Keeping track of what you have to do can be a big task at times, especially around the holidays when everyone is rushing to get nowhere. Don’t waste time looking for new ways to stay organized and caught up; take advantage of the features available in software you are already using, like Outlook. We have gathered some Outlook tips that will help you make it there on time, wherever you are going.

Scraps of paper, to-do lists and strings wrapped around fingers just don’t work anymore.

Set Your Work Hours (Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

By PC Helps staff

When you view your calendar in Outlook, it displays your work days and time slots in a lighter shade of yellow (or the color you choose) than the rest of the hours in the day. The default start time is 8 a.m.; end time, 5 p.m. If your work hours differ, you can easily change Outlook to reflect it.

1. Click the Tools menu and choose Options.
2. Click on the “Calendar Options” button.
3. In the “Calendar work week” section, change any of the following:
   • Checkboxes for the days of the work week (default: Monday-Friday)
   • Set the first day of the week (default: Sunday)
   • Set the first week of the year (default: Starts on Jan. 1)
   • Start time (default: 8 a.m.)
   • End time (default: 5 p.m.)

Note: These settings will affect what others see in regard to your availability when they schedule meetings.

Schedule a Meeting (Outlook 2002, 2003, 2007)

By Matt Mahoney

You would think that one of the most commonly used Outlook features — the calendar — would be easy enough to use. Think again. A feature that has so much scheduling potential also has the ability to foul up meeting upon meeting upon meeting. This tip, which illustrates how to invite attendees to a meeting, will save you ample grief.

Outlook 2007:

1. Click on the File menu, choose New, and then choose Meeting Request.
2. On the Meeting tab of the Ribbon, click on the “Scheduling” button (depending on your mail server configuration, this button may also be called “Scheduling Assistant”), located in the Show group. Then click on the “Add Others” button at the bottom (this button may also be called “Add Attendees”).
3. In the “Select Attendees and Resources” window, enter the name of the person or resource you want to add to the meeting, or click a name from the list.
4. Near the bottom of the dialog box, click on the Required, Optional, or Resources button to place each name or resource in the appropriate field. Click OK.
5. In the Scheduling tab, you can view free/busy information for the meeting invitees that have made it available.
6. Set the meeting’s start time and end time by using the drop-down arrows near the bottom of the dialog box or dragging the green and red dividers to signify the start and end times of the meeting.
7. Click on the Appointment button in the Show section of the Meeting tab.
8. Review the meeting invitation; add anything you might need to in the body of the message, then click Send.

Outlook 2002 and 2003:

1. Click on the File menu, choose New, and then choose Meeting Request.
2. Click on the Scheduling tab, click on the “Add Others” button at the bottom, and then click on “Add from Address book.”
3. In the “Type Name or Select from List” window, enter the name of the person or resource you want to add to the meeting, or click a name from the list.
4. Near the bottom of the dialog box, click on the Required, Optional, or Resources button to place each name or resource in the appropriate field. Click OK.
5. In the Scheduling tab, you can view the free/busy information for the meeting invitees that have made it available.
6. Set the meeting’s start time and end time by using the drop-down arrows near the bottom of the dialog box or by dragging the green and red dividers to signify the start and end times of the meeting.
7. Switch back to the Appointment tab.
8. Review the meeting invitation; add anything you might need to in the body of the message, then click Send.

Note: The meeting invitation message lists the required and optional attendees in the “To” field. The resources appear in the “Location” field.

Desktop Alerts the Way You Like Them (Outlook 2002, 2003, 2007)

By Tim Dunleavy

Are you tired of checking your Outlook screen every few minutes while waiting for an important missive? Outlook enables you to keep track of things a little easier with pop-up and system tray notifications when new messages arrive. This tip will show you how to enable and disable these features.

1. Click on the Tools menu and select Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, in the E-mail section, click the “E-mail Options” button.
3. Click the “Advanced E-mail Options” button.
4. Look for the “When new items arrive in my Inbox” area. You’ll see that there are four notifications that Outlook can give you when you receive an email in your Inbox:-Play a sound
   -Briefly change the mouse cursor
   -Show an envelope icon in the notification area
   -Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only)
5. Check or uncheck all the types of notifications you want to receive, then click OK three times to return to the main Outlook screen.

