Formatting your message text

To format the text in your message, HTML formatting must be turned on, which, luckily, it is by default. If it’s turned on (and we remind you that it is by default), you can select a portion of the text and choose a font, size, style, and justification and all the other items in the Message tab above the body of the message. But if formatting is turned off, the formatting icons on the message window ribbon appear dimmed and are unavailable. Honestly, we can’t think of a good reason why you’d turn off this feature, but if the notion strikes you, it’s simple to do. To toggle between HTML modes, click the Options tab of the message window ribbon and then click the Format Text switch (which is green and displays HTML when the option is enabled).

To format text, you must first select the text you want to format and use the Message tab to apply the formatting (font, font size, font color, bold, and italic, for example). Figure 18-7 shows the various formatting options.

Including attachments

Sometimes, you'll want to send a file, known as an attachment, to someone by email. To attach a file to a mail message, drag the file from Finder to the message window.

If the file is a media file (an image file, an audio file, or a movie file, for example) and you drag it to the body of the message, the file appears in the body of your message, where it can be seen or played — an embedded attachment. (Note, however, that not all email programs allow this feature. If the recipient’s email program is set to accept only plain-text messages, the media file doesn’t show up. Any formatting you apply to text in an HTML message doesn’t show up if the recipient is using a text-only email app.)

As with text formatting, adding an attachment to a message increases the amount of data that has to be sent, resulting in longer transmission times. If you’re sending a high-resolution photo or a long video clip, for example, you can easily add several megabytes of data to a single email message. If the message is returned by the recipient’s email server as undeliverable because it’s too large, you know that the attachment added too much bulk.

You can also click the Attach File icon on the Message tab to select one or more files from the familiar File Open dialog. After you’ve attached one or more files to a message — in other words, without embedding them in the body of the text — they appear in the Attachment line under the Subject field, as shown in Figure 18-8. To the right of the filename is its size.

To remove a file from the Attachment line, click the small arrow to its right and then click Remove, as shown in Figure 18-8.

Click the tiny arrow to the right of any file in the Attachment line and choose Preview to open the Quick Look display for that file. Outlook doesn’t have to launch the app. For example, you can view a Word document without waiting for Word to load.

The names and sizes of media files embedded in the body of the message don’t appear in the Attachments line, and you can’t remove them by selecting them from the menu shown in Figure 18-8. To remove a media file from the body of your message, select it in the body of the message and then press Delete.

Adding a signature

You can have Outlook automatically add a signature to the end of your email messages. You can create and reuse as many signatures as you like.

Many people have at least two signatures for their messages — one for personal email and another for business.

Here’s how to create and use signatures:

1. Choose Outlook ⇒ Preferences and then click the Signatures icon.

   The Signatures pane appears in the Outlook Preferences dialog.

2. Click + (add a signature) in the middle left of the pane, and a new window appears for you to customize the signature.

3. In the Signature Name field, type a new name for the signature.

   Your name is used as the starting point for all new signatures.

4. Type the signature in the body portion of the window, as shown in Figure 18-9.
5. (Optional) Select the text in your signature and use the familiar tools on the Signature window's ribbon to format the text to your liking.

6. To add the new signature to your Signatures list, click the red circle in the top-left corner of the Signature window, and then click Save when prompted.

   You’re then returned to the Signatures pane of the Outlook Preferences dialog.

   

7. (Optional) To specify which signature will be added automatically to your messages:

   1. In the Choose Default Signature area, click the Account pop-up menu and select an account.
   2. Click the New Messages menu, the Replies/Forwards menu, or both, and select a signature.

   To turn off the automatic default signature feature, click the pop-up menu and choose None.

8. Close the Signatures pane by clicking the red Close button in the upper-left corner.

That’s it. To add a signature to a message manually, click the Message tab in the email window and then click the down arrow next to the Signature icon. It’s just under the Picture icon on the ribbon, and its icon looks like a tiny pen writing on paper. If the icon is hidden, you might need to click the arrow on the right side of the ribbon or expand the email window by clicking and dragging its right edge. On the menu that appears, choose the signature you want to use. It’s then inserted in the message at the current insertion point.

To give you an idea of how versatile the Outlook signature feature can be, we have created five signatures— Consulting, Long, Short, XLong, and XShort. Each is slightly different from the others, and we select the one that’s the most appropriate before we send a message.

No law says that this feature must be used for only signatures. If you have other boilerplate text you use often, you can create a signature of it. Then to insert it into a message, click the Signature icon on the message window's ribbon and choose the boilerplate signature from the pop-up menu.

Checking for messages manually

You can receive mail manually any time you like. From the ribbon, click the Home tab and then click the Send & Receive icon toward the right. Menu lovers can click Tools ⇒ Send & Receive. From the keyboard — the fastest method, of course — simply press ⌘  +Control+K. In a few seconds (or minutes, depending on your connection speed and the size of your messages), your new messages appear in your inbox.

But who wants to remember to go fetch email a dozen times a day? Fortunately, Outlook lets you set up schedules for automatically sending and receiving mail.

