Outlook 2019 for Dummies

Get up to speed with the world’s best email application — Outlook 2019 

Of the millions of people who use Outlook, most only use about two percent of its features. Don’t stay in the dark! Outlook 2019 For Dummies shows you how to take advantage of often-overlooked tips and tricks to make it work even better for you.  

Inside, you’ll find information on navigating the user interface; utilizing the To-Do bar; filtering junk email; smart scheduling; RSS support; using electronic business cards; accessing data with two-way sync and offline and cloud based access, and much more! 

• Make the most of Outlook's anti-phishing capabilities
• Share your calendar
• Integrate tasks with other Microsoft applications and services
• Manage email folders 

If you’re upgrading to the latest version — or have never used this popular email tool — this book makes it easier than ever to get Outlook working for you.

Faithe Wempen, M.A., is a Microsoft Office Master Instructor and the author of over 150 books on Windows, Office, and computer technology. Bill Dyszel is an author, consultant, and speaker on the topic of technology.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

About the Version Numbers 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

Conventions Used in This Book 3

Dialog boxes 4

Ribbons and tabs 4

Keyboard shortcuts 5

Icons Used in This Book 6

Part 1: Getting Started with Outlook 2019 7

Chapter 1: Outlook Features You Really Need to Know 9

Explaining Why So Many People Use Outlook 9

Doing Anything in Outlook the Easy Way 10

Using Email: Basic Delivery Techniques 11

Reading email 11

Answering email 12

Creating new email messages 13

Sending a File 14

Maintaining Your Calendar 17

Entering an appointment 17

Managing your schedule 18

Adding a Contact 18

Entering a Task 19

Taking Notes 21

Chapter 2: Inside Outlook: Getting More Done with Less Effort 23

Outlook and Other Programs 24

There’s No Place Like Home: Outlook’s Main Screen 25

Moving between modules 27

Using the Folder pane 28

The Information Viewer: Outlook’s hotspot 29

Navigating folders 31

Tying It All Together: The Ribbon 31

Viewing ScreenTips 32

Using the New Items button 32

Finding Things in a Flash with Instant Search 33

Taking Peeks 35

Getting Help in Outlook 35

Chapter 3: On the Fast Track: Drag ’Til You Drop 37

Dragging 37

Dispatching Tasks in a Flash 39

Making Time Stand Still with Calendar Wizardry 42

Keeping Friends Close and Enemies Closer 44

Creating Instant Email Messages 45

Creating email from a name in your Contacts list 45

Creating an email from an appointment 46

Expanding Your Outlook Workspace 47

Zen of the Right Button 48

Part 2: Taming the Email Beast 49

Chapter 4: The Essential Secrets of Email 51

Front Ends and Back Ends 51

Creating Messages 52

The quick-and-dirty way 52

The slow but complete way 53

Setting priorities 55

Setting sensitivity 57

Setting other message options 58

Adding an Internet link to an email message 58

Reading and Replying to Email Messages 59

Viewing previews of message text 60

Sending a reply 61

Resending messages 63

Don’t get caught by phishing 63

That’s Not My Department: Forwarding Email 64

Blind Copying for Privacy 65

Deleting Messages 66

Saving Interrupted Messages 66

Saving a Message as a File 67

Chapter 5: Email Tools You Can’t Do Without 69

Nagging by Flagging 70

One-click flagging 70

Setting flags for different days 71

Changing the default flag date 71

Adding a flag with a customized reminder 72

Changing the date on a reminder 73

Saving Copies of Your Messages 74

Setting Your Reply and Forward Options 75

Adding Comments to a Reply or a Forward 77

Sending Attachments 78

Emailing Screenshots 80

Creating Signatures for Your Messages 81

Chapter 6: Conquering Your Mountain of Messages 85

Organizing Folders 86

Creating a new mail folder 86

Moving messages to another folder 87

