You can do much more with your contacts than view address and phone information or synchronize them with a personal digital assistant (PDA). Outlook offers many different methods of acting on the information stored within a contact item. Linking a Contact to Other Outlook ItemsYou can associate a wide variety of other items with an Outlook contact item. This is helpful when viewing a contact's activities. You can see, all in one place, the emails, meetings, tasks, documents, and notes that relate to the contact.
For more information about activities, see "Tracking a Contact's Activities," p. 229. You can associate any Outlook item to a contact through the Links property. This field can contain any type of Outlook item. To link a contact to another Outlook item, click the Contacts button located at the bottom-left corner of the item to display the Select Contacts dialog box (see Figure 10.9). Figure 10.9. Use the Select Contacts dialog box to associate contacts with other Outlook items.You can create a link to any contact in any Contacts folder. Simply choose your Contacts folder from the folder list and then double-click the contact you want to associate with the item. You can use the Ctrl and Shift keys to select multiple contacts. Click OK or Apply to save your changes. Some Outlook items are automatically linked. If you create a meeting and invite a contact, that contact is linked to the meeting request even though the contact doesn't explicitly appear in the Contacts field of the meeting request. Any email messages that you send to a contact or receive from a contact are also automatically linked, even though the contact doesn't show up in the Contacts field. NOTE To link a contact to an email message, click the Options toolbar button with the message open (before sending) or select Options from the View menu (after receiving the message). This enables you to associate contacts with the email message and to assign categories to the email message. A number of actions can be automatically launched from a contact form. These actions are discussed in detail later in this chapter. Using any of these actions, such as New Task for Contact, new Journal Entry for Contact, or new Appointment with Contact, results in the contact automatically being added to the Links collection of the new item.
You can use one other method to link Outlook items to a contact item. With the contact item open, select Actions, Link, Items to display the Link Items to Contact dialog box (see Figure 10.10). Figure 10.10. Use this dialog box to link other Outlook items to your Contact.You can select items from any Outlook folder, including Notes folders. Other than programming, this is the only method to link a note item to a contact. You can use the Ctrl and Shift keys to link multiple items in the same folder to one contact. When you've selected the item or items you want to link, click the OK button to close this dialog box and save your changes, or use the Apply button to link the items and leave the dialog box open to link items in another folder. Linking a Contact to DocumentsYou can also link a contact item to any Office document. To link a contact to a Word document, use the following steps:
You can now open the journal entry at any time from the contact's Activities tab and use the attached shortcut to open the linked document. Removing LinksThere might be a time when you want to remove a link to an Outlook item. If your sales representative changes product lines or changes jobs or if your manager is transferred to another department, you might want to edit the links associated with a contact. To remove a link, open the contact item and select the Activities page. It will take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more for all the contact's activities to load. Once that happens, double-click the link you want to remove to open the item. Delete the contact's name from the Contacts field and click Save and Close to apply the change to the item. If you're opening an email message stored in the contact's Activities page, you'll have to click the Options toolbar button to display the Message Options dialog box to remove linked contacts. Using the Phone DialerIf you have a modem, speakers, and a telephone handset attached to your computer, you can have Outlook automatically initiate a phone call to a contact for you. You must take several steps to configure your computer for automatic dialing before you can use this feature. To configure automatic dialing, use the following steps:
When you've verified that your modem is correctly installed and configured, you can use Outlook to call a contact. There are several ways to launch the phone dialer to call a contact:
Any of the methods you use to launch the Phone dialer will display a dialog box similar to Figure 10.13. Figure 10.13. You can choose the number to call and set other options.When the New Call dialog box is open, you can perform various tasks in addition to simply calling your contact:
Sending a Letter to a ContactIf you've entered an address for your contact, you can use Outlook to create a letter to your contact in Microsoft Word. NOTE This feature works only if your Outlook version and your Word version are the same. If you installed Outlook 2003 with Office 2000 or Office XP, you won't be able to use this feature. To send a new letter to a contact, open the contact and select Actions, New Letter to Contact. This opens Word and starts the Letter Wizard (see Figure 10.15). Figure 10.15. Word's Letter Wizard helps you compose your letter.Follow the four steps of the Letter Wizard to create the basics of your letter. You can choose to include a date line or insert a header or footer. You can select a letter style and page design or select to use a preprinted letterhead. Step 2 of the Letter Wizard, shown in Figure 10.16, lists the recipient information. Figure 10.16. Step 2 enables you to modify the recipient's address.By default, the address used is the contact's mailing address. You can also choose to include a formal or information salutation. Step 3 enables you to insert other various letter elements, and step 4 prompts you for your information to include as the letter's sender. Click Finish to close the wizard and display your letter (see Figure 10.17). Figure 10.17. Your letter is now ready for you to insert your text.Scheduling Appointments or Meetings with a ContactYou can create appointments and meetings with a contact directly from the contact item. You can either right-click on a contact in the Contacts folder or use the Actions menu and select New App_ointment with Contact or New Meeting Request to Contact. Selecting New App_ointment with Contact launches a blank appointment form with the contact linked to the appointment item. Selecting New Meeting_ Request to Contact opens a new meeting request. The contact is listed in the To field of the meeting request and linked to the meeting request. Assigning Tasks to a ContactIf you need to assign a task to a contact, you can do so in just a couple of clicks. Either right-click on a contact in the Contacts folder or select Actions, New Task for Contact. You might think this would open a new task request, but in fact it only opens a new task. The contact is linked to the new task. You can turn the task into a task request by clickingthe Assign Task button on the toolbar. This turns the task into a task request and puts the contact's address in the To field of the task request. All you have to do is fill out the task request and click Send. Flagging a Contact for Follow UpIf you need Outlook to remind you to call a contact, you can set a follow-up flag for the contact to fire on a specific day or time. To flag a contact, right-click it and select Follow Up. You can also open the contact and click the Flag icon on the toolbar. Either method will display Figure 10.18. Figure 10.18. Flag a contact for follow up.Choose a flag type from Follow Up, Call, Arrange Meeting, Send E-Mail, and Send Letter. Choose a due date and time and click OK to set the flag. After a follow-up flag has been set, the contact displays a notation in the Address Card view of the type of follow-up flag. In addition, the InfoBar of the contact displays the detailed follow-up flag, as shown Figure 10.19. Figure 10.19. Outlook displays the follow-up flag in the item's InfoBar.Tracking a Contact's ActivitiesWith the exception of flagging a contact for follow up, all the previously detailed actions create an entry in the contact's Activities page. Activities are created for appointments, emails, meetings, tasks, journal entries, notes, and documents that are linked to contacts. To view a contact's activities, click the Activities page of the contact to display Figure 10.20. Figure 10.20. The Activities tab tracks meetings, emails, and documents linked to the contact.Depending on how many Outlook items you've linked to the contact, it might take up to a minute for all the contact's activities to be displayed. You can choose which types of activities to list in the window. Use the Show drop-down list to select All Items, Contacts, E-Mail, Journal, Notes, or Upcoming Tasks/Appointments. You can double-click any of the listed activities to open the original item. Map a Contact's LocationOutlook uses MSN Maps & Directions to enable you to display a map of a contact's address with a single click. Open a contact and click the Display Map button on the toolbar. You can also select Actions, Display Map of Address. Either selection opens Internet Explorer and displays the map, as seen in Figure 10.21. Figure 10.21. Use MSN Maps & Directions to map a contact's address.You can get directions to or from the contact's address by clicking the To Here or From Here links on the MSN Maps and Directions Web page. |