Outlook Tips & Tricks

1. Quickly access addresses

Start typing the person's name and press CTRL- k  or you can type the name and select the "To:"  and it will come up with a list of names to select from. After you have sent an email once, they will automatically appear when you start typing their name.

2. Add Outlook Contacts to Autocomplete

Go to your Contacts  > Select all (Ctrl+A) > Go to Home Tab and select New Email > Select To: and all contacts should populate. Once all contact names are in the To: line you can delete the message without sending.

3. Stop Outlook from showing the first line in the message in message list

Select View tab and click on Message Preview arrow. Select Off to turn off or configure up to 3 lines of text.

4. Set up viewing next unread message automatically

Select File, then select Options and select Mail. Scroll to Other and use drop down list next to After moving or deleting an open item and select open the previous item (or next item depending on order of emails)

You can also select the (↓) or (↑) arrow on the top of your email to move to the next or previous message.

5. Close original email after you respond

Select File, then select Options and choose the Mail tab. Scroll to Replies and forwards and set to Close original message window when replying or forwarding.

6. Sorting Emails Automatically - Creating Rules

Click the message you want to create a rule and  select the Home tab. Select the Rules drop down arrow and select Create Rule.

Under the Create Rule dialog box:

Under When I Get e-mail with all the selected conditions, select the check boxes for the conditions you want

Under Do the following, select the check boxes for the action that you want the rule to take when the specified conditions are met. 

Select the Move the item to folder check box

Click an existing folder or click New to create a new folder to store the messages.

Select the Advanced Options button to add more conditions, exceptions or options to the rule.

7. To empty deleted emails at close / end of day

Select File and choose Options and select the Advanced tab.  Under Outlook start and exit, check Empty Deleted Items folders when exiting Outlook

If you are familiar with Thunderbird and have Tags set up, use Categories in Outlook. At the moment, the categories features will not work, however, when Office 360 is deployed, this feature will be restored.

8. To remove Favorites from showing in Folder Pane

Select the View  tab and click on the down arrow next to Folder Pane. Deselect the check mark next to Favorites.

9. To apply view setting to all folders

While in your INBOX, select the VIEW tab, select Change View and select Manage Views. 

Select IMAP messages and then select MODIFY. 

You can select Under Other Settings you can adjust the Reading Pane for all folders.

Under Group By you can deselect  Automatically Group According to Arrangement to turn off all grouping. 

When complete, select Apply View and it will make the changes for all folders. 

Here are some other helpful links: message filter and rules ,set-up tips, video tutorial, DoIT Tutorial, make Outlook more like Thunderbird