The primary difference between Outlook and the other Office 2000 programs is that in Outlook you start from a different folder, depending on what you want to do. For example, to open incoming e-mail messages, you go to the Inbox folder. To find a colleague or friend's address, you go to the Contacts folder.
Figure 20-1 shows the Inbox folder, the one that you spend most of your time in when using e-mail. On the left side of this screen is something called the Outlook bar. Notice the shortcut icons and the three group buttons‑Outlook Shortcuts, My Shortcuts, and Other Shortcuts—in the Outlook bar:
TIP: The first time you run Outlook you are presented with the Outlook Startup Wizard, which will help you set up Outlook to handle your e-mail account(s). For more information on running the Outlook Startup Wizard, see Appendix A, “Installing Microsoft Office 2000.”
· Group Click a group button and you see a new set of shortcuts in the Outlook bar.
· Shortcut Click a shortcut to go to that folder. To get to some shortcuts, you may have to click the down arrow at the bottom of the Outlook bar.
TIP: Besides the Outlook bar, Outlook offers two other ways to move to a different folder: either click the down arrow beside the folder name and choose an item from the drop-down menu, or choose a folder from the Go menu.
TIP: You can perform almost any action you need by choosing
the command from the Actions menu. This menu changes, depending on which folder
you’re in, to show you only those actions you can perform in your current
folder.
Table 20-1 explains where clicking a shortcut icon on the Outlook bar takes you. In the table, icon names appear under group names. That is because when you click on one of the three groups, a new set of icons appears in the Outlook bar.
TIP: The Outlook Today folder, or more accurately your Personal Folder file, is like the root directory on your hard drive--it contains all of your other folders. To make Outlook open to a different folder, choose Tools | Options, click the Other tab, then click the Advanced Options button. Choose a new folder from the Startup In This Folder drop-down menu.
|
Icon |
Opens This Folder |
|
Outlook Shortcuts |
|
|
Outlook Today |
The Outlook Today folder displaying a summary view of your other folders and items |
|
Inbox |
The Inbox folder where you work with all of your received messages |
|
Calendar |
The Calendar folder for scheduling your appointments and meetings |
|
Contacts |
The Contacts folder for storing people and their contact information |
|
Tasks |
The Tasks folder for planning projects and tasks |
|
Journal |
The Journal folder for recording work activity |
|
Notes |
The Notes folder for creating electronic sticky notes |
|
Deleted Items |
The Deleted Items folder with all items that you deleted |
|
My Shortcuts |
|
|
Drafts |
The Drafts folder with all the unfinished messages you saved before closing |
|
Outbox |
The Outbox folder with messages that have not been sent yet |
|
Sent Items |
The Sent Items folder with copies of all messages you sent |
|
Other Shortcuts |
|
|
My Computer |
The My Computer folder with the contents of your computer |
|
My Documents |
The My Documents folder with all documents you saved to the My Documents folder |
|
Favorites |
The Favorites folder with shortcuts for viewing web pages, folders, and files |
TIP: You can also access Outlooks folders by clicking View | Go To and selecting the folder from the menu