What's the best use of Outlook you've ever heard of someone making?

check here to start with

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/index.htm

Sunray

the link I had given has information for admins , users and developers
has information on many add-ins too

Sunray

searcherguy,
> What is the most exciting use of Outlook that isn't that hard to implement,
> that adds some massively powerful or useful capability to your daily life?  
> What's the best idea you've ever heard of?

One small suggestion here. I know you have outlook 2000 but many have outlook xp or outlook 2003. The more latest you have
people are going to have cool features that may not be functionable in outlook 2000.

Are you doing any survey ?

Thanks,
Sunray

ANd the ability to create your own Forms is GREAT!

Sunray,

No, I'm not doing a survey, just curious for myself (and probably others will be very interested as well -- these are some great ideas).  
Funny -- You know that "maybe very silly" point you talk about -- the distribution list for a category idea -- we must be in the same mind meld universe because last week I spent at least a couple hours trying to figure out how to do that (before I learned about experts-exchange).  That was my #1 thing to figure out in Outlook.  I finally went to Border's bookstore and looked through three books on Outlook, and one of them told you how to drag a category into a distribution list exactly as you described.  

searcherguy,
> and one of them told you how to drag a category into a distribution list
> exactly as you described.  

My first advise seeing this is USE  GOOGLE.....

I am not discouraging you from buying books just that certain things can be found online

Thanks,
Sunray

By the way, all these ideas are just fantastic.  As the question asker, I'll just split up points fairly evenly on this one.  I'm going to leave the question open for another day in case you guys think of more ideas to add, as sirbounty just did with the forms.  Since the question is open ended it can never be completely answered, so it makes sense to give it 24 hours.

Also, to answer sunray's point, I didn't want to constrain the question to Outlook 2000.  If the best features or capabilities are in 2002 or 03, so be it.

Thank you all so much.

New features in 2003: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2003/newfeatures.htm

Oh yea, forgot about this one:
In OL 2000 and higher, open a message to view the information bar, in yellow. THis will tell you info like if and when you replied, but will also let you click to find all emails in the thread. Way cool!

This post may be closed, but if not ...

My favourite (which took some vba code on my part) is the ability scan my sent box for messages that have not been replied to - I have a poor memory, so quickly forget who I emailed - this macro scans my sent box and looks for emails in my inbox and other mailboxes from the addressee with the same topic and a later date.  It is not foolproof, but it is much better than my memory.

Charlie

Message templates has to be my favorite!  If you send similiar messages to the same contacts (ie Network Service messages) on a regular basis, you can even create a toolbar button linked to your template.  

Does anyone have an Outlook macro or form that has basic time and charge functionality?

For example, I work job by job (voicework), and an appointment entry (with appropriate category) could contain a short series of cells that calculates the cost of a job (units * rate, basically).  I'd then like to export or retrieve this information to a spreadsheet from time to time.

It's probably simple to do, but I just can't bear the idea of re-learning visual basic just at the moment :|

I do something similar to this, but just use the start and end times for calendar entries.  If you create a calendar columnar view with subject, start, end, duration - this can be copied to a spreadsheet with copy/paste (maybe paste by values).  I am pretty sure you could add new fields to the calendar entries and store other information in those fields (columns) such as your units and rate.  Then create the formulas in Excel to do the calculations that you need.

Charlie

Thanks, I sort of do that now... Looking for a more integrated approach.  I'll get that book down off the shelf one day...  or come here more often!

I have used user fields in Outlook where you can define a field to be a formula that calculates a number based on other fields (it has been a while) - I know these work with tasks, so I would expect they would work with appointments - that would allow you to calculate your result right in Outlook.

If we're on wishlist items (not seeking points, just throwing in my tuppence-worth) I've often toyed with the idea of a dynamically-prioritised ToDo list.  Dynamic in the sense that you could assign each task an urgency rate and an initial urgency score.  Low priority tasks with far-away deadlines get low initial score and low growth rate. A simple (linear/log?) formula, based on time-to-go until the deadline, could be applied to all tasks so that having chosen appropriate rate factors when setting each task, a list ordered by current score could be displayed for any date (normally 'Today') that would identify the tasks most in need of attention at that time.

Great idea for a question, searcherguy.
Maybe there should be a whole new category of submissions created on EE for things like this.


Regards
H

Wish lists!... priceless research for software co's.

Is there nothing EE can't do??

Charles Hall wrote:
========
My favourite (which took some vba code on my part) is the ability scan my sent box for messages that have not been replied to - I have a poor memory, so quickly forget who I emailed - this macro scans my sent box and looks for emails in my inbox and other mailboxes from the addressee with the same topic and a later date.  It is not foolproof, but it is much better than my memory.
=========
I am using Outlook 2003, and now Outlook does this for you - you have a folder that is created of all UNREAD email - even from the Junk folder. That is an improvement. The other major improvement is that images do not hit a website unless you tell Outlook to Show them to you. That way Spammers emails with images you did not want to see anyway, can be trashed without the Spammers web site logging your receipt of their email.

