Top 20 Microsoft Outlook Tips & Tricks
Summary
TLDRIn this informative video, Kevin shares his top 20 Microsoft Outlook tips and tricks, covering new features like inserting polls, creating distribution lists, and using dark mode. He also explains how to add email signatures, utilize quick parts and steps, and manage inboxes with rules. Other highlights include scheduling emails, setting up an out of office message, and using offline mode. The tips aim to enhance productivity and streamline email management in Outlook.
Takeaways
- 📊 Insert a poll into emails using the new feature in Outlook.
- 📬 Create a distribution list for easy group emailing.
- 🌙 Enable dark mode for a more comfortable viewing experience.
- ✍️ Add a personalized email signature to your messages.
- 🏹 Use quick parts to insert preformatted text snippets.
- 🚀 Simplify repetitive tasks with quick steps.
- 📅 Utilize FindTime to schedule meetings efficiently.
- 🔕 Turn off email arrival notifications to reduce distractions.
- 📂 Organize your inbox with rules to sort incoming messages.
- 📱 Set up a unified inbox to view multiple accounts at once.
- 📅 Easily convert emails into calendar events for scheduling.
Q & A
What is the new feature in Microsoft Outlook that allows users to insert a poll into an email?
-The new feature in Microsoft Outlook is the ability to insert a poll directly into an email message, which replaces the previous voting buttons feature.
How can you create a distribution group or list in Microsoft Outlook?
-To create a distribution group or list in Microsoft Outlook, go to the 'People' view, click on 'Create a new contact group', enter a name for the group, and then add members from your address book.
What is the process for turning on dark mode in Microsoft Outlook?
-To turn on dark mode, go to the 'File' menu, select 'Office Account', and then choose your Office theme. You can set it to 'Dark Gray' or 'Black' to enable dark mode across all Office applications.
How can you add an email signature to your messages in Outlook?
-You can add an email signature by clicking on 'New Email', then 'Signature' in the 'Message' ribbon, and creating a new signature with your desired content.
What does the 'Quick Parts' feature in Outlook allow you to do?
-The 'Quick Parts' feature allows you to save and reuse preformatted text snippets in your emails, saving time and effort when sending similar content frequently.
What is the purpose of 'Quick Steps' in Microsoft Outlook?
-Quick Steps simplifies repetitive tasks by allowing users to create custom actions that Outlook can perform automatically, such as marking an email as important and sending a reply with a set message.
How does the FindTime add-in help with scheduling meetings in Outlook?
-FindTime helps find a meeting time that works for all participants, and once a consensus is reached, Outlook automatically schedules the meeting on your behalf.
How can you manage email notifications in Outlook to reduce distractions?
-You can manage email notifications by going to the 'File' menu, selecting 'Options', and then the 'Mail' section. Here, you can turn off sound, change the mouse cursor, and disable taskbar envelopes and desktop alerts.
What is the benefit of using rules in Outlook to manage your inbox?
-Rules in Outlook help organize your inbox more effectively by automatically moving specific emails to designated folders based on criteria you set, keeping your inbox tidy and easy to navigate.
How can you view all your inboxes from different accounts simultaneously in Outlook?
-To view all your inboxes from different accounts at once, set the search box at the top to search across all mailboxes and then type 'folder:inbox' in the search criteria and hit search.
What is the process for setting up an out of office message in Outlook?
-To set up an out of office message, go to the 'File' menu, click on 'Info', and then 'Automatic Replies'. Customize your message, set a time range, and choose whether to send it to people within or outside your organization.
Outlines
📧 Introducing Polls and Distribution Groups in Outlook
Kevin introduces new features in Microsoft Outlook, starting with the ability to insert polls into emails, a step away from the less effective voting buttons. He details the process of creating a poll, including setting up the question and options. Kevin then shifts focus to creating distribution groups, explaining how to create a group for frequently emailed contacts, thus streamlining the process of sending mass emails. This segment showcases the practicality of these features for enhancing communication and efficiency within Outlook.
