I consider myself one of Outlook's Cupids. Every chance I get, I try to shoot an arrow through any attorneys heart (finding it can be tricky with some of them but I'm a reallllll good shot) with Outlooks name all over it. I love Outlook and most of my technology-meets-time-and-information-goals are to use it as my one-stop shop and resource for all I have and need in that way. So when I'm training it, the very first thing I talk about is making the most of your morning kiss (as I so call it) with
Outlook. You know what I'm talking about, you click to launch Outlook and watch as it coughs and puckers its way onto your screen...then it loads all those messages that filed in over night and when done ARRRRGGGGHHHH - the visual equivalent to bad morning breath after a long night of poker with the boys. Your screen loves seeing you make that face.
So what can you do to minimize the impact? Begin by maximizing your screen real estate by organizing the Inbox main view to suit your needs.
Let's start by working with the columns. See, your Inbox is made up of rows and columns really. Each email message, a row. Each heading ("From" "Subject") a column. You need to streeeeetch those columns out to see as much as possible and you need to be picky about which columns display. For example, if you're in a big firm and often get emails that go TO "All Attorneys" or "Everyone" - you may want to add the TO column to your view. That way you can see immediately those emails that came directly TO you (likely more important) than the ones that went TO "OfficeSoftballTeam".
So here are the first four things you are going to do:
- Rearrange the order of columns by dragging and drop them around
- Delete columns you don't REALLY need on initial view by dragging the column heading down until you see a black X then releasing
- Add new columns by right-clicking directly on a column heading, go to Field Chooser, drag fields onto your column row
- Resize columns by placing your cursor between two columns, look for double-arrow, then drag to desired width
Here it all is in a handy video for you:
