Microsoft Outlook Brief Overview

This overview will explain how to do the following things in Microsoft Outlook:

  1. Compose a new message
  2. Add people to your Address Book
  3. Create a new Folder
  4. Create a Rule

Composing a new message.

To compose a new message you can click on the button that says New just below the File menu or you can press Control+N which is the shortcut for a new message. To use the Address book to add people to the "To:" list you can click on To... then choose the people you want to send the message to and then click on the button that says To - > and then click OK. To attach a file to the message click on the paper clip near the top of the window beneath the menus Edit and View. Now just browse for the file you want to attach and click on Insert. When the message is finished click on Send in the top left.

Adding people to your Address Book

To add people to your address book first you must click on Contacts on the bottom left of the screen. This is your address book. To add a new contact click on New in the top left corner beneath the File menu. Once you fill out the details of the contact click on Save and Close in the top left of the new contact window and that contact will be added to the Address Book.

Creating a new Folder

When you are at your inbox you will see a list of folders on the left. To add a new folder here right click on any existing folder except for those that have a magnifying glass over the icon. When the menu appears click on New Folder. A new window will appear and in the first box type the name of the Folder, in the drop down menu select what the folder will contain and then in the 3rd box with the list of existing folders choose a folder which will contain the folder you are creating. For example if I wanted to create my folder to be a sub-folder of my Inbox, then in the 3rd box I would select Inbox. If i wanted it to be a top level folder I would select Mailbox at the very top. Once you have named your folder and selected a place for it to go click on OK.

Creating a Rule

To create a rule go to Tools then select Rules and Alerts...and when the new window opens click on New Rule.... In the first box there are several rule templates that you can use if there is one there that does what you need, however it is easier to click on "Start from a blank rule" at the top of the page and make a new one from scratch. After choosing "Start from a blank rule" you first have to choose whether you want to rule to affect messages you receive or messages that you send. Choose one then click on Next.

Now you have to select the conditions of your rule. For example if you wanted all messages from a certain person moved to a certain folder then here you would choose "from people or distribution list", after this is selected you must click on "people or distribution list" at the bottom of the screen where you now have to select the people who the message must be from in order for the rule to apply to the message. Once you have set the conditions of your rule click on Next.

Now you have to select the actions that your rule will take with the messages that met the conditions you specified on the previous section. Look down the list and when you find the action that you want applied to the messages select it and then click on it down the bottom the fill in the specifics of the rule. Once you are done click on Next

Now you have the option to exclude certain messages from this rule. If there is a certain type of message that you don't want the rule to be applied to, but meets the conditions, then you must create an exception that will apply to the message you don't want affected. So again scroll down the list until you find the exception that suits you and fill in the specifics below. Once you are done click on Next.

Final section, here you can name the rule, run the rule on all messages currently in your inbox, turn the rule on and review the description. Once all the settings are to your liking click on Finish and the rule will be made.

Here is an example of how to make a rule that will move all messages from the organisation Clue Design in the to a folder called "Clue Design". Open the new rule window and select "Start from a blank rule" then click on "Check messages when they arrive" and then click next. So far the rule will be applied to incoming messages.

On the next page we won't select "from people or distribution list" because not all messages from Clue Design come from the same e-mail address. So we scroll down and choose "with specific words in the sender's address" then click on "specific words" down the bottom and into the first box type "@cluedesign.com.au" and click on Add then OK then Next. So far the rule will affect all incoming messages that are from a person who's email address contains "@cluedesign.com.au".

On this page we would choose "move it to the specified folder" then down the bottom click on "specified" then choose the folder "Clue Design" but if it is not already created then you click on New and create it. After choosing "Clue Design" we click OK then Next. This part added the action that moves the message to my Clue Design folder.

On this page we set the exceptions. An example of an exception that you may set is if you have a friend at Clue Design who you message often and you don't want the rule to effect his/her messages then you would choose "except if from people or distribution list" and when you click on "people or distribution list" down the bottom find your friend from Clue Design on the list and click on From then OK then Next.

I would name this rule Clue Design, tick Turn on this Rule and leave the description as it is. If i wanted the Rule to go through all the messages currently in my Inbox I would tick Run this rule now on messages already in "Inbox". Then click on Finish and the rule is created.

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