🌙 Tips for Customizing Outlook's Appearance and Email Management
Kevin shares several tips to improve the user experience in Outlook. He explains how to enable dark mode to ease eye strain, add email signatures for personal or promotional purposes, and use Quick Parts for inserting preformatted text. Kevin also introduces Quick Steps for automating repetitive email tasks, emphasizing the convenience of these features in personalizing Outlook's appearance and simplifying email management.
🕒 Scheduling and Notification Customizations in Outlook
This segment focuses on optimizing meeting scheduling and managing notifications in Outlook. Kevin introduces FindTime, a tool for finding mutually agreeable meeting times, and demonstrates how to disable distracting email notifications. He covers the creation of rules for automatically organizing emails and the setup of a unified inbox to view multiple accounts simultaneously. The tips provided aim to reduce distractions and streamline email and meeting management.
🗓️ Enhancing Outlook with Calendars, Tasks, and @Mentions
Kevin delves into advanced features of Outlook that leverage calendars, tasks, and email mentions. He outlines how to add various calendars, including holidays and sports schedules, and integrate flagged emails with Microsoft To Do for better task management. Kevin also explains the use of @mentions in emails to grab attention and streamline communication. These features are presented as ways to enhance organizational and communication efficiency within Outlook.
🌐 Advanced Email and Account Management Tips in Outlook
In the final segment, Kevin provides advanced tips for managing emails and accounts in Outlook. He explains how to automate out-of-office replies, add accounts from other email providers, and manage multiple time zones for scheduling meetings. Additionally, Kevin introduces the concept of delaying email delivery and utilizing offline mode to focus without interruptions. These advanced tips aim to give users greater control over their Outlook experience and email management.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Poll
💡Distribution Group
💡Dark Mode
💡Email Signature
💡Quick Parts
💡Quick Steps
💡FindTime
💡Rules
💡Unified Inbox
💡Calendar Item
💡Holidays and Schedules
Highlights
Inserting a poll into an email message using the new feature in Microsoft Outlook.
Creating a distribution group or list in Outlook to streamline email sending to multiple recipients.
Activating dark mode in Outlook for a more comfortable viewing experience across all Office applications.
Adding an email signature to standardize communication with contact information and promotional content.
Utilizing quick parts in Outlook to insert preformatted text snippets into emails for efficiency.
Implementing quick steps to automate repetitive email handling tasks such as marking messages as important and replying.
Using FindTime add-in to facilitate meeting scheduling by finding a time that works for all participants.
Disabling email arrival notifications to reduce distractions in Outlook.
Setting up rules in Outlook to manage incoming messages and organize them into specific folders automatically.
Unifying multiple email inboxes into a single view for easier management and review.
Creating calendar items directly from email messages for time management and follow-ups.
Adding various calendars, including holidays and sports or TV schedules, to Outlook for comprehensive planning.
Flagging emails in Outlook for task management integration with Microsoft To Do.
Using @mentions in email messages to grab recipients' attention and streamline communication.
Accessing the My Day view in Outlook on the web for a consolidated look at upcoming tasks and calendar events.
Setting up an automatic out of office reply in Outlook to inform senders during periods of absence.
Adding multiple email accounts, including Gmail and Yahoo, to Microsoft Outlook for centralized email management.
Incorporating additional time zones into the Outlook calendar to facilitate cross-time zone scheduling and coordination.
Scheduling email delivery in Outlook to send messages at a later time, controlling the perception of responsiveness.
Engaging Outlook's offline mode to focus on work without email interruptions or to prepare for mail merges.
Transcripts
Hi everyone, Kevin here. Today I want to show you my top 20 favorite tips and tricks in Microsoft
Outlook. If you want to jump around, feel free to use the timestamps in the description. Otherwise
let's jump on the PC and get started. Tip number one, you can now insert a poll into an email
message. This is a brand-new feature that's just now rolling out. In the past, Microsoft Outlook
supported something called voting buttons, but let's be honest, they never really worked that
well. So how do we insert a poll? Well, first off, we need to open up a new email message.