Organizing Your Email with Search Folders 88

Setting up a search folder 88

Using a search folder 90

Deleting a search folder 91

Using the Reading Pane 91

Playing by the Rules 92

Creating a rule 92

Running a rule 95

Filtering Junk Email 96

Fine-tuning the filter’s sensitivity 96

Filtering your email with sender and recipient lists 98

Filtering domains 100

Archiving for Posterity 101

Setting up AutoArchive 102

Setting AutoArchive for individual folders 103

Starting the archive process manually 105

Finding and viewing archived items 106

Closing the archive data file 108

Arranging Your Messages 108

Viewing conversations 111

Ignoring conversations 112

Cleaning up conversations 113

Simplifying Tasks Using Quick Steps 115

Creating and managing Quick Steps 118

Creating Quick Parts to save keystrokes 120

Part 3: Managing Contacts, Dates, Tasks, and More 123

Chapter 7: Your Little Black Book: Creating Contacts Lists 125

Putting in Your Contacts: Names, Numbers, and Other Stuff 126

The quick-and-dirty way to enter contacts 126

The slow, complete way to enter contacts 126

Viewing Your Contacts 132

Sorting a view 133

Rearranging views 134

Using grouped views 134

Flagging Your Friends 136

Using Contact Information 138

Searching for contacts 138

Finding a contact from any Outlook module 141

Forwarding a business card 141

Gathering People Into Groups 143

Creating a Contact group 143

Editing a Contact group 145

Using a Contact group 145

Adding pictures to contacts 145

Chapter 8: Unleashing the Calendar’s Power 147

Getting Around the Outlook Calendar 147

Meetings Galore: Scheduling Appointments 150

The quick-and-dirty way to enter an appointment 150

The complete way to enter an appointment 151

Not this time: Changing dates 153

Not ever: Breaking dates 155

We’ve got to keep seeing each other: Recurring dates 156

Getting a Good View of Your Calendar 158

Printing Your Appointments 159

Adding Holidays 161

Handling Multiple Calendars 162

Creating multiple calendars 162

Managing multiple calendars 163

Chapter 9: Task Mastery: Discovering All the Bells and Whistles 165

Entering New Tasks in the Tasks Module 166

The quick-and-dirty way to enter a task 166

The regular way to enter a task 166

Adding an Internet link to a task 169

Editing Your Tasks 169

The quick-and-dirty way to change a task 169

The regular way to change a task 170

Deleting a task 172

Managing Recurring Tasks 173

Creating a regenerating task 174

Skipping a recurring task once 175

Marking Tasks as Complete 176

Marking it off 176

Picking a color for completed or overdue tasks 177

Viewing Your Tasks 178

Frequenting the To-Do Bar 180

Adding a new item to the To-Do bar 180

Tasks in the Calendar 181

Chapter 10: Seeing It Your Way: Customizing Outlook 183

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar 184

Customizing the Ribbon 185

Enjoying the Views 186

Table/List view 187

Card view 188

Calendar views 188

Playing with Columns in Table/List Views 189

Adding a column 189

Moving a column 190

Widening or narrowing a column 191

Removing a column 192

Sorting Items 192

Sorting from Table view 193

Sorting from the Sort dialog box 193

Grouping Items 194

Viewing grouped items 194

Viewing headings only 195

Saving Custom Views 195

Using Categories 196

Assigning a category 196

Renaming a category 197

Changing a category color 198

Assigning a category shortcut key 198

Part 4: Beyond the Basics: Tips and Tricks You Won’t Want to Miss 201

Chapter 11: Social Media Magic with Outlook RSS 203

Brushing Up on Social Media Basics 204

Sending an SOS for RSS 204

Feeling like a social butterfly 205

Subscribing to an RSS Feed via Internet Explorer 207

Setting Up an RSS Feed in Outlook 208

Reading Feeds 211

Chapter 12: Managing Multiple Email Accounts 213

Choosing an Email Provider 213

Buying Your Own Domain Name 215

Setting Up Email Accounts in Outlook 216

