Outlook: Create a New Contact from an Email

Adding a new person as a contact in Outlook is easy but not a self evident process.

To add an email address to your Contact list from the message window, right-click the address in the From: details at the top of the screen - it doesn't look like this is clickable but it is.

Select Add to Outlook Contacts from the shortcut menu.

The Contacts dialog opens automatically with the email address in place, enter any other details you want to record and click Save & Close to end.

Multiple Outlook 2007 windows

Often it is easier to work with multiple windows in Outlook 2007 rather than having to switch between modules to show just one at a time.

You can open each different Outlook tool in its own window if you right click the icon (eg. Calendar) in Folder view and choose Open in New Window.

Each window will display on the task bar as its appropriate icon so it's easy to switch between tools.

To ensure that each tool always opens in separate windows leave them open when you select File > Exit to close Outlook 2007. When you open the program again, all the windows will open automatically.

Outlook Sticky Notes

Like electronic yellow stickies, Notes are useful for storing quick reminders and other information you need close at hand.

To create an Outlook note choose File > New > Note.

Type your text into the Note area. You can move the note so it's visible, or hide it by clicking the close button in its top right corner.

To view a note, click the Notes button at the foot of the pane on the left of the Outlook window and click the Note to view it.

To delete a note, right click it and selecting Delete, or categorize it by right-clicking it, choose Categorize and select a category from the list.

You can send a Note to someone via e-mail by right-clicking the Note and select Forward. Outlook opens a New Mail Message window with the Note already in place as an attachment.

Word 2007 – Sort Words, Paragraphs and Table Cells

Word 2007 finally fixed a huge problem that existed in earlier versions - it looked like there was no way to sort data in a list.

This wasn't the case - you used the table sort feature but it was far from being self evident.

Now Word 2007 uses the same tool it just puts it in a smart place.

To sort a list or series of words or paragraphs, select the text.

From the Ribbon, click the Home button and click the Sort button in the Paragraph group.

Choose Paragraph to sort on the first word and click Ok to sort the data in order.

If you're using an earlier version of Word, then visit this post to see how to sort in Word 2003 and earlier:

Sorting a Word list
http://www.projectwoman.com/labels/Table%20Sort.html

Outlook 2007 - checking folder space

Outlook stores all your email, contacts and appointments in one big PST file. Unfortunately, working with a large PST folder in Outlook will decrease its performance.

Over time you will find that Outlook's folders grow if you don't regularly remove out of date messages from them.

To see how big your folder is select the Mail option and click your Personal Folders item in the folders list. Right click and choose Properties for "Personal Folders" and then choose Folder Size to read the size of you PST file.

The closer to 2Gb that the file gets to be, the worse your Outlook performance will be and beyond that, it is possible that the file can become corrupt. Keep your file size below this for best performance.

Managing Public Holidays in Outlook

When is Memorial Day in the US or Anzac Day in Australia?

If you're unsure, luckily for you, Outlook isn't.

Most national holidays are stored in Outlook - you just need to find them and add them to your calendar.

Here's how:

Choose Tools > Options > Preferences tab ad click the Calendar Options button.

Click the Add Holidays button and from the list choose the country (or countries) you want the holidays for and click Ok.

Wait while Outlook adds these details to your calendar and click Ok twice to exit.

The holidays will appear under the date in most Calendar views.

Outlook 2007- Save attachments

When you delete an Outlook email you'll also delete any attachments which are included in it.

You won't be warned you're about to do this either so you can find yourself having lost important data if you haven't saved it.

To save files attached to emails, right click the attachment and choose Save As from the menu and choose a place to save it to.

A good rule of thumb is to do this every time you get an attachment so you won't be caught out in future. Even saving all attachments to a special attachments folder will save you losing them.

If you need to remind yourself to do this, you can create a rule which checks for emails with attachments and flags them for follow up. This will remind you that you need to save the attachments or at least look at them to see if you need to do this.