Four top time-saving tips for Microsoft Outlook

The majority of businesses are using Microsoft Outlook as their main email provider, and Outlook.com has more than 400 million active users, so the odds are that you're pretty familiar with Outlook as an email tool. There are however a few cool features that not everyone seems to know about, but that make simple tasks much quicker to complete. Here are my 4 favourite time saving features in Outlook.

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1) Quick Attachments

The documents we send via email are, more often than not, ones that we have been working on recently, and Outlook has now made these documents much easier to share and work with.

When you click to attach a document, Outlook automatically brings up the most recent documents you have been working on so that you can attach them without having to search for them:

(Image removed) Rather than wade through folders trying to find the right document, you can now access them all quickly and easily in one location. Sharing documents with your colleagues becomes a much simpler and more straightforward process, and any tool that saves me from clicking through multiple screens is a good one in my eyes!

2) Inline Document Preview in Outlook Online

Have you ever attached a document to an email, been about to click send, then had a panic that it's not the right one? Or that it hasn't got the right date on?

In Outlook Online, you can quickly review your attachment without having to leave the email. Simply click on the attachment, and a preview will appear inline in your email.

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It's a small feature but it can save you a lot of window-switching and double-checking time.

3) Instant Contact Availability with Skype for Business

A surprising amount of time can be wasted waiting for your colleagues to respond to emails, or wondering whether or not they have received them. The integration of Skype for Business with Outlook however eliminates this problem by letting you see your team's availability instantly.

Your colleague's contact picture will show up on their email with a colour coded status bar next to it showing their availability. You can then respond to them via email or, if they are available, via instant message in Skype for Business:

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This means that you can communicate and collaborate with your co-workers quickly and efficiently. You can quickly open an instant messaging conversation, or even start a telephone/video call straight from the email. Simply click on the contact image, and select the option you want:

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The ability to instantly see who in your team is available, and to open a communication channel at the click of a button without even having to leave the email, vastly speeds up communication and removes common roadblocks to getting work done.

4) Find the Answers with "Tell Me"

The range of capabilities within the Office suite of products is vast, and it's easy to forget (or never know!) how to perform useful functions. Rather than head to your search engine to start a "How do I...in Outlook?" search, you can now stay in the client/web app and use "Tell Me" - a small search bar located in the ribbon:

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Once you start typing your query into the bar, it begins to make intuitive suggestions to help you find a solution:

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These are just a few quick simple tips for saving precious minutes on a daily basis. If you have a favourite feature or there's one you think I've missed, let me know in the comments below!

Business Cloud Integration Ltd offer Cloud, SharePoint and Office 365 consultancy in Cambridge, delivering solutions that increase company productivity, streamline and automate business processes, and simplify and enhance collaborative working.

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