Outlook Best Practices for End Users Outlook 2010

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1 Outlook 2010 Best Practices for End Users Outlook 2010 Backup Microsoft has supplied a free backup add-in to help you locate your pst-files and assign a backup location to them. It will also remind you every now and then to make your backup when you close Outlook. Shut down Outlook before shutting down PC Some applications do not respond quickly enough to windows shutting down and would be shut down forcefully instead. If Outlook 2010 is shutdown forcibly, this could result in data corruption. Save your contacts When addressing a new , you ll find that Outlook will suggest already names and addresses for you. This is a very handy feature but dangerous as well as you could easily forget to put them in your Contacts folder now. Outlook 2010 has an improved AutoSuggest feature which no longer stores unsaved used addresses in an nk2-file but in the Suggested Contacts folder. It is highly recommended to clean this one up every now and then. Disable virus scanner integration Having a virus scanner integrated with Outlook sounds like a smart thing to do but in fact it isn t. Because you have an on-access scanner already from the same virus scanner running on your computer, you are already sufficiently protected. Having a virus scanner integrated is also known to cause a lot of issues with sending, receiving and displaying s and can really slow down Outlook as well. Simply disable it and you will be much happier with using at using Outlook while remaining just as safe. Disable add-ins you don t use Applications that you install sometimes also install options into Outlook you don t even use. For instance, installing itunes will also install an Outlook add-in to sync your calendar to your ipod while you might not even use that function of your ipod or your ipod version doesn t even support it. Having a lot of add-ins installed can cause Outlook to perform slowly or even to malfunction when the add-in itself is faulty, is not compatible with your version of Outlook or conflicts with another add-in. Therefore, you should disable or uninstall add-ins that you are not using within Outlook

2 Keep your pst-files free from errors There are certain conditions under which errors can get into your pst-files. An obvious one is when you had a crash in Outlook. After that happens, you ll often find that Outlook will trash your hard disk for a while; it is then doing a quick integrity check on your pst-file and fixes some small issues directly when needed. While after such a check Outlook will usually run ok again, you still might want to regularly check your pst-file for issues with scanpst.exe. This will do a bit more thorough test against your pstfile then the quick automated check. Don t forget to check the option that the tool will make a backup first before attempting to correct any issues. A pst-file free of errors can prevent (future) data loss, indexing issues or even crashes when addins are trying to access information stored in your pst-file. Don t import but connect to pst-files When you have an extra pst-file (for instance an archive) and you want to see what s in there, don t use the Import function. You can directly open pst-files in Outlook by using: File-> Open-> Outlook Data File If there is anything in that pst-file that you want to store in your main pst-file, simply copy or move those items from one folder to the other. Importing is also not the way to restore a backup of your pst-file (for instance after you reinstalled your computer or recreated your mail profile). In your account settings you can assign to which pst-file you want your new s to be delivered to. There are really only a few occasions where importing a pst-file makes sense. If you find yourself using this feature for a pst-file, you probably need to evaluate what you are doing and think about things differently. Don t connect to pst-files located on a network share This is another thing that sounds like a good thing to do (as you can then for instance centrally manage your backup) but in reality it isn t. As pst-files are databases, they heavily rely on special hard disk operations to perform properly and with decent responds times. This is not possible when you connect to a pst-file over the network. When you do, it could lead to poor performance, corruption of data or even complete loss of your pst-file. Therefore, Microsoft officially has stated that this is an unsupported configuration. A good workaround that suits most is to keep the pst-file locally on the computer and use the Outlook Personal Folders Backup Addin to copy it to a network share where your centralized backup solution can pick it up.

3 Use more than just rules to organize your mail Rules are a great way to automatically sort your s but having too many rules can make managing your rules more complex than managing your s. Also, improper use of it could lead to duplicates and when connecting to an Exchange server, the amount of rules you can have is restricted by the size of your rules. Therefore it is good looking at the other management options that Outlook provides such as Categories, Custom Views, Search Folders and Automatic Formatting. An introduction to using those features can be found here and can be used for any account type. The Instant Search feature within Outlook is also very powerful and really can find that you were looking for in an instant. Use the To, CC, BCC and from fields accordingly The following can applies to in general. To - Always specify this field and specify the address of the main person or persons you are talking to. If it is more appropriate to use the BCC field (see below) then specify your own address here. CC - Specify this field when you want to send the message to an additional person for informational purposes and also want to notify the person you are sending to that this person is informed about the topic. In general, people who are specified in the CC field do not hold any actions specified in the and are not directly requested to respond. When the recipient presses Reply to All the persons addressed in the CC field will also receive a follow up. BCC - Specify this field when you want to send the message to an additional person for informational purposes but do not want to notify the person you are sending to that this person is informed about the topic. You could also specify this field when you want to send the same message to multiple people but these people do not know each other. Out of respect for their privacy, you then should not expose their addresses to everyone either. Sending around joke s for instance to a lot of people should also be done via the BCC option. If you want to send the same to a lot of people who do not know each other and want to personally address them as well, then you should use a mail merge. When the recipient presses Reply to All the persons addressed in the BCC field will not receive a follow up. From - For Outlook 2007 and previous, this field basically only has any usage when you are using an Exchange mail account and have Send As or Send on Behalf Of delegate permissions to another mailbox, Public Folder, contact or distribution group. By specifying the From field you can send out an with the name of the object that you are a delegate of. The receiver will either see just that name/address or will see: <your name> On

