Email is an important tool used every day with in the Westview Co-op organization. So let’s ask ourselves; How can I make better use of this tool at my fingertips? Below are a few help tips to improve your Microsoft Outlook 365 experience:

1: Read Everything

Keeping on top of messages in your Outlook Client is important.  Sometimes it can get over whelming to see 100s of unread messages in your Inbox.  You need to get in the habit of reading everything.  Now I am not saying read every message word for word consuming every minute of your workday.  Simply have a glance at message in your inbox. Things you might not need right away but want to look at later, simply right click on that message and select “Mark as Read”. This will keep the message in your inbox so you know to go back to it later, but it will remove the “Unread” highlight so you can better identify new messages in your inbox that might be more pressing.

2: Clean up your Inbox

When you receive new email in Outlook it arrives in your Inbox. Over time these messages can pile up if not properly maintained. Your inbox should be treated as a collection bin, then once that item/message has been dealt with or is deemed not needed, move, or delete that email from your inbox.  If you find there are emails you want to keep then create a folder in Outlook and move the emails you want to keep into that folder. (If you need to know more about how to create folders in Outlook, have a look at this video from Microsoft). If you are finished with an email and do not want to keep it, simply right click the message, and select “Delete”.

3: Empty the Trash

Outlook stores messages, including large attachments, in one file (typically known as the Personal Folders File, which uses a .pst file extension, or Offline Folder, which uses an .ost file extension). That storage file includes the Deleted Items folder. When users fail to empty the Deleted Items folder, deleted email continues contributing to gargantuan mailbox sizes. Regularly emptying the Deleted Items folder will help maintain a health mailbox size.

Useful Tip! Remember the “Deleted Items” folder is not a storage location for emails you might want to keep. “Deleted Items” is the Garbage can of Microsoft Outlook.

Did you know? You can configure Outlook to automatically empty Deleted Items when exiting the email application. To do so, click File, select Options, select Advanced, in the “Outlook start and Exit” section turn on the check box for “Empty Deleted Items folder when exiting Outlook” then click “OK”.