Scheduling an email to be sent later

Sometimes you may prefer to go ahead and write an email but have it sent at a later time. An example of this type of email is a weekly newsletter.

This is a great feature, but it’s limited to Microsoft Exchange email accounts, including Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 accounts.

To schedule an email:

1. Create your email message.

2. Click the tiny arrow next to the Send button and then click Send Later.

   If you don’t see the tiny arrow next to the Send button, your email account doesn’t support this feature. Try selecting a different email account in the From field, if you have multiple accounts.

3. In the fields provided, shown in Figure 18-10, select the date and time you’d like this email to be sent.
4. To set the scheduled deliver, click the Send button.

If you want to cancel or reschedule the delivery, go to the Drafts folder for the account, select the scheduled email, and click the Cancel Send button. You can then send the email immediately, reschedule the date and time for delivery, or cancel the email.

Dealing with junk mail

Nobody likes it, but everyone gets it. We're talking about junk mail, also known as spam. Fortunately, Outlook has tools to filter spam before it arrives in your inbox and quarantine it in a special Junk Email folder.

The junk email feature has changed a bit over the years. Outlook used to act as the main traffic cop of your email messages for most, if not all, account types. That’s no longer the case, because Microsoft now believes that your ISP or email provider should bear some or all of the load. That’s why the junk email feature works for only IMAP and POP email accounts.

If you enable IMAP or POP for an email account such as Google (check with Google or your ISP or email provider to find out how to do this), you’ll need to add the account to Outlook manually for Outlook’s junk email feature to work with it.

Here’s how to set up and use the junk email tools.

1. Choose Tools ⇒ Junk Email Preferences to open the Junk pane, as shown in Figure 18-11.

   If the Junk Email Preferences option is dimmed, your email account doesn't support it. And if your accounts are not IMAP or POP, you won’t see them in the Junk pane under the “These Settings Only Apply To” section on the left.

   

2. To make sure that email from specific senders is always delivered to your inbox and not filtered by the junk email tool:

   1. Click the Safe Senders tab.
   2. Click + at the bottom of the window.
   3. Type the email address of the sender you want to allow.

   You can also simply add a domain to this list, which allows any email from that domain to come through unscathed. For example, if you want to allow all emails from dummies.com, just type dummies.com in the field.

   If an email address is in your Outlook contacts, it’s never classified as junk (unless you add that address to your Blocked Senders list, which we cover in the next step).

3. To make sure that email from specific senders is always filtered by the junk email tool and sent to the Junk Email folder for the account they’re sent to:

   1. Click the Blocked Senders tab.
   2. Click + at the bottom of the window.
   3. Type the email address of the sender you want to thwart.

   You can also add a domain to this list, to block all email from that domain. For example, if you want to keep out all emails from dummies.com, just type dummies.com in the field.

4. Click the red circle in the upper left to close the Junk pane.

Now Outlook will evaluate all your incoming mail for the affected accounts and direct to the Junk Email folder any message it thinks is spam.

Each email account has its own Junk Email folder, so be sure to check them all if you have multiple email accounts. When you first start using this feature, you probably should look in all your Junk Email folders regularly, just in case a piece of good mail has been misclassified.

If you receive a junk mail message in your inbox, you can get rid of it in several ways:

• Select the message and choose Message ⇒ Junk Mail ⇒ Mark as Junk, or press ⌘  +Shift+J. Or from the ribbon’s Home tab, click the Move button, click the Junk button, and then select Junk, Not Junk, or Block Sender.
• Right-click the message directly in the list and choose Junk Mail ⇒ Mark as Junk from the contextual menu.

Either method helps train the junk mail filter so that the next time you receive a similar message, Outlook is more likely to automatically classify it as junk.

Conversely, if a piece of good mail accidentally ends up in a Junk Email folder, select the message and choose Message ⇒ Junk Mail ⇒ Mark As Not Junk (or press ⌘  +Shift+Option+J). You can also toggle off Junk Email status by right-clicking the email and selecting Junk Mail ⇒ Mark as Not Junk in the contextual menu. This action alerts the filter that messages similar to this one are probably okay.

Sometimes, Outlook suspects that a message is junk mail but isn’t sure. In these cases, the mail appears in your Junk Email folder with a note that says something like “This message appears to be Junk. Links and other functionality will not work.” You also see a Mark as Not Junk button. If you click this button, the message is marked as Not Junk and returned to the proper folder from whence it came.

Finally, to add a sender to your Blocked Senders list, select the message from that person and choose Message ⇒ Junk Mail ⇒ Block Sender. The sender’s address is added to the Blocked Senders tab in the Junk pane. (And yes, as you may have guessed, you can right-click any message in the list, choose Junk Mail, and then click Block Sender. You’re so predictable, Microsoft!)

To remove a domain or address from the Safe Senders or Blocked Senders tabs in the Junk pane, just select it and press Delete, or click the — icon below it.

Organizing your messages in folders

Outlook lets you create unlimited folders and subfolders, so take advantage of this feature. As the number of messages you have increases, it makes sense to start organizing them into folders rather than let them all sit in your inbox.

