Learn Microsoft Outlook 2013

This introductory video will introduce you to Microsoft Outlook 2013. It will get you familiar with the layout of the Outlook environment. It will also show you the different items in Outlook such as Mail, Calendar, People and Tasks and how to navigate around the screen.

This video will introduce you to the Ribbon. The Ribbon contains commands that are organized into tabs that group related commands together. The Ribbon can be minimized or customized as desired.

The Quick Access Toolbar, located in the upper left in Outlook, contains icons for the commands that would be used frequently. By default, there are only a few icons on the Quick Access Toolbar but it can be customized to add icons that you desire. Once these icons are added, they remain there unless you chose to remove them. In Outlook there are different Quick Access Toolbars depending which item you are in.

The Folder Pane is located on the left hand side of Outlook and contains icons and links to all the different views that we can use within Outlook. This allows us to easily switch back and forth between different functions and locations in Outlook. The To-Do bar, which can be added to the right side of screen shows your next few calendar items, appointments and task all in one location for quick visibility, and allows you to drill down into the details if needed.

By pointing to the Calendar icon, peeks allow you to see a preview of your calendar. You can peek at your favorite contacts or your upcoming tasks without changing to that view. You can dock the peeks so while in email for example, you can see your calendar, favorite contacts or your tasks.

Composing an Email message is similar to writing and sending a letter. In Outlook when you create a new Email message, you list who you are going to send the Email to in the To box. Then type the purpose of the Email in the Subject, write the content of the message in the body and send the message.

There are several ways to add names to the Email. One is to simply type the Email address. The other is to select names from an address book. Once an Email address has been used, it will automatically appear in a history list the next time you start typing in the Email addresses.

When an Email is being composed, options can be added to it if necessary. If I need to know when a recipient read an Email message, I can add a read receipt. If the message is very important, I can make it show high importance. Outlook provides many options that can be added to an Email message.

Once you have typed the text for an Email message, you may want to change the appearance, edit the information or spell check the text before sending it. In Outlook you will see text that is misspelled with a red line under it indicating a spelling error. Right-click the misspelled word and select the correct spelling from the list. The basic text group in the ribbon provides many options for formatting the text in the body of the message. Any typos can be edited as needed.

Once the text is typed in the body of the message, it can be formatted as desired. You can use bold, italic, font colors or any of the options on the Format Text tab. Formatting message content is useful to make important points stand out in your text.

Objects can be inserted into the email message body. If you need to send a flow chart, picture or table just insert it and format it as desired. The recipient will be able to see the object as long as their email software supports HTML.

Sometimes you might create an Email message, but realize that you don’t have all the information that you need for the message. When this happens, you can save the message and it will go into the Drafts folder. At any time you can go back to the drafts folder and finish composing the message and then send it. On the other hand, when you send a message, it immediately goes to the recipient.

The Message List now lets you preview the message so you can see which messages need to be tackled first. Messages that have not be read have a blue bar to the left of the messages. Messages that have been read do not have a bar. You can also quickly filter the unread messages in the message list.

In the message list you can perform quick actions such as flagging a message which adds it to your task list. You can also delete a messages which sends it to the Deleted Items folder. If needed, you can mark a messages read or unread.

In Outlook 2013 you can respond to a message in the reading pane. On the top of the reading pane there is a Reply, Reply to All or Forward icon that will allow you to type your response immediately without having to open the message. There is also a Pop Out option that will let you open the message if desired.

There will be messages that you need to respond to and answer questions. If you double-click the message to open it, you can Reply, Reply to All, or Forward. Reply will just send the response back to the sender. Reply to all will send the response back to all the people who the message was sent to. If you need to pass the Email along to someone else or keep the attachment while replying, then you would want to forward the Email.

Sometimes you will need to send a file to someone via Email. In Outlook, you can attach a file and when you send the message, the file will also be sent to the recipient. You can attach one file or several files depending on your needs. You can also attach an Outlook item, such as a contact’s information.

When you receive an Email with an attachment, you can preview the attachment on the screen to see if you need to save it. You can also open it directly from the Email message. If the attachment is something you will need, you can save it and open it at another time just like a regular file.

There are many Email messages that you will receive that just need to be deleted. Once an Email message is deleted, it will be placed in your Deleted Items folder. A message can by moved back from Deleted Items if needed. Once in a while you will empty your deleted items folder. You do have a chance to recover items that you have removed from your Deleted Items folder if you act quickly.

