Using Organizer

Organizer provides a simple interface, with simple options, to move messages, change views, and create automatic formatting rules. It's great for beginners and everyone else to access Outlook's organizational features from one screen or create an automatic formatting view. After a while, the Organize pane lacks the features even beginners need. Using the Rules Wizard or Customize Views dialog provides more options and is accessible from the Organize pane. Choose T ools, Organi z e to open the Organize pane, as seen in Figure 14.1.

Figure 14.1. Use the Organize pane to move messages to new folders, to use colors to highlight messages, and to use views to control what you see in the message list.

You'll have more options to use with automatic formatting views if you use the Customize Views dialog. Should you have a problem remembering how to get to Customize Views, Automatic Formatting, or the Rules Wizard, you can use the shortcuts on each tab to take you there.

The tab Using Folders enables you to move messages to new folders without creating a rule. Organizer gives you just one choice: moving messages to somewhere. You can select an existing folder to move the messages to or create a new folder. If you want to create a rule to move all future messages to the folder, you'll need to select Rules and Wizards. You can reach the Rules Wizard from the Organize pane by clicking the Rules and Alerts button in the right corner. The Organize pane can be used on any folder and works equally well when you select several messages and then move them as it does with just one message.

An alternative to using the Organize pane to move messages is on the right-click context menu. Select the message or messages you want to move, right-click, and select M ove to Folder. You can also create new rules from the right-click menu.

Although it might appear that color-coding is a feature of the Rules Wizard, it's really a view, not a rule. It also involves more than changing the color of the message header shown in the message list: You can change the fonts and formatting as well. You'll need to use the Automatic Formatting dialog to change fonts because Organizer is limited to just applying colors to messages to or from a person.

In Figure 14.2, messages from a mailing list are highlighted in red, whereas messages sent only to me are shown in blue. You can disable highlighting messages sent only to me from Organizer, but you'll need to open the Automatic Formatting dialog to remove other automatic formatting rules.

Figure 14.2. Use colors to highlight messages for better visibility.

One of the best examples of using color is to create a view in which all messages from someone important, such as your boss, use a large red font. Less important messages can use small gray text.

Refer to Hour 3 to learn more about using views and automatic formatting.

The final tab, Using Views, enables you to select existing views only. If you need to customize a view, use the Customize Views button in the upper right to open the Customize Views dialog.

You'll enjoy more functionality by adding views to the Navigation Pane. Select V iew, A rrange By, S h ow Views in Navigation Pane.

Organizer works with each folder type, although the actual options available will vary. Non-mail folders have a Using Categories tab, which you use to assign categories to the selected items or to create new categories.

Because there are several different ways to add categories to items, including right-clicking on any item and choosing Categories, it doesn't make much sense to use Organizer to assign categories, but it's there if you want to use it.

Different views can be applied using the Advanced toolbar's Current View drop-down list or from the Navigation Pane when views are listed in the Navigation Pane, which is enabled using V iew, A rrange By, S h ow Views in Navigation Pane. For this reason, using the Organize pane with non-mail folders is less convenient and useful only if you want a very simple screen and limited options.