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Smart & Easy Software Tips, Tricks & Techniques
January 2005 - Volume 2, Issue 1
Publisher: Dawn Bjork Buzbee mailto:Dawn@SoftwarePro.com
The Software Pro (tm), Microsoft Certified Office Expert
http://www.SoftwarePro.com

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IN THIS ISSUE - Organizing Email Overload with Outlook
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Happy New Year!
Do you have a resolution to get (or stay) organized? Are you
spending too much time managing your email messages in Outlook? How
can you focus on your important messages in the midst of junk?

In this first of a series, let's begin our look at Outlook tips that
will help you get organized.

1. Schedule Your Work with Outlook
2. Color Code to Identify Key Messages
3. Find Messages with Sorting
4. Do You Need Content?

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1. Schedule Your Work with Outlook
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How often have you sat down to read and answer email only to look at
the clock and see that hours have passed? Is this task taking
you away from more important parts of your business?

If you don't already, schedule working with your email during
your less productive times which might be the beginning and ending
of the day or during lunch when email won't take you away from
the top work priorities. Then, during the rest of the day, limit
your email activities to key contacts and action items.

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2. Color Code to Identify Key Messages
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Color code key messages to quickly identify email from your most
important contacts such as clients, staff, your boss, or team
members. This has been a huge timesaver me and helps to insure
that I don't miss key messages.

To color code in Outlook:

1) Highlight a message from a contact.
2) Choose Tools > Organize. This opens a new window at the top
of your Inbox window.
3) Choose the option "Using Colors" (found at the left of the
window).
4) Pick from option, "Choose color for selected message" and
"Apply Color".
5) Additionally, you can also pick "Show messages sent only to
me" as a way to highlight messages that are not part of a group
distribution.
6) Optionally, choose "Automatic Formatting" (upper-right corner of
window) to view coloring choices or even to apply a different font.
7) Close the Organize window when you are done. All messages in your
Inbox from the selected contact are now color coded.

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3. Find Messages with Sorting
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To quickly sort your email messages, click once on the column
heading for the new order you want. For instance, to sort
messages by the sender, click once on the Sender heading. By
clicking twice on a column heading, the sort order changes from
ascending (A-Z) order to descending (Z-A) order.

Other sort options include subject and date. Or, you can sort a list
of email messages alphabetically by sender and then by subject. (The
abbreviations RE and FW in the Subject box are ignored when you sort
messages alphabetically by subject.)

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4. Do You Need Content?
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Do you have a company website or newsletter? Would your
organization benefit by knowing effective ways to use their
software and technology?

You are welcome to download or reprint any of the articles on
The Software Pro (tm) website for your newsletters and website.
For more information >>
http://www.SoftwarePro.com/articles.htm

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Geek Speak Becomes People Friendly (tm)

Dawn Bjork Buzbee
The Software Pro (tm)
11675 Bent Oaks Street, Suite 200
Parker, CO 80138-5703 USA
(303) 699-6868, Fax (303) 766-0886
mailto:Dawn@SoftwarePro.com
http://www.SoftwarePro.com