The Junk Email Filter helps to reduce unwanted Email messages in your Inbox, such as spam. The Junk Email Filter evaluates each incoming message based on the time when the message was sent and the content of the message. If it classifies it as junk, it places the message in your junk Email folder. The Junk Email Filter, by default, is turned on and the level is set to Low. You can change the level of protection by modifying the junk Email options.

If you want to be reminded of something that needs to get done on an Email message, you can apply a flag to a message. You can specify the date that the items needs to be due by or you can use one of the default date such as today or tomorrow. Once a message is flagged, it will appear with a flag in your Inbox, on your task list, on your calendar by due date and in your to-do bar. Items in your Contact List may also be flagged.

One way to organize items in your Inbox is to use categories. Color categories can be assigned to Email messages, calendar items, contacts, tasks and even notes to help organize items visually by color. You can even assign more than one category to an item. You create a name for each color and that name is the same thought Outlook categories. So if you are having a hard time keeping track of items, add a color category to them.

Folders are a place to store Email messages. Instead of leaving all of your messages in the Inbox, messages can be moved to folder just by dragging the message. This will help you to organize your mail. Folders can be created within folders if needed.

Sometimes it might be difficult to find all messages based on specific criteria. You can search for messages just by typing some text contained within the message using instant search. If you want to be more specific, you can determine what field to search in such as the subject line.

Sorting messages is useful to find messages by particular fields. Messages can be sorting by one field such as Received or by multiple fields such as Sender then by Received. Once the view is sorted, it will remain that way unless it is resorted again.

Filtering mail is another way to find messages. There are specific filter criteria automatically setup in Outlook such as high importance. Once a filter is selected, Outlook will find the mail messages that meet the criteria.

When you are looking for messages that may be from your boss, you can put those messages in a different formatting style by using conditional formatting. The color, font, or additional formatting options can be applied to those messages so they look different from the other messages. Multiple conditional formatting settings can be applied.

When you are looking for messages that may be in multiple folders, you can create and use a search folder to help you find the messages. A Search Folder is a virtual folder that provides a view of all Email items that match specific search criteria. For example, if you want to find all messages sent to a specific person, you can create a search folder to help you locate those messages.

While in mail, if you use some folders often, you can add them to the Favorites area. These folders can be quickly selected by clicking on them even if they were subfolders of other folders. Once a folder is added to Favorites it remains there until you remove it.

A rule is an action that is automatically performed on sent or received Email messages. For example, you can create a rule to move messages to a particular folder when you receive them. You create the conditions for the rule by responding to steps in a wizard. Once you have completed the steps, the rule gets name and is automatically turned on and activated at that point.

When you create a rule, you can have Outlook run it on your current Inbox messages and subfolders. If you have multiple rules, any new item will be evaluated based on the rules and the order in which the rules are listed. If none of the rules apply, then the normal action is performed on the item. Rules can be modified, turned off without be deleted and turned back on when needed, or permanently deleted.

There are times when your mailbox will be full or over the size limit. Some companies will not let your send mail if you exceed the limit. Therefore you need to clean your mail in folders, especially the Deleted Items folder. The mailbox cleanup tool lets you find items that are larger or older, then you can decide if any of these items should be deleted to free up space.

The calendar is the scheduling component in Outlook to store appointments, all day events and meetings. The calendar can be viewed in a variety of ways such as daily or monthly and can be printed if needed.

An appointment on your Outlook calendar is a placeholder for you to set aside time to do an activity. Appointments do not involve inviting others to join you or adding resources. They can be recurring or just a one-time activity and you can be reminded of the activity at different times.

An all-day event is an activity that lasts all day. For example a vacation day, a conference or trade shows. These activities will cause you to be out of the office for at least 24 hours or more. An all-day event can also be a notice on the top of your calendar on a day as a reminder for an activity such as a birthday or holiday. These types of events do not block time on your calendar.

In Outlook, you can invite people to attend a meeting. Once you set the date, time, and list of attendees, Outlook generates an email and sends it to the attendees. The invitation appears in the Inbox and a tentative meeting is added to their calendar.

