Follow Up dialog box appears.

3. In the Flag For Follow Up dialog box, select the Completed check box, and click OK.

   On the Message form, the completion date is added to the Comment area below the Message form Standard toolbar.

4. On the Message form, click the Close button.

   In the Miller Textiles information viewer, the flag next to the Upcoming Meeting e-mail message from George Ruter has been changed from red to gray.

Creating Rules to Automatically Organize and Manage Your Inbox

Although the sorting, filing, and flagging techniques described in the preceding exercises are helpful, you soon realize that you can use Outlook's sophisticated organizing tools to better manage your steady stream of incoming e-mail messages. In addition, sometimes you receive unsolicited and unwanted e-mail messages that only add clutter to your Inbox. Outlook enables you to handle these routine and repetitive tasks automatically. For example, you can:

• File e-mail messages automatically upon receipt into the appropriate folder.

• Forward e-mail messages automatically from a particular sender to another person or group, such as your boss or project team.

• Delete adult content or junk e-mail e-mail messages automatically before they ever enter your Inbox.

• Empty the Deleted Items folder automatically.

When you delete an item, it is moved to the Deleted Items folder. Unless you empty the folder regularly, these unwanted items take up valuable space on your hard disk.

As account manager at Impact Public Relations, some e-mail message activities are recurring or predictable. In the following exercise, automate some of these repetitive tasks.

Move e-mail messages to a separate folder immediately upon receipt

In this exercise, you create a rule to automatically move incoming mail from Lee Wong of Miller Textiles to the Miller Textiles folder.

1. On the Outlook Bar, click the SBS Practice Inbox shortcut.

2. In the SBS Practice Inbox Information viewer, click Lee Wong's RE: New Sales Initiative e-mail message.

3. On the Standard toolbar, click the Organize button.

   The Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel appears, with the Using Folders page open.

4. In the Create A Rule To Move Messages area, be sure that From is selected in the first box, and that Lee Wong's name appears in the second box.

   Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

5. If necessary, in the third box, click the drop-down arrow, and then select Miller Textiles.

6. Click the Create button.

   A message box appears, telling you that the rule will be applied to new e—mail messages and prompting you to apply the same rule to other e-mail messages in your Inbox from Mr. Wong.

7. Click Yes.

   Next to the Create button, Done! appears on the screen. Now all existing e—mail messages from Lee Wong are moved to the Miller Textiles folder and all new e-mail messages from him will automatically be moved to the folder.

8. In the Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Close button.

Forward e-mail messages to another person immediately upon receipt

In this exercise, you create a rule to forward all e-mail messages from Sue Kennedy at Miller Textiles to your manager, Peter Stout.

1. Open the Miller Textiles folder, and then on the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard.

   The Rules Wizard dialog box appears.

2. In the Rules Wizard dialog box, click the New button.

   The next Rules Wizard dialog box appears.

3. In the Which Type Of Rule Do You Want To Create? list, select Check Messages When They Arrive, and then click the Next button.

   The next Rules Wizard dialog box appears.

4. In the Which Condition(s) Do You Want To Check? list, select the From People Or Distribution List check box.

5. In the Rule Description box, click the People Or Distribution List link.

   The Rule Address dialog box appears.

6. In the Rule Address dialog box, in the Show Names From The box, be sure that Contacts is selected.

7. In the Type Name Or Select From List list, select the entry for Sue Kennedy, click the From button, and click OK.

   The Rules Wizard dialog box appears again with Sue Kennedy's name listed in the Rule Description box. Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

8. Click the Next button.

   The next Rules Wizard dialog box appears.

9. In the What Do You Want To Do With The Message? list, select the Forward It To People Or Distribution List check box, and then in the Rule Description box, click the People Or Distribution List link.

   The Rule Address dialog box appears.

10. In the Rule Address dialog box, be sure that Contacts is selected in the Show Names From The box.

11. In the Type Name Or Select From List box, type or select the entry for Peter Stout, click the To button, and click OK.

    The Rules Wizard dialog box appears.

12. Click the Finish button, and click OK to close the dialog boxes.

    Mail from Sue Kennedy will automatically be sent to Peter Stout's Inbox.

Delete junk mail or other unwanted e-mail messages immediately upon receipt

In this exercise, you create a rule to automatically delete all incoming junk e-mail messages and adult content e-mail messages.

1. Be sure that the SBS Practice Inbox is open, and then on the Standard toolbar, click the Organize button.

   The Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel opens.

2. In the Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Junk E-mail link.

   The Junk E-mail page appears. Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

3. On the Junk Messages line of the Junk E-mail page, in the first box, click the drop-down arrow, and then select Move.

4. Be sure that the second box reads Deleted Items, and then click the Turn On button.

   The line is modified to reflect your changes, and the Turn On button is changed to a Turn Off button.

5. On the Adult Content Messages line of the Junk E-mail page, in the first box, click the drop-down arrow, and then select Move.

6. Be sure that the second box reads Deleted Items, and then click the Turn On button.

   The line is modified to reflect your changes, and the Turn On button is changed to a Turn Off button.

