Definitions:

Pane: A rectangular area within an on-screen window that contains information for the user. A window may have many panes.

LECTURE SCRIPT (you can also turn on close captioning by clicking the CC button):

When you first run Outlook, depending on how it was initially setup for you, it might look a bit confusing.

So, let’s break it into bitesize pieces with a quick walkthrough of what you will be looking at, and then we can dive into the important and useful details you need to know later.

At the top is the title bar - you can click and drag it where you like on the screen.

Double-clicking in the title bar maximizes the window, and double-clicking again restores its original size and position.

If you’re short of screen space, you can resize the left and bottom of the window and place it somewhere convenient so you can see when emails come in, and when you’re ready to handle your emails, double-click the title bar and you’re ready to go.

At the left of the title bar you’ll see some icons that are known as the QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR.

If I print my emails a lot, I can click on the down arrow, add the print command, and that icon will be there forever.

At the right of the toolbar are the normal windows icons – X closes the program, the – icon minimizes the program completely off the screen, and the SQUARE icon maximizes the screen, same as double-clicking on the title bar.

You’ll see an extra icon there with an up arrow – it controls the ribbon bar which we will cover in a moment, but know that clicking on it allows you to show the TABS, which are these guys up here, and the ribbon bar which is this right here.

If you choose SHOW TABS, it will hide the ribbon bar, and if you choose AUTO HIDE RIBBON, it hides everything at the top.

Moving your mouse to the top again displays this BLUE bar, and clicking on the bar shows the TABS and RIBBON BAR again so you can choose what you want to do.

When you click outside again, the ribbon bar and top hides again.

Let’s click again and set the option to SHOW TABS AND COMMANDS, which is how we’ll work for the rest of this course.

Next is the TABS area.

Like all office applications, we have the FILE TAB, for doing thigs such as PRINTING documents, setting up your email ACCOUNTING, and setting personalized OPTIONS, and clicking the BACK ARROW or pressing ESCAPE returns to the main HOME tab.

The HOME TAB contains groups in the ribbon bar to control creating NEW emails, DELETEing emails, RESPONDing to emails, a few customizable QUICK STEPS, MOVE options, different ways to TAG emails, FINDing and categorizing emails, and possibly other options depending on your computer setup.

The SEND/RECEIVE TAB shows the ribbon bar groups which are all about how emails are retrieved and processed.

The FOLDER TAB contains RIBBON BAR groups for managing your emails, such as creating and filing them in folders, and other options we will cover in later lectures.

The VIEW TAB lets you tell Outlook how you wish to view you emails and setting up how the program look.

The HELP TAB contains help and support, and right next to that is the LIGHTBULB with the TELL ME WHAT TO DO space.

If I wanted to print something, I could click in TELL ME WHAT TO DO, type in PRINT, and Outlook gives me the various commands and actions I can do.

Finally, at the right-end of the RIBBON BAR, you’ll see this UP ARROW, which is another way to tell Outlook to HIDE THE RIBBON BAR.

We can always click above and tell Outlook to SHOW TABS AND COMMANDS AGAIN.

Middle left we have the FAVORITES and FOLDERS panes.

Outlook works really well when you organize your emails by folders, and allows you to take any folder and drag it to the FAVORITES pane if you find yourself spending a lot of time there.

Notice another one of these arrows up here, and like the RIBBON BAR, clicking it hides the folder view.

If you want to bring it back, click the arrow again.

When you click outside of the folder pane, it disappears again.

I like having the folder pane open all the time, as I am a ninja about filing emails, so I click the arrow, click the PIN, and that tells Outlook I want it permanently open and moves everything around accordingly.

Arrows in Outlook usually mean hide or show things, like these folders here, where I click on the arrow and it expands to show what’s in the folder.

In the middle is a list of emails in the selected folder, in this case my INBOX.

Clicking on any of these emails shows the email content in a pane to the right.

On the far right, I have a calendar pane setup to show me the current calendar and the appointments or meetings I have coming up in the next few days.

Don’t get confused if your Outlook doesn’t look like this – we’ll be going over how to customize these views to your liking in a later lecture.

The strip down here below the folders is the NAVIGATION BAR, which is how you access all those apps I was talking about earlier such as your CALENDAR, CONTACTS, TASKS, NOTES and more.

And below that is the STATUS BAR, which, as the name indicates, shows you the status of various things.

Next, we’ll quickly cover first customization using the NAVIGATION BAR and STATUS BAR, before we get into the nitty-gritty details of effectively using all of Outlook to it’s full potential.