When you receive a meeting request in you Inbox, you can choose to accept, decline, tentative or propose a new time. Whatever you selection, a message gets sent back to the organizer. The organizer will be able to track the attendee list and see who has responded.

After individuals respond to your meeting request, your Inbox will start to fill up with their responses. The responses will show who accepted, declined, tentative accepted or proposed a new time. After these responses are reviewed, they can be moved to a folder if you need to keep them.

While viewing your calendar, a weather bar will be displayed at the top of the calendar. You can add up to 5 different cities that you can toggle between. If you screen display is wide enough, you will see up to 3 days of the forecast for that city.

If you create meeting requests to the same group of people, in Outlook you can create a calendar group. The group is given a name and a list of members is selected from the address book. Once this group is created, it can be used to create meetings for the group.

Sometimes it might be necessary to share your calendar with a co-worker. Outlook lets you give permissions to a user so they can open your calendar. The default permission level assigned is a reviewer. The permission level can be changed so the user can have rights to make changes to your calendar as an editor.

A copy of your calendar can be sent to anyone in an Email message. So if someone needs to know what you have on your calendar, you can send them of copy of your information. You choose what date range and the amount of detail to included. The calendar appears within the body of the message and is also an attachment.

The new default view for contacts is People Cards. This view give you more information about a contact right on the screen. You can create a meeting, send a message or edit the contact information right from the People Card view.

One way to create a contact is to type the contact information directly into the contact form. You can fill in as many fields of information as you have. The information can be edited or additional information can be added at any time.

Instead of creating a contact by typing in the text, you can add a contact from an Email message. Once the Email message is opened, the From field contains the Email of the sender and by right-clicking a new contact item can be created. A contact can also be created from a business card that has a .vcf extension.

If you need others to have your contact information, you can create a Business Card for yourself. On this card you would add any information that you would like other’s to have such as your name, company name, address, email address as well as phone and fax numbers. Once this card is created, it can be attached to an email message.

If you Email the same group of people over and over again, you can create a contact group. The contact group is stored in your contacts. Once created, you can use it to Email the group or setup meetings with this group of people.

Contacts can be shared with others when you use Microsoft Outlook with a Microsoft Exchange Server account. You can share you contacts folder or create an additional contacts folder with specific people to share. The permission levels can be modified based on your criteria.

You can open a contact and see a map of the location of the address. When you click on the map a browser window will open and a map of the address will display. You can print it, Email it to someone else and even get driving directions.

The contacts you have in Outlook can be the data source for a mail merge with Word. Once the contact file is attached to Word, you can write personalized letters, create envelopes or labels, or even create an email message for your contacts. This makes it convenient so you do not have to create another data source in Word for all the names and addresses.

If you have a list of things to do on a piece of paper or in a document somewhere, each of these items can be a task. Tasks are displayed in the To-Do Bar, in Tasks, and in the Daily Task List in Calendar. Tasks can be assigned to others and updated as needed.

Outlook tasks are items that are flagged in an Email or tasks that you create manually. Many people keep a list of things to do — on paper, in a spreadsheet, or with a combination of paper and electronic methods. In Microsoft Outlook you can combine various lists into one, get reminders and track task progress.

Tasks are listed in the task list but can also be viewed on the calendar or the to-do bar. You can choose where you would like to see your tasks by changing options.

Tasks can be assigned to others who need to perform the work on the task. Once a task is assigned, you are no longer the owner of the task. When the person performing the work updates the task, you will be informed of the changes. Once the task is marked complete, it will be returned to you the task originator.

If a task has been assigned to you from someone else, you will receive an email message in your Inbox. Once you receive the message, you can accept the task. When you accept the task, it then appears on your task list.

Updating Tasks Once a task has been created, it can be updated with information such as the percentage of work complete. You can also supply the number of hours worked, the company who you are doing the task for, and the mileage it took to get to the site. This information would be useful if you are going to charge back the client.

Notes are electronic sticky notes. Anything you would put down on a piece of paper, a procedure, a telephone number, directions or a thought, could be entered into a note. A note can be even placed on your desktop for easy viewing.

The items in Outlook, such as an Email, contact information or a weekly calendar, can be printed. All the printing functions are performed in the Backstage view located in the File tab.

In Outlook 2013, the Inbox can be customized so the folders can be displayed in the order that make sense to you. If you prefer a folder at the top of the list, drag it to that position. You can also drag folders within folders to make subfolders.

