Cover Your Tracks: E-mail Archiving

Do you back up your e-mails in Microsoft Outlook? What would happen if your company gets audited or your manager asks you for an e-mail from a few years ago? What if someone told you that you did something wrong, but you remember sending an e-mail with the correct information?

This happens to office workers all of the time. It even happened to me a few times, where people would create files themselves, then send it around to others to review and make changes, but never save it on the network drive. Then a new person comes in, taking over the work and wonders why they can't find the old file.

At this point, I was able to search through my old e-mails from a few years back and find the file that was e-mailed to me.

There are two ways of backing up your e-mails. One is the easier way, where you download a file; the other is the longer way. The reason I use the latter method is because our company policy is that we can't download any software that IT doesn't approve. You can read my post on 8 Steps to Archiving E-mails, if you fall into this category. You can also read my post on 4 Easy Steps to Finding Old E-mails.

To back up your e-mails in Outlook, simply download Microsoft's Outlook Add-In file here. It's compatible with any version of Outlook 2002 or later. Then just follow the instructions to installing and using the software.

Now you will have yourself covered if any issue may arise that you can prove with an e-mail or two.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant

Continue reading...

"Excel"ing to Create Subtotal Row Totals

Your manager sends you an e-mail with a spreadsheet attached. They ask you to create subtotals for the latest sales report, but want you to only send them the revised spreadsheet showing the subtotal rows.

I recently ran into this problem as well. One of my managers wanted me to use our sales tracking software to create the sales report for a particular product. Then he mentioned that he didn’t want all of the details of each product listed. He only wanted the total amounts shown as a bundled figure.

This made my life a little difficult since I thought that I would have to copy and paste all of the subtotal amounts into this spreadsheet, as the report shows all of the details. On a side note, if you need help creating subtotals, check my post on using subtotal functions in Microsoft Excel.

I poked around the internet a bit and came to realize that there is a faster way of doing this. I was able to put the entire report together within a matter of minutes.

Once you’ve created your subtotals, follow these steps on creating only subtotal rows:

1. Highlight everything from the headings to the grand total.
   
   
   


2. Click the little number 2 shown below to collapse all of the details in between all of the companies.
   
   


3. Click Edit, Go To.
   
   


4. Click Special.
   
   
   
   
5. Click Visible cells only and click OK.
   
   
   


6. Click Edit, Copy or CTRL+C to copy.
   
7. Open a new workbook and then click Edit, Paste or CTRL+V.
   
   
   

Now only the subtotal rows will show up, instead of all of the details in between.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant

Continue reading...

To-Do or Not To-Do? Taking Your To-Do List to the Next Level!

Do you have a to-do list, either on a piece of paper, on Microsoft Outlook or in a planner? Do you want to take it to the next level?

Having a to-do list can be very helpful in accomplishing your tasks, but also setting goals. In order to set goals, you have to write them down and then prioritize them. Then, you need to assign tasks to each goal, where you break the goal down into manageable chunks. This will help you battle procrastination in a big way. You can also apply this to your personal life, not just your professional life.

If you want to take your tasks to the next level, follow these tips:

• Make sure that you have your list in front of you and try to figure out how many tasks you can accomplish for that day. Narrow them down to the amount that you can manage (usually 3 - 5), but some people can do more or less. Move all of the other tasks to the next day or time that you can tackle them.
  


• Next, add a time frame to each task. For example, I will try to work on task A for 1 hour. Then I will work on Task B for 30 minutes and so on and so forth. This will keep your project/goal in a manageable time frame, where you know how much time will be left once you've accomplished these tasks. This will also keep you concentrated on each task and not start multi-tasking or get distracted.
  


• At the end of each task, make sure to either check off the completed task or write a note about your progress. I usually use Outlook to track my progress and add percentages of how much I feel I've accomplished for larger tasks. This way, you can see what's left and reward yourself for a job well done.

Try to use these tips in your everyday life and see how much better and easier things will get done.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant

Continue reading...

Clock In The Right Time Zone: Booking Meetings in Microsoft Outlook

Do you need to book meetings for your manager(s), but most meetings are all over the country or even internationally? Do you have trouble trying to figure out the time zone for each meeting in Microsoft Outlook?

I am currently in the process of doing this for one of my managers. I need to book meetings for him to travel to firms all over Canada. Since Outlook only allows for one time zone to be added to the person's calendar, this makes it a little difficult.

The best way I could find accomplishing this task is by having to change the time zone information each time I need to add a new meeting. I also have a time zone map open in an internet browser, so I can make sure that I am choosing the correct one.

