6 Tips on Using Outlook Express 2007

After long thoughts, I decided to use Outlook Express 2007 for my GMail account, and I benefited a lot from it. Initially it was difficult for me to make out, which option was where, but slowly I was able to search for it, and started using it. Most of us don’t use Outlook Express, even if it is installed in our computers. However, after I started working on it, I was able to make lots of changes and make it more friendly to my nature of work. Here are these tips you can use

1. More Onscreen space - You can get more onscreen space by minimizing the navigation pane. This makes screen more clean and tidy. To do so, you need to click the arrow on top of the navigation pane, which then minimizes the navigation pane. It will get minimized to a sleek vertical bar, and all the icons like Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and more are available. However more number of shortcuts can be added and removed easily.



2. E-mail signature in Outlook - In GMail, you cannot have HTML signatures, but if you are using Outlook Express, you can have this feature as well. To create a HTML signature Go to the Tools –> Options –> Mail Format. There go to Signatures section and click new, and name it. Type in the desired email signature and apply HTML editing.
3. Colored Tasks - We know how important colors are in setting up the mood of a person. Colors are also important to let us know the importance, as we do the same in Tasks. When you add a task in calendar, right click on it and click “Categorize” and give the color category. You can add more colors, shortcuts to these colors, and also you can make a Quick Click feature which will add a task to that category whenever clicked.



4. Flag Mails - Flagging mails means that you want to read them later or take some action. Well in case you flag a message in Outlook Express, it will add this to your To-Do list immediately, and in case you want to change the day and date of action, that can be done as well with the follow up feature. Apart from that, a great feature wherein a Flag can be created for the recipients as well, where you need to give details when this mail needs to be taken action on. This mail will automatically be added in the To-Do list of that person. This works only if the recipient is also using Outlook Express.
5. Change the Font size of your message list - Sometimes you have to strain eyes to read email headers. Well we can change the font and size to make it easy for us. To do so click on the View –> Current View –> Customize Current View. Now click on Other Settings and Select Row Fonts and change the font to the one that you desire. Click OK, and it’s done.
6. Changing Reading Pane - In earlier versions of Outlook and Outlook Express, the reading pane used to be in different alignment, as it is now. Some people find the earlier version much easier to navigate, as I find the same . To change it, Go to View –> “Reading Pane” and select your view. You can turn it off as well. The best thing is that for every individual folder, the settings can be different. Also you can drag and adjust the height or width of the pane.

See how simple it can be to use Outlook Express 2007, Do give it a try, and I am sure you will never run away from using Outlook Express, even if you are using it in an organization.