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Computers
& Technology . Been
Looking for a Way to Turn Those Scraps of Paper
First off, let's be real: No program, no matter how well-designed or full of features, is going to take the place of good old-fashioned thinking. Getting organized is, more than anything, a matter of thinking clearly and planning reasonably well. But once you've got that much together, the right program can help a lot. What does that mean in relation to using Outlook? Well, in order to answer that question, let's first have a look at what Outlook can do. Excluding
Outlook's e-mail and associated features, like Inbox, which you may well want to
use, but which we'll set aside for the moment, the basic ingredients of Outlook
{and of many other similar programs} include the following:
Finally, for the most useful organizing tool ever invented for getting organized ...
Of course, if you use Outlook for e-mail and other communications, you can take advantage of your Contacts list to make the task simpler. But for now, we're simply concerned with how to use Outlook to help you get organized ... even if use a different mail program {We use the old stand-by, Pegasus Mail, a freebie that's very easy to use and comprehensive.} ... or even if you've never used e-mail and don't intend to. The Thinking Part: One of the good-news pieces of the Outlook puzzle is a fairly decent help system, so we won't spend much time telling you what you can already find out there. But what we will tell you is that a little time spent on the front end, figuring out what you want to use Outlook to do, can save lots of time on the back end, i.e., not having to re-enter or 're-think' how you set the program up to work for you. First Things First: The Master Category List Since one of the organizing tools Outlook offers is the ability to assign events, tasks, contacts, etc., to different categories, one of the first things you may want to do is open any new item -- a task or appointment, whatever -- and choose Categories. A Category list will pop up with Microsoft's default list of categories {which we found very limiting, as well as very telling about who developed the software}. Click on the Master Category List button on the bottom right of the pop-up and set your own categories. What they'll end up being will very much depend on how you'll use Outlook. {We use it both for personal and business stuff, so, obviously, we have categories broken up that way ... along with project-specific categories for both time-limited and on-going projects.} Since Outlook can display most of what you store there by category, setting up the Master Category List now can be a handy way to organize, or to filter out unneeded info down the road if all your contacts, tasks, appointments, etc., get too large to view easily. So thinking through this piece of the puzzle is worth a little effort. The other thing to think about is your work week ... when your days normally begin and end ... and what sort of time interval you want to set for your at-a-glance appointments Putting Time on Your Side: The Outlook Calendar
The Calendar is fairly straightforward. You use it the way you would any date book organizer. Of course, if you're like some of us who, in the days of hardcopy-only, used to use both weekly and monthly calendars to keep organized, then the first thing you'll appreciate about Outlook is not having to enter info twice. Your first task is to set up your calendar to work for you. This means going to Tools, Options and clicking the Calendar Options button to set your preferences, like a default amount of time before the fact to be reminded of tasks or appointments, as well as the length of your workday, types of holidays to display, etc.. After that, you should use the View menu to familiarize yourself with Outlook's display options for the Calendar, as well as the View, Current View option to either Customize Current View, or Define Views. In either, you can set the default time interval for appointments, scheduled tasks, etc. -- from a minimum of 5 minutes to a max of 60. This option will determine how info will show up on most of the views in Calendar. All views provide you with the ability to set Appointments, as well as other date-bound data, like holidays, birthdays, etc. With the exception of 'Month' view, each of the views also includes a smaller, navigable 2-month display, as well as a 'TaskPad' listing of all tasks. The exact view you'll see depends on the options you set under Calendar Options and View options. The other view options include 'Day', which shows appointments, etc., in a line-by-line time interval ... 'Work Week', which displays your work week in similar fashion ... and 'Week', which provides an open-space vs. line-by-line view of a full week. Finally, clicking on New while in any of the Calendar views pops up a new appointment form. If the appointment is recurring, you can simply click the Recurrence button to set options for how often the appointment recurs, and for how long. Calendar View, Current View also provides a variety of other views which can be useful, including the View by Category option discussed earlier. The Who, What, When & Where of Outlook: Contacts
The Contacts feature is also straightforward. Custom options here are a little more limited -- for example, to how Outlook displays names, and what to use for sorting and ordering your entries. But you can also change the default View, which can be very useful, depending on what you'll use Contacts for the most. The default view for Contacts is an address card -- which you can customize using the View, Current View option -- to either Customize Current View, or Define Views, similar to the options in Calendar. Here, you can also set defaults for which fields are displayed, as well as the sort order, the size of the address cards, and more. Clicking New while in Contacts brings up a blank Contact form, including the option to assign the contact to one or more categories, which you can fill out and save. Unlike Calendar, there are no separate view options for Contacts directly under the View menu. However, View, Current View provides other views, including views by Category, a Phone List, and a view by Location. Unfortunately, the default for this last sorts entries by country, but you can simply click on a different location field, like State, to sort results in that order. The 'To Do' List: Tasks
The Tasks feature of Outlook allows you not only to set up your task list, but to ID start dates, due dates, time for reminders, and more, including the ability to set recurrent tasks. In fact, since Tasks are somewhat more comprehensive and easier to edit than Appointments, we often find ourselves using Tasks to set appointment times. Of course, there are a few features of Appointments it lacks, like a way to set how long appointments will last. Tasks also showBut that seems like a minor concession, unless you're using Outlook on a network, in which case, Appointments also allows you to show whether the appointments take place at the office or away, which you can then publish for others to see. The Tasks feature displays all Tasks set according to their due date. Those with no due date are listed first, unless you alter this by customizing. Clicking New while in Tasks brings up a blank Task form, including the option to assign it to one or more categories. Similar to Calendar and Contacts, you can use the View, Current View option to either Customize Current View, or Define Views. In addition, you can also choose the Format Columns option here to change the default appearance. One of the potentially useful features in tasks is the ability to give the task a Priority -- low, normal or high. If you tend to have lengthy to-do lists, you may want to consider this feature, then use the option to filter tasks by priority to see what ought to get done first. Another useful feature is the ability to track the completion of the task. The defaults allow for 25% increments, but you can enter any valid number, including {God help those who need to use it.} decimals out to the n-th degree. As with Contacts, there are no separate options for Tasks directly under the View menu. However, View, Current View provides other views, including views by Category, the Next Seven Days, or even by Overdue Tasks. All in all There are lots of software-based organizing tools out there. Outlook is a solid offering. And even though it tends to be a little resource-hungry, it'll probably become one of the more common organizing tools down the road, if it's not already. On the other hand, Outlook prob'ly won't make you any more organized than you already tend to be, unless, of course, the main thing that was standing in your way was lack of time and a tool for the job. If that's the case, what Outlook -- or any of a number of other decent similar programs -- can do is to help you get and stay organized, and make the task a whole lot easier to boot. In fact, we've only scratched the surface of Outlook's capabilities here ... But once you begin using it, you can easily explore its other features, many of which can save you additional time & effort. Meanwhile ... Good luck on turning those scraps of paper into something a little more useful ... and easy to use. ... ******* ******* If you would like to submit a feature for our Computers & Tech section, don't hesitate to let us know. Simply e-mail us at comptech@downstreetmagazine.com. The e-mail should contain your name, address, and a phone number where we can reach you. You may also send a copy of your proposed article. The text can either be included in the body of the e-mail, or you can send it as an attachment in just about any word processing format. If your piece is accepted, we will pay a small honorarium for your interest & your time. [See Freelancers Wanted for more details.] ******* ******* If you would like to advertise in this section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com. ******* *******. |
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