41. Managing Email
In This Chapter
• Organizing Messages with Folders
• Routing Messages with Quick Steps
• Managing Incoming Messages with Rules
As your email messages start piling up, you eventually need to plan ways to manage them or your Inbox is going to seem like it’s bursting at the seams. Thankfully, Outlook makes it easy to choose how you want to organize and store messages. In fact, this is where Outlook puts the word “manage” in personal information manager and kicks it into high gear.
Although it may be tempting to let messages turn into a mountain in your Inbox, don’t. You can opt for a variety of handy methods for dealing with them efficiently. In this chapter, you discover essential techniques for keeping ahead of your email stack.
Organizing Messages with Folders
Every message you receive for a particular email service appears in the account’s Inbox folder listed in the Folder pane. In the same way you use folders to organize files on your computer, you can use folders in Outlook to store and sort email messages.
Each email account includes a set of default folders, one of which is the main Inbox for the account. Other folders might include Drafts, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Junk E-mail, and Outbox. (These vary depending on your email service.) Most preexisting folders are self-explanatory based on their names alone, but you can also add more folders to help you better organize your messages. For example, you might want to keep all your departmental emails in a folder labeled Sales Department, or all your business correspondence in a folder labeled Clients. You can create as many folders as you need, even for temporary projects and tasks.
Making a New Email Folder
To create a new folder, follow these steps:
1. With the Mail module displayed onscreen, click the Inbox folder under the email service you want to add a folder to (see Figure 41.1).
2. On the Folder tab, click the New Folder button.
3. Outlook opens the Create New Folder dialog box, as shown in Figure 41.2. Type a name for the new folder in the Name box.
4. Leave the other settings intact. (Mail and Post Items is selected in the Folder Contains box, and the Inbox you selected in step 1 is highlighted in the Select Where to Place the Folder list box.)
5. Click OK.
Outlook adds the new folder to the Folder pane, similar to Figure 41.3. Now you can start moving messages to the folder as needed.
Tip
You can also right-click the Inbox name and choose New Folder from the context menu that pops up; then type in a new folder name directly without using the Create New Folder dialog box.
Tip
Adding folders is a key part of using Outlook’s other message management features, such as rerouting incoming emails to designated folders. Sometimes it helps to plan what types of folders you might need later, such as a work project or important client you’re corresponding with. You can always remove folders you no longer need and archive any old messages.
Moving a Message to Your New Folder
To move a message to a folder, you can drag and drop it in place. You can also use this method:
1. Click the title of the message you want to move.
2. On the Home tab, click the Move button.
3. Select the name of the folder where you want to place the message (see Figure 41.4).
If the folder you want to use isn’t listed in the Move menu, click the Other Folder option and use the Move Items dialog box to choose your folder.
Working with Folder Contents
You can right-click a folder to open a menu of options that enables you to rename, copy, move, or delete it. From this menu you can also create a new folder, clean out junk mail, or mark all messages as read.
Tip
Your Sent Items folder keeps a copy of all the emails you send. This feature is turned on by default, which makes it a nice safeguard in case you need to find a message later.
Routing Messages with Quick Steps
You can use Outlook’s Quick Steps feature to perform multiple actions on your email messages with just one click. For example, you might want to flag a message for follow up later and move it to a special folder. Rather than do the two actions separately, why not do them at the same time?
Outlook stores Quick Steps in the Quick Steps gallery on the Home tab when you’re using the Mail module. You can scroll through the gallery to view them or expand the gallery to view all of them at once. Outlook even includes a few preset Quick Steps you can take advantage of:
• Move To—If you find yourself moving messages to the same folder over and over, designate it as the Move To folder and use this Quick Step to immediately relocate messages.
• To Manager—This opens a message form that’s automatically preset with a designated recipient, such as your manager (hence the name), along with the forwarded message.
• Team Email—Use this Quick Step to send a new message to everyone on a team. All the member’s email addresses are saved and preloaded, ready to go.
• Done—This marks the selected message as read, completed (with a Mark Complete flag), and moves it to a designated folder—three things at once.
• Reply and Delete—This one opens a reply form to send back a reply and also moves the original message to the Deleted Items folder.
