SWITCH BETWEEN OFFLINE AND ONLINE
You've probably set Outlook to check for new mail at regular intervals. But what if you're working in Outlook and don't have an Internet connection open? Outlook will keep looking for a way to get your mail and will keep returning error messages. To let Outlook know you want to work offline, click File, Work Offline. As long as you're working offline, Outlook will connect to your server only when you specify, and it will hang up immediately after sending and receiving messages.

SET A TIME INTERVAL TO CHECK FOR MESSAGES
When you want to check your snail mail, you don't have to go to the post office to see if there's anything new, right? The mail carrier delivers it right to your door, at about the same time every day. So why should email be any different? Rather than hitting Send And Receive to get your new email messages, just have Outlook check for new messages regularly on its own. Ah, it's like an assistant who works for free.

GETTING HELP FROM THE OFFICE UPDATE WEB SITE
Have you ever checked out the Microsoft Office Update Web site? If you haven't, you're missing out on tips and tricks, downloads, software patches, technical help, and more. It's easy to find and easy to use. Simply click Help, Office On The Web. You'll be connected to the Update site. Browse around--you're sure to find something you can use

PREVIEW THE FIRST THREE LINES OF MESSAGES
When you fire up Outlook and get ready to read your messages, do you scan through your Inbox first to try to determine which are the important ones? If so, Outlook has a feature you'll like. Once you turn on AutoPreview, the first three lines of every message in your Inbox will be displayed underneath the header information. To turn on AutoPreview, first click Inbox in the Folder List. Click View, AutoPreview. Now you can see what's contained in an email message without having to open it

DISPLAY OR HIDE THE PREVIEW PANE
In our previous tip, you learned how to sneak a peek at the first three lines of a message by turning on AutoPreview (View, AutoPreview). If you turn on the Preview Pane, you can look at the entire contents of an email message without having to open it. Click View, Preview Pane. Your Inbox window will now be divided into two panes. When you click on a message in the Inbox, you'll see its contents in the Preview Pane below.

USE THE SPACEBAR TO SCROLL DOWN IN THE PREVIEW PANE
If you're using the Preview Pane to look at your messages, you can read all the messages in your Inbox without ever touching your mouse--handy if you eat lunch at your desk and don't want to put your sandwich down to scroll through your messages. To scroll down through the message a page at a time, simply press the Spacebar (it's the same as pressing the Page Down key). If you've reached the end of a message, pressing the Spacebar will jump you to the next message in your Inbox.

SHIFT-SPACEBAR TO SCROLL BACKWARD IN THE PREVIEW PANE
In previous tip, you learned that pressing the Spacebar scrolls down through a message a page at a time in the Preview Pane, just as if you'd pressed the Page Down key. You can also scroll up in the Preview Pane by pressing Shift-Spacebar. This will jump you to the top of the current or previous message. Note: If this doesn't work for you, click Tools, Options and click the Other tab. Click Preview Pane and select the Single Key Reading Using Space Bar option.

RESTORE ORIGINAL BUTTONS AND MENUS ON A BUILT-IN TOOLBAR
You're one of those people who likes to fix everything, right? If so, you've probably done a lot of customization when it comes to your toolbars--moving buttons around, deleting buttons you don't use, creating new ones, and so forth. But what happens if you want to restore your toolbars to their original condition? Simply click Tools, Customize and click the Toolbars tab. Click the name of the toolbar you want to restore, then click Reset. Voila--your toolbar is restored to its original pristine condition.

FLAG IMPORTANT MESSAGES FOR FOLLOW-UP
If you're like most people, you get more email than you know what to do with. Don't let important messages slip through the cracks. Flag the important ones, so you don't forget to follow up. First, select the messages you want to flag. Click Actions, Flag For Follow Up. In the Flag To box, select Follow Up (you can flag a message with several different messages, including Forward, No Response, and Call). Enter a date in the Due By box. Then, click OK.

CREATE A RULE TO FLAG MESSAGES FOR FOLLOW-UP AUTOMATICALLY
In previous tip, you learned how to flag important messages for follow-up. But what if you want Outlook to flag them for you? Say you're collaborating on an important project with your good friend John Doe. You can flag every message from him to remind yourself to follow up right away. That way, his urgent message asking for your help won't get lost in-between requests to buy Girl Scout cookies and your cousin's detailed description of the latest family reunion. First, click Tools, Rules Wizard. Next, click New. Select Flag Messages From Someone and edit the Rule Description box accordingly, choosing whose messages you want to flag and how many days you have to follow up. Click Next, then follow the wizard's instructions, entering any additional conditions or actions. Click Finish when you're done.

CLEAR A FLAG
In the last two tips, you've learned how to flag important messages for follow-up. Once you've taken care of them, it's easy to mark the flagged messages as completed. First, select the message. Click Actions, Flag For Follow Up, and select the Completed option. Then, click OK. Now next to the message you'll see a grey flag instead of a red flag.
Tip-in-a-tip: If you just want to get rid of the flag rather than mark it as completed, click Actions, Flag For Follow Up, click Clear Flag, and then click OK.

