OPEN OUTLOOK WITH MULTIPLE VIEWS

It's been a while since I literally work a desk job, i.e. sitting at a desk with my own phone extension, a computer monitor, drawers for my own stuff etc.  I started a new job about a month ago and that's exactly what came with the job.  I now also have two monitors to work with, a great thing to have to meet today's work demand.  One monitor for email, the other for the web etc.  With two monitors, I rarely need to print things out, just put the things to compare side by side.

One thing I love to do is have my programs run as soon as I log in.  Outlook, Chrome, Windows Explorer, a DOS box, etc. stuff that I would launch sooner or later.  As I now have two monitors to use, I started the habit of having up to three views of Outlook while using it.  Most people have Outlook show them their email then switch to the Calendar view when needed and switch back afterward.  Instead of just clicking on Calendar, if you right-click on it there's an option to open the Calendar in a new window.  I do that, also for Notes.  Nice to have Mail, Calendar, and Notes up and ready, just a click away, without having to switch back and forth with Mail.

I already have Outlook starts up along with other programs but it only opens the Mail view.  I knew there must be some command line switch I can use but at first there seems to be none.  (FYI, most, if not all, programs that you use in Windows is actually a pretty icon on the front, behind it is some filename that ends in .exe and such that you can type to start the program.)  I did come across this link, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/command-line-switches-for-microsoft-office-products-079164cd-4ef5-4178-b235-441737deb3a6#ID0EAABAAA=Outlook but it wasn't so obvious.  Ultimately, it was the /select foldername option but the use of the word foldername threw me off.  I think of folders as those things I created in my Inbox to keep things tidy.  I have one for my boss, one for some news subscription, etc, with matching Rules to filter the incoming mail into them.  I am lucky now that I don't have many email message to wade through but if needed I can easily find my boss' email because he has his own folder.  But folder the way Outlook sees it, per the Microsoft link anyway, is what I think of as View.  So what I have now are three separate commands:

c:\program files\microsoft office\office15\outlook.exe" /select outlook:Mail

c:\program files\microsoft office\office15\outlook.exe" /select outlook:Calendar

c:\program files\microsoft office\office15\outlook.exe" /select outlook:Notes

The exact path to Outlook.exe may be different for you, depending on whether you use the same Office version etc.  I already have an Outlook shortcut in my Startup folder, set to the Mail View, so I copied it twice, then edit the path to use outlook:Calendar and outlook:Notes.  Voila!  As soon as I log in, I have the three "Views" opened for me.  

PINNED TEMPLATES

A few days ago, I wrote about using Office templates to make repetitive tasks easier to handle.  The way Microsoft wants us to launch the template files, I don't like it at all.  There are just too many clicks to go through.  My approach is to save the template files somewhere easily reached, like Documents folder or top level of network home drive.  Be sure to pin Outlook application to the Taskbar.  Have Windows Explorer opened to where the template file lives.  Right-click the template file and drag it onto the Outlook icon in the Taskbar, at which point the mouse pointer should mention Pin to Outlook.  Let go.  Next time you need to launch the template, right-click on the pinned Outlook icon and the template is right there at the top of the list, similar to what I have below.  Click the item and you are ready to breeze through it.

TEMPLATE IN A TEACUP?

Every now and then I would meet a computer user who says he has some template file to help speed up some repetitive task.  Microsoft Word may not be the best program to create forms but it does the job.  In the case of said user, he would have some MS Word document, say Request-Form.docx.  A bonafide MS Word file, that he opens, then erases a word here and there and enter the new information.  Then he Save As some other names, say Request-12345.docx.  I am such a stickler when it comes to language and terms, the idea of calling such a document a template annoys me to no end.  That's not how a template is supposed to be.  If one day he forgets to edit certain words, then the document is wrong.  Hopefully it won't be some sensitive information that is sent to the wrong people, but it's a possibility.  If the world is still all pen-and-paper like not so long ago, my user would be taking a completed form and use correction fluid to cover up the old info, wait for it to dry, then write in the new info.  The electronic method is not as tedious, but you get the idea.

