Customizing the screen
Customizing toolbars
Customizing the menus
Defining custom views
Customizing Outlook Today
No matter how clever a software company is—and Microsoft is plenty clever—there's no way they can design a program that works just the way everyone wants it to. Recognizing this, Microsoft has made Outlook very flexible so that you can change many aspects of how it looks and works to suit you. This is the topic of this chapter.
Please note that customizing Outlook is not the same as setting program options, a topic covered Chapter 7 for email-related options and in other individual chapters as needed. Options affect how the program operates, whereas customization deals primarily with the screen appearance of the program and how you enter commands.
Outlook provides you with many ways to customize the appearance of the screen.
Like any Windows program, you can change the size of the main Outlook window (assuming that it is not maximized to full-screen size) by pointing at a border or corner of the window and dragging to the desired size. You can also change the size of certain elements within the window. When you point at an element that can be dragged to change size, the mouse cursor will change to two parallel lines with arrow heads:
When the main window is displaying a view that uses columns, you can change the width of a column by pointing at its right border, as shown in Figure 19.1, and dragging to the desired width.
The navigation pane can be displayed normal size, minimized, or not at all by selecting Navigation Pane from the View menu and then selecting Normal, Minimized, or Off. On this same menu you can also choose to display or hide two parts of the navigation pane:
Current View Pane: Displays view options you can select (rather than using the menus).
Favorite Folders: Displays your favorite folders (as explained in Chapter 18). Available in Mail view only.
You can customize the display of other Outlook screen elements as described here:
The reading pane can be displayed at the right or the bottom of the screen or turned off altogether by selecting Reading Pane from the View menu.
The To-Do Bar can be displayed at normal size, minimized, or not displayed at all by selecting To-Do Bar from the View menu. This menu also lets you specify which elements (Date Navigator, Appointments, Task List) are displayed on the To-Do Bar and to set display options.
The daily task list can be displayed at normal size, minimized, or not displayed at all by selecting Daily Task List from the View menu. You can also use this command to specify how the displayed tasks are arranged.
The applications in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite have almost all gotten away from the traditional menus-and-toolbars user interface in favor of ribbons, which I consider to be sort of a sophisticated hybrid between menus and toolbars. Outlook is lagging behind, and for reasons unknown still uses the traditional menus and toolbars in its main screen. Other Outlook windows, such as the ones you see when you open an email message or a task, use ribbons, so Outlook is sort of a mongrel—but it all works perfectly well.
Outlook has three toolbars called the Standard, Web, and Advanced toolbars. They are identified in Figure 19.2. The Standard and Advanced toolbars are adaptive, which means the buttons they display change depending on what you are doing in Outlook. Most toolbar buttons are identified by an icon, and if you cannot figure out what the icon means, rest the mouse cursor over a button for a moment to view an informative ScreenTip, also shown in the figure.
If you don't need or want the ScreenTips, turn them off as follows:
Select Customize from the Tools menu to display the Customize dialog box.
Click the Options tab.
Turn off the Show ScreenTips on Toolbars option.
Click OK.
If you do not want all three—or any—toolbars displayed, right-click any toolbar or in the toolbar area to display the menu shown in Figure 19.3. Click the toolbar names to check (display) or uncheck (hide) them.
The toolbars are normally displayed near the top of the screen just under the main menu. You can move a toolbar to another screen location by pointing at the vertical row of dots at the left end of the toolbar. You'll see the mouse cursor change to a four-headed arrow. You can position a toolbar in one of two ways:
Docked: If you drag the toolbar to any of the four edges of the Outlook window, it will dock in position along that edge.
Floating: If you drag the toolbar to any other screen location, it will "float" at that position. You move a floating toolbar by dragging its title bar.
Figure 19.4 shows Outlook with the Web toolbar floating and the Advanced toolbar docked at the top of the Outlook window.
Each of the three Outlook toolbars has a set of buttons it can display. When first installed, Outlook displays all these buttons on each toolbar. If there's a button you never use, you can remove it to save screen space. You can always add it back later. Here are the steps to follow:
Click the arrow at the right end of the toolbar that you want to customize.