This is an interesting thread.  Thanks.

My favorite function in Outlook is probably the least used - NOTES. Having a freeform, searchable database inside Outlook helps to keep my desk clear. I can't stand sticky notes, scraps of paper get lost. Outlook notes feature keeps it all neat and you can share the information - store like a pack rat.

My favorite is Newsgator: http://www.newsgator.com
It is an add-on for Outlook that allows you to pull newsfeeds from sites. Instead of checking the newest news at CNN, or CNet, or Slashdot which will take you quite a while each day to go to each site several times a day to see the latest news, this RSS and XML newsreader for Outlook allows you to automatically get a list (with links to the original articles) of the newest articles from each site. This has not only increased my productivity by ensuring that I dont spend half of my day going to different sites to find the newest articles/information, I also don't have to "sign up" at their site and eventually get spam from them. I just use Newsgator to subscribe to the feed (in newsgator - not the news site) and Newsgator automatically goes out and gets a list of all of their newest cvontent. If I see that CNN has 20 new articles, I look at the headlines. If any interest me, I click on the headline (in Outlook...) and see a more detailed blurb of the article. If i want, I can click on the link and visit that site to see the whole article.

There are also many other good sites with Newsfeeds:
SlashDot: http://slashdot.org/index.rss
C|Net News: http://news.com.com/2547-1_3-0-20.xml
NewsForge: http://www.newsforge.com/reports.rss

You can even get:
Microsoft Security Bulletins: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/secrss.aspx
MSDN Updates: http://msdn.microsoft.com/rss.xml
The newest addtions to Freeware applications at Snapfiles.com (one of my favorites!): http://www.snapfiles.com/feeds/sf20fw.xml

All-in-All, I don't have to comb the internet anymore to find the newest updates and information. I just subscribe to a feed, thye give me up-to-date lists of articles with extended information, and I read what I want. No Spam. Unsubscribe is just a click away. No user accounts required!

I hope this helps!!

FYI - Newsgator does cost money, but they have a free 14-day trial and if you like it, it only costs $30.

Hi all,

Wow, this question has been closed for many months, but suddenly it's getting a lot of participation.  Don't know why but it's great to get these suggestions.

Searcherguy

This question was featured int the Experts Exchange Newsletter yesterday!

I teach business employees how to take advantage of the Office packages. One trick I discuss in Outlook that gets lots of oohs and aahs...

Create a note titled, "To-dos for Today", then drag and drop that note onto the desktop. (You might have to restore your outlook screen to see a bit of your desktop windows).  Now that this note is available on the desktop, you can double-click on it and add anything you want. At the end of the day - highlight the "to-dones" and delete those lines so your sticky note on your desktop will be clean for the next day....hmmm.. unless you are anything like me and your to-do list keeps growing and never shrinking...

Mind you, typing anything into the sticky note on your desktop will not save it in the original note in your Outlook. This just gives you quick access to sticky notes without having to be in outlook all the time.  My students love this. -- and you don't have to pay extra for a software that does this for you.  

Have fun...

Some more great tools or features :

- The latest great discovery was LOOKOUT
this Free addon searches all your mails and archives AND files on your local and shared drives !!
All from within outlook.
Once installed you can't miss it. This product is so good that microsoft decided to buy it, but you can still download it. http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/ 

- Simular tool you can get from Google called  Desktop search http://desktop.google.com/
Create a new OL form Add a Web Control to that from. Point to the Google Desktop Search application http://127.0.0.1:4664/&s=3834268493. And voila you hav

- Open applications from within OL using a macro to open for example the calculator CALC.EXE
For all of these easy to use macro codes go to http://www.outlookcode. com

- There is

Here's are some of my favorite Outlool customizations:

1- Syncronize only the Tasks I want/need to my cell  phone or iPAQ.
I have hundreds of pending tasks in my Outlook file. Sometimes I want to transfer them to either my iPAQ or my Cell Phone but I don't want hundreds of them, only the one's I need for the day. How? Create a new sub-folder under the Tasks folder called T616 (for my Ericsson T616 phone). When I need to, I drag and drop only the tasks I need to that folder.  Then I syncronize with the phone.  Of course, you have to tell your sync software which folder in Outlook to syncronize with.  As tasks are completed I check them off on the phone and then re-sync with Outlook. It works great, specially since I use the Bluetooth functionality of the T616 and my computer to syncronize wirelessly. This can also be applied to other folders such as the contacts folder.  I  have over 450 contacts in my Outlook file but don't need all of them on the phone.