Many of the default settings can be changed to meet your personal needs when using Outlook. For example, maybe the default font type for Email messages should be changed. These changes are available in Options located in the File tab.

In Outlook when you create a message, there is a default font that is used for the message. If you want to change that font type and size, you can. You can even use a stationary that will have a background design for your message. Once the defaults are changed, all new message will take on those formatting features.

When you perform the same functions over and over again, such as moving messages from the Inbox to a specific folder, you can create a quick step to make that process easier. Once the quick steps are created, then they can be applied to your messages to help you preform those tasks quickly.

Outlook provides signatures to allow you to add standard text to the end of your outgoing Email messages. If you use the same information each time you sign your Email, a signature will provide you with that text each time you create a new message. You can create as many signatures as needed. We’ll demonstrate how to create a few signatures.

Once your signatures have been created, you can create a default signature for your new messages as well as another one for your replies or forward messages. When a new message is created, while in the body of the message, these default signatures can be deleted or changed to another one if desired.

In Outlook, you can create a signature to be a business card. To do this, you will need to have your own business card created in your contacts. Once that’s done, the business card can be your signature.

When you are not in the office, you can set up an automatic respond to people who send you Email messages. This helps to inform people that you that your response might be delayed. Automatic Replies can include details, such as an alternate contact, the date you will return to the office or any additional information that would be beneficial to the recipient.

When you look at the items in your Inbox, Calendar and Contacts, the items are listed in a current view. Outlook provides many additional views for the items that you can change to, or you can customize a view to meet your needs.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) provides an easy way for you to read information from your favorite Web sites. Once you setup an RSS Feed subscription, you will receive updates in Outlook whenever new content is published. Some RSS Feeds are posted often, such as an updated news story, and some are only when things change, like a date change for a sporting event.

If you need to remove messages and store them outside of your mailbox because you exceeded your mailbox size limit, an Outlook Data File with the extension of .pst can be created. An Outlook Data File can only be used in Outlook to store Outlook items such as messages. When you create the file, you decide where the file will be stored. You can have many data files.

Once an Outlook data file has been created, messages can be moved from your mailbox into the data file. By moving the messages to the data file, it will free up space on your mailbox size. Multiple data files can be create and used as needed.

Once an Outlook data file has been created, messages can be moved from your mailbox into the data file. By moving the messages to the data file, it will free up space on your mailbox size. Multiple data files can be create and used as needed.

AutoArchiving allows you to automatically move or delete files from your Outlook items and place them in an Outlook data file named archive. This can be done on a regular basis. The items that get moved or deleted are determined by the setting you provide.

Once the AutoArchive settings have been made, messages in your mailbox can be moved or deleted automatically or they can be manually archived. The settings can be modified at any time as desired. Once items are moved to the archive, they can be retrieved from the archive and placed back in an Outlook item.

You can export contacts to a file that can then be imported into other applications, such as Web mail clients, Excel spreadsheets, or database applications. The most common export file format is a comma separated value (CSV) file.

If you want to back up the message folders locally, you can export the items to an Outlook Data File with the .pst file extension. Most companies back up the messages from the server, but you can also back them up yourself to have a local copy that you can access from your computer even if you are not connected to the server.

This lesson will provide you with important information on how to create a better email. It will offer helpful tips on the five major areas an email including the From, Subject, Greeting, Body and Closing areas.

This lesson gives tips on the different Outlook items. Whether in mail, calendar, contacts, tasks or notes, it will provide you with ideas on how to be successful with these items.

This lesson will provide you with steps to staying organized using Outlook. Using these steps will help you get through your email messages so you will have time to do your real work.

Whether responding to a client or sending a resume, this lesson will give you tricks on things to do. It will also list some common mistakes that are made when sending professional email messages.

Having an Inbox full of messages can be overwhelming. This lesson will provide you with ways to manage and organize your email messages so you can plow through your Inbox.

To use Outlook Web App or Outlook in Outlook 365 you need to access a web browser and got to the website http://portal.microsoftonline.com or https://outlook.office365.com/owa. This will take you to a login screen where you can type your email address and your password to access your account. Once you are logged in, you can begin using the web application for Outlook.

