Outlook 2010: Improve your efficiency using Quick Steps!

There is a wonderful tool in Outlook 2010 called Quick Steps that will help you to manage your email messages. These are one-click buttons that you customize to perform multiple actions. For example, perhaps you often create messages to your team. You can set up a Quick Step that will create a new message already addressed to the appropriate recipients.

To get started, click any of the default Quick Steps found on the Home tab of the ribbon, or check out all the options available with “Create New”. A dialog box will open with options for what actions will occur when the button is selected. You can even specify a keyboard shortcut and set a tool tip reminder that will appear when you point at the button!

Check out http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27827/create-and-customize-quick-steps-in-outlook-2010 for more detailed, easy-to-follow instructions on how to use this new tool.

Automatically create new appointments using Auto-create in Outlook

Click and drag to automatically create new objects in Outlook. For example, an email message can be turned into a new appointment on the calendar:

1. Click on a message to select it - the message will appear to be highlighted.
2. Hold down your mouse button and drag the selected message to the Calendar button in the navigation pane on the left side of the Window. When you release the button, a new appointment will appear already including the information from the body of the email message in the subject line and body of the appointment.

Make modifications as necessary, and then click the Save & Close button. The appointment will appear on your calendar!

 

This works with all folders; i.e. auto-create an email based on an appointment on your calendar, or add a detailed task to your list from an email or appointment.

Downsize a picture attachment in Outlook 2010

After you have attached an image to a message in Outlook 2010, click the File tab. The backstage view of the message window will open in the Info category. Choose the option at the top to "Resize large images when I send this message." Images will be a reduced to a maximum of 1024x768 pixels, which must be done on a per-message basis. Click the File tab again to return to the message window.