Some favorite Outlook shortcuts for anyone's Uncle Phil

Love it or hate it, ya gotta have Outlook for mail, for your calendar, for your contacts. The following tips will definitely make you and your Outlook feel a little closer. Uncle Phil: These are for you.

Time zones representationWhat? You can't meet at 3 a.m.?: Viewing multiple time zones

When you're working with someone across the world (or even just a couple of states away, or simply in a different time zone), setting up meetings when everyone can attend can be a chore. Meet the Time Zone feature in Outlook.

  • Create a new appointment, click the Time Zone icon on the toolbar and, from the time zone list, choose the other person's time zone. Now you can see both.

When they didn't get it the first time: Resend a messageEnvelope with upward pointing arrow

Did someone lose the message you sent? Did it get directly sent to their junk mail folder and then deleted? Or did that crotchety coworker who has a beef with you insist you never sent it to begin with?

  • You can resend that very mail very quickly: Open the message, click Other Actions, and then click Resend This Message.

My favorite days: View same time period each month

TimetableYou can set up your calendar so that it shows as many weeks as you want to see in a given time period. For example, you may want this when you're traveling and you just want to be able to see that time period. Or perhaps you only want to view your non-workdays. And when you go to the next month, it shows the same period.

  • Select the days (or weeks) you want to show on the Navigation Pane of the calendar (the one that shows the entire month—mine's on the left but you may have customized yours to be someplace else. Just remember: It's a snapshot of the WHOLE calendar). If you want to see that time period for the next month, click the arrow next to the month's name on the navigation calendar.

And hey, Uncle Phil? If you want to wear black compression knee-highs with white shorts and sandals, you go right ahead and do NOT let anybody tell you otherwise. Your list of ladies-in-waiting apparently finds that look quite fetching... Crabby loves you.

"Annik? Honey? Can you give me a call back when you can? I've been having this problem with my Outlook..." — Phillip Stahl

— Crabby

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Comments: (11) Collapse

  • Happy 80th Birthday Uncle Phil :)  Ok, you're not really my uncle, but Happy Birthday nonetheless and keep up on the Microsoft skills!!

  • Thanks, Dottie. Hopefully he'll see your nice wishes.

  • I know this will make Uncle Phil happy.  However, a little more detail would make it even better.  Where in the Tool Bar is the Time Zone located?  Thanks, and Happy Birthday Uncle Phil!

  • I have an occasional problem with "my outlook" also.  I find Ben and Jerry's works the best!  Happy Birthday to Uncle Phil and thank you to Crabby.

  • @ Charlotte: You didn't say which version of Outlook you're using. In Outlook 2010 and 2007, the "Time Zones" button with the little image of a globe to the left of it is really RIGHT there, on the "Meeting" tab in the "Options" group.

    If you're a Crabby Facebook fan (www.facebook.com/.../57717549628) , I've posted a few images of where it is in various versions. (www.facebook.com/album.php)

    There are other ways to get to it if, for some reason, you're still not finding the button (but I swear, it IS right up front):

    -- Outlook 2007: office.microsoft.com/.../add-remove-or-change-time-zones-HP001230303.aspx

    -- Outlook 2010: office.microsoft.com/.../add-remove-or-change-time-zones-HP010356441.aspx

    -- Outlook 2003: office.microsoft.com/.../change-the-time-zone-HP005243217.aspx

    Hope this helps!

  • Crabby could not be more on the dot with the socks :)  never change papa. Oh and happy birthday Uncle Phil

  • Our team really could use an answer this problem!!  Spread sheet data is entirely in upper case.  Is there a way to change it to 'proper' without going through one cell at a time????

  • @Starliene: Here is what I found for 2 different versions of Excel -- when you need to change the cast of text.

    For Excel 2010: office.microsoft.com/.../top-ten-ways-to-clean-your-data-HA010342959.aspx

    For Excel 2007: office.microsoft.com/.../change-the-case-of-text-HP010062734.aspx

    For Excel 2003: office.microsoft.com/.../change-the-case-of-text-HP003056119.aspx

    Hope this helps.  In the future, please use the office.microsoft.com/support site for specific questions. My blog is not really a forum for that. Thank you!

    - Crabby

  • We'll see.

  • Why doesn't Outlook allow specifying time zones for meetings?  I travel a lot and I'm in a different time zone every couple of weeks.  I need to set up meetings several weeks ahead (so the 'see-two-time-zones-at-once' feature doesn't help - I would need 3 or 4).  Instead of making me do mental arithmetic, why not just add an option to allow a traveling power user to include a dropdown box for time zone, along with time & date, when setting up meetings?

    In that same dropdown box Outlook needs an option for relative time.  When I block out time for daily exercise at 6:00 AM, I want that to stay at 6:00 AM - relative to the time zone I'm in - no matter where I travel.  I don't want it to automatically shift to 6:00 PM when I'm visiting Indonesia.  When I block out my birthday, I want it to stay fixed on that date, not creep forward or back several hours to split over two days just because I've traveled to a different time zone.  

    Can you ask Microsoft to add these features to Outlook?

  • @Traveler: I had to read your comment a few times and test things out on my own Outlook version (2010) to figure out what you meant; I THINK I get it now and it's a tad complicated but doesn't seem (to me, anyway) impossible to implement. The thing is, I'm guessing that Outlook developers CAN do this and just haven't because perhaps it hasn't been on the "MUST HAVE" or even "WOULD REALLY LIKE" list of features to tackle for the current upcoming version of Outlook.

    If I had my hand to the fire and was forced to offer you at least SOME sort of answer, I’d say create multiple calendars; maybe one for birthdays, one for this time zone, one for that time zone etc. In the later versions of Outlook you can see all your calendars at the same time. (2007: office.microsoft.com/.../view-calendars-side-by-side-or-overlaid-HA001230157.aspx; training course (office.microsoft.com/.../calendar-ii-see-and-use-multiple-calendars-RZ010206393.aspx; 2010: office.microsoft.com/.../create-additional-calendars-HP010355042.aspx ) Seems to me that each calendar could contain one or more time or 2 zones and you can take a look at whichever one you want, depending on where you are and where you’re going.

    But maybe I’ve oversimplified this and/or am not totally getting the issue here. In that case…

    The best way to get your idea out there and to even find out a way to work around the issue so that it can at least work a little better for you is to head over to Microsoft Answers—the Outlook section about calendars (social.answers.microsoft.com/.../threads). MS Answers is patrolled (and trolled) by our MVPs and other power users and even MS employees who make it their business to solve other people's problems and answer questions. This is where I get most of my info from.

    Head over there, do a search for something like "see multiple time zones." If you don't find a suitable answer, go to the top of that page and on the left is "Ask a question." You have to have a live.com or Hotmail or MSN ID but that takes 2 secs to fill out. You an also check a box so that you can be notified when someone has responded to your questions. I'm pretty sure you'll find some sort of workaround.