To add or change a time zone in Outlook, follow these simple steps:

1. Right click on the area marked in the picture below, then click Change Time Zone.
   
   
   
   


2. Click on the check box for Show an additional time zone, then use the drop down arrow to select the particular time zone you wish to use. At this point, you can flip to your internet browser to see which time zone is the correct one.
   
   
   
   

Now you can see by the picture below that the new time zone has been added. You can now add in the meeting details for this time zone.

Note: Make sure to add the time in the meeting schedule (for example: Meeting with client, 1:00 pm Calgary time), so the manager knows that this is the correct time to meet with this client. There have been instances where people would get confused as to whether the meeting was booked on the manager's time zone or the client's time zone.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant

Continue reading...

Mind Mapping and Productivity

I am sure that you are scratching your head right now as you read the title of this post. I personally thought that it was some sort of new scientific experiment that people came up with. Don't worry, it's nothing of the sort.

Basically, mind mapping is a more productive way of brainstorming. Think of it as a large flow chart, but with ideas as opposed to hierarchy or the flow of information.

Here's what you do:

1. Write down a particular task, thought, product or whatever you are trying to brainstorm more ideas from in the middle of a page. Circle the item.
   


2. Once you brainstorm of other ideas, write them near the edge of the page and put a rectangle around them. Each new thought has to have its own rectangle.
   


3. If you can, connect any of the new ideas to each other and see what else you can come up with.

Now take a look at your page and see what ideas you came up with. At this point, you can start to create greater details and go further in-depth with each new idea.

Having all of this written down makes it easier to see and comprehend. Even if you forget an idea or two after you've written it down, it doesn't matter.

You can also share these ideas with other team members and compare. You can even ask other team members do create their own mind maps and combine everyone's into one large page.

How's that for productivity?

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

Outlook Rules That Rule - Part 2

Do you have to move e-mails into particular areas of Microsoft Outlook for your manager? Do you feel that this is quite time consuming and would like an easier method of doing this?

There is hope for us all, as Microsoft Outlook and many other e-mail programs come with what's called "Rules". Once a "rule" is set up, Outlook basically scans the e-mail for the criteria set and applies the particular action(s) that you've specified.

One of my readers asks:

I am an Executive Assistant at a very large Health System. My supervisor is very easy to work with. She is the Executive Director of the entire system and she gets a lot of e-mails. Part of my job consists of making sure I keep her e-mail box from running over. Well, so far, I think I've done ok with placing certain things that require her to read it at her leisure in a task area of her Outlook. The other e-mails pertain to reports, things she should respond to etc.

My answer to this is:

Here's the way to set up rules in Outlook to get your e-mails moving along. I actually had a post on this from a fellow blogger entitled Outlook Rules That Rule.

You can either set up one folder for all the particular e-mails that your manager receives and send everything directly into there or you can set up a folder for "Reports", "Things She Should Respond To", etc. It all depends on how you want them handled.

Once you have all of the folders set up, follow these simple steps to getting the rules set up for each one:

1. Click Tools, then Rules and Alerts.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click New Rule.
   
   
   
   
   
3. I prefer to click Start from a blank rule, as you have more functionality though this, and then click Check messages when they arrive. This way, any e-mails that come in will be actioned a certain way, depending on what you specify. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Check the box(es) with the particular condition that you want to use for this rule. If you have e-mails coming from a specified person, check from people or distribution list. In the bottom window, click on the hyperlink and add the person's details from your address book or type in the e-mail address directly into the box. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Here you would specify if you want to move the e-mail to a specified folder, forward it to a person, etc. In this case, you would move it to a specified folder. In the bottom window, click on the hyperlink and click on the particular folder that you want to move this e-mail into. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
6. In the next step, you can specify if you want to exclude any e-mails. I usually keep this blank, but it will depend on what you need. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Now give this rule a name. You can also click Run this rule now on messages already in "Mailbox - …" if you want to automatically move all of your e-mails with these criteria. Click Finish.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Repeat these steps for each folder that you have set up.

There you have it - automation at its best! Now you can have all of your manager's e-mails going directly into the folders that you've set up.

Note: Please keep in mind that this will only work on your own Inbox. If you have more than one mailbox assigned, it will not work.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

A Great Outlook: Adding Holidays to Microsoft Outlook

Do you often wonder how you can add your country's holidays into your calendar in Microsoft Outlook? Do you follow particular religious holidays, but aren't showing up in your calendar?

Currently, I work in a large organization where we follow Canadian holidays. In this case, I don't have to worry about taking extra days off, since I don't really follow the religious holidays that I was brought up with, which in turn, are part of the regular holidays that come up each year.

