A Guide to Outlook 2007

Transcription

1 A Guide to Outlook 2007 by Mark Maynard Tristram Hooley Software Made Simple PO Box 7068, Rothley, Leicester, UK, LE7 7PT Telephone: Fax: Internet:

2 This guide assumes that Microsoft Outlook is correctly configured to send and receive and that the user is familiar with basic editing of text. Familiarity with Microsoft Windows is also assumed. The exact appearance of certain screenshots vary depending upon the version of Windows you are using. Windows Vista is used throughout, although for the purpose and scope of this guide the differences between versions of Windows are largely cosmetic. Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Vista and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, US Patent No. 4,974,159. Software Made Simple

3 Contents 1 INTRODUCTION CONTENTS 1.1 What is ? 4 2 STARTING OUTLOOK 2.1 Outlook Help Starting Up Outlook Addresses Sending an Receiving and Reading an Replying and Forwarding Sending a Message to Several People Deleting s Printing Attachments Drafts Etiquette 16 3 MANAGING YOUR USE OF 3.1 Managing Your Mail Messages Creating and Managing Folders Contacts Distribution Lists Finding Messages Dealing with Junk ORGANISING YOUR LIFE WITH OUTLOOK 4.1 Calendar Tasks 27

4 SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is ? or electronic mail is exactly what it sounds like a way of sending messages using your computer. is the most commonly used Internet service and it allows you to send messages to individuals and groups of people and receive messages too. Initially you will probably think of as very similar to sending any other type of mail, and it can be used in exactly the same way as the normal postal service, albeit faster. However opens up many more possibilities than conventional post. You have probably seen addresses on posters, television programmes and even on the everyday products you use in your home, everything from detergent packs to music CDs. This guide will show you how to make use of these addresses so that you can send letters and other information faster than any postal service. One of the most popular programs for sending and receiving is Microsoft Outlook. Outlook is not just an program it also offers an electronic calendar, reminder service, contacts and a host of other useful features for managing your life. 4

5 SECTION 2 STARTING OUTLOOK 2.1 Outlook Help If you have problems with Outlook choose Microsoft Office Outlook Help from the Help menu to display the help window. If you have problems with Outlook click on the button on the top right corner of the window. To find help on a particular topic, just enter the topic and click on Search. Usually a selection of possible answers is returned, and for further details just click on the most appropriate answer. The Forward and Back buttons at the top of the Outlook Help window allow you to move between answers. To hide Outlook Help click on the help window Close Box. 2.2 Starting Up Outlook Outlook is often pinned to the Start button menu so choosing from the Start menu is usually the quickest way to start Outlook. Alternatively, choose All Programs from the Start button and then Microsoft Office from the sub-menu followed by Microsoft Office Outlook On starting Outlook your computer will attempt to connect to the Internet. In many cases this will mean you will have to go through a login procedure. Seek assistance with this if necessary. Once connected Outlook will inform you of any messages that may have been sent to you. To read these see Section 2.5. To send an , see Section

6 Buttons Panes Understanding the Screen The Outlook screen can initially look rather confusing as it is divided into a number of different sections. However you will quickly get used to it. Navigation Pane This allows you to access a variety of features in Outlook using the buttons at the bottom of this pane. Contents Pane Reading Pane This shows you the contents of items selected in the Navigation Pane This allows you to see the message you have selected Addresses Every user has an individual address and you will need to know a person s address before you send them an . An address will look something like this: jbloggs@anyplace.com Note: You must be very accurate when typing an address. There are never any spaces in an address and there is always symbol. However capitalisation is not important. 6

7 Finding Out an Address The quickest and most reliable way to find out someone s address is to ask them. There is no direct equivalent of Directory Inquiries and even if there were it would always be out of date as things change so quickly on the Internet. If you are really desperate to get in touch with some one by and you cannot find their address out any other way, you can try using a search engine like Google ( to find someone by searching for the person s name in quotation marks e.g. Joe Bloggs. 2.4 Sending an The first thing you will want to learn how to do with is to send a message to let the world know that you exist. To send an message: Make sure that the Mail button: is highlighted in the Navigation Pane. Click on the New button to display an untitled message window. Type the address of the person you are sending the mail to in the To box. Initially try sending a message to yourself as an experiment. Note: Section 2.7 explains how to send a message to more than one person. Use the mouse or the Tab key to select the Subject box and enter the subject of your message. Ignore all the other boxes for the moment apart from the message box where you should type the body of your message. 7