ATTACH A SIGNATURE
You wouldn't send a letter without signing it, would you? Why should email be any different? If you haven't already, create your own unique signature. Most signatures contain your pertinent contact
information--name, company, phone number, Web site, etc., but you can include whatever you want. Outlook will automatically attach it to every outgoing message you send. Click Tools, Options and select the Mail Format tab. Click the Signature Picker button, then click New. Enter a name for your signature (maybe Work or Personal). Click Start With A Blank Signature. Type in the text you want for your signature (name, company, phone number, maybe a witty quote to show off your style). Click Finish, then click OK.

CHANGE A TASK TO A RECURRING TASK
Let's say you find yourself re-creating the same task in your task list each week. Why not simply change it into a recurring task, so it shows up automatically?
Switch to your task list by clicking Tasks in the Folder List. Open the task you want to change to a recurring task. Select Actions, Recurrence. Click how frequently you want the task to recur, and at which time and date. Then, click Save And Close.

SCHEDULE TIME IN CALENDAR TO COMPLETE A TASK
Organizing your to-do list into tasks is a great idea, but they don't always get done when you have a full schedule on your daily Calendar. Fortunately, there's an easy way to integrate your task list into your Calendar.
Make sure both your Calendar and task list are visible (the easiest way to do this is to click View, Current View and select Day/Week/Month With Auto Preview). Select the task you want to schedule
time for and drag it onto your Calendar. This will create a new Appointment window, where you can select the options you want. Click Save And Close. Now your task appears as an appointment on your Calendar!

SET AN APPOINTMENT REMINDER
We know, you're a busy person. It's not your fault if you forget to check your Calendar and forget about appointments, is it? Well, actually it is, but never mind that. If you set a reminder for each
appointment on your Calendar, you won't have to make any excuses.
To set a reminder, open the appointment or appointment series (if it's recurring) by double-clicking it. Select the Reminder check box and enter how far in advance you want Outlook to remind you. You can choose any length of time, from 5 minutes to two days. Then, click Save And Close.

CUSTOMIZE REMINDER SOUND FOR AN APPOINTMENT
In the previous tip, you learned how to set a reminder for a specific appointment. You can also change the sound that plays when it's time for your reminder (instead of the standard Windows "ding" sound).
Open the appointment or appointment series (if it's recurring) by double-clicking it. Make sure the Reminder check box is selected. Click the Speaker button next to the Reminder check box, then click Browse. Navigate to the .wav file of your choice--maybe you have one that says "Time to go!"--and click OK.

SKIP ONE OCCURRENCE OF A RECURRING TASK

If you're like most people, you have tasks that must be performed regularly, whether it's vacuuming the living room at home or generating marketing reports at the office. If you're really organized, you have your regular chores set up as recurring tasks in Outlook. But what if, by some good fortune, there comes a week where you can pass the task on to someone else? Maybe your spouse offered to do the vacuuming, or you can pass your busy work over to someone else. That task will still pop up in your task list. Here's how to simply skip it.
Switch to your task list by clicking Tasks in the Folder List. Then, click Actions, Skip Occurrence.

CHANGING THE TIME ZONE

Traveling to another time zone is already disorienting enough, what with jet lag and having to reset your watch. You shouldn't have to freak out every time you look at your Calendar

("Oh NO, I'm three hours late!"). Outlook allows you to set up a second time zone in your Calendar, making your travel schedule a lot easier to deal with.

To begin, click Tools, Options. Select the Preferences tab and click the Calendar Options button. Next, click Time Zone, select the time zone you're in, and give it a label

(perhaps Pacific Standard Time or West Coast). Select the Show An Additional Time Zone option and label it as well. Now both time zones will appear above the time slots in your Calendar. If you want to display one and not the other, click the Swap Time Zones button, and the second one you designated will become the primary zone.

Just don't forget which time zone you actually live in--showing up to work an hour late all the time won't look good to your boss.

FREE/BUSY OPTIONS

One of the benefits of using Outlook on a LAN is that you can share your schedule with your colleagues, which can cut down on exchanges like "I can't make a Tuesday morning meeting; can we do it in the afternoon instead?" "No, not unless I move my lunch meeting to Wednesday..." With a few clicks, Outlook can let others know when you have time available for meetings and when you're busy. >From the Outlook desktop, select Tools, Options, then click Calendar Options. Next, click Free/Busy Options to open a dialog box that lets you decide how much information about your schedule you want to provide--how many months' worth of calendar to show, where to show it, and how often to update the information. Then, click OK.

