Friday, April 20, 2007
Loving Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
I recently wrote a post about upgrading to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. I wrote about how easy it was to upgrade and how much I liked the junk mail filter. I've been finding all kinds of features ever since that make managing my dozens of e-mail accounts easier.
I thought I would highlight another feature today and may continue these little tidbits over time.
Unread mail link in the favorite folders.
By default, Outlook 2007 creates a "navigation pane" with a number of links in it. In MS words, "The Navigation Pane is the column on the left side of the Outlook window that includes panes such as Shortcuts or Mail and the shortcuts or folders within each pane."
At the very top of the default mail view, there is a group of links which are created in a "favorite folders" group. In that group is a link to view all unread mail. I love this one! When I receive mail, no matter which account it comes from, who it was sent to or which rule was used in the processing of the e-mail, the new items are listed in this folder. By default, the new e-mail items are broken down into accounts so I can see where the item is listed within the folder tree. (Note, junk mail is not listed in this view YEA!)
Why do I like this so much? Because I do get a LOT of e-mail throughout the day. I've never been very good at marking items read and will end up with hundreds of unread items in many folders. Having them all listed in one group helps me view, mark read and handle the e-mail properly throughout the day. Sure, the morning delivery has many e-mail items in it, but they remain in the folder until I mark them as read.
As I continue to learn these new features I'm more and more convinced that I have not been using Outlook to its fullest potential. I will continue my study as it will become a core component of my IT infrastructure. Having received my copy of Exchange Server 2007 just yesterday, I've decided to install it on my Small Business Server and use the many tools to help organize customer information, events and meetings and yes, the many many e-mail in my various inboxes.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/default.aspx
Labels: Exchange Server 2007, outlook 2007, tips and tricks