8 Text can be entered and edited in much the same way as in a word-processor. Use the scroll bar to move up and down the message. Note: Having entered a subject into in the Subject box and moved on to the message box, the title of the window changes to reflect the subject. Formatting By default Outlook is set to use HTML to format your messages. This allows you to use formatting in your message just as you would with the wordprocessor, Microsoft Word, by using the buttons on the tabs on the ribbon. HTML formatting also allows you to include pictures in your messages. Note: It is possible that your system administrator may have changed the Outlook mail format to Plain Text which allows very limited formatting. This is usually done for very good reasons but for the odd , where formatting is important or pictures need to be included, you can switch to HTML for a particular message by clicking on the Options tab and then on the HTML button. Important: Because is so easy to send this can result in messages being sent in haste. So restraint and thought should be given to each message you send. Once sent an cannot be stopped. 8

9 Once you have entered your message you are ready to send it by clicking on the Send button. Your message will be sent to whoever s address is in the To box. Messages take a variable amount of time to reach the recipient but a day is usually the slowest delivery time. If an is not delivered you will usually receive an message which states that that delivery was unsuccessful. The most common reason for this is that the was incorrectly addressed. So if you have an returned make sure you double-check the address. Note: Usually copies of all messages sent are kept in the Sent Items folder. 2.5 Receiving and Reading When you first open Outlook, any messages that are waiting will appear in your Inbox. Alternatively you can check at any time to see if you have got any by clicking on the button. One unread is in the Inbox If there is mail waiting you should see a new message in your Inbox and a figure next to the Inbox folder in the Mail Folders List on the Navigation Pane indicating the number of unread messages. Select the Inbox to list the mail messages in the Contents Pane. Notice that before you have read an it is shown with a closed envelope icon next to it. However once you have read the this changes into an open envelope icon. Note: If a message received is shown with a paper clip alongside a file is attached to the . See Section

10 You can view a message in the Reading Pane or, double-clicking on the title of the shown in the Contents Pane displays a window containing the complete message. 10

11 2.6 Replying and Forwarding When someone sends you a message you will often want to send them an in return. If you wish to only reply to the sender click on the Reply button: to display the Reply window which will be entitled with the subject of the original message. Notice that the text of the original message, along with the person s details, are included in the message box of your reply. You are free to delete any or all of these details when you type in your message. However it is often useful when you receive a reply if it contains the important parts of the original message to help jog your memory about the subject of the . Note: New text that you type may appear in a different colour to differentiate it from the original message. Alternatively, some messages you receive will use the > symbol instead of colour differences to differentiate between the original message and the reply. If the message you have been sent has also been copied to other people (see Section 2.7) it is possible to reply to everyone who received the original by clicking on the Reply to All button rather than the Reply button. This can be useful as it allows a group to correspond with one another. 11

12 Forwarding A Guide to Outlook 2007 Sometimes you will receive an which you think may be of interest to someone else. In this case you can forward the message to other people by clicking on the Forward button. The message window displayed will be entitled with the subject of the original message. As with replying, the text of the original message, along with the original senders details, are included in the message box of the forwarded message. You are free to delete or edit any or all of these details and to add your own comments when you type in your message. 2.7 Sending a Message to Several People Sometimes you will want to send a message to more that one person. You can do this by entering a number of addresses in the To box separated by semi-colons (;). This will send the same mail to all of those people in the To box. This technique is useful if the message you are sending is of equal importance to all of them. However, if you are sending a message to one person specifically but would like others to be aware of what has been discussed you have the option to also use the Cc box (carbon copy). 2.8 Deleting s Many s are quite disposable. You will not want to keep every message you send or receive. To delete an select it from the Contents Pane and click on the button from the Toolbar or press the Delete key on your keyboard. Deleted messages will then be placed in the Deleted Items folder. To empty the Deleted Items folder choose Empty Deleted Items Folder from the Tools menu. Important: It is likely that your systems administrator or Internet Service Provider (ISP) will have set a limit on the quantity of s you can store, so it is important that you delete unwanted s regularly from your Inbox and Sent Items folders and then empty the deleted items folder as above. 12