SAVE COPIES OF MESSAGES IN YOUR SENT ITEMS FOLDER

Good record-keeping is an essential component of any undertaking, and e-mail is no exception. So it's a good thing Outlook 2000 keeps in your Sent Items folder a copy of any message you send. Select Tools, Options and click the Preferences tab. Then, click the E-Mail Options button and make sure the Save Copies Of Messages In Sent Items Folder is selected. If you'd prefer to choose which messages you save, deselect the option. Remember, though, that you'll need to add your own e-mail address to the Cc box if you want to save a message.

DISPLAYING BACK AND FORWARD BUTTONS

If you browse the Internet a lot, you get used to the features that browsers provide. But with a few clicks of your mouse, you can make Outlook 2000 act more like a browser, complete with Back and Forward buttons for navigation. Select View, Toolbars, Advanced. Ta-da! Now you've got the Advanced toolbar on your desktop, which includes two buttons with arrows on them: Back and Forward buttons.

CORRECTING YOUR SPELLING

Okay, so maybe spelling isn't your strong suit, but no one has to know! Just have Outlook check your spelling for you.

Open the item you want to check (you can check spelling in any Outlook item--e-mail messages, notes, appointments, etc.), and click in the text box or body. Select Tools, Spelling. If Outlook finds a word that appears to be misspelled, it will present you with a list of alternative words. Choose the correctly spelled word, then click Change. If your spelling is so bad that Outlook's suggestions don't even come close, you can fix the spelling yourself in the Change To box, then click Change.

CHECKING YOUR SPELLING AUTOMATICALLY

In our previous tip, you learned how to check your spelling in an outgoing e-mail message. But why take the time to check spelling after you write something--why not have Outlook do it for you automatically?

To begin, click Tools, Options, and select the Spelling tab. Check the box next to Always Check Spelling Before Sending. Then, click OK. The next time you create a new message and click Send, Outlook will check the spelling in the entire message before it send the message out. If Outlook finds a word that it thinks is misspelled, it will present you with a list of alternative spellings. Choose the correctly spelled word, and click Change. If your spelling is so bad that Outlook's suggestions don't even come close, you can fix the spelling yourself in the Change To box, then click Change.

ADDING A WORD TO OUTLOOK'S DICTIONARY

In previous tips, you learned how to have Outlook check your spelling. But what if your e-mail messages contain words that Outlook thinks are misspelled but that aren't? Continually pressing Ignore so it will pass over such a word can get annoying, because the next time it finds that word, guess what? Outlook will still think that word is misspelled. This is particularly irksome when it's your own last name that Outlook insists is spelled incorrectly.

The solution? Add the word to Outlook's dictionary. When the Spelling dialog box pops up, click Add. Now the word is part of Outlook's dictionary. Just think--now you're important enough to be in a dictionary, sort of...

ADDING HOLIDAYS

Life can't be all work and no play, right? So make sure that you know when holidays are approaching by having Outlook automatically enter them on your Calendar.

>From the Outlook desktop, select Tools, Options, and choose Calendar Options. Under Calendar Options, click the Add Holidays button. Presto! Outlook automatically enters national holidays on your calendar.

CHECKING RECIPIENT NAMES BEFORE SENDING A MESSAGE

A reader asks, "What are the red and green lines that sometimes appear in the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes?"

When you type a name in the To, Cc, or Bcc box while creating a new e-mail message, Outlook automatically checks the name against your Address Book. This is handy, because you can type "Joe" and it will look for a "Joe" in your Address Book. If it finds an exact match, the name is underlined. If it finds multiple names that match what you type, a red, wavy line appears under the name. Right-click the name to see the other names found, and choose the correct one.

If multiple names are found that match what you type and you have used the address before, the name you chose previously appears with a green, dashed underline to remind you that there are other choices.. Right-click the name to see the other names found.

TURNING AUTOMATIC NAME CHECKING ON OR OFF

In our previous tip, you learned that Outlook automatically checks names in the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes against your Address Book and will let you know if there are multiple matches. If you'd rather not have this feature activated, you can turn it off.

Click Tools, Options. On the Preferences tab, click E-Mail Options, and then click Advanced E-Mail Options. Then, clear the Automatic Name Checking check box.

CREATING A PRINTER ICON ON YOUR DESKTOP

One of the fastest and easiest ways to print all kinds of documents on your computer is to just keep an icon of your printer available on your desktop. With this icon visible, you can drag and drop all kinds of files to it and your printer will print them automatically, without having to launch the application separately.

To add a printer icon to your desktop, in Windows choose Start, Settings, Printers. Select the printer you have installed on your system and right-click it. Choose Create Shortcut from the context menu, and Windows will tell you that it can create a shortcut for this item on the desktop. Click Yes, and an image of your printer appears, ready for the dragging and dropping.

CHANGE CALENDAR BACKGROUND COLOR
Are you tired of the ugly yellow color in the Calendar background? Why not change it to something nicer?
Click Tools, Options and select Calendar Options. Choose the color you want in the Background Color list.
Keep in mind that the color you choose is applied to Day and Work Week views. Week and Month views use only white and gray as background colours.

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