This lesson will introduce you to Outlook Web App. It will get you familiar with the layout of the OWA environment. It will also show you the different item in OWA such as Mail, Calendar, People and how to navigate around the screen.

Creating an Email message in OWA is similar to creating an Email message in Outlook. When you create a new Email message, you list who you are going to send the Email to in the To box, type the purpose of the Email in the Subject, write the content of the message in the body and then send the message.

There will be messages that you need to respond to and answer questions. In the reading pane you can Reply, Reply to All, or Forward. Reply will just send the response back to the sender. Reply to all will send the response back to all the people who the message was sent to. If you need to pass the Email along to someone else or keep the attachment while replying, then you would want to forward the Email. If you double-click a message in the Inbox, it will display the email conversation, and you can click on any message in the conversation to review the content.

Flagging messages indicates that you need to go back and do something with the message in the future. Once a message is flagged, it will have a red flag icon next to the message in the Inbox. This will be a reminder to you that you still need to return to that message at a later time.

While you are in your Inbox, you can filter the messages to display only those message you have not read, only the messages that were sent to me, or messages that have been flagged. Another way to filter email messages is to search for messages based on the text you are looking for in the messages. After filtering or searching messages, you can return the Inbox to display all messages again.

Once something has been done with an email message, the message should be deleted or stored in a folder for future reference. Many folders can be created to store the messages based on names you create such as Clip Team or Office Move Project. Once the folders are created, messages can be dragged into those folders for long term storage.

When you have something that needs to get done, you can create an appointment on your calendar. An appointment indicates that you need to block time in your schedule to work on something or attend an event. Adding appointments to your calendar lets others know when you are busy.

Another way to block time in your schedule is to create a meeting where you would invite others to attend. You as the meeting organizer would select the date and time as well as who you need to attend. Once the meeting is created, an invitation is sent to the attendees so they can respond to you if they can accept or decline the meeting.

In Outlook, people or contacts are someone you need to communicate with outside your employee address book. This might be a client, supplier or a personal friend. You add information such as a mailing address, an email address or phone numbers that you need to maintain for the contact. A contact group is a group of people that you communicate with on a regular basis such as your department or team. Once the group is created you can email the group. These contact groups are only listed in your Contacts.

When you need to work on something, you can create a task for yourself. The task will display on your task list. The tasks can be filtered by those that you created as well as those that are messages that were flagged. Once it is marked complete, it will be removed from our task list.

There are times when you need to have other people help you manage your calendar or respond to messages. By granting permissions to those individuals, they can help you out. You can also share your calendar just so others can view what appointments and meetings you have coming up.

If you need to change settings in OWA, this lesson will provide you with different options that are available to you such as changing display settings or changing a theme. You can also create automatic replies if you are going to be out of the office to let those who are trying to reach you know you are out. Once these changes are made, these setting will continue unless you change them again.

If you need to add additional information about yourself, such as a phone number, you can change your account options to add additional information. You can connect to different email accounts you have so you can see all the mail in one place. You can even forward mail to another account if needed.

There are options to organize email by setting up rules for incoming mail messages so they do not always have to clutter your Inbox. Instead, the mail can be moved to a different folder or deleted automatically based on conditions you set.

When you are trying to find messages, you can us the delivery report options to help you locate those messages. You can also set retention policies that can be applied to your folders to determine when messages get deleted.

In OWA, you can setup distribution groups. A distribution group is a group of people that you communicate with on a regular basis, such as a project team. Once these groups are created, you can manage the options for each group and send messages to the members in the group. These groups can be shared by others who you give permissions to as needed.

Sometimes the default settings are not the way you like to work in Outlook. You can change mail, calendar or regional settings that will improve the way you like to do things. Once these settings are changed, they will stay that way unless you modify them again.

If you have site mailboxes, a mailbox that can be shared by a group or team to store messages or files, you can choose which ones you want to appear in Outlook 2013. You can also set a mobile device and enable text messaging to send notifications to your device. You can block or allow safe senders or recipients to your junk email folder. You can also see what apps you have to enhance Outlook as well as install additional ones.

The Office 365 settings allow you to change information about yourself such as adding a photo or listing phone numbers. You can also see what applications are installed and if need, you can download updates or additional components to the applications. You can also add Office 365 to your phone or tablet or choose a language for your account. There are also getting tips and videos to help you work with Office 365.