Select Add or Remove Buttons.
Select the name of the toolbar. Outlook displays a list of available buttons as shown in Figure 19.5.
Click a button in this list to check or uncheck it. Click Reset Toolbar to return the toolbar to its default set of buttons.
When finished, press Esc or click anywhere outside the button list.
You can go beyond hiding or showing a toolbar's default buttons to adding essentially any Outlook command to a toolbar and even creating new, custom toolbars. To do so, click the arrow at the right end of any toolbar, select Add or Remove Buttons, and then select Customize. You can also select Customize from the Tools menu. Outlook displays the Customize dialog box. The Toolbars tab of this dialog box is shown in Figure 19.6. It lists the three default toolbars, the Menu Bar (which corresponds to the main menu), and any custom toolbars that exist.
Hide or display a toolbar by checking or unchecking it (but you cannot hide the Menu Bar).
Create a new toolbar by clicking New and typing in the name of the toolbar. Outlook displays the new toolbar, which is empty, and you add commands to it as I describe soon.
Delete or rename a custom toolbar.
Reset a default toolbar to its original complement of buttons.
While the Customize dialog box is open, you can add, remove, and move toolbar buttons using drag and drop. If you want to add new buttons, you must display the Commands tab of this dialog box, shown in Figure 19.7. This dialog box lists all of Outlook's commands, organized by category. Here's what you can do; these actions include any new, empty toolbar that you may have created:
To move a button from one toolbar to another, drag it from the old toolbar and drop it on the new toolbar. A vertical black line shows where the button will be placed before you drop it.
To move a button to a new location on the same toolbar, drag and drop it.
To place a new command on a toolbar, drag it from the list of commands in the Customize dialog box and drop it in the desired location.
To remove a command from a toolbar, drag it off the toolbar and drop it anywhere away from the toolbars.
When you are finished, click the Close button to close the Customize dialog box.
Outlook's main menu is a special type of toolbar, called the Menu Bar. It too can be customized although the procedures are slightly different than for toolbars:
Display the Customize dialog box by selecting Customize from the Tools menu.
Click the Commands tab.
Click the menu you want to customize (on the actual Menu Bar, not in the dialog box). The menu opens. Then:
To move a command from one menu to another, drag it from the old menu to the new (which opens) and then drop it in the desired position.
To move a command to a new position on the same menu, drag it to the new position.
To place a new command on the menu, drag it from the Commands list in the Customize dialog box to the desired position on the menu.
To remove a command from the menu, drag it off the menu and drop it somewhere else away from the menus.
When finished, click Close to close the Customize dialog box.
Another Way to Rearrange Commands
You can also rearrange commands on menus and toolbars by clicking the Rearrange Commands button on the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box. Outlook displays the Rearrange Commands dialog box. Then:
If you want to rearrange commands on a menu, select the Menu Bar option then select the desired menu in the adjacent list. If you want to rearrange commands on a toolbar, select the Toolbar option then select the desired toolbar in the adjacent list. The commands on the selected element are displayed in the Controls list.
Select an existing command.
Use the buttons to add a new command, delete the selected command, or move the selected command up or down in the list.
Click Reset to return the toolbar or menu to its default set and order of commands.
Click Close when you are finished.
The Rearrange Commands dialog box.
Warning
Given that Outlook provides you with great flexibility when it comes to customizing your menus, it can be tempting to spend a lot of time doing so. But is this really a good idea? Windows programs, particularly those from Microsoft, tend to follow the same general menu organization. Of course, different programs do not have the same menu commands, but there are quite a few common commands that people expect to find in a certain location within the menu structure. Do you want your copy of Outlook to be different? Also, what will happen if you have to use Outlook on another system? The menus will be different from your customized ones and may be hard to use. Think twice before making any significant changes to the menus.
When you display the Customize dialog box (select Customize from the Tools menu), there is a third tab called Options, as shown in Figure 19.8. The options on this tab are as follows:
Always Show Full Menus: If this option is selected, Outlook always shows the full menu as soon as the menu title is clicked on the Menu Bar. Otherwise, Outlook displays an abbreviated menu with the most frequently used commands and shows the full menu only if you click the arrow at the bottom of the abbreviated menu (see Figure 19.9).
