Getting Organised with Outlook 2007
Reminders
I'm sure you all know that you can set a Reminder on any appointment in your diary. You will be reminded at the particular time in advance of the appointment that you set.
Did you know that you can do that with e-mails too?
Follow Up
If I right-click and select Follow Up, I can set a flag just to highlight it, or click Add Reminder.
I can set a Flag for all sorts of purposes...
... and I can add a Reminder for Today or any particular date that it suits me.
Alternatively with the e-mail open, I have the Follow Up option on the Message tab, and the same options are available to me.
To-Do
Also note the To-Do pane.
At the top it shows us a calendar and then the next few appointments, and below any e-mails with reminders on and any tasks.
You can organise your To-Do pane, right-click the title bar, decide whether to have it present or not, and which bits to show.
With Options you can control how much to show.
Alternatively, from the View menu select To-Do Bar and this gives you the same possibilities.
Tasks
Creating Tasks is quite simple, from the New button select New Task.
Give the Subject as the title of the task, and below we can specify a Reminder, or with the Reminder and Flag option in the Task ribbon. Save & Close and we now have a Task to do. Particularly useful if we set the Start Date as Tasks appear in the To-Do bar sorted by date.
Task Request
Also notice that if I click New then Task Request, I can send a Task Request to someone else.
Put in their E-mail address, and they can Accept or Decline that just as they can with a Meeting.
Add Flag Column to Inbox
It may also help you if we can see which items in the Inbox have a flag set on them. To do that we need to add a column showing the Flag Status.
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Click in the Inbox first to make sure its selected.
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From the View menu select Current View and then Customise Current View.
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Select Fields.
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Find the Flag Status field and click Add.
I could move it up the list with the Move Up button.
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Click OK twice.
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Now the Flag Status appears.
I can even click its column heading to sort by Flag Status so I'll see all of the items I've flagged.
Completing an E-mail Task
When I have done the e-mail task I can click to complete it, or I can Right-Click and set other options should I so choose.