13 2.9 Printing Occasionally you may want to print out an message. To print a message from the Contents Pane, choose Print from the File menu. To print a message when it is being viewed in its own window, click on the Office button, choose Print from the menu and Print from the sub-menu. From the Print dialogue box you can choose the number of copies you want to print and whether to print the entire message or just certain pages. Click OK to print Attachments Outlook is designed to allow you to send text based messages quickly that can be read on as many other computers as possible. But what if you want to send pictures, tables, a wordprocessed document or to send a file that you have created in another program? Sending Attachments It is possible to send files created by other programs eg. Word documents and Excel workbooks as part of your message. This is done by attaching (encoding) a file to the message you are sending. Once the message is received the attachment can be detached (decoded) and viewed in the program it was created by. To attach a file to an you are sending click on the paper clip style Attach File button from the Message tab to display the following dialogue box. Windows Vista 13

14 Windows XP Choose the file you wish to attach to the message and then click on the Insert button. Note: If required, more than one file may be attached to an message. Shown below is an message with an Excel workbook attached. Note: You should not take it for granted that the person you are sending the file to can open the attachment you are sending, eg. they may not be using Excel or may be using an earlier version that cannot open the file. 14

15 Opening Attachments You will recognise when an has an attachment as the paper clip symbol will be next to the when you open the Inbox. Attached file To view the attachment click on the attached file in the Reading Pane. Attached file Important: You would be well advised to use a virus checking program to check all attached files because opening attachments is one of the most common ways of spreading computer viruses. 15

16 2.11 Drafts s that you are working on can be saved in the Drafts folder so that you can return and finish them at a later point. To save to the Drafts folder, click on the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar. You can return to your message by selecting the Drafts folder from the Navigation Pane and then double-clicking on the message you wish to work on from the Contents Pane Etiquette is a new form of communication which has its own rules and etiquette (or netiquette). These rules are intended to make using a useful and positive experience for everyone. The most important piece of etiquette is that your messages should be clear and appropriate for who ever you are sending them to. has become a very social, and informal, type of communication. However you should always remember that the type of you send to your friend asking what they did at the weekend will be very different to one which you send to your boss or a tutor on a course you are studying on. Here is a list of simple rules to keep in mind when you are sending s: Always include your name in any messages you send. Always include a meaningful subject line in your message so that the nature of the message can be easily identified by the recipient. If you are replying to a message but are changing the subject of the conversation, change the subject too. Don t type your message in capitals it s extremely difficult to read. Avoid formatting your message (e.g. changing the font, using bold, underlined etc) unless it is important to the message content. Avoid flames messages sent in anger. Messages sent in the heat of the moment generally only exacerbate the situation and are usually regretted later. Settle down and think for a while before starting a flame war. Remember once you have clicked on the Send button you can t stop the message being sent. Don t include credit card numbers or sensitive information in messages. is not secure and people may not be who they purport to be. 16

17 Remember that is not as immediate as a telephone conversation and the recipient may not recall the contents of the original message. When replying include only enough of the original message to provide a context. Ask yourself if your reply is really warranted. Show courtesy in your messages. Don t expect an immediate answer. is all about dealing with your communications when you are able to do so. Don t send unless you are sure that the recipient will be interested in what you have to say. Particularly, don t send an message to a large number of people unless you are sure they will be interested. Doing so is known as Spamming and may result in people complaining about your behaviour. Smiley faces (Emoticons) are a popular way of including body language in your messages. These are groups of characters that are meant to look like a face turned on its side. For example: :-) or :) Amusement ;-) Cheeky smile :-( or :( Disappointment ;-> Mischievous smile 17