To create a new folder, choose File ⇒ New ⇒ Folder. If you want the folder to appear as a subfolder of another folder, first select the parent folder and then choose File ⇒ New ⇒ Folder. (You can also right-click the parent folder and choose New Folder from the menu that appears.) When the folder appears in the folder list, double-click it and type a name for it. You can create as many or as few folders and subfolders as you like.

Later, if you want to change the name of a folder or subfolder, click the name, click the name a second time (this isn’t a double-click; pause between the first and second click), select the old name and delete it, and then type a new name.

Now, after you read a message in your inbox, drag it to the appropriate folder, where it is saved forevermore. You can also right-click the message, select Move from the pop-up menu, and choose the folder you want to move the email to.

Searching your messages

In the upper-right corner of the main window’s toolbar is the search field, which you can use to search for email messages or any other item in Outlook (contacts, events, to-do items, or tasks, for example). The search field is your friend, so use it often. Following are some tips for using it effectively.

You can limit your search to a single folder, if you want. Just click the folder before you start typing in the search field. Or click the On My Computer folder to search all messages you’ve saved in folders or subfolders.

When you type text in the search field, a couple of things happen. First, Outlook displays the Search tab on the ribbon and immediately makes that tab active. Also, a set of very useful filters appear on the ribbon below the search field (shown in Figure 18-12), allowing you to specify search criteria. Our favorite filters include

• Current Folder and Subfolders: Include just the parent folder or all subfolders.
• All Items: Delve through all the data in Outlook, including other modules such as People and Notes.
• Attachments: Check for messages with attachments of a certain size (helpful for searching and deleting old messages that are taking up too much disk space).
• Date Received and Date Sent: “I know I sent that last Friday, but where is it?” If you organize by using subfolders and you’ve moved that message out of your outbox, these options are your ticket.
• Advanced: Click this icon to build your own, custom search.

The advanced search feature is especially powerful. Figure 18-13 shows the advanced search header, which appears under the ribbon when you click the Advanced icon — each button in the header is a pop-up menu, allowing you to build such criteria as Priority Is High or Read Status Is Forwarded. Click the first button to choose the base criterion, and then click the second button to choose the corresponding modifier.

Note that to the far right of the buttons are two more buttons: a minus sign (–) and a plus sign (+). The + lets you specify additional search criteria, allowing you to build some truly specific searches. Click the minus sign to remove a criterion.

Finally, the Save Search icon on the Search tab lets you save a search in the Smart Folders folder, which appears in the Navigation pane to the left of the window. If you find yourself searching for the same thing over and over again, click the Save Search icon, and the next time you want to run that search, you can just click its name in the Smart Folders folder. Sweet!

The items in the Smart Folders folder are saved searches. To prove it, right-click any item in the Smart Folders folder and choose Edit. The criteria for the search appears, which you can change if you want.

Creating rules for received messages

Wouldn’t it be nice if Outlook were smart enough to play a sound and display a dialog to alert you whenever new mail from your mom arrives? No sweat — it can do that and much more by using rules.

Rules work on the if-then principle: If something is true (or false), then an action occurs (or doesn’t occur). A specific example will help you understand, so here’s how to create a rule that makes a sound (three times) and presents a dialog every time new mail from Mom arrives:

1. Choose Tools ⇒ Rules to open the Rules pane in the Outlook Preferences window.

2. Click + (add) at the bottom of the pane.

   The Edit Rule dialog appears, as shown in Figure 18-14.

   

3. In the Rule Name field, type The Mom Rule.

4. Make the choices shown in Figure 18-14 from the pop-up menus, clicking Add Action to add the second, third, and fourth items.

   The only item in the When a New Message Arrives section should look like From Contains [email protected].

   The items in the Do the Following section should look like this:

   • Play Sound — New Mail Sound
   • Play Sound — New Mail Sound
   • Play Sound — New Mail Sound
   • Display Dialog
5. Click the Display Message button next to the fourth item (Display Dialog) and type An email from your mother has arrived.
6. Click OK to close the Dialog Text dialog.
7. Click OK to close the Edit Rule dialog.

That’s it. Note that the rule now appears in the Rules list next to the proper classification (typically IMAP, POP, or Outgoing). The next time an email message from Mom arrives, the New Mail sound plays three times and a dialog with the message “An email from your mother has arrived” appears onscreen.

That’s one example of a rule, and a simple one at that.

Here’s a rule we use often: “I’m out of the office and not reading mail.” It goes like this: For every message we receive, send a reply that says, “I’m out of the office and not reading my mail again until the Twelfth of Never. Please resend your message after that, if you want me to see it.”

Don’t forget to disable or delete the rule when you return from your trip on the Thirteenth of Never or else the message will continue to be sent automatically, even though you’re no longer out of the office. To disable a rule, display the Rules pane again and deselect the check box next to the name of the rule in the list. (You can select the check box again to turn it on the next time you need it.) To delete a rule entirely, click it to select it in the list and then click the − (delete) button at the bottom.

The possibilities are almost limitless, so be creative and create some rules yourself.