4 Behalf Of <From name>. In Outlook 2010, this field is shown automatically when you have multiple accounts configured to select the outgoing mail account. Best Practices for IT Administrators Reduce the number of places where you read messages. Filter all of the messages that you need to read into one place your Inbox by using a series of rules. Let some messages pass by. Use rules to send the messages that you need to read into your Inbox, and then let the rest flow untouched into your Contact Group, or distribution list, folders (Contact Group folders). You don t need and in high volume situations probably can t read every message sent to you. Only the important ones should go to your Inbox. Remaining messages can be useful to keep in case you become involved on an issue, for example. Reduce the number of places where you manually file messages. Reduce the mental tax of filing by relying on search to locate messages. Process your messages by using the Four Ds. When reading your messages, decide whether to: 1. Delete it. 2. Do it (respond or file for reference). 3. Delegate it (forward). 4. Defer it (using categories and flags) for a second review in your task list. Reduce your to-do list to one list. Use a single to-do list and a single calendar to manage what you need to do. Work in batches. Use categories to help you group similar tasks together. Use good judgment when sending messages. Follow the do s and don ts of writing great messages. Review your calendar and tasks regularly.

5 Best practice for using outlook calendar Best practice for recurring meetings Set end dates and limit the number of occurrences We recommend that you always set an end date and limit the recurring series to a specific number of occurrences. When thinking about the number of occurrences, consider the frequency. End a recurring meeting before the original end date Although you can cancel a recurring meeting, a better option is to change the end date for the series. This allows you and the attendees to keep a record of the meetings that occurred in the past. If you cancel the recurring meeting altogether, that history is lost. The best option is to set a new end date and then send the update to all attendees. This ends the meeting series early, while keeping a record of previous meetings. Change the organizer Outlook does not provide a way to change a meeting organizer. To change the meeting organizer of a recurring meeting, end the recurring meeting. To do this, set an earlier end date and send the update to all attendees. After you complete this step, the new organizer should create a new recurring meeting. Avoid using a recurring meeting to share attachments Attachments add to the complexity of recurring meeting exceptions. Each exception contains its own copy of the attachments. As exceptions are added to recurring meetings, new copies of the attachments are created. If you make changes to one set of attachments, these changes do not propagate to the other exceptions. If you require that all attendees have the most recent copy of changes for any given meeting, share the documents via a sharing service, such as SkyDrive. Enterprise users can take advantage of SharePoint or other shared file server on the network. Prevent inconsistencies in meeting notes If you make a change to the meeting time, date, location or attendee list, and then attempt to save the meeting, Outlook only offers you two choices, either save the changes and send all changes to attendees or Cancel the changes. However, the Notes field is not considered a critical field. Therefore, you can save changes to the Notes field without sending the update to all attendees. Avoid copying meetings By design, Outlook removes any links between a copied meeting and the original meeting. This greatly contributes to preventing inconsistencies. Newer versions of Outlook add the text string "Copy:" to the subject. This makes it easy to identify meeting copies.

6 Actions related to copied meetings yield unexpected results, therefore avoid copying meetings. This applies to both meetings copied from another user's calendar, as well as those copied from another calendar folder that you own. Bulk process your tasks As you go through your task list and your calendar, do similar tasks together. For example, if you have only a few minutes, make all of your phone calls (if you have just a few). Tackle energy-intensive tasks (for some, that might be responding to messages) when you have more energy. Deal with your lowenergy tasks, such as reading status messages, later in the day or whenever your energy is lower. By "bulk processing" your tasks, you will make progress on all of your projects simultaneously. One way to bulk process tasks is to change the arrangement from Arranged By: Start Date to Arranged By: Categories. To do this, click the Arranged By heading, and then click Categories. Dos and don ts of s The dos Read your message before you send it. Make your subject descriptive and action-oriented. For example: Sales Team: Please send proposed Board Retreat Dates, where Sales Team is the name of the group, and Please send is the action. Other useful prefixes include FYI: and Action Required. If action is required, state what you want in the Subject box. Change the subject of the message if the topic of the conversation changes. Keep all messages short and to the point. Organize the content of your message from most important to least. Consider bolding important information. Put action items or questions on separate lines so that they stand out and get noticed. Bold people's names when asking questions. For example: Ryan: What is the status of the project? Limit the number of people to whom you send a message to those who need to read it.

