* Signatures *

Signatures are basically a section of text that you specify which Outlook will automatically put into each email you write. Most people use it to give their name, title, office, phone number, etc. It’s an easy way to impart information without having to type it each time.

To create a signature, go to “Tools,” “Options,” and then click the “Mail Format” tab. You’ll see this down at the bottom:

Though mine says “Paraprof,” yours will say <None>. Before we create the signature, you may want to decide if you want the signature to appear on all emails, or just new emails. Checking the box will only make it appear on new emails (not replies or forwards).

Once you’ve decided this, go ahead and click on “Signature Picker:”:

Next, click on “New”:

Enter a name for your signature (this won’t show up in the signature, it’s just how you identify it if you have multiple signatures) and choose whether you’d like to start with a blank signature, or use another as a template (I’d recommend just going with blank) and hit next:

Use the “Font” button to choose a font and whether it will be Bold or Italic (just like in MS Word). Use Paragraph to define if it will be aligned to the left, right, or center. You can also use Advanced Edit, which will actually open MS Word so that you can do more “fancy” stuff. Click “Finish” once you’re done, and you’ll be taken back to signature picker. Choose whichever you want (there should only be one at this point) and click OK. That’s it! Now open up an email and you’ll see it appear down at the bottom.

* Flag Status *

Flag Status is a tool you can use to help manage all your email. Essentially, you can “flag” an email item for follow-up and set a due date. Once that due date is passed, the entire email will appear in red to notify you that you need to address it as soon as possible.

To flag an email, simply right click it and select “Flag for Follow Up.”:

Once you’ve clicked this, you’ll get a separate window:

You can choose something other than “Follow up” in the “Flag to:” field, but it won’t change the appearance of the flag, so I usually just set it to “Follow up.”

Then you can set a due date (I almost always set it for the day before so that it turns red immediately and I know that I need to reply to that message, but this is, of course, your preference). The due date will not show up unless you’ve added that field under “View,” “Current View,” “Customize Current View,” and “Fields.”

Once you’ve set the due date, your email will appear with a flag next to it (and may be in red if it’s past due):

Once you’ve addressed your flagged email, you can either delete it or “complete the flag.” To do so, simply right-click the email and select “Flag Complete”:

Then your flag will appear without any color to signify that it’s done:

* Distribution Lists *

Another useful feature of Outlook is the ability to create distribution lists. These are like your own personal listservs (so you can send an email to a lot of people simply by typing in one address).

To create a Distribution List, click on “File,” “New,” and then “Distribution List”:

This will bring up the Distribution List creation screen:

Type in an appropriate name (note, this will be the email address you type to send to the distribution list) and then click “Select Members”:

Select a member from the Global Address List and click “Add – >” or just type the email addresses in the “Add to distribution list” section (for example, if you wanted to include people that aren’t on CC’s global address book or you want to copy a list of email addresses and paste them). Once all the members are selected, pasted, or typed in, click “OK”:

It will list each member so you can see them – that’s it, you’re done! Now go ahead and click “Save and Close.” You can see your distribution list by click on “Contacts.” You can then send a message to this distribution list by right clicking it and selecting “New message to contact”:

You can also just open a new email message and type the name of the contact in the “To” field:

* Out of Office Assistant*

The Out of Office Assistant is a good tool to use when you’re out of the office and don’t want people to think you’re simply ignoring their emails. It’s also useful for forwarding received email to a different address.

To access the Out of Office Assistant, go to the “Tools” menu and select “Out of Office Assistant:”

You’ll see this screen:

First and foremost, select whether you are in the office or out of the office. If you’ve selected in the office, nothing will happen. If you have out of office selected, then Outlook will automatically reply to all emails you receive with whatever text you specify (see example).

You can also use the Out of Office Assistant to forward messages to another account. Students often use this feature so that when someone emails their student account, it will automatically reply with something like: “This email account is no longer in use and will be deleted soon. Please direct all further email to someone@hotmail.com . (This message has been automatically forwarded to that address). Thanks!”

To set this up, type your message into the text field as normal, and then click “Add Rule” in the bottom left:

Leave everything blank, except for putting a checkmark in the “Forward” section and specifying to what email address you’d like to forward the messages. It will then forward every email it receives to that address as long as the Out of Office Assistant is on (meaning you’ve selected “I’m currently out of the office.”)

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