Flagging contacts

Want to be reminded to call or write a customer? With Outlook 98 it's easy. Open the Contact folder and right-click on any of your contact names and then select Flag For Follow Up... from the shortcut menu. In the Flag For Follow Up dialog box select the action that you want to be reminded about in the Flag To: drop down list. You can choose Follow Up, Call, Arrange Meeting, Send E-mail, or Send Letter option. Next, click the down arrow for Reminder: and select the follow up date. Once the date and time are displayed you can change the time if needed.

Color code your mail for easier identification

The new Organize dialog box give you lots of options for sorting and identifying your mail. For example, you can highlight all incoming mail from your boss in blue:

1. From the Inbox toolbar, click the Organize button.
2. Click the Colors tab.
3. Type the name of your boss in the dialog box.
4. Click the down arrow next to the current color to select a color, and click Apply Color.
5. Click the Organize button again to close the dialog box.

Adding addresses

When adding addresses of contacts you may type them directly into the text box in the Address section of the General tab of the Contacts form or click on the Address... button next to the text box. After you enter an address in the text box, you can then select the Address... button and you'll see in the Check Address dialog box. Outlook has placed the information you typed in the various address fields. If you have an address with several components or is more complicated than a straightforward street, city, state and Zip-code address, you may want to add the information directly to the correct text boxes in the Check Address dialog box.

Save your hard drive space

To save space on your hard drive, you can have Outlook empty the Deleted Items folder automatically each time you close Outlook. To activate this option, select Tools/Options/Other tab. In the General section select, the checkbox for Empty the Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting.

If you would like to be reminded that items in the Deleted folder and its subfolders will be permanently deleted select the Advance Options button.
In the General Settings panel of the Advanced Options dialog box, select the Warn Before Permanently Deleting Items check-box. (Or, de-deselect the check box if you don’t want to be reminded.)

Creating recurring tasks in Outlook

Many of your tasks will occur on a regular basis-daily, weekly, or monthly.
You can use Outlook's task recurrence feature to make sure you stay on schedule and avoid missing important deadlines. Follow these steps to
create a recurring task:

1. Open a new task by pressing [Ctrl][Shift]K (or by clicking the Tasks icon on the Outlook bar and then clicking the New Task button).

2. In the blank task form, enter a subject for the task in the Subject text box, such as Complete Timesheets.

3. Click the Recurrence button (or press [Ctrl]G) to open the Task Recurrence dialog box.

4. To create a task that takes place every Tuesday, select the Weekly option and specify for the task to recur every week. Finally, select the
Tuesday check box and click OK, which returns you to the Task form.

5. Save the task by clicking the Save and Close button.

To view your task list, pull down the Current View list box and choose Simple List. Outlook will display only the first occurrence of the task in
the list. The next occurrence will appear only after you've indicated that the current task has been completed, which you do by clicking its check
box. As soon as you select the check box, Outlook draws a line through the current task and then displays the next occurrence of the task.

Save the desktop

If you would like to save screen space when using Outlook 98, you can remove the Outlook Bar by going to the View menu and deselecting Outlook
Bar. The Outlook folders can be accessed using the Go menu.

Automatically spell-check your Outlook E-mail messages before sending them

Spelling errors in an E-mail message can be embarrassing. Although Outlook allows you to spell-check your messages (just press [F7] or issue the
Tools/Spelling... command), it's easy to forget to do. To ensure your messages go out without spelling errors, issue the Tools/Options... command
and click the Spelling tab. Select the Always Check Spelling Before Sending check box and click OK. This way, Outlook will automatically check the
spelling in your message when you click the Send button.

Scheduling a meeting with contacts the easy way

Outlook allows you to perform a lot of tasks easily by dragging and dropping items. For instance, suppose you want to schedule a meeting with a
contact. Simply create a meeting request by dragging the contact's name to the Calendar icon in the Outlook Bar. Outlook will automatically open a
Meeting form and enter the contact's E-mail address in the form's To field.

Forwarding contact data to another Outlook user

You'll often want to share a contact's data with someone else. You can do so easily by right-clicking on a contact and choosing Forward from the
shortcut menu. Outlook will create a mail message containing the contact item. The recipient of the message can add the contact to his or her
contacts list simply by dragging the contact item from the mail message onto the Contacts icon on the Outlook bar.

Visit a contact's Web site

When you enter contact data, Outlook provides a field to specify the URL for the contact's Web site. For contacts whose Web Page field contains an
URL, you can easily point your browser to that site by right-clicking on the contact's name in the Contacts list and choosing Explore Web Page from
the shortcut menu.

Time travel in Outlook

Use [Ctrl][G] to access the Go to Date dialog box. In this dialog box you can type in a date or use natural language to go to a specific date.
For example, if you are looking at the one-day calendar you could type "next week" in the dialog box. Outlook then displays the calendar for the day
that is one week in the future. Note, the point of reference is always the current date. In other words, if you are viewing a date that is a month in the future, when you type "next week" in the Go to Date dialog box the calendar will display a date one week from the current date, not a week from the date you are viewing.

