Friday, July 13, 2007

Useful Microsoft outlook tips for real time users

Microsoft Outlook TIPS AND TRICKS

Collection of tips for getting around in Outlook focuses on using multiple Outlook windows and controlling how Outlook starts up.

Opening a New Window on Outlook

If one Information Viewer is nice, would two be twice as nice? Possibly, where you’re dragging many items from one folder to another or want to see two different views of the same information. Or maybe you want to leave your Inbox right where you stopped reading messages, but take a quick look at another folder.

To open a folder in a new window, right-click on the folder name in the Folder List, in the Folder Banner above the Information Viewer, or on the Outlook Bar, then choose Open in New Window.


Opening Outlook to a Particular Folder

It’s possible to launch Outlook so that it always opens to a particular Outlook or system folder. Choose Tools, Options, then select from the “Startup in this folder” list on the General tab.

Another method is to start Outlook from a shortcut with a special command. Create a shortcut to the Outlook.exe program. (A quick way to do this is to right-click the Outlook icon on the desktop, then choose Create Shortcut.) In the Properties dialog box for the new shortcut, type a space after the command in the Target box, then add the path to the folder you want to open, enclosed in quotation marks. If you run one of these shortcuts when Outlook is already started, the folder opens in its own window, without the Outlook Bar or Folder List.

To specify an Outlook folder path, use “Outlook:” followed by the folder name. For example,

 
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Outlook.exe"
  "Outlook:Calendar"
 

would open the Calendar folder. Of course, you might need to adjust the path to Outlook.exe to match the way your system is set up. You can use this technique not just for the initial launch of Outlook, but also to create shortcuts to other folders you’d like to use in their own windows.

Another use for this method is to open system folders. For example,

 
 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Outlook.exe"
 "C:\My Documents"
 

would open the My Documents folder on your C: drive. You won’t be prompted for your Outlook profile.

Starting Outlook with Command Line Switches


There are also several switches for creating new items, starting with a particular profile, or cleaning up the Outlook Bar. You can add any of the switches listed in the following table

TABLE 9.3: OUTLOOK COMMAND LINE SWITCHES

Hide the Outlook Bar

/folder

Always open the Choose Profiles dialog box

/profiles

Start Outlook with a specific profile

/profile “

Create an e-mail message

/c ipm.note

Create a post

/c ipm.post

Create an appointment

/c ipm.appointment

Create a task

/c ipm.task

Create a contact

/c ipm.contact

Create a journal entry

/c ipm.activity

Create a note

/c ipm.stickynote

Create an item with the specified message class

/c

Create a message with the specified file as an attachment (To create an item other than a message, use with a /c switch.)

/a “

Create a message from a file that’s dragged and dropped on the shortcut

/c ipm.note “%1”

Create a message addressed to a particular recipient

/c ipm.note /m “

Clean and regenerate free/busy information (for Microsoft Exchange Server only)

/CleanFreeBusy

Restore missing folders for the default information store

/ResetFolders

Rebuild the Outlook Bar

/ResetOutlookBar

Clean and regenerate reminders

/Cleanreminders

with the “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Outlook.exe” command in a shortcut. Where quotation marks are shown, they must be included in the command. For items in angle brackets, substitute the specific information, such as the specific profile name to be used as the /profile switch.



Activating the Horizontal Scroll Bar

Normally, the Information Viewer does not display a horizontal scroll bar, but instead adjusts the width of all columns to fit into the available space. If you prefer to set specific column widths and scroll the display to see all the information, choose View, Format View. In the Format Table View dialog box

clear the box for “Automatic column sizing.” The horizontal scroll bar then appears in the Information Viewer.

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