7 Put people who need to be informed on the Cc line. Put people who need to respond or take action on the To line. Use a signature when appropriate, but keep your signature simple, short, professional, and if possible, free of graphics. If you want an immediate response, don't send a message. Phone or Office 2010 logo send an instant message. If you are on an conversation that has more than 10 messages without a resolution, consider setting up a meeting to discuss the issue. isn t always an efficient medium for resolving complex issues. With the message selected, on the Home tab, in the Respond group, click Meeting. Acknowledge messages that require a more extensive response. If you are too busy to respond with a full answer right away, let the sender know that you are looking into the issue and will respond by a certain time or date. Flag it for yourself to do later. Use High Importance sparingly. If you are asking a question and there are several people who could respond, choose just one person rather than sending your question to a group.

8 Follow up: Flagging on send When you are sending a message to someone from whom you need a response, do the following: Flag it for yourself on send. Change the name of the flagged message task in the To-Do Bar to begin with Follow Up. Mark it with category. When you take these three steps, you know that your next action is to send another message or watch for a response. Tip - Reminding yourself to send another message is often more effective than flagging the message for your recipient. Similarly, when you promise to do something in a message, flag it for yourself so that you have a task in your To-Do Bar to remind you. Basic rules of great messages: The don'ts Don't use stationery. Don't include your manager on every message you send. Don't send a message when you are angry. Better to write it, save it to your drafts folder, and come back to it later. Don't expect a quick response when sending long messages (more than two paragraphs). Don't send a follow-up message less than a day after the first message. If you don't hear back in a timely manner, try using the phone or Instant Messaging. Don't use read receipts or delivery receipts on every message you send. Use them only if you are unsure whether your recipients will receive the message. Don't attach flags or to every message you send. Your recipients will learn to ignore them. Don't send attachments send links instead. This rule applies especially to meeting requests, where attachments can contribute significantly to server quotas. Don't expand distribution lists. Expanding distribution lists makes messages harder to read and causes them to go into the wrong mail folders for people using rules. Don't use sarcasm. Your humor might be misunderstood.

9 Don't write something you wouldn't want everyone in your company to read. You never know where your message might end up. Don't use cursive or "funny" fonts that are hard to read. Don't use red fonts, because they are hard to read and can be interpreted as being critical. Don't use Reply All to a Contact Group asking to be removed. Effective Use of These guidelines are designed to assist you in making the most effective use of the services available in TCD. The message you send may be one of dozens seeking the attention of its recipient. Therefore it is important to use clear and unambiguous subject lines that the reader will understand. 'Planning meeting today at 11.00' is much more effective as a subject line than 'Meeting'. Descriptive subject lines also help the recipient to file and retrieve the message later. Identify yourself and your contact details clearly at the end of your message. This can be done easily using the 'signature' feature available in most applications. If you expect the recipient of your message to act on its contents then make this clear at the beginning of the text and include a 'due date' indicating when the action needs to be taken. Use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Your message will not be taken seriously if it contains careless errors. Applications such as Outlook have built-in spell checkers. Reading from a computer screen is different from reading from paper. Break up the text of your message by keeping your paragraphs short and separating paragraphs with blank lines. This allows the reader to scan the text of your message more effectively. Don't use CAPITALS to add emphasis to the content of your message. Capitalising is generally interpreted as shouting to your reader. Instead you could use asterisks to *emphasise* your point. When replying to a message which has been sent to a number of recipients, use the 'reply-all' option sparingly. Before replying, ask yourself whether all of the people on the recipient list really need to see your reply. Often people are unnecessarily added to an thread and get included in all of the subsequent discussions which occur. Re-read your message before clicking on the Send button.

10 When Not to Use Given its ease of use and speed of delivery, is ubiquitous as a form of communication in College. However, there may be occasions when is not the most appropriate medium to use when seeking to communicate information: If a message needs to be acted on immediately or requires a quick decision then may not be the best option. users should be aware that although a message can be sent and delivered quickly, there is no corresponding guarantee it will be read by the recipient, much less that it will be acted on immediately. Communicate highly complex information through other means. A telephone call, or face-toface conversation may reduce any misunderstandings. Unlike telephone and personal conversations that fade with time, impulsive responses can sit around in mailboxes, be printed out, circulated and acquire a level of importance that was never is not the most efficient method of distributing documents such as lecture notes to multiple recipients. IS Services suggest that staff use Get and Put folders for this purpose or consider publishing files of this type on the Blackboard Learn system where they can be accessed by students.

11 Outlook 2010 Keyboard Shortcuts You can work faster if you use Outlooks useful keyboard shortcut keys. Shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A Ctrl+Shift+C Ctrl+Shift+L Ctrl+Shift+E Ctrl+Shift+M Ctrl+Shift+N Ctrl+Shift+K Ctrl+Shift+J Ctrl+Shift+Q Ctrl+Alt+Shift+U Ctrl+1 Ctrl+2 Ctrl+3 Ctrl+4 Ctrl+5 Ctrl+6 Ctrl+7 Ctrl+8 Ctrl+S or Shift+F12 Alt+S F12 Ctrl+Z Ctrl+D Ctrl+P F7 Ctrl+F Action Appointment Contact Contact Group Folder message Note Task Journal entry Meeting request Task request Mail Calendar Contacts Tasks Notes Folder List Shortcuts Journal Save Save & Close, Send Save As Undo Delete Print Check spelling Forward