Fast access to your contacts

When typing a contact's name from the Outlook Today page, you do not need to type the whole name. If you type a few letters and then press [Enter],
any contacts whose names begin with those letters will be accessed. If there is only one, then the Contact screen for that person is displayed. If you have more than one contact whose name starts with those letters, Outlook 98 displays a Check Name dialog box. Choose the name you want from those names shown.

Accepting meeting and task requests without opening them

Outlook's Preview Pane, which you can open by selecting View/Preview Pane from the menu bar, makes it easy to read your mail messages without having to open them. However, it doesn't make it easy to accept meeting and task
requests. The Preview Pane is capable of displaying the details of a meeting or task request; however, it's unable to display a request's Accept button which, when you click it, sends notification of your response to the sender and adds the request to your Calendar or Tasks list (as applicable). You might then think that the only way to accept to a
meeting or task request is to open it and click the Accept button.
Fortunately, there's an easier method. Simply drag the request from your Inbox to the Calendar or Tasks icon in the Outlook Bar. When you do, Outlook automatically accepts the request, sends notification of your acceptance to the sender, and adds the item to your Calendar or Tasks list. You can also drag requests to the Calendar or Tasks folder in the Folder List to achieve the same results.

Changing the default reminder sound

You can easily spice up your Calendar item reminders by changing the default reminder sound. To do so, first select Tools/Options from the menu bar. In the Options dialog box, click on the Other tab and then click the Advanced Options button. In the Advanced Options dialog box, click the Reminder Options button. Then, in the Play Reminder Sound text box, change the pathname to the location of the WAV file you'd like to use. 
If you're not sure which WAV file you'd like, click the Browse button to find and select one. When you've finished, click OK to close all open dialog boxes. From now on, Outlook will use the new WAV file as the default Calendar item reminder sound.

You can also change the reminder sound used for individual Calendar items. Simply open the Calendar item, then click the Reminder Sound button next to the Reminder dropdown list. In the Reminder Sound dialog box, replace the pathname in the Play This Sound text box with the pathname to the WAV file you'd like to use instead. Click OK when you've finished, then save and close the Calendar item.

Creating multiple contacts from the Same Company

When creating a number of contacts who work at the same company, you can save yourself the step of reentering the company's name, address, phone number, and fax number each time you create a new contact. Simply open your Contacts folder and select a contact who works for the same company as the new contact you'd like to create. Then, select Actions/New Contact from Same Company from the menu bar. When you do, Outlook creates a new contact and populates the Company, Address, Business and Business Fax fields with the information contained in the selected contact. Simply enter or revise the information specific to the new contact, then click Save And Close when you've finished.

Sharing rules with other users

If you organize your Inbox using Outlook's Rules Wizard, you can share your rules with other users by exporting them to a file on a shared network, then importing the file to another user's rules list. To export your rules, access the Rules Wizard dialog box by opening the Inbox, then selecting Tools/Rules Wizard from the menu bar. Click the Options button,
then click Export Rules. In the Save Exported Rules As dialog box, name the file, select the network location you'd like to save it to, then click Save. Outlook then saves the rules as a Rules Wizard Rules (RWZ) file in the selected location. Click OK to close the Options dialog box, then again to close the Rules Wizard dialog box. If another user would like to
import the rules to their own rules list, all they need to do is access the Rules Wizard dialog box as described above, click Options, then click Import Rules. In the Import Rules From dialog box, locate and select the RWZ file, then click Open. The rules are then imported and added to the end of the user's rules list. Click OK to close the Options dialog box, then again to close the Rules Wizard dialog box.

Turn off the Mark As Read feature

If you use Outlook's Preview Pane to preview your mail messages, you'll notice that by default, Outlook automatically marks any message displayed in the Preview Pane as read. That is to say, the message's closed envelope icon changes to an open envelope icon, and the message headers are no longer bolded. If a message is marked as read, you may accidentally be mislead to think that you've dealt with it appropriately, be that by printing it, filing it, or otherwise. To prevent Outlook from automatically marking previewed messages as read, select Tools/Options from the menu bar, then click on the Other tab. Next, click on the Preview Pane button. Clear the Mark Messages As Read In Preview Window and Mark Item As Read When Selection Changes check boxes and then click OK. Click OK once more to close the Options dialog box. Now, when you'd like to mark a message as read, simply right-click on the message and select Mark As Read from the resulting shortcut menu.

Using AutoDate values in date and time fields

Outlook's AutoDate feature allows you to use natural language in an Outlook item's date or time field, such as a task's Due Date field or an appointment's Start Time field. For example, instead of selecting or typing "12:00 PM" in a date field, you can simply type "noon" (without quotes), and Outlook automatically converts it to the correct date value.
For dates, you can type phrases such as "tomorrow," "next Thursday," or even "Christmas." For more details about using the AutoDate feature, see the Outlook Help topic "What you can type in date and time fields."

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