Getting More from Outlook

Tom Kelliher, CS 102

April 16, 2003

Introduction

In this lab, you'll learn how to use several advanced features of Outlook:

  1. Personal Folders.
  2. Junk and ``adult'' messages.
  3. Automatically delete messages from the Deleted Items folder.
  4. ``Out of office'' auto-replies.
  5. Message signatures.
  6. Introduction to the Rules Wizard.

Outlook Lab

Creating Personal Folders

First off, you may not have to do this. Open Outlook and check the Folders List pane on the left. If you already have a ``Personal Folders'' folder, skip this part. If not, do the following:

  1. Within your G: drive, create a folder named Exchange.

  2. In Outlook, open the Tools menu and choose Services....

  3. In the dialog which will pop up, choose Add... and then Select Personal Folders and click OK.

  4. In the Create/Open Personal Folders dialog box, navigate to the Exchange folder you just created on your G: drive. Set the file name to personal and click OK.

  5. Back in Outlook, verify that you now have a ``Personal Folders'' folder.

Handling Junk E-Mail

  1. Within the Outlook toolbar, find and click Organize.

  2. Click the Junk E-Mail tab. Change the settings so that junk e-mail is automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder and turn on this ``rule.''

    Note the way that you designate an e-mail sender as a junk e-mailer: right click on the e-mail from them, choose Junk E-Mail, and select Add to Junk Senders list.

  3. Go back to your inbox, select the e-mail from me (Send mail to kelliher AT DOMAIN phoenix.goucher.edu) with a subject line of ``Do not delete'' and add me to your junk senders list.

  4. I'll now send you another piece of e-mail from that account so that you can see that it goes straight to your Deleted Items folder.

    Once you've verified this, move on to the next step.

  5. You can now remove me from your junk senders list by returning to the Organize window pane, selecting the Junk E-Mail tab, clicking click here to get more options, and then choosing Edit Junk Senders. Or, maybe you want to keep me there!!!

    If you want, you can now return to the Junk E-Mail table and Turn off junk e-mail moving.

Deleted Items Management

Have you ever been locked out of your inbox because it was full, even though you had deleted a lot of e-mail? Maybe all the deleted e-mail is still sitting in your Deleted Items folder, waiting for you to delete it from there. The ``quick and dirty'' way to do this is to right click on that folder and choose Empty Deleted Items folder. But, you have to remember to do this. If you want to have these deleted items deleted permanently every time you exit Outlook, follow these instructions:

  1. Open the Tools menu, select Options..., and select the Other tab. Enable Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting.

Letting People know you're away

Outlook has a service which automatically sends a reply to an e-mail. This is useful if you won't be reading your e-mail for an extended period of time and want to let people know this. In Outlook, this feature is called the ``Out of Office Assistant.'' Here's how to set it up:

  1. Open the Tools menu and select Out of Office Assistant....

  2. Select I am currently Out of the office and type the text for your Out of Office message. Click OK when finished.

  3. To see how it looks when it works, send an e-mail to yourself.

  4. Don't forget to go back and select I am currently In the office!!!

Signatures

An e-mail signature is just a few lines of text which some people like to have at the bottom of each of their e-mail messages. Some use the signature to provide contact information while others use it to display a meaningful quote. For example, here's my signature: 

Thomas P. Kelliher                        | Voice: (410) 337-6189
Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science | Fax: (410) 337-6408
Goucher College                   --------| Send mail to kelliher AT DOMAIN bluebird.goucher.edu
1021 Dulaney Valley Rd.           | http://phoenix.goucher.edu/~kelliher/
Baltimore, MD 21204               |
In any case, netiquette prescribes that a signature shouldn't be more than four or five lines long. Here's how to create a signature in Outlook:

  1. Open the Tools menu, choose Options..., and then select the Mail Format tab.

  2. Click on Signature Picker... and then click New....

  3. Enter a descriptive name for the signature (My Signature is all you need), select Start with a blank Signature, and click Next. Type the text you'd like for your signature then click Finish.

  4. Click OK as necessary to get back to Outlook.

  5. Compose a new e-mail message and note that the signature is automatically appended to your message for you.

  6. If you'd rather not have a signature, get back to Mail Format and choose <None> for your signature.

Using the Rules Wizard

The Rules Wizard is a powerful tool (this means it can take a while to learn all its features) for organizing your inbox. I'll show you how to create a rule to send all your CS 102 messages to a folder inside your Personal Folders folder. You'll see how to move messages based on keywords in the subject line or based upon the sender of the message. You can experiment with the Rules Wizard on your own to see what else it can do for you (or to you if you're not careful).

First things first: In Outlook, right click on your Personal Folders folder and choose New Folder... to create a new personal folder. Name the folder CS 102.

  1. Moving messages to a folder based on subject line keywords:
    1. Open the Tools menu and select Rules Wizard....

    2. Select New... to create a new rule.

    3. We want this rule to apply after the message arrives, so click Next to get to the next window.

    4. We want this rule to apply when specific words occur in the Subject, so select that and then, in the window below, click on specific words and enter CS 102 as a keyword phrase. Click OK then Next.

    5. We want to move this message to our CS 102 folder, so select move it to the specified folder, then click on specified in the window below. Navigate to your CS 102 folder and select it. Click OK then Next.

    6. You can scroll through the exceptions. We won't make any, so just click Next.

    7. Name the rule (CS 102 works) and enable it. Click Finish (followed by OK if necessary).

    8. Send yourself an e-mail with CS 102 in the subject line to test the rule. Did it work?

    9. If you don't want to continue using this rule return to the Rules Wizard, select the rule, and delete it.

  2. Moving messages to a folder based on sender:
    1. Open the Tools menu and select Rules Wizard....

    2. Select New... to create a new rule.

    3. We want this rule to apply after the message arrives, so click Next to get to the next window.

    4. We want this rule to apply when the sender is a specific person, so select from people or distribution list, then click on people or distribution list in the window below.

    5. Add your e-mail address to the list. Note that you may enter more than one e-mail address if you like, but one is enough here. Click OK then Next.

    6. We want to move this message to our CS 102 folder, so select move it to the specified folder, then click on specified in the window below. Navigate to your CS 102 folder and select it. Click OK then Next.

    7. You can scroll through the exceptions. We won't make any, so just click Next.

    8. Name the rule (your name works) and enable it. Click Finish (followed by OK if necessary).

    9. Send yourself an e-mail, without CS 102 in the subject line, to test the rule. Did it work?

    10. If you don't want to continue using this rule return to the Rules Wizard, select the rule, and delete it.


Thomas P. Kelliher
Wed Apr 16 10:47:43 EDT 2003
Tom Kelliher