To practice using one of the default Quick Steps, you can try out the one that moves messages. While viewing your Inbox messages in the Mail module, select the message you want to dispatch. (Click it or tap it to select it.) Next, make sure the Home tab is displayed and click the Move to: ? Quick Step from the Quick Step gallery, as shown in Figure 41.5. If the Move to: ? option isn’t in view, scroll through the gallery to locate it.
When you activate the option, the First Time Setup dialog box appears, similar to Figure 41.6. The same box opens for some of the other Quick Steps the first time you use them—that’s because you first need to specify people or folders so Outlook can carry out the actions. To designate a folder to move the selected message to, click the drop-down arrow and specify a folder name.
The Mark as Read check box is also conveniently selected. You can leave it checked if you want to consider the message read; uncheck it if you want to move it and treat it as not read yet.
Finally, click the Save button. Outlook saves the folder name as your designated folder and adjusts the Quick Step name accordingly. The next time you want to move a message, click the option listed in the Quick Steps gallery, and Outlook takes care of the relocation for you. You can use the Quick Steps gallery on the Home tab to make your selection, or you can right-click the message, choose Quick Steps, and then choose the name of your step.
To build a custom Quick Step, choose the Create New option from the Quick Steps gallery. This opens the Edit Quick Step dialog box, shown in Figure 41.7, and you can choose actions, folders, even type ToolTip text to remind you what the step does when you hover the mouse pointer over the Quick Step name.
You can open the Manage Quick Steps dialog box (see Figure 41.8) to make changes to actions associated with Quick Steps or remove Quick Steps you no longer want. From the Quick Steps gallery, select the Manage Quick Steps option to display the dialog box. Choose which Quick Step you want to edit and then click the Edit button to make changes to the associated actions; you can also click the Delete button to remove the Quick Step entirely from the list. You can also duplicate a Quick Step and tweak it slightly to create a new step.
Tip
If you don’t like the order of your Quick Steps in the gallery, you can reorder them in the Manage Quick Steps dialog box. Use the arrow buttons to reposition how a step is listed in the bunch.
Managing Incoming Messages with Rules
Outlook enables you to set up rules for your email messages, such as telling all the emails from a certain friend to go to the Boring folder, or put all the messages from your boss into a Do This Now folder. You can set rules in Outlook that help you sort through your email and put them in special locations, among other actions. Rules can help you move, copy, delete, reply to, forward, and redirect your email. You can choose from Outlook’s preset rules or create brand new ones.
You can build rules with help from Outlook’s Rules Wizard, a step-by-step process for creating a rule. (Click the Advanced Options button in the Create Rule dialog box to summon the wizard for help.) However, one of the easiest ways to build a rule is to use an example of an existing message you want to create a rule for, such as an email from a certain person that you always want routed to a certain folder, and build on it. With the Mail module displayed, follow these steps:
1. Select the message you want to turn into a rule.
2. On the Home tab, click the Rules button (see Figure 41.9).
3. Select Create Rule to open the Create Rule dialog box, shown in Figure 41.10.
4. Use the conditions check boxes to set the criteria for the email. You can specify messages from that particular sender, identify subject matter to recognize, or who the message was originally sent to, for example.
5. Under the Do the Following group, choose what you want Outlook to do when it encounters these same message types in the future, such as moving them to a specified folder.
6. Click OK and the rule is set for any incoming messages resembling the criteria you specified.
7. Outlook asks if you want to run the rule immediately. Click the check box and click OK to do so, or click OK to exit without running the rule yet.
You can manage any rules you create using the Rules and Alerts dialog box, which you can open by clicking the Rules button on the Home tab and selecting Manage Rules and Alerts.
Controlling Junk Email
Junk email is a broad term covering advertising emails, unsolicited bulk emails, spam, or just about anything sent to your email address without your consent. Billions of spam emails are sent daily, and they’re not always just about advertising something. Spam email can also be criminal in nature, generated by hackers and “phishers” trying to steal your identity or personal information for nefarious reasons. Thwarting junk email from reaching your Inbox requires some filtering on Outlook’s part. Although it can’t catch everything all the time, Outlook’s filtering tools do a pretty good job of sorting out the bad stuff and placing it in a special folder marked for such unworthy messages.