So let's go up to home on the ribbon and click on new email. Once a new email message appears,
to insert a poll, let's go to the top ribbon and click on insert. Over on the left-hand side of
the insert ribbon, there's a new option called poll. Let's click on this. This opens up a pane
on the right-hand side and I can enter a question and then I could enter a few different options.
I'm going to start off by inputting my question. My question is what's your favorite cookie
company. Now I could insert a few different options and the first option is going to be
Mrs. Fields and I'll go through and add a few more. I've now added several different options
and I could continue adding more options if I want to. I could even set it so people can select
multiple answers, but we know there's only one correct answer so I'm going to leave it to select
a single answer. Once I'm all done configuring my poll, I can insert the poll into my email.
This now inserted the poll into my email message. I can remove the poll if for whatever reason I
decided I didn't want it, and if I click here, I can now vote on the different options. Clicking
on this link opens up my web browser where I could see my question and all of the different options
and then I can enter my email address so it tracks my response. Now, like I mentioned before,
there's only one correct answer and that's the Kevin Cookie Company. Next, I'm going to enter in
my email address. Once I'm all done typing in my email address, I'll click on vote. This drops me
on the results page where I can see a compilation of all of the results and just like I expected,
100% of respondees selected the Kevin Cookie Company. Tip number two, did you know that you
can create your very own distribution group or list in Microsoft Outlook? What can you do with
that? Well, let's say that you always email the same five or six people and instead of typing in
each individual email address, you'd rather just type in a group name and then it'll send it to
all of those individuals. To set up a distribution list, let's go down to the bottom left-hand corner
and click on people. This opens up the people view and in the top left-hand corner, I have the option
to create a new contact group. Let's click on this option. This now opens up a window where
I can create my very own distribution group. Up above, I need to type in a name for this group
so let me type something in. I entered the Kevin Cookie Company senior leadership team. I email
the leadership team quite often and I really hate typing in each individual email address. To add
members to this group, once again, I'm going to go up to the top ribbon and click on add members.
Right here, I can select from address book. This shows me everyone in my organization and I can now
go through and choose members for this. I'm going to go through and I'm going to select all of the
directors to be part of this distribution list and I'll include the president as well. Once I'm
all done, I'll click on OK. I can now see all of the members who are part of my distribution list.
All of this looks good so I'm going to click on save and close. Back in my inbox, to send an email
to my distribution group, I need to click on new email. This opens up a new email message and I can
now send an email to my newly created distribution group. I simply click on the to line and here I'll
type in the name of my new group, the Kevin Cookie Company senior leadership team. When I select this
option, you'll see that it's a distribution group. If I click into it, I can view all the members who
it's going to send an email to. Tip number three, you can turn on dark mode in Microsoft Outlook to
make it a little bit easier on your eyes. To turn on dark mode, let's go to the top left-hand corner
and click on the file menu. Within file, let's go down to Office account. Within Office account,
about midway down, you can select your Office theme. By default, it sets a colorful. When
we click on this, we could set it to dark gray, which makes the experience a little bit darker.
I can also go to black if I want to make it as dark as possible. One thing to note, when you turn
on dark mode, this turns on dark mode across all of your different Office applications. Once I'm
done, let's click on the back arrow. Back within my inbox, let's click on a new email message
and you'll see that everything is dark, including the ribbon and the message itself. Up here on the
message ribbon, I have the option to turn on white for the email message. So here I have a brighter
background or I could simply switch the background so everything's in dark mode. Tip number four,
you can very easily add an email signature to all of your emails that you send out. Maybe you want
to show your contact information or maybe you want to promote something going on in your company. To
add one, let's go up and click on new email. When we click on new email on the message ribbon about
midway through, there's the option for signature. Let's click on this and then within this menu,
let's click on signatures. This opens up the signatures and stationary dialogue and we can now
create a new signature. To create a new signature, click on new and give your new signature a name.
