In my last post I talked about how great it is to be able to use RSS feeds in Outlook. Well, it’s also great to use them in Internet Explorer, because there you can add a new feed quickly and view it directly from its website. You know what’s the greatest? Having both capabilities—synchronized...

When blogs first started to go big, it was exciting to check all your favorites for updates. Then you found even more blogs you loved and it got to be a long list of sites to check, and they didn’t all update consistently so sometimes there was nothing new. And then there was that blissful day...

Working as a team means dividing up the work. Clearly dividing project tasks and assigning roles is essential to making sure everything gets done. Everybody hates that awkward silence when you realize you all thought someone else was supposed to do a particular task. You can use Tasks in Outlook to...

Using a calendar out on your SharePoint team site has a few advantages: Everyone on your team can access it and add appointments. Security is managed through SharePoint. If the calendar’s creator leaves the company, the calendar still exists. This is an advantage over sharing calendars...

Depending on what you're working on throughout the day, you may want to de-clutter your view in Outlook to focus just on the task at hand. To hide the Ribbon, just click up arrow on the right side of the Ribbon or press Ctrl+F1 : Don't worry, you can quickly toggle it back when you need it. You can do...

The Office team has compiled customers' favorite commands across all Office 2010 applications, which you can download to add as a Favorites tab in Access, Excel, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, Visio, and Word. For example, the Favorites tab in Word puts Save , Send , Properties...

Too busy to read all of the documents on your To Do list? If you want, you can have your Office applications read them to you. This will work in any Office 2010 program except Access. First, click the arrow icon to the right of your Quick Access Toolbar on the Office application for which you want to...

One of the best features you may have missed in Office 2010 is the tight integration between Outlook and OneNote. Open up an appointment in Outlook 2010 and you'll see a small OneNote button: Click it to open a linked meeting notes section (the first time you use it, you'll be prompted to select where...

If you've been using Outlook for a long time, you probably know the basic shortcuts: New message: Ctrl+N Mark message read: Ctrl+Q Mark message unread: Ctrl+U Delete item: Ctrl+D or Delete Check for new mail: Ctrl+M or F9 And if you've been reading this blog, you know about the two useful shortcuts involving...

If you're an old pro at Office, you may be wondering what happened to Smart Tags when you upgraded to Office 2010. They have been renamed Actions, and you have a lot of flexibility in how you use them. Actions are also less obtrusive. There's no longer an icon that pops up when Office detects a word...

If you find Outlook getting cluttered with windows when you're replying to mails, there's an easy way to clean things up. This works in both Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010. Just go to File , Options and select the Mail tab. (For Office 2007, use the Office button .) Now scroll down to Replies and forwards...

When receiving HTML emails, you know doubt have noticed that Outlook 2010 blocks images by default, like so: The reason is to protect you from identifying your account is active when opening messages from unscrupulous spammers, who will detect when you open the message and increase the assault on your...

If you're like me, you like to be prepared for your meetings. This can mean extra time for reviewing documents, brainstorming ideas, and printing handouts - not to mention travel time. If you're frequently late or unprepared for your appointments, simply change the default reminder. Go into File , Options...

If you use the Outlook Hotmail Connector, you may have already been prompted to update to the new version: This version 14.2 update corrects a number of sync issues, improves performance, and turns off the junk mail filter in Outlook in favor or Hotmail's own filtering system. If you've made entries...

If you're running Office for Mac 2011, you can now download Service Pack 1 . New features include performance improvements, Excel Solver integration, Outlook server rules, mail redirects and resends, and support for Apple Sync Services including iPhone and iPad. Note: If you use the MobileMe service...

You may have heard the marketing rule that when writing for a general audience, you should aim for an 8th grade reading level. This not only helps your message get out to people who are less educated, it can reach customers who are learning English as a second language and, in general, can help you stick...

I like to log tasks and track my activities in Office apps, whether it's building a schedule in Excel , converting emails into tasks and reminders in Outlook , or even jotting notes in OneNote . This helps my productivity in a few ways - it helps me break down larger tasks into smaller ones and keeps...

Have you ever mistakenly launched the wrong Office application? I know I have - sometimes my mouse slips and I click the wrong icon locked on my Windows 7 taskbar, or I'm rushing and mix up the Outlook and PowerPoint icons. The good news is that, if this happens, Office 2010 users don't have to wait...

If your team always seems to be out-of-sync, create a Calendar Group to quickly pull up everyone's schedule in one view. First, go to Calendar in Outlook 2010, click Calendar Groups , and Create New Calendar Group : Give it a name and then select all of the people you want to add from the address book...

Not everyone works 9 to 5 or Monday through Friday. If your schedule is different from the norm, simply change your work week calendar view in Outlook to match. In Outlook 2010, go to File , Options , and select the Calendar tab: Here you can adjust start and end times, which days you work, and even...

The cloud-based version of Microsoft Office and related services, called Office 365, is now in public beta. This means you can sign up to try the subscription service, which offers your favorite Office applications plus SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync services via the Web using most devices. This delivers...

Whether it's for the office team-building offsite event or the weekly sales status summary, a quick way to add impact to your emails is with the Insert tab in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010. You can add shapes, such as arrows, flowcharts, and word balloons: And search through clip art for the perfect...

Have you ever sent a mail and asked that recipients use Reply All, only to have some people respond just to you? Then YOU have to forward the mail to the rest of the group. Thankfully, there is a way to force Outlook to send replies to a specific list of recipients regardless of whether they click Reply...

It's easy to create an Outlook signature. Just click on the Signature button in a new message, select Signatures and then click New and start typing. The only problem with this approach is that the signature editor is fairly limited. A better option is to use the new mail message itself. You'll have...

Even if you've created Outlook personal data files before to archive, filter, or otherwise store mail on your local drive, you may not know where to find this feature in Outlook 2010. It's actually pretty quick and easy to do, once you know where to look. On the Home tab, click New Items , select More...