Understanding POP3 vs IMAP 216

Collecting the needed information for setup 217

Setting up an account using automatic settings 218

Setting up an account using manual settings 220

Modifying Mail Account Settings 222

Changing the Mail Server 223

Sending Messages from Different Accounts 224

Chapter 13: Merging Mail From Outlook to Microsoft Word 227

Conjuring Mailing Label Magic 228

Urging to merge 228

Making and using a merge template 232

Mastering Form Letter Formalities 233

Merging From Selected Contacts 234

You’ll Still Have to Lick It: Printing Envelopes 234

Merging to Email 235

Part 5: Outlook At Work 237

Chapter 14: Big-Time Collaboration with Outlook 239

Collaborating with Outlook’s Help 240

Organizing a meeting 240

Responding to a meeting request 243

Checking responses to your meeting request 244

Taking a vote 245

Tallying votes 247

Assigning tasks 247

Sending a status report 248

Collaborating with Outlook and Exchange 249

Giving delegate permissions 250

Opening someone else’s folder 251

Viewing Two Calendars Side by Side 252

Setting access permissions 252

Viewing two accounts 254

Managing Your Out of Office Message 256

Managing Your Address Books 257

Scheduling a Skype Meeting 259

Setting up a Skype meeting 259

Joining a Skype meeting 260

Chapter 15: Outlook for the iPad and Android Phones 261

Understanding the Mobile Difference 262

Accessing Mobile Email 263

Reading email 263

Replying to email 264

Composing email 265

Archiving, scheduling, and deleting email messages 267

Deleting messages 269

Managing groups of messages 269

Using Your Mobile Calendar 270

Navigating the mobile calendar 270

Creating a new appointment 271

Chapter 16: Telecommuting with Outlook.com and the Outlook Web App 273

Signing In to Outlook.com 274

Exploring the Outlook.com Interface 274

Getting Caught Up on Web Email Basics 276

Reading messages 276

Sending a message 277

Setting message importance 278

Flagging messages 278

Organizing Contacts 279

Viewing your contacts 279

Adding contacts 279

Using Your Calendar 281

Viewing your calendar 281

Entering an appointment 282

Moving an appointment 284

Exploring Your Options 285

Automated vacation replies/out of office message 286

Creating a signature 287

Understanding the Outlook Web App 288

Knowing when it’s handy 289

Signing in and out 289

Part 6: The Part of Tens 291

Chapter 17: Ten Shortcuts Worth Taking 293

Using the New Items Tool 293

Sending a File to an Email Recipient 294

Sending a File From a Microsoft Office Application 295

Turning a Message Into a Meeting 296

Finding Something 296

Undoing Your Mistakes 296

Using the Go to Date Dialog Box 296

Adding Items to List Views 297

Sending Repeat Messages 297

Resending a Message 298

Chapter 18: Ten Accessories for Outlook 299

Smartphones 299

A Tablet Computer 300

For Dummies E-Learning 300

Microsoft Office 301

A Business-Card Scanner 301

Online Backup 301

Skype 301

Microsoft SharePoint 302

Microsoft Exchange 302

OneDrive 302

Chapter 19: Ten Things You Can’t Do with Outlook 303

Create a Unified Inbox 304

Insert a Phone Number Into Your Calendar 304

Open a Message From the Reading Pane 304

Perform Two-Sided Printing 305

Search and Replace Area Codes 305

Print a List of Meeting Attendees 305

Enlarge the Type in the Calendar Location Box 305

Create Contact Records for All Recipients of an Email 306

Track Time Zones for Meetings 306

Back Up Outlook Data Easily 306

Ten More Things Outlook Can’t Do for You 307

Chapter 20: Ten Things You Can Do After You’re Comfy 309

Take Notes 310

Customize the Quick Access Toolbar 310

Wise Up Your Messages with Smart Art 311

Translate Your Email Messages 312

Add Charts for Impact 312

Use Symbols in Email 313

Open Multiple Calendars 313

Superimpose Calendars 313

Select Dates as a Group 314

Pin a Contact Card 314

Index 315

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