I've entered a name, then click on OK. Over on the right-hand side, you can choose what email account
this new signature is associated with. You could also set whether you use this signature on all new
messages. I want to do that, so I'll select my new signature. You can also decide if you want
to use a signature on replies and forwards. I want to do that as well, so I'll select the KCC
flagship promo for that. Down below, I can type in my signature, so I'm going to type in something.
This is going to include a thanks at the bottom of my message and then I also want to use it as an
opportunity to promote our newest flagship Kevin Cookie Company location in Times Square and it
wouldn't be much of a promo unless we had Cookie Monster as part of it. This all looks good. I'll
now click on OK. Back in Outlook, when I click on new email, you'll now see that my new email
signature appears as part of the message just like I wanted it to. Tip number five, you can use quick
parts in Microsoft Outlook to insert preformatted text. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take an
example to see how this works. I just received an email from Diego and once again, he's calling out
that customers are complaining about how the Kevin Cookie Company cookies taste and he wants to know
the recipe again. I don't know how many times I've sent Diego the recipe, but I seem to be doing it
again and again. Let's see if quick parts can help me here. To use a quick part, first off,
let's click on reply. This opens up a new email message and now I could type out my message
to Diego. I'm going to say, hi Diego, here's the recipe and then I'll paste in the recipe.
I've now typed out my email message, but I really don't ever want to have to type out the recipe
again because I end up typing it so many times. I want to turn this into a quick part. To do that,
let's highlight all of this text and then go up to insert on the top ribbon. Over on the right-hand
side under the text group, there's an option for quick parts. Let's click on this. On this menu,
I have the option to save the selection to my quick part gallery. Let's click on that. This
opens up a dialogue to save my quick part. I'm going to give it a name. I'll call it recipe. Here
I could choose the gallery and the category where I want to save this. All of those look good to me,
so I'll click on OK. This now saved my recipe. If I ever need to insert it again, I simply go up to
insert in my email message, click on quick parts, and here I see my recipe right here.
If I click on that, it'll just automatically insert the recipe again. You can use this for
any type of preformatted text that you want to insert into emails. If I go back up above and I
right click on the item, I can organize and delete all of my quick parts. Tip number six, you can use
quick steps to simplify repetitive steps. For example, here I received another email message
from Diego and he's curious about how the Michelin reviewer tour went. Did we get our two stars?
Now I absolutely want to follow up with Diego, but we're in the middle of a tutorial so I don't have
time to answer him. Now what I would typically do is I would mark this message as important
and then I would send a quick response telling him that I received it and I'll follow up shortly.
Now I could do that, but that's a few steps. Instead, I could use quick steps to simplify
this flow for me. There are a few pre-created ones that I could start from, but I want to
create my own so I'll click on create new. This opens up the quick step dialogue and first off
I can give my quick step a name. I'll call this follow up shortly. Once you type in a name,
you can now select different actions that you want Outlook to take on your behalf.
I'll click on the dropdown and first off I want to mark it as important. Next, I want to add another
action. I'll click on the dropdown again and if I scroll down the list, there's the option to reply.
I'm going to click on this. Within reply, I can click on show options, and I can now fill in
additional details about my response. I typed in the message text. Thanks for the message.
I'll follow up shortly. I can also set it to automatically send after a one minute delay.
I could also go through and I could add additional actions if I wanted, but for now this looks good
and I'll click on finish. Now I've created my quick step and up above you'll see a new option
for follow up shortly. When I click on this, it's marked the message as important and it sends a
response to Diego letting him know that I received the message and I'll follow up shortly. Tip number
seven. Do you ever spend more time trying to find a meeting time than actually meeting?
FindTime can help you eliminate this problem. With FindTime, you can find a meeting time that
works for everyone. Once you find consensus on a meeting time, Outlook will automatically schedule
the meeting on your behalf. To get FindTime, let's go up to the home ribbon and all the way
on the right-hand side, click on get add-ins. Within the get add-ins dialogue, let's search
for FindTime. Once you search for FindTime, you'll see the app appear and then you can click on add.
