An important step in learning to use this tool effectively is to understand the interface. Let’s look at a standard view of Outlook:

The first thing to notice is that the Outlook window is split into three separate “panes.”

The Outlook Bar is similar to that bar next to your Start menu – it’s just space to put shortcuts so that you can access any folder you like with a single click.

The Folder List is similar to Windows Explorer – it lists all your folders in a hierarchical structure (complete with +’s and -’s to expand and collapse folders).

The Folder Contents pane (the largest one) simply displays the contents of whichever folder you have selected from either the Outlook Bar or the Folder List.

Note that I’ve been mentioning folders – everything in Outlook is organized into a folder structure just like all your regular files are. You can move items between folders, create new folders, etc. It’s also just as important to have a folder structure that makes sense. There’s only one difference between Outlook folders and regular folders: Outlook folders hold specific types of items, rather than just anything. You can’t, for example, put both emails and calendar appointments into one folder.

Now that you know the basics of the Interface, let’s start talking about how to modify it. Basically, anything you might want to change in the interface can be done through the “View” menu:

Before we head into “Current View,” let’s look at some of the more general options below it. You’ll see several “toggle” buttons that turn sections of the interface on and off. Outlook Bar and Folder List should look familiar, and the “Preview Pane” and “AutoPreview” options are there as methods for reading short emails without actually having to open them (take a moment to try them out and see exactly what they do).

Moving over to the pane under “Current View,” you can see a list of methods by which you can view what’s in the “Folder Contents.” Unlike the previous options, you can’t toggle as many of these on or off as you’d like – only one view can be active at a time. “Messages,” for example, will simply display all your emails indiscriminately, where “Unread Messages” will only display messages that you haven’t read yet (once you’ve read them, it will look like they disappear).

Next up is “Customize Current View.” By clicking this option, you’ll get the following window:

The most important of these options is the first one, “Fields.” Go ahead and click on that, which should take you to this screen:

This section allows you to modify which “fields” will display in your Folder Contents window pane. If you flip back to page one and look at the picture, you’ll notice that there are a number of columns displaying a certain type of information. Most prominent in the picture are the fields “From” and “Subject,” but there are also 4 smaller ones on the left – an exclamation mark, a page with a folded corner, a flag, and a paperclip.

Each field displays its own category of information, and this is the screen where you can add and remove fields to whatever your preference is. Let’s take a few minutes to add and remove some of these, as well as discussing their functions.

Once you’ve customized the fields to your liking (and you can always come back later and change the settings) let’s talk a bit about sorting. If you look at the field headings, you may notice that one of them has a small triangle in the center of it, in this case, the “From” field:

That means that the list of items in that folder is currently sorted by that category. Also, notice how the tip of the triangle is pointing down – that means it is sorting from bottom to top and, since we’re using a field with names, means it will sort from Z – A. If we simply click on the word “From,” you’ll notice the triangle turns upside down and points upward – now it will sort from top to bottom (A – Z):

Now, by clicking on any other field heading, we can switch the sorting to another category. For example, if we clicked “Received,” the ’sorting triangle’ would shift and the emails would be sorted by the date they were received (newest – oldest or the other way around, depending on which way it’s pointing).

One last thing about the interface – in the “Icon” field (the one that looks like a page with a corner folded) there will appear one of three different pictures that tell you information about that email item at a glance:

If you have not yet read the message:

If you have read the message:

If you have read the message and also replied to it:

If you have read the message and forwarded it to someone else:

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