Outlook is full of hidden surprises and shortcuts. Here are a few tips for Outlook junkies that range from obvious to obscure. I know the first one (sent in by good friend BillG) took me by surprise, and I’ve been scouring lists of Outlook tips for a long time.
When you’re at the Outlook Inbox, a tap of the Ctrl-V key instantly copies the contents of your clipboard into a new email message. […] continued
Read moreThis tip is for anyone who uses the desktop version of Outlook on a laptop with a touchscreen. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, this is for you. If you’re not a touchscreen user – well, frankly, I like Outlook better with this turned on anyway, but you can go back to killing time with Instagram if you’re bored. […] continued
Read moreWhen you’ve finished talking to your computer, you can sit back and listen to it instead. Microsoft has improved the speech features in Word and Outlook for Office 365 subscribers, so the computer will read documents and messages out loud with more natural inflection and pauses. It’s still mechanical but it’s better mechanical. […] continued
Read moreMicrosoft has quietly improved the speech recognition features in Windows 10 and in the Office programs. They’re still not great but you might want to give them a try if you haven’t talked to your computer in a while.
One fundamental truth has not changed: If you are serious about dictating on a computer, there is no alternative to the Dragon Naturally Speaking products. […] continued
Read moreHere’s a tip for a few select people. Wonderful people. The best people. My people. All of you who use the desktop version of Outlook.
You also use Google Maps, because everyone uses Google Maps. That’s obvious, right? It has become so valuable, so rich, so far ahead of the competitors, that you are doing yourself a disservice if you use anything else. […] continued
Read moreI don’t like Focused Inbox. I want my Clutter back.
Focused Inbox is Microsoft’s new method of filtering mail for Office 365 business accounts. Here’s more info about Focused Inbox.
The short version:
• Clutter and Focused Inbox are both ways to separate important messages from messages that are less likely to be important to you – newsletters, notifications, marketing and ads. […] continued
Read more(This tip is for IT pros. Non-technical readers should still read this article because it involves a thrilling mystery, it teaches important lessons for healthy living, and it has a fresh minty aftertaste. But if you’re not sure, don’t do anything to your computer without the support of your trusted IT support person.)
Outlook 2013 and 2016 can occasionally lose their connection to an Office 365 hosted Exchange mailbox. […] continued
Read moreHere’s a tip for business Office 365 users that I wish I’d known about sooner. Early this year, Microsoft significantly improved the experience of sharing Outlook calendars. The secret is to share your calendar in webmail instead of doing it from the Outlook desktop program.
Office 365 webmail (aka Outlook Web Access, OWA, “Outlook on the web,” and too many other names) can be viewed at https://mail.office365.com. […] continued
Read morePreviously: What To Do When Excel Opens . . . Very . . . Slowly . . .
Windows is weird.
A year ago I wrote an article about an Excel bug: occasionally there is a 30-60 second delay after clicking on an .XLSX file before the Excel logo appears and the file opens. […] continued
Read moreA difficult part of using technology in 2016 is simply remembering what tools we have at our disposal. It’s all well and good for me to report on all the swell new programs and services that are available, but that doesn’t do any good if you don’t remember which one will help you when you’re trying to get work done. […] continued
Read moreFollowup 07/2017: A Possible Fix For The Excel Slow File Opening Bug
This bug only affects a small number of people, but it’s an interesting one because it’s been a problem for almost a year and there’s still no clear understanding of what’s going on.
It happens on Windows 10 computers running Excel 2013 or Excel 2016. […] continued
Read moreHere’s the story of an odd Outlook 2016 bug that you might run into.
Microsoft has been urging everyone with an Office 365 license for the Office programs to update to Office 2016. It’s a modest upgrade at best, as the programs are virtually identical to the 2013 versions, but it feels good to get the latest version for free, right? […] continued
Read moreHere’s a tip about an Outlook feature that only a few people will appreciate – but if you’re one of those people, you might like it a lot.
If you sort your incoming email into folders, a simple change will result in your replies being filed automatically in the same folder as the original messages, instead of having them land in a huge unsorted pool in Sent Mail. […] continued
Read moreIf you have a large Office 365 mailbox, Outlook 2010 may be slowing down even if your computer is otherwise running at full speed. A new feature in Outlook 2013 – the “sync slider” – might improve performance significantly, and as a nice bonus you would also get the benefit of the other improvements in Outlook and the other Office programs. […] continued
Read moreLast week Microsoft made Office Lens available for iPhones and Android phones. It’s a free app that turns your phone into a fast and efficient scanner, able to easily capture documents, business cards, receipts, whiteboards, and more. It’s practical and useful and does some great magic tricks to make the process easy. […] continued
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