Create a poll
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.1➡ You can now insert a poll into an email message. And 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 out well. So how do we insert a pole 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 answer a few different options. I'm going to start off by inputting my question. My question is, What's your favorite cookie company.
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Outlook 20 Tips & Tricks.
Now I could insert a few different options and the first option is going to be, Miss fields and I'll go through and add a few more. I've now added several different options and I can continue adding more options if I want to, I can even set it so people can select multiple answers but we know there's only one correct answer so I'm gonna leave it to select a single answer.
Once I'm all done configuring my poll I can answer 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 all 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 respondents selected the Kevin cookie company.
Create distribution group
Outlook tips and tricks No.2➡ 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's senior leadership team I emailed 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 and it 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 the directors to be part of this distribution list and all include the president as well. Once I'm all done, I'll click on OK, I can now see all 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 two 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,
Dark mode
Tips and tricks Outlook No.3➡ 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's set to colorful.
When we click on this we can 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 it could simply switch the background so everything's in dark mode.
Email signature
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.4➡ 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, and 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 stationery dialog, 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 answered 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 can 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 Time Square, and it wouldn't be much of a promo unless we had Cookie Monster as part of it. And this all looks good on now click on OK and 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.
Quick Parts
Outlook tips and tricks No.5➡ You can use quick parts in Microsoft Outlook to insert pre formatted 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 can type out my message to Diego. I'm gonna 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 dialog to see my quick part, I'm going to give it a name, I'll call it recipe.
Here I can choose the gallery and the category where I want to see this all of those look good to me so I'll click on OK. It is 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 in 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 pre formatted 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 clipart.
Quick Steps
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.6➡ 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 winter 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 can 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 Quickstep dialog and First off, I can give my Quickstep 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 drop down and First off, I want to mark it is important.
Next, I want to add another action, I'll click on the drop down again. And if I scroll down the list, there's the option to reply and I'm going to click on this within a reply, I can click on show options and I can now fill in additional details about my response I typed in the message text, the things for the message, all follow up shortly.
I can also set it to automatically send after a one minute delay. I can 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 all follow up shortly.
FindTime
Tips and tricks Outlook No.7➡ Do you ever spend more time trying to find a meeting time than actually meeting, find time can help you eliminate this problem with find time 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 find time 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 dialog let's search for find time.
Once you search for find time you'll see the app appear and then you can click on Add. And 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.
Stop email noise & alerts
Outlook tips and tricks No.8➡ 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.
Rules
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.9➡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 and 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 dialog, I can 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 can select the folder and I'll select the new folder that I just created. Once I select the folder I can 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 and when I receive different email messages, for instance, maybe if someone's specific sends me a message, I can have a sound play, or maybe if I'm included on the two 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.
Unified inbox
Outlook tips and tricks No.10➡ 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 and go up to the search box on top. Instead it's a search across all mailboxes.
And within the criteria for the search, you can type in folder, colon, and then inbox, and 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.
Drag email to calendar
Tips and tricks Outlook No.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.
Add holiday,sport & TV calendars
Outlook tips and tricks No.12➡ You can very easily add holidays, you could 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 is the option to add a calendar and let's click on that.
This opens up the add a calendar dialog 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.
Flag items to create To Dos
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.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 curiam 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 can even add it to the mighty view in Microsoft to do.
Mentions
Tips and tricks Outlook No.14➡ This is a relatively new feature you can now use an ad mentions in email messages and 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 and add mention and now I can type in Adele fans all select Adele and now I can type in my message, the insert of the message, what's the status on the store opening in London.
Here you see by ad mentioning Adele she now appears on the two line. Once you've been mentioned in a message, it's very easy to get back to all the places where you've been ad mentioned within your inbox over to the right of focus 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.
My Day view
Tips and tricks Outlook No.15➡ and this is a new feature available in Outlook on the web and that's the mighty view within Outlook on the web, up on the top bar there's a new item up here called my date.
When you click on this you can very quickly get a glimpse of your calendar and all of your to dues 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.
Auto responder
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.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 dialog where you can customize what your automatic replies, say, I'm going to turn on automatic replies, you can set a time range for Wendy's responses are sent.
And here I can 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 can 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.
Add Gmail account
Tips and tricks Outlook No.17➡ you can add a Gmail account a Yahoo account an AOL account, any type of account in 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 can confirm my account name, and enter in my password, I need to give Microsoft Outlook and 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.
Time zones
Outlook tips and tricks No.18 you can add additional time zones to your calendar to make scheduling meetings easier, and to Kevin cookie company, we're opening a location in London, and I need to schedule meetings with those teams in that local timezone.
Now I'm based out of Seattle so I see my time's up on the side but I want to make sure when I schedule it works well for them to add another timezone to your calendar and 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 into 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 also like that.
And next, I can click on OK. Now when I look at my calendar I see both London and Seattle side by side.
Delay delivery
Tips and tricks for Outlook No.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 send the delayed 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
Offline Mode
Tips and tricks Outlook No.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 to the top ribbon and click on Send slash 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 or work offline and then you'll now be connected to your email again.
Alright, well that was a quick look at my favorite top 20 tips and tricks in Microsoft Outlook. If you enjoyed this post please share if you want to see more content like this in the future hit that subscribe bell notification bell button.
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All right, well that's all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed and I hope to see you next time. Bye.