This is an app that's developed by Microsoft and it works extremely well at finding consensus on
meeting time. If you've ever used Doodle before, it's very similar to that service. Tip number
eight. One of the most annoying things is when new emails arrive, you hear a sound,
your mouse cursor changes, and you also get a pop-up notification from Windows. Did you know
that you can turn that off? To turn it off, go up to the file menu and then go down to options.
Within options, click on mail and part of the way down, there's a section called message arrival.
You can turn off, play a sound. You can turn off, change the mouse cursor. You can turn off,
show an envelope on the taskbar and turn off the display a desktop alert. When you click on OK,
I think you'll find that you have far fewer distractions from Outlook. Tip number nine. Rules
help you manage your inbox much more effectively. Here in my inbox, you see that there are many
different messages from the Microsoft 365 message center. I'd rather place these in their own
separate folder. First off, I'm going to create a new folder for these message center messages.
I created a new folder called message center that looks good and it now appears as one of my
folders. Next, I can right click on this message and I can go down to rules. Here I can now create
a new rule. Within the create rule dialogue, I could set it so any message from the Microsoft 365
message center gets moved to a specific folder. I'm going to select this box to move the item.
Here I could select the folder and I'll select the new folder that I just created. Once I select the
folder, I could click on OK, and I'll now have my new rule. If I click on advanced options, I can
set all sorts of criteria for what I want to have happen when I receive different email messages.
For instance, maybe if someone specific sends me a message, I can have a sound play or maybe
if I'm included on the to line and it's about a specific subject, I want to be alerted about
that. With rules, you can set up all sorts of advanced notification criteria so you're on top
of your email. Tip number 10. Now you can set up a unified inbox so you can see all of your
inboxes at the same time. You see here that I have several different accounts in Outlook and each
one has its own inbox. Now I would have to click through each account to see the inbox. Instead,
I want to see them all at the same time. To do that, go up to the search box on top and set it
to search across all mailboxes. Next, within the criteria for the search, you can type in folder
colon and then inbox, then hit search. This will now show you a view across all of your inboxes
and you'll be able to review all the messages that have come in. Tip number 11. You can very easily
create a calendar item from an email. Here I have this question from Diego, and I want to
schedule some time to follow up on his question. I can click on this email and then drag and drop
it on the calendar icon down below. Once I drag and drop it, this opens up a new view to create
a calendar invite and I can choose the time for when I want to follow up on this message. Tip
number 12. You can very easily add holidays. You can add a TV schedule, a sports schedule to your
calendar very easily. To do this, we need to go to Outlook on the web and within the calendar view
over on the left-hand side, there's the option to add a calendar. Let's click on that. This opens
up the add a calendar dialogue and just like I mentioned, you can add all sorts of calendars
to your Outlook calendar. For instance, here you could add holidays by country.
You could also add different sport team schedules. For instance, I like the Seattle Seahawks and
I can add their game calendar to my Outlook calendar. Or maybe you have a favorite TV show.
Here you could click through, you could select the network and then you could add that show
schedule to your Outlook calendar. Tip number 13. When you flag emails in Microsoft Outlook,
they automatically show up in Microsoft To Do on your task list. Here within Microsoft Outlook,
once again, I have this email from Diego and I'm going to click on the flag icon. This message is
now flagged and it'll show up on my To Do list. Here I am now in my browser in Microsoft To Do
and if I click over on the left-hand side, I can see my flagged email now showing up as a task. If
I right click on it, I could even add it to the My Day view in Microsoft To Do. Tip number 14.
And this is a relatively new feature. You can now use @ mentions in email messages to get someone's
attention. For example, we are now opening a new flagship location in London and Adele on my team
is driving this. I'm going to insert an @ mention and now I can type in Adele Vance. I'll select
Adele and now I could type in my message. I inserted the message, what's the status
on the store opening in London. Here you see by @ mentioning Adele, she now appears on the to line.