You can even fine-tune the sensitivity settings to low or high to suit your needs. Choose from the following options:
• No Automatic Filtering—This setting means there’s no filtering happening at all. Junk mail can flow freely into your Inbox.
• Low—Some junk mail still gets through, but the worst of it is tossed away.
• High—The most ruthless setting; no junk gets through, and sometimes even legitimate emails are dumped here. (Be sure to check the Junk E-mail folder periodically to see if anything important gets tossed in by mistake.)
• Safe Lists Only—This setting allows only emails from specified companies and individuals (from your safe recipients list) to make it into your Inbox. You first have to identify senders in a special Safe Senders list (sort of like a guest list for your email, and only the invitees make it into the party).
In addition to setting a filtering level, you can also choose to permanently delete junk email when it’s found, disable links in suspected phishing messages, or display a warning prompt for suspicious domain names for a heads up.
To adjust your junk mail settings, follow these steps:
1. From the Mail module, click the Junk button on the Home tab (see Figure 41.11). If you have more than one email service, select the account’s Inbox first.
2. Select Junk E-mail Options. The Junk E-mail Options dialog box opens to the Options tab, as shown in Figure 41.12.
3. Click a protection level.
4. Click OK.
You can also help Outlook identify junk email by pointing it out when you find it in your Inbox. Right-click the message from the list, click Junk, and then choose the Block Sender option.
If you find the filter dumping legitimate messages into the Junk E-mail folder, display the folder’s contents (click the folder name in the Folder pane), right-click the message from the list, and choose Never Block Sender or Not Junk.
Tip
If you’re concerned Outlook might identify email messages from someone as junk, such as the weekly family updates from Uncle Marvin, you can add the individual to your Safe Recipient’s list. From the Junk E-Mail Options dialog box (see Figure 41.14), click the Safe Recipients tab and click Add, and then type in the user’s address.
Archiving Messages
Deleting old messages is a great way to clean out your Inbox, but sometimes you need to keep selected old messages, especially if you need to refer to them to recall an exchange. Archiving is a great solution for these messages.
You can archive manually or automate the task. Outlook’s AutoArchive tool is perfect for taking care of archiving tasks in the background without any help from you. You can set different archiving tasks for different folders. For example, you can instruct the tool to automatically archive messages in your Inbox that are older than 3 months and move them to a special archive folder.
By default, Outlook is set up to archive messages to a file named archive.pst. You can specify another location for your archive files as well as specify more descriptive filenames.
Manually Archive Messages
If you’re doing a little folder cleaning, you can manually archive messages. For example, you might be wrapping up a work project and need to put all the email messages associated with it into an archive file.
To manually archive messages, follow these steps:
1. Click the File tab.
2. Select Info to open the Account Information screen.
3. Click Cleanup Tools.
4. Click Archive to open the Archive dialog box shown in Figure 41.13.
5. Click the folder you want to archive.
6. Choose a cutoff date, such as items older than 6 months.
7. Choose an archive file location (click the Browse button, navigate to the location, and specify a more descriptive filename), or use the default filename and locations.
8. Click OK and Outlook archives the messages.
Setting Up Automatic Archiving
You can instruct Outlook to perform automatic archiving for you. You can set automatic archiving for individual folders or the Inbox in general. To set up automatic archiving, follow these steps:
1. Select the folder or subfolder you want to archive, such as your Inbox or an old project folder.
2. On the Folder tab, click the AutoArchive Settings button.
3. Outlook opens the Junk E-mail Properties dialog box to the AutoArchive tab of tools, as shown in Figure 41.14. Click the Archive This Folder Using These Settings option.
4. Specify the age of the messages, such as older than 3 months.
5. Specify a location for the archived file, or use the default location.
6. Click OK.
Tip
To check out how much room is being consumed in your Inbox, click the File tab, click the Cleanup Tools button, and then click Mailbox Cleanup. This opens the Mailbox Cleanup dialog box. Click the View Mailbox Size button to check out how much room is taken up by your messages in the various folders. Based on what you see, you might decide you need to clean up some folders and archive old messages.