Show Full Menus After a Short Delay: If Always Show Full Menus is turned off, you can select this option to have Outlook display the full menu after a short delay.
Reset Menu and Toolbar Usage Data: Outlook keeps track of which menu commands you use most often and uses this information to determine which commands are displayed on abbreviated menus. Click this button to reset your usage data.
Large Icons: Select this option to display larger icons on toolbars.
List Font Names in Their Font: If this option is selected, then when selecting fonts, the font names will be displayed in the actual font.
Show ScreenTips on Toolbars: This option determines whether a ScreenTip displays when the mouse cursor is hovered over a toolbar button.
Show Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips: If this option is selected, a ScreenTip for a toolbar button will also display the shortcut key (if there is one) assigned to that command.
Menu Animations: Use this option to select how Outlook animates opening and closing menus.
In Outlook, you may be viewing mail, contacts, tasks, or any of the other kinds of information that Outlook supports. Regardless of what you are viewing, the Current View command on the View menu lists a selection of predefined views you can use. For example, when viewing mail you can view mail for the last seven days, unread messages, and so on.
In addition to the predefined views, the Current View menu also has two other commands, Customize Current View and Define Views. These commands let you make modifications to the predefined views and also to define your own custom views.
When you select Current View from the View menu and then select Customize Current View, Outlook displays the dialog box shown in Figure 19.10. The title of the dialog box displays "Customize View XXXX", where XXXX is the name of the current view—By Category in the figure.
You can see there are seven buttons that provide access to additional dialog boxes that let you customize specific aspects of the view. Be aware that for some views, not all these buttons are available (they are grayed out). This is because some views are more flexible than others and allow for greater customization. The following sections look at these choices in turn. Remember the examples shown in the figures are for a specific view—the By Category view for Tasks. When you are customizing a different view things are likely to look different.
The Show Fields dialog box, shown in Figure 19.11, lets you specify which fields, or pieces of information, are included in the view. The left side of the dialog box lists the fields that are available, and the right side lists those that are part of the view definition. You use the Add and Remove buttons to move fields from one list to the other, and the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change the order of fields in the view.
The Group By dialog box, shown in Figure 19.12, lets you determine how items are grouped in the view. Most views that use grouping will group on a single field—for example, Category. You can also define subgroups if you want to use the Then By section of this dialog box.
The Sort dialog box (see Figure 19.13) lets you specify how items are sorted in the view. If the items are grouped, the sorting is applied within each defined group.
The Filter dialog box, shown in Figure 19.14, lets you define a filter that will be applied to the view. When a filter is in effect, only those items that meet your defined criteria are displayed.
The Other Settings dialog box, shown in Figure 19.15, is used to control miscellaneous settings for the view, such as the font used, the appearance of gridlines, and the way AutoPreview works.
The Automatic Formatting dialog box, shown in Figure 19.16, lets you define automatic formatting that will be applied to items in the view. You can, for example, specify that completed tasks are displayed using a strikethrough font and that overdue tasks are displayed in a red font.
The Format Columns dialog box, shown in Figure 19.17, is used to specify the display format for columns in the view. For example, a column that displays a date could be formatted to display as 12/22/06, 22-Dec-06, or December 22, 2006 (among others). You can also specify the alignment and label for each column.
Outlook Today is the default home page for Personal Folders (you learned about specifying a home page for folders in Chapter 18). It provides a summary of important information, such as unread mail messages, tasks with upcoming due dates, and the next few days in your calendar. You can customize Outlook Today as follows:
Display Outlook Today.
Click the Customize Outlook Today button at the top right of the window. Outlook opens Customize Outlook Today in the main window (see Figure 19.18).
Make changes as follows:
When Starting...: If this option is selected, Outlook automatically displays Outlook Today when the program starts.
Messages: Click Choose Folders to specify which folders have their messages summarized in Outlook Today.
Calendar: Specify how many days of your calendar are shown in Outlook Today.
Tasks: Specify which tasks are shown and how they are sorted.
Styles: Choose a display style for Outlook Today.
Click Save Changes.