If you want to change the appearance of the desktop alerts, return to the Advanced E-mail Options dialog (see steps above), and click the “Desktop Alert Settings” button. In the Duration section, drag the slider bar to the number of seconds you want new desktop alerts to be visible (anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds). In the Transparency section, drag the slide to the transparency amount that you want. Then click the preview button to see how the alerts will appear. Once the sample alert appears, you can click on it and drag it to the part of the screen where you want it to appear. Click OK four times to return to the main Outlook screen.

Use Outlook’s Activities Tab for Contacts (Outlook 2002, 2003, 2007)

By PC Helps staff

Outlook’s Activities feature enables you to link items such as messages, appointments, documents and tasks to a particular contact. Below is the how-to.

To view items related to a contact:

1. Open the contact.
2. Click the Activities tab. (In Outlook 2007, there is an Activities button on the Contact tab, in the Show group.)
3. From the Show drop-down list, click the type of item you want to view, or select “All Items.”

Outlook automatically links the most obvious items and activities to every contact — for example, a message from the contact or a meeting organized by the contact will automatically be linked. You can also link items manually. Here’s how:

Outlook 2007:

1. Open the item (appointment, meeting, task, journal item) you wish to link to the contact.
2. Click on the Contacts button in the lower-left corner of the item and select the contact to link the item to.
3. “Click Save and Close” to close the item.

Note: This method also works for Outlook 2000, 2002 and 2003.

Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003:

1. Open the contact you wish to link the item to.
2. On the Actions menu, select Link, and then choose Items. (Or, if you wish to link a file such as a Word document, click Actions, select Link, then choose File.)
3. In the “Look in” box, click to select the items or files to which you want to link.

Note: In Outlook 2007, the Contacts button is not enabled on all forms by default. To change this:

1. Click the Tools menu in the main Outlook window
2. Select Options.
3. Choose Contact Options, located on the Preferences tab.
4. In the Contact Options window, check the box for “Show Contact Linking on all Forms.”
5. Click OK to close the Contact Options window, the click OK again to close the Options window.

“Dear Diary…”: Using the Journal Feature (Outlook 2002, 2003, 2007)

By PC Helps staff

Scraps of paper, to-do lists and strings wrapped around fingers just don’t work anymore. If you have scads of items to keep track of, try using Outlook’s little-known but useful Journal feature. Use it to track time spent on documents, on e-mails or phone conversations, and for many other tasks.

To set up the Journal to automatically record the time you spend on a particular document:

1. Click on the Tools menu and choose Options.
2. Click on the Preferences tab and click the “Journal Options” button.
3. Click on any checkboxes in the “Also record files from” section for the specific programs you would like to keep track of.
4. Click OK, then close and reopen Outlook.

Now Outlook will automatically create a Journal entry for the document attached and the amount of time spent on the document.

If you are working on a document type that is not covered in the list by Outlook, or you only want to record the time spent for specific documents, you can use the Journal to manually keep track of the time spent.

Manually creating a journal entry:

1. Go to the Journal and click the New button.
2. Set the entry type and click the “Start Timer” button.
3. After the timer is started, you can minimize the Journal, work on the document, and click Pause Timer when you are done.

Note: If the file type you want is not available, you can use “Document.”

You can also use the Journal to record e-mail messages, meeting information and task information through Outlook by following these steps.

1. Click the Tools menu and choose Options.
2. Select “Journal Options” on the Preferences tab.
3. Under “Automatically record these items,” choose the desired items to record in Outlook.
4. Click OK twice after selecting the items you want the Journal to record.

Note: Although the Journal is useful, it can eat up significant mailbox space. If your company has conservative mailbox size limits, use it with caution.

What’s your secret for staying organized? Tell us in comments or send an e-mail to jen.darr@pchelps.com.

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