A real template file, or for simplicity's sake, template, is a file that when you open creates a new document, based on the template's name, with some number attached at the end.  For example, if you have a template to contain Help Desk requests and name it HDRequest.dotx, when you double-click it you get a new file named HDRequest1.docx.  While the first document is still open, if you double-click the template, it creates HDRequest2.docx, so on and so on.  Let's say the request has some boxes to hold the requester's first name, last name, and contact number.  You create the template with those fields empty.  When you launch the template, the new document is also empty in those fields.  Whatever you do or not do to the new document, nothing will reflect in the template because the new document and the template are two different files.  Not so with the crummier method that I described in the beginning.  Let's say you open some faux template and filled in some fields, then instead of saving under a different name, you use the same name and unwittingly select Yes when asked to confirm the overwrite.  Your faux template has been changed, unintentionally.  You will have to re-create it by removing certain words etc until it's back to its original format.

Many programs support the use of template.  We already saw the example with Microsoft Word.  Excel has it, so does PowerPoint, and Outlook too.  Let's create a template in Outlook and see how it's used.

Let's say everyday you need to send an email to the four messieurs as shown above, about some repetitive topic, of course.  You create a new message as usual, enter Mr. Fahrenheit and Mr. Fancy Pants in To field, then Mr. Magoo and Mr. Ed in the Cc field, some meaningful Subject, and finally something useful in the body of the message.  If you already have signature auto-appended to all your new message, do not include the signature in the template.  For example, if my signature already includes Qaptain Qwerty and the easy-to-remember phone number, an Outlook template like that above will generate a repeat of the name and phone.

Save the "message" and choose the format to be Outlook Message Format - Unicode (*.msg).  When you select Outlook Message Format, the location the file is saved is automatically set to the user's Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Template .  

To use the template, the way Microsoft wants you to, as seen in  Outlook Help, is tedious.  You have to click New Mail / More Items / Choose Forms / Users Templates in File System .  I think I have a better system, but I'll save the tip for the next blog entry.

MADE-TO-ORDER OUTLOOK

With the new job comes a new laptop that needs to be configured my way.  My usual customization include:

• Create a folder in Outlook called something like Addressed To Me.  I read it somewhere for the idea, to avoid wading through the many email messages that do not mention me specifically but rather address some distribution list(s) that I belong to.  Recent versions of Outlook has this option as a filter, or Focus, but I like the actual folder to hold messages addressed to me personally.
• Having the Addressed To Me folder is more useful when it is coupled with a rule that move messages there when the criteria is met, i.e. I am addressed directly.
• Even better, there is an option to open the Addressed To Me folder when Outlook is launched.  By default, Outlook focuses on the Inbox when it is launched.  I think because of this option, the Focus alone won't do what I need.
• I always read my email when I first turn on the computer.  To get Outlook started at login time, I place a shortcut to Outlook in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup .  Note that ProgramData is a Hidden folder, to see it you would need to enable seeing of Hidden folders.
• One new "feature" with the more recent versions of Outlook is NOT opening a new email in its own window.  I find that annoying.  To open the new email in its own window, you would need to click on some button to pop-out the message.    Too much work!  So one additional customization I have to do is to check Open replies and forwards in a new window, in Outlook Options, Mail, as shown below.

OUTLOOK RULE - ADDRESSED TO ME

I just sorta cleaned up my Apple iCloud mailbox.  Basically I sorted it by Unread then clicked the first item, scrolled down a bit to find the next bunch of unread messages, held down the Shift key and clicked one message, to select a big block of messages.  On the right window I had the option to set them all to Read status, just so I don't have to see the thousands of messages flagged as Unread.

For work I have a process to organize my Outlook mailbox that is a bit more elegant.  First I created, just one time of course, a folder named for me, let's call it Addressed To Blah.  Next I set up a rule that named where my name is in the To or Cc box.  The action is to move all such messages into the folder created above.  In the picture it's called Addressed To Blah.  When you work in a corporate environment, your name may be added to multiple distribution groups.  Some are really relevant to your job, others not so much.  At past jobs I wasted some time wading through all these emails to find the one that were assigned to me specifically, which usually means an answer is required or the issue at hand is really relevant to me.  I wish I can give credit to whoever came up with this rule, as I am sure I read it somewhere years ago.  With this rule in effect, the first thing in the morning I would first look at my own folder and take care of any issues that need my attention.

You can go one step further by setting this Addressed To Blah folder as the folder that's opened up when Outlook first starts.  The Options is under Advanced / Start Outlook in this folder .  This folder is already so useful, why bother even looking at the Inbox folder when Outlook first launches?  Put out any fires in your own folder first then go look at the other folders.  Chances are they are just noises, but as a responsible corporate employee, you want to at least know what's out there.