Once you've been mentioned in a message, it's very easy to get back to all of the places where
you've been @ mentioned. Within your inbox over to the right of focused and other, click on the
filters. By default, there's always been all mail unread and flagged, but now there's a new option
for mentioned mail so you can very quickly pull up all the messages where you've been mentioned.
Tip number 15. And this is a new feature available in Outlook on the web and that's the My Day view.
Within Outlook on the web up on the top bar, there's a new item up here called My Day.
When you click on this, you can very quickly get a glimpse of your calendar and all of your to dos
that are coming up. One thing you can do as well is you can click on an email and you can drag it
over and add it as a new task or you could add it as a new event. Tip number 16. Now let's say
you're heading out on vacation. You can have an out of office message be automatically sent by
Outlook. To set this up, go up to the file menu. Once you click on the file menu, by default you'll
fall in the info view. Click on the option that says automatic replies. This opens up a dialogue
where you can customize what your automatic replies say. I'm going to turn on automatic
replies. You can set a time range for when these responses are sent and here I could type in my
message. I'm going to enter in “I'm evaluating new locations for the Kevin Cookie Company. Feel free
to reach out to Cookie Monster in my absence.” You could set it to send to people within your
organization and people outside your organization, and once you're all done, you can simply click on
OK. Tip number 17. You can add a Gmail account, a Yahoo account, an AOL account, any type of account
to Microsoft Outlook. It doesn't just have to be an Outlook account. To add another account,
go up to the file menu and then click on the text that says add account. This opens
up a prompt where I can type in another email address. I'm going to add a Gmail email address.
Once I type in my email address, let's click on connect. This opens up a prompt from Google where
I could confirm my account name and enter in my password. I need to give Microsoft Outlook access
to my Google account. All of this looks good. Next, let's click on allow. Once I'm all done, I
now see my Gmail account shows up on my left-hand side where I can see all of my different accounts.
Tip number 18. You can add additional time zones to your calendar to make scheduling meetings
easier. At the Kevin Cookie Company, we're opening a location in London and I need to schedule
meetings with those teams in that local time zone. Now I'm based out of Seattle, so I see
my times up on the side, but I want to make sure when I schedule it works well for them. To add
another time zone to your calendar, go up to file in the top left-hand corner and then go all the
way down to options. Within options, let's click on calendar and then scroll down the calendar
view. Close to the bottom, there's an option for time zones. Now I see this Seattle time zone right
here. I can add two additional time zones if I'd like. I'll check this box and I'll type one in
for London. Next, I need to select the time zone for London, so I'll scroll down the list until
I find London on this list. Here I see London, so I'll select that and next I can click on OK.
Now when I look at my calendar, I see both London and Seattle side-by-side. Tip number 19, you can
delay the delivery of your emails or to put it another way, you can schedule when your emails go
out. This is one of my favorite ones. You can make it appear that you're working in the middle of the
night for the people you send the email to. Here I want to send an email to my team that says is
everyone working hard and of course I'm going to send this in the middle of the night. To set the
delay delivery, let's go up to the top ribbon and click on options. Over on the right-hand side,
there's the option to delay the delivery. When I click on that, down below, I can specify the date
and the time when I want the email to be sent out on. Tip number 20 and this is unfortunately the
very last tip of today and that's offline mode in Outlook. What is offline mode good for? Well
let's say you want to focus, and you don't want to receive any more emails for some amount of time,
you can turn it into offline mode. Or let's say you're doing a mail merge and you want to validate
some of the emails before they get sent out, this is also where offline mode comes in handy. To turn
on offline mode, let's go up to the top ribbon and click on send/receive. Over on the right-hand
side, you can set it to work offline. When you're working offline, it'll show working offline down
below and you'll no longer get any email messages. Once you're ready to open the floodgates again
you can toggle on work offline and then you'll now be connected to your email again. All right, well
that was a quick look at my favorite top 20 tips and tricks in Microsoft Outlook. If you enjoyed
this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you want to see more videos like this in the future,
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out. If you want to see me cover any other topics in the future, leave a note down below. All right,
well that's all I had for you today. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope to see you next time. Bye.
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