Switching back and forth between Outlook windows (Calendar, Inbox, Contacts, etc.) is sometimes necessary depending on your tasks. If you find yourself switching a lot, stop. Open each application in its own window and use the Taskbar (open programs to the Right of your Start button) to move quickly between them.
Simply right-click on an item button (i.e. Calendar) or in the folders list and choose Open In New Window. Open as many applications as you need. To move back and forth between them, simply click the appropriate icon on the Taskbar. That way, you always return to a window exactly the way you left it.
I find this to be a bit quicker sometimes... If the Taskbar isn't available or it's crowded, use the Alt+Tab shortcut to cycle through the open applications.
To close a window... Simply click its Close button ("X"). Choose Exit from any File menu to close all open Outlook windows at once.
I hope you found this tip helpful.
If it's taking longer than it should... please give me a call and schedule a one-on-one session to learn the essentials to perform Outlook's Best Practices.
Please keep me in mind if you would like to have a one-on-one session, a small group session with people you know, or perhaps for your entire office.
Jeff
PS: Do you ever complain about...not having enough hours in the day? Stop spending hours trying to figure out how to do something seek seomone who knows and is willing to help you. For Outlook training - I hope you'll give me a call...206.850.9996.
I'll have you doing tap dances in your office... Just give me a call or shoot me an email and I'll give you the knowledge you need to streamline your client communication and database use.
Please keep me in mind for a small group session with people you know (colleagues or clients), or perhaps for your entire office.
Thanks again,
Jeff
JeffsCoaching@comcast.net 206.850.9996 (Cell)
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Have You Ever Sent an Email You Wished You Hadn't? Here are some ideas to help you catch typos and other mistakes, and handle those "emotionally charged" emails that taunt you to respond.
Catch Errors... We've all sent out emails with typos. Perhaps it's best to type an email...wait a bit...and then review it again before sending; we'll explore how to you can do this.
Anger Management?... I have learned (sort of) to WAIT! before I send out an emotionally charged email. However, sometimes it's too difficult to just "let it go"...hmmmm (that's my Yoga hum).
Here are a few options to consider that can save you embarrassment with your clients and possibly heartache.
It starts with those DEFAULT Settings... Outlook, as well as most e-mail clients, send e-mail as soon as you hit "Send", and that's why we get into trouble. So here's the thought...Instead of sending each e-mail immediately, let them sit in the Outbox. Later (maybe a few minutes or even hours), review the messages one last time and then send them.
You are guaranteed to... Find small and seemingly unimportant mistakes, but mistakes nonetheless. Plus, letting a message sit for a while, especially if you're angry when you respond, will give you a bit of time to rethink and perhaps, even save face.
OPTION 1: Sleep it off When responding about an email that has your emotions cranked up...sleep before your send.
OPTION 2: Uncheck the "Send Immediately" box Outlook is configured to send mail when you click Send in the New Message window. To reset this option so that you control when Outlook sends mail, do the following:
1. From the Tools menu, choose Options. 2. Click the Mail Setup tab. 3. You can uncheck the "Send immediately when connected" box and no matter what account you are using to send your email it will remain in your Outbox until: > You click Send/Receive or > the Automatically check email feature kicks in
OPTION 3: More Options To look at more options - instead of unchecking the "Send immediately when connected" box in OPTION 2 click the Send/Receive button just to the right of that (in the Mail Setup tab).
Under the: Setting For Group "All Accounts" section
1. Uncheck the "Include This Group In Send/Receive (F9)" option. 2. Set the "Schedule an Automatic Send/Receive every..." - change this to maybe every 30 minutes or so to give yourself time to think it over and then review the email again. 3. When done Click Close and then OK.
After unchecking the Send/Receive option, you must remember to click Send/Receive on the Standard toolbar to send mail.
We have a saying here on Maui: "When in doubt don't go out!" this refers to the surf, especially when we have high surf advisories.
We can use that lesson with our email to say something like "When in doubt don't Send it out!". ;-)
I hope you find this tip helpful and that it can help you come across as more professional and understanding.
Calendar Tip - Viewing non-sequential days side by side
(This applies to Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003)
Make selecting a date for an appointment easier. Let's say you have a customer call you and they have certain dates they are available - instead of scrolling to each of those dates and jotting down times that work within your calendar...view each day side by side!