2- Use the Outlook toolbar to create short-cuts and efficiency boosting features.
One of the most powerful features of Outllook is the ability to create, change and work with the toolbars. As an Outllok instructor I have always found that people almost always overlook this feature. I've created several new items in both the toolbar and menu bar that act as a "speed dial" if you will, for either e-mail or actual dialing with Outlook.  Example: If you are working in the calendar and want to send an e-mail you have to switch to the e-mail section of Outlook and then go back to the calendar.  During a day, this requires a lot of going back and forth between Outlook sections.  I've created a series of menu and toolbar items that act as drop down lists. One has the names of my most frequently e-mailed people. No matter where I am in Outlook I just click on that list, select the name and an e-mail message already addressed to that person apprears. Another one simply has the telephone numbers for my most frequently called people.  Here's how to do it:

- Right click anywhere on the toolbar and select "Customize". The customize window will open.
- Go to the "Commands" tab.
- In the Categories column of the Commands tab click on "Tools"
- In the Commands column now scroll down to "Speed Dial". Select it and drag and drop it to either the menu bar or a toolbar.  It will be called Speed Dial. You can rename this item by simply right clicking on it going to the name field and then typing whatever you want.
- Now in the Categoiries column (left) select the "File' category.
- On the Commands column go to "Mail Message" drag and drop it to the new speed dial entry you made. Its a little tricky but when drag the "Mail Message" right on top of the speed dial icon or menu entry.  Without releasing the mouse button hover over the icon until it opens and a small white box appears below it, then drop the "Mail Message" command into that box. The first entry is now made.  It will say Mail Message.  Keep adding as many as you need.
- Now left click on the speed dial icon and select the first entry, RIGHT click on that entry and assign it the name of someone.  After you assign it a name stay in that menu and drop down to "Assign Hyperlink" and "Open".
- On the left of this window select "E-Mail". The window will change to allow you to enter an e-mail address.
- In the e-mail address field type the following: mailto:xxx@bellsouth.net (of course, whatever e-mail address you want).
- Click OK.
- Continue to fill in all the e-mail addresses you need. Then click Close.
- Now, wherever you are in Outlook, just click on the new speed dial icon and select what you need.

I know this looks a little long and difficult but trust me, its a lot easier than it looks and only takes a few seconds per contact once you've gotten the hang of it.  Once you do one your imagination is the limit. If you look carefully at the "Assign Hyperlink" window you will notice that there are four options: Existing File or Web Page, Place in this Document, Create New Document, and, E-Mail.  So, using this system I have:

One Vendor E-Mail icon with their names and e-mail addresses.
One Customer E-Mail icon with their names and e-mail addresses.
Another one for family and friends their names and e-mail addresses.
Another for frequently dialed telephone numbers
Another for my most frequently accessed Internet sites
Another for my most frequently opened files
And another for my most frequently accessed programs.

With these shortcuts Outllool also acts like my desktop.  I don't have to leave Outlook to perform a lot of actions that are required during the everyday use of my computer.

Disclaimer:
I''m using Outlook 2003.  I've also done this with Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP.  Not sure if it works with Outlook 97.

So, take a little time to customize and the rewards will be well worth it. Post your comments, I'm interested in knowing if this was helpful.

Armando

We have used outlook/exchange to create a system that monitors backups from all our machines (over 300).
Each machine sends its backup logs to a public folder each night.  
We use outlook rules to route emails from failed backups to support staff based on contents.
But here is the good bit. At 7am, an exchange scheduled event runs that checks that it has received an email from each machine that it knows about.  That way we can trap the backups that never started.

We also use public folders to receive emails each time a machine goes down or restart.  
Each machine has a publicfolder and an email address.
When it comes to the end of the month we can report on all outages and restarts with very little effort using a calendar view.

I think the best feature of outlook for the normal user (I use it for my business especially) is to use the rules correctly. I set up a rule for every email I receive so that anything that touches my inbox, gets a rule applied. ALL of my email is autoagically sorted using those rules so that my folder will light up with unread mail numbers beside them when I get a new email there. I have been doing this for a few years now and dont know how I could do without it. Was the first reason I got hooked on Outlook.

Wondering if there is a limit to the amount of rules though. I have yet to find it... and hope I dont! :)

My favorite thing i've used Outlook for is an Cell Phone picture poster.      I installed EZDetach (3rd party Outlook plugin).      When i snap a picture with my cell, i send it to the email account setup in Outlook.   Outlook is set to check mail every minute,  when it recieves the email with the picture attached,   EZDetach detaches the JPG and sets it in a folder on the C drive.    I built a simple FTP app that when it detects an image in the folder, it renames the image and posts it to a folder on my website (automatically).    The image in the online folder is autoloaded on a webpage that refreshes every minute.      
So in the end,   i snap a shot with my cell and send it, within 3 minutes the image is displayed at my website.