7. In the Ways To Organize SBS Practice Inbox panel, click the Close button.

   Outlook 2000 automatically places all incoming junk and adult content e—mail messages in the Deleted Items folder.

Automatically empty the Deleted Items folder

In this exercise, you set Outlook to automatically empty the Deleted Items folder each time you quit Outlook 2000.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

   The Options dialog box appears.

2. In the Options dialog box, click the Other tab.

3. On the Other tab, in the General area, select the Empty The Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting check box, and then click the Advanced Options button.

   The Advanced Options dialog box appears.

4. In the General Settings area, be sure that the Warn Before Permanently Deleting Items check box is selected, and click OK.

   The Advanced Options dialog box closes, and the Options dialog box reappears.

5. In the Options dialog box, click OK.

   The Options dialog box closes. The Deleted Items folder will now be emptied each time you quit Outlook 2000 after first providing a warning and requesting confirmation.

Using the Out Of Office Assistant

You work in a Workgroup environment using Microsoft Exchange Server and plan to be out of the office for a few days with no access to your e-mail messages. To alert those in your workgroup who might send you e-mail messages during the time that you are away, you use the Outlook 2000 Out Of Office Assistant. Once activated, the Out Of Office Assistant automatically replies with your personal out-of-office message to anyone who sends you an e-mail message during that time. So that people receive only one message from you while you are away, you can specify that the message be sent to each recipient only once.

In this exercise, you first turn on the Out Of Office Assistant to create your out-of-office message, and then you turn it off.

Turn on the Out Of Office Assistant

In this exercise, you activate the Out Of Office Assistant to notify others that you will be away.

1. On the Tools menu, click Out Of Office Assistant.

   The Out Of Office Assistant dialog box appears.

   Your screen should look similar to the following illustration.

   
   

2. Select the I Am Currently Out Of The Office option button.

3. In the AutoReply Only Once To Each Sender With The Following Text box, type:

   I will be away from the office and unable to access e-mail from Monday, October 19, through Wednesday, October 21.

4. Click OK.

   The Out Of Office Assistant is now activated and will send this response once to the sender of any e-mail message until you deactivate the feature.

Finish the lesson

1. If you want to continue to the next lesson, on the File menu, click Close All Items.

2. If you have finished using Outlook for now and are working in a Workgroup environment, click File, and then click Exit And Log Off. If you are working in an Internet only environment, click File, and then click Exit.

Lesson 4 Quick Reference

To	Do this	Button
Sort e-mail messages	In the Inbox Information viewer, click the column heading to sort. Click the column heading again to sort in the reverse order.
Sort your Inbox by topic	On the Standard toolbar, click the Organize button, and then click the Using Views link. Select the sort option that you want to use.
Create a folder in the Folder List	On the Standard toolbar, click the Organize button, and then click the Using Folders link. Click the New Folder button, and then enter the folder name to be created	.
Move an e-mail message into a folder	Be sure the Inbox Information viewer is open and that the Folder List and Inbox sub- folders are displayed. Drag the e-mail message in the Information viewer from the Inbox to the correct subfolder in the Folder List.
Find a missing e-mail message	On the Standard toolbar, click the Find button, type a key word to identify the e-mail message, and then click Find Now. If the e-mail message is still not found, click the Advanced Find button. Search again using additional criteria.
Flag an e-mail message for follow-up	With the Inbox open, double-click the e-mail message to be flagged, and then on the Message form Standard tool- bar, click the Flag For Follow Up button. Select the action and due date that you want, and click OK.
Mark a flagged e-mail message as completed	With the Inbox open, double-click the flagged e-mail message, and then on the Message form Standard toolbar, click the Flag For Follow Up button. Select the Completed check box, and click OK.
Move e-mail messages to a separate folder immediately upon receipt	With the Inbox open, on the Standard toolbar, click the Organize button. In the Ways To Organize Inbox panel, on the Using Folders page, select the appropriate options to define the filing rule, and then click the Create button.
Forward e-mail messages to another person immediately upon receipt	On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard, and then click the New button. In the Rules Wizard dialog box, select Check Messages When They Arrive, click the Next button, and in the next Rules Wizard dialog box, select the From People Or Distribution List check box. In the Rule Description box, click the People Or Distribution List link. In the Rule Address dialog box, be sure that Contacts is selected, select the name you want, and then click the From button. Click OK.
Delete junk and adult content mail messages immediately	With the Inbox open, on the Standard e-toolbar, click the Organize button, and upon receipt then click the Junk E-mail link. On the Junk E-mail page, in the first Junk Messages box, click the drop-down arrow, and then select Move. In the second box, be sure Deleted Items is selected. Click the Turn On button. In the first Adult Content Messages box for the Adult Content Messages, click the drop-down arrow, and then select Move. In the second box, be sure Deleted Items is selected. Click the Turn On button.
Automatically empty the Deleted Items folder	On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab. Select the Empty The Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting check box. Click the Advanced Options button, and then select the Warn Before Permanently Deleting Items check box.
Turn on the Out Of Office Assistant	On the Tools menu, click Out Of Office Assistant, and then select the I Am Currently Out Of The Office button. Type a reply in the AutoReply text box, and click OK.