With just a few clicks you'll be looking at those dates, here's how:
Step 1: Start by going to the Calendar view in Outlook, you'll see a thumbnail view of the current month on the left hand side of Outlook .
Step 2: Press and hold the Control (Ctrl) key down as you click on the dates you want to view. As you click the big Calendar to the right will change to show you only those dates.
Step 3: You can even select dates in other months by continuing to hold the Ctrl button down while you click on the arrow to advance to the next month, and still Ctrl, + Clicking on the days.
Note: You can also grab the blue column divider (vertical) and drag it to the right to display more thumbnail calendars.
Try this tip out and let me know what you think.
If you like these tips and they've been useful for you...imagine what a one-on-one session can do to help you save time and streamline your daily or weekly tasks. Contact me today 206-850-9996.
Sometimes I'll receive an email that I need to follow up with and I don't want to forget..these I can tag for follow up in a couple of ways.
METHOD ONE: Adding a Reminder
1. Right-click the message you want to set the reminder for 2. Point to Follow Up, and then click Add Reminder. 3. In the "Flag to:" type your own memo or select from the list available 4. You can skip the "Start date:" if you like 5. "Due date:" select the date when you have to complete the reply. 6. Click the "Reminder" box and select a date and time for follow up 7. Click OK
METHOD TWO: Use Flag Status Sorting
Instead of setting a reminder sometimes I'll just "flag" an email to follow up with. Here's how:
1. Click on the greyed out flag on the far right of the email you need to follow up with - this changes the flag to a Red flag - so it's very noticeable.
2. I'll then sort my emails by "Flag Status". Simply click on the column header "Flag Status" (the column that contains the flags) - done.
This puts all your flagged emails at the top and then lists the remaining emails by date.
When I've completed the action I needed to take I'll click on the Red flag and this marks it as "completed" and places it between the To-do flagged emails and the remaining emails in my Inbox.
I either keep the completed emails if I need to wait for a response...or > I'll Right click on the flag to change the status to "Clear Flag" (this places the email back into my Inbox in order of date received).
A question about resources for surveys and polling was posted on LinkedIn...several people provided conventional responses, like:
Survey Monkey
SurveyBob
Constant Contact
However, I think before anyone could really provide the best answer for this person we really nneded to know such things as:
> Where is your audience? (Online, in your database, etc.) > How are you going to use the data? (presentation, personal use, will you need to have charts, etc.) > How are you going to "promote" the survey (email, handout, online promotion, print ads, etc.) and > What type of answers do you need (yes-no, rate 1-10, good, ok, bad, essay, etc.)
Since we did not have the answers to the questions above I thought I would offer a few unconventionaland new ways to take Polls and Surveys. After completing my resonse I wanted to share this with ActiveRain members.
Keeping in mind: To get the best results you want to go where your audience (list) is, right? Keep it simple, quick and easy and more people will respond. Of course, you don't want to inundate your audience with polls and surveys...they can get annoying. Plus, if you do take a Poll or Survey, do it with the intent to move your relationship with yoru audience to the next level.
New innovative survey options
1. For simple Yes-no, good-bad, etc. and if your list is in your Outlook database - you could use Outlook and simply use the voting buttons on the email - this can be quick and easy - although not everyone will be able to participate.
5. Website or blog? (Drive traffic to your website or blog) Option 1: Easy to use on your own webiste or blog http://www.mystudiyo.com/create
Option 2: Of course if you have a website you can create a form where they can simply check a box and you then dump the results into Excel to run any graphs, statistics you want without limitations like many of the online survey companies.
Hope that helps.
Jeff
I specialize in helping the real estate industry integrate social media, blogging and their website into one cohesive marketing machine.
In a 3 hour one-on-one training session I had Oct. 21, 2009 with an agent in Chicago we ran accross a contact that did not show up in her Personal Address Book list. I'm sure most of us have expereinced the same thing. Crazy? How about FRUSTRATING!
After some research here's what I've discovered:
Technology doesn't always work, and, doesn't always work the way WE want it to. ;-)
Here's the solution...(of course I can't test this because I've been able to find every contact I've searched for...DANG! that Murphy's Law).
Source: Microsoft
Any name you add in the Address Book dialog box is added to your Contacts folder. But entries in the Contacts folder are not added to your Personal Address Book.
DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING WITH EVERY NEW ENTRY! Since we know that most of the names we enter DO come up when we do a search...follow these steps only for those contacts that do not appear when you do a search.