18 SECTION 3 MANAGING YOUR USE OF 3.1 Managing Your Mail Messages When you first open Outlook you will notice that there are a number of folders located in the Folder List shown in the Navigation Pane on the left-hand side of the screen. In the Deleted Items folder you can find copies of all the messages you have chosen to delete. Choose Empty Deleted Items folder from the Tools menu to empty the contents of the folder. The Drafts folder is where you can store messages that you have started but have not yet sent. The Inbox is where all is received. The Junk folder is where unrequested junk (sometimes known as spam) is put by Outlook s Junk filter. See Section 3.6 for further information about managing junk . The Outbox is where messages are stored before you send them out. If your computer is always connected to the Internet, your sent s will usually move to this folder only momentarily before being sent on. If you have a dial-up connection to the Internet then your messages will move to the Outbox until you are connected to the Internet. RSS Feeds is where RSS formatted information you regularly subscribe to is received. The Sent Items folder contains copies of messages you have sent. The Search Folder allows you to store searches of your all of your folders that you may wish to perform regularly. There are also several other panes which allow you to manage your Calendar (see Section 4.1), Contacts (see Section 3.3) and Tasks (see Section 4.2). 18

19 Ordering Messages Outlook allows you to sort through your messages and order them in a variety of different ways. Depending on the size of its window, Outlook will allow you to order your messages in a slightly different way. If your window is narrow order your messages click on the Arranged By buttons at the top of the Contents Pane to display a pop-up menu that allows you to choose the attribute you wish to order your messages by. If your window is wider, say because the Reading Pane isn t displayed, you will see the attributes arranged along the top of the Contents Pane as column titles. Importance Status From Subject Received Size Flag Icon Attachment Clicking on a column title once will order the messages in ascending order. Clicking on it a second time will order them in descending order. 19

20 3.2 Creating and Managing Folders All mail you receive is displayed in your Inbox. However, if you just continue to store everything you receive in your Inbox you may find that it becomes difficult to find any messages that you wish to re-read. In this case you might wish to move some to a mail folder which you have created for this purpose (see below). Creating New Folders If you wish, you may create folders within your Inbox or Sent Items folder to allow you to group a particular series of s, for example, messages relating to an event you are organising. Choose Folder from the File menu and New Folder from the sub-menu to display the following dialogue box. Enter the name of the new folder and then choose what you are going to store inside it from the Folder Contains menu, e.g. mail items. Next you need to decide where your new folder will appear. If you select Personal Folders the new folder will appear at the top level of the folder hierarchy. If you select any other folder the new folder will appear as a sub-folder inside the selected folder. For example if you select the Inbox folder the new folder will appear as a subfolder within the Inbox folder. Click OK to create the folder. Moving messages To move a mail message from one mail folder to another: Open the folder and click and hold down the mouse button on the selected message. Move the pointer on top of the folder you wish to move the message to. Release the mouse button to move the message. 20

21 3.3 Contacts Inevitably using you will find that there are a number of people who you contact regularly. With these people it will become a chore to remember their address and type it in every time you want to send them an . So to save time Outlook has a feature called Contacts. Contacts allow you to record all your friend s and colleague s addresses and simplify sending them messages. To add contacts, click on the Contacts button: to display these in the Contacts Pane. Then click on the New button dialogue box. from the Outlook toolbar to display the following You can enter as much or as little information about the person in this dialogue box as you require. The most important information that you need to enter into this dialogue box is the person s address and the name you want to be displayed on s you send to them. So if you were to enter Tim into the Full Name box and tchapman@realco.com when you opened Contacts you would see that information displayed. Once you have entered all of the information you wish to for this contact click on the Save and Close button. Note: If you wish you can use the Contacts pane of Outlook as a contacts database and include postal addresses, phone numbers and personal information about people. However these contacts functions are outside of the scope of this guide. 21

22 To send a message to a person in your contacts, click on New to send a new message as normal. Next, click on the To button to display the Select Names dialogue box. Select the contact or contacts you want and then click on the To or CC button to add it to the new message. Once you have added all the contacts you wish to send the message to click OK to return to the message. Note: One quick way of sending an to someone in your contacts list is to begin entering their name in the To box. Having entered just a few characters you should find that Outlook offers you your contacts from a pop-up list. 22

