Chapter 9: Getting Around in Microsoft Outlook
In this chapter, you'll learn about the different types of Outlook folders, how to customize the way you view each one, and how to work with the items in the folders. In addition, you'll learn how to configure the Outlook Bar to get quick access to the Outlook information you use most.
Outlook stores items in a hierarchy of folders and offers a number of ways to view and work with those folders and the items they contain. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the different types of folders, how to customize the way you view each one, and how to work with the items in the folders.
In addition to working with folders and the items in them, we’ll also show you how to configure the Outlook Bar to get quick access to the Outlook information you use most.
OUTLOOK'S FOLDER STRUCTURE
Take a look at
Figure 9.1. This is the way Outlook normally appears when you first open it. Items in the current folder — in this case the Inbox folder — appear in the large pane on the right, called the Information Viewer. The strip on the left, containing icons for the Inbox and other folders, is called the Outlook Bar. It’s a collection of shortcuts to your favorite folders — both Outlook folders and system folders. We spend time later in the chapter working with the Outlook Bar.
At the top of the window is a menu and a toolbar, pretty standard stuff for Windows programs.
That’s the “classic” Outlook configuration.
Figure 9.2 shows a common variation that mimics the look of Microsoft Exchange, with a Folder List on the left and folder contents displayed on the right in the Information Viewer. To get this look, use the View menu to turn off the Outlook Bar and turn on the Folder List.
You can also display both the Outlook Bar and the Folder List, as shown in
Figure 9.3. In this example, we’ve grouped messages so that all from the same person are shown together. Grouping is another skill we cover in this chapter.
TAKING THE TOUR
There’s so much to see in Outlook that we’re going to whip through a little orientation tour. Our first stop is the menu and toolbar, then the Information Viewer, and finally the Outlook Bar. On our journey, we highlight the toolbar buttons that help you get around in Outlook and change the way it looks.
Understanding the Menu, Toolbar, and Status Bar
Wherever you go in Outlook, you always find the File, Edit, View, Go, Tools, and Help menus. But the menu item positioned between Tools and Help changes to fit the Outlook module you’re working in. For example, when you’re working with the Inbox or any other folder that contains messages, you see a Compose menu. If you’re in the Contacts folder you see Contacts on the menu bar (see
Figure 9.4).
Similarly, the toolbar remains largely unchanged no matter where in Outlook you work. But each module has its own set of toolbar buttons, as you can see in
Figure 9.5, and alters some of the menu choices as well.
In the initial version of Outlook, you cannot customize the toolbar; all you can do is turn it on and off. Choose View, Toolbars, then click Standard to clear the check next to it. (There’s also a Remote toolbar for Remote Mail, which we cover in Chapter 12.) Another way to turn the toolbar off and on is to right-click in the blank area to the right of the toolbar and select or disable the toolbar.
Let’s take a quick look at the other elements (see Figure 9.5 above) of the toolbar.
You can “float” the toolbar as an independent window or attach it to a different part of the Outlook window. To float the toolbar, either double-click the double vertical bar on the left side or drag that bar away from the top of the Outlook window. The toolbar will float free; you can make it taller or wider by dragging a border. “Dock” it to another spot in the Outlook window by dragging it to the side where you want it to go. You can also drag the menu bar to float it free or place it against another side of the Outlook window.
The status bar at the bottom of the Outlook window shows the number of items in the current folder and the number marked as unread. These are totals and do not change when you apply a filter to the folder. To turn off the status bar, choose View, Status Bar.
Understanding the Folder List
As you saw earlier in the chapter (
Figures 9.2 and
9.3), you can click the Folder List button or choose View, Folder List to display the list of folders. If you are using more than one Personal Folders file in your profile (see “Configuring Personal Folders” in Chapter 3), each of those files contains its own list of folders. If you are connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server, you will see a parent folder for your mailbox, plus any Personal Folders files in your profile, and Public Folders, where information for your whole organization is stored.
Click on any folder to display its contents in the Information Viewer on the right side of the Outlook window. We cover how to customize the display of individual folders later in this chapter.
If a folder has a plus sign next to it, there are subfolders within that folder. Double-click the folder to see the subfolders, or press the + key. Double-click again to collapse the display, or press the - key. You can also single click the + or - symbols to expand and collapse a folder.
Folders shown in bold contain items you haven’t read yet. The number of unread items is shown in parentheses.
Keeping the Folder List open can take up a lot of screen space. Adjust pane width by dragging the vertical bar between the Folder List and the Information Viewer.