I use keyboard shortcuts to save time and avoid using the awkward mouse on my laptop.  Here are my favorites in Outlook 2007: Mark as read CTRL+Q Mark as unread CTRL+U Send CTRL+ENTER Enter a name in the Search Address Books box F11   I also use custom keyboard shortcut keys to apply Color Categories to messages because my organizational system requires every message to be categorized based on the action I need to take.   I use CTRL+F12 throughout the day to archive conversations by...

As much as we love adding new features to Outlook, for the maintainability of our product we sometimes need to remove those that are out of date and aren't utilized by a large number of users. This allows us to focus on improving the Outlook features that most of you, our customers, rely on. The following are some features that we've removed from Outlook 2013, and we want to make sure you are aware so there aren't any surprises when you go to use or deploy the new version. Exchange "Classic Offline...

The Living in Outlook series is about sharing tips and workflows around real-world scenarios. We’ll start the conversation with a topic – you can add to it by posting your tips and workflows in the comments! At my job, I often send team status reports to the same people, or have a specific message style that I really like and tend to reuse. Even at home I have my message styles for Christmas, birthdays and pretty much anything family-related. If you are anything like me, sending these types of messages...

After reading some of the feedback on our post about removing items stuck in your outbox , I realized that a lot of people are trying to send some pretty large files through e-mail. Putting any issues with your e-mail service provider’s limits on large messages aside, sending large attachments through e-mail is still a bad idea for a number of reasons: Your recipients might not be able to receive your large files: While your e-mail server may allow you to send a large attachment, your recipient’s...

We’ve previously blogged about the To-Do Bar in Outlook. Here are a few tips that show how this little slice of screen real estate is more than just a static list; in fact, you can easily customize it to reflect the priorities in your work day and week. First off, don’t get rid of the To-Do Bar when you need more screen space on a smaller monitor! You can easily minimize it by clicking the at the top of the To-Do Bar. You can then conveniently expand and collapse it while working that...

An organized mailbox is critical to getting work done, especially if most of your day involves working with Outlook. However, spending more time organizing your mailbox means there’s less time to spend on real work – thus it’s important to find a system that is both simple and efficient. In this post I will talk about one way you can triage mail using categories and Search Folders. Keep in mind that no single e-mail management method is ideal for all work styles; this is just one method of many and...

The Microsoft Office product teams are proud to announce the release of Office 2003 Service Pack 3. While we know that many of you are enjoying the great functionality of Office 2007, we also know that there are many more of you who still continue to rely on Office 2003. Office 2003 SP3 is focused on improved security across the entire suite of applications, fulfillment of top customer requests, and improved compatibility with Windows Vista. We recommend that all of Office 2003 users install the...

The Living in Outlook series is about sharing tips and workflows around real-world scenarios. We’ll start the conversation with a topic – you can add to it by posting your tips and workflows in the comments! I use Outlook to help me organize both my work and personal lives. Sometimes I need to get a consensus from my friends or coworkers regarding a decision that we should make. These can range from t-shirt sizes to favorite meeting times to which soccer game we should go see! Voting...

After 2 betas I’m glad to announce the release of the Microsoft Outlook Connector 12.1 – the add-in that puts your Windows Live Hotmail data in Outlook. Outlook Connector 12.1 provides a great synchronization experience with e-mail, contacts, and the free Windows Live Calendar service. Download it now ! As part of the 12.1 release, we have also made improvements to the e-mail and contacts synchronization that make this version of the connector faster and more robust. Thank you to everyone who contacted...

As previously announced, the Windows Live Calendar service will start migrating existing MSN Calendar users to the new Windows Live Calendar service as early as March 2009. The migration process will ensure that all the supported user data on the MSN Calendar is moved to the Windows Live Calendar without any action required for the user. In parallel, it will also be required that Outlook Connector 12.0 users upgrade to the 12.1 version as the 12.0 version does not connect to Windows Live Calendar...