You must add the contact to your Personal Address Book directly
1. Open the contact you'll be adding so you can quickly copy and paste the data
2. Open your Personal Address Book
Opening your Personal Address Book: Click on the icon just to the RIGHT of the Red flag and to the LEFT of your "Search address books" box (on your Standard toolbar).
3. Click on "File" and scroll down to "New Entry"
4. Copy and paste all the info from your current contact form into the new one
5. Delete the older contact file
6. Save and close the new contact - you're done.
Please NOTE: The entry we could not find in our Personal Address Book, we were able to find - every time - when we used the "Search Address Books" search window on your Standard toolbar (which should already be displayed below your menu bar (File, Edit, View, etc)) instead of the "Search All contact Items" box (located in the Contacts view just to the right above the names or column headers.
********************************************************************************* Remember to send me an email if you have any Outlook questions.
Jeff
Jeff Graves JeffsCoaching@comcast.net 206.850.9996 (Cell)
Full Question: I've configured my personal and work email addresses on Outlook and both are working fine. My only issue is that I would like for both to have separate Inboxes. Right now both are being directed to the same (and only) Inbox on Outlook, any suggestions?
One solution: Create a new subfolder(s) then use a rule to move messages received from one email account (personal) to the appropriate new folder.
It can be that easy.
Remember to send me an email if you have any Outlook questions.
I also run an Outlook User Group on LinkedIn...and have more tips within that group than here. Join us by connecting to me http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffgravesmaui and then either join or I'll send you an invite after we're connected.
Thanks.
Jeff
Jeff Graves JeffsCoaching@comcast.net 206.850.9996 (Cell)
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Should You be Taking the Time to Tweet... Many Realtors and small to medium business owners are struggling to integrate Social Media into their daily routine, they simply have too many things to do and not enough hours in the day.
Your Highest and Best Use... of your time. Is your time best used tweeting or: meeting with clients, making follow up phone calls, writing thank you cards, handling existing clients needs and handling other marketing activities?
Please don't tell me the best way for you to spend your time is tweeting or adding to your Facebook.
Don't get me wrong... tweeting and other social media is extremely important and beneficial...however, most can't sit in front of the computer and dedicate the time to tweeting every hour (as an example).
I have 2000 plus followers and every 30 seconds my twitter page - that may have had your message - has just been replaced with 20 other tweets.
What are the odds I saw your one tweet? 10 to 1, 100 to 1, how about 1,000 to 1 - trust me the odds are high. Well you obviously can't be sitting in front of your computer and tweeting about your listings, products or services every hour...that would be foolish...unless that's your job.
That is my job (so I guess I'm not foolish, huh?) I am a Social Media Account Manager. I can manage everything from A to Z or just what you need help with:
setting up accounts
attracting followers* (twitter listeners), connections (LinkedIn) or friends (Facebook)
daily updates - and hourly updates for twitter
purging your list of unwanted people
creating conversations to generate quality leads
helping to convert leads to clients
If you are serious about your business and what you do, hire a professional to handle your social media for you. Give me a call at 206.850.9996. I look forward to talking with you to answer any questions you may have.
*Note:anyone can attract a bunch of followers on twitter...but the quality of your list is key to getting you the best return. Check any twitter account with 8,000 plus followers and it will have a ton of Get rich quick, MLM'ers and smut. You want listeners not followers! My list would exceed 8,000 followers if I didn't purge it every week or so. Go on, check out my list...http://twitter.com/jeffgraves01...almost all of my followers are real estate agents, real estate companies or people that live on Maui.
This also works to insert the date into any Word document.
(this applies to Outlook 2007 - Outlook 2003 Instructions near bottom)
Outlook 2007 Instructions To insert today's date and have it automatically do so every time you mail merge with that document follow these few steps: 1. Open your Word document 2. Place your cursor where you want the date to be inserted 3. Click on the "Insert" tab 4. On the far right click on "Date and Time" 5. A window will open - select the format you want 6. In the lower Right hand corner click on "Update automatically" 7. Click OK 8. Then save your template
Outlook 2003 Instructions 1. Open your Word document 2. Place your cursor where you want the date to be inserted 3. Click on "Insert" 4. Select "Date and Time" 5. When the "Date and Time" dialog appears, choose the format you want 6. Click the "Update Automatically" box to insert today's date 7. Click OK
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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