23 Adding Contacts from s If you don t want to manually enter all of your friend s and colleague s details you have the option to add people to your contacts whenever you receive a message from them. When someone who is not already in your contacts sends you a message move the mouse pointer to their address or name, RIGHT click on the address and choose Add to Outlook Contacts from the pop-up menu. Outlook will then display the Contact dialogue box with the details of the person who has sent you the message already entered. Click Save and Close to add these details to your Contacts. 3.4 Distribution Lists If you are part of a group of any kind, for example an office, a class or a club, you may have reason to regularly send an to the same set of people. It is possible to enter all of the addresses you wish to contact every time you want to send an . However it is quicker to create a single list containing all of the relevant addresses. In Outlook these kinds of lists are called Distribution Lists. To set up a Distribution List: Click on the arrow to the right of the New button List from the menu displayed. and choose Distribution In the Name box enter a title for the group. This should be something memorable as you will have to recognise the purpose of the list from this title. So for a Chess club you might want to choose Chess as the distribution list name. To add people to the list either click on the Select Members button to add to the distribution list people who are already in your contacts or click on the Add New button and enter the details of new individuals. Distribution lists appear in your Contacts and they are distinguished from individual contacts by the distributions lists icon. You can use distribution lists to send s in the same way that you use individual contacts. 23

24 3.5 Finding Messages If you can remember receiving and keeping a message on a particular subject but can not remember exactly who it was from or its subject title don t worry because Outlook can find it for you. At the top of the Contents Pane is the search box. Enter anything into this box and click on and Outlook will try and find the text amongst your messages, displaying the relevant messages in the Contents Pane. Click on the button to have the Contents Pane return to normal display. 3.6 Dealing with Junk Junk (also known as spam) is unsolicited messages that are sent to your address in much the same way that you may receive unsolicited paper mail to your home. Outlook provides a Junk Filter to help you deal with junk . The Junk Filter filters any suspicious messages received to your address. This feature is on by default, and the protection level is set to Low to catch the most obvious junk messages. Any message that is caught by the Junk Filter is moved to a special Junk folder, where you can retrieve, review or delete it at a later time. You can change the level of protection on your Junk filter so that it filters more or less junk . On the Tools menu, click Options and then select Junk . Select the level of protection that you want. It is important to note that if you increase the level of the filter it may mistakenly catch legitimate messages. Note: Your system administrator or Internet Service Provider may have a better way of dealing with junk mail. 24

25 SECTION 4 ORGANISING YOUR LIFE WITH OUTLOOK Outlook is not just an program. It also contains a variety of features that enable you to manage your life, organise appointments and keep track of a variety of tasks that you need to get done. 4.1 Calendar Outlook has an electronic calendar which you can enter all your diary dates into. This has a number of advantages over a normal desk diary. Most usefully Outlook will remind you of all of your diary dates, so it should become much more difficult to forget that all-important meeting or your mother s birthday. To view the Calendar, click on the Calendar button: at the bottom of the Navigation Pane. By default, Outlook displays the current days appointments, with the current month in the top left hand corner of the pane. You can change the way that you view the calendar by clicking on one of the buttons at the top of the pane. 25

26 Adding an Appointment To add a new appointment to the calendar, from the Calendar Pane double-click on the date (and time if you like) that you want to add the appointment to. Outlook will then display the Untitled Appointment window. Enter the subject of the appointment into the Subject box and this will be displayed on your calendar. You can also add Location, Time and further details about the appointment if you wish. If you have a regular appointment and would like to enter it at the same time each week in your diary for a number of weeks click on the Recurrence button to display the Appointment Recurrence dialogue box. 26

27 You can then choose how often the appointment recurs and set the number of recurrences or an end date. Click on OK to return to the Appointment window and then Save and Close to add the appointment to the calendar. To view an appointment, double-click on it to launch the Appointment window. Reminders By default Outlook will remind you of an appointment 15 minutes before it is scheduled. However, you can alter this if required. 4.2 Tasks Outlook also offers a simple to do list known as a Task list. To open the Tasks list click on the Tasks button: on the Navigation Pane. To add a task click on the Type a new task box and type in the details of the task and the task will be added to the list below. Once you have completed a task check the box to the left of it. The completed task will then display with a line through it, indicating it has been completed. If you double-click on a task the Task window will be presented allowing you to add a date, priority or a comment to your task. 27