However, I did work in another company where the family was of a particular religion and they were the ones that owned the entire company. Of course, the rest of us had to follow this schedule and would have to take time off during these periods.

To add your country's or any religious holidays that you follow into your Outlook calendar, follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Click Tools, Options, and then Calendar Options.


2. In the Calendar Options section, click Add Holidays.



3. Now, select the particular country that you reside in and any particular religious holidays that you follow. Then click OK.

Outlook now will install the selected items that you chose. Check your calendar to see that everything as populated.

Here's a post also on using your Microsoft Outlook calendar properly. This should help your manager as well.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Update:

Please make sure to delete the current holidays that you have in your Outlook. You can do this by clicking View, Arrange By, Current View, Events.

Now delete any holidays that you have and add the new ones in. This will avoid any duplication and/or other country's or religious holidays showing up.

Continue reading...

Create Order Out of Chaos With Your Files/Photos

This is somewhat of an off-topic question, but I thought I’d add in on here, since it does discuss organization.

 

One of my readers asked:

 

This may not be your forte, but I have loads of pictures that are downloaded to "my pictures".  How do I go about deleting if there is more than one of the same photo, without manually going all through them, and how would I go about organizing them?

 

My answer to this is:

 

This is true, pictures aren’t really my forte, but organization is. In terms of deleting duplicate photos, the only thing that I can really think of would be for you to open your “My Pictures” folder and then sort the folder by “List”, shown below.
 

 

You can now see all of your pictures in order. Now you can find all of the duplicate photos in order, since, I assume that the file names are quite similar.  At this point, you can create a new folder called "Temp" or whatever you would like to call it.  Now you can move all of your duplicate files into this "Temp" folder and delete the entire folder once you've finished.  This will help you cut down on deleting each file one by one.

If there was a way to import this into Microsoft Excel, I would let you know. If there is anyone that knows how to do this, please leave a comment.

 

As for organization, it really depends on what type of pictures you have. You can organize them in many different ways, such as by name, date, type of activity, etc. Create folders for each within the “My Pictures” folder (if that’s where you wish to add them to) and create sub-folders if needed, depending on your situation. This way, you will be able to find what you are looking for in a flash.

 

Another alternative would be to use Flickr or Picasa, which are online tools where you can store your photos and be able to search for them by tags or keywords. The only downfall is that you can only store so many photos (which can remain private if you choose to do so); otherwise, you have to pay a yearly fee.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

Mistakes: We all make them, but how do we survive them?

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Patricia Robb of Laughing All The Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant .

Early in my career, I made travel arrangements for my boss and had him flying into New York City to one airport, but the meeting room and hotel were across town closer to another airport. I got a geography lesson when he got back.

I remember helping with a conference at another place I worked and as we approached the day of the conference we noticed that the attendance was low. It was discovered that someone in our Marketing Department forgot to send the invitations out.

My boss left me a frantic voicemail from the airport. The travel agent had mixed up his ticket and had her name down as the passenger and my boss’s name as the travel agent. He was having a hard time trying to convince security that he was the person that was supposed to be flying to Toronto.

How can we survive a mistake at work?

I have found that a sense of humour can be a real help when something goes wrong. My boss and I still laugh about the voicemail he left me from the airport, “Who is Linda and why the hell is she on my ticket?”

Timing is important however. He wasn’t laughing when he called, but eventually he did see the humour in it. I had checked the ticket for the time and date of the flight and to make sure he was flying into the correct city, but neither of us noticed the name switch at the top of the e-ticket.

Don’t let it happen again

Learn from your mistakes. Accept that it happened, take responsibility and don’t let it happen again is my best advice. You can be sure that I always check tickets with a fine-tooth comb after that incident. I have found that a lesson learned after making a mistake is usually a lesson that you will never forget.

Mistakes I have almost made

Sometimes the mistakes that I have almost made have left a big impression as well. My boss gave me a letter to send and told me that it was fine to go. I decided on my way to the fax machine to read it over and found a big mistake that would have been hard to take back. I now never let a letter go without my proofing it -- no matter what my boss has told me.

I almost pressed Send on an e-mail and had the wrong person in the To box. If that person had received the e-mail it could have resulted in a legal action. Thankfully, it was my habit to carefully check my e-mail recipients to make sure they were the correct person. Some names come up automatically in the memory of your To box and if they have a similar name it is easy to pick them and not notice.* I always make sure the name is correct and the company name is correct. This almost mistake has made me more diligent at checking this.

*To delete those deliquent e-mail addresses, use the arrow keys to move down until you highlight the address and then press delete.

Trust your instincts

If you think that you should take the time to proof a document, then do so. If you hesitate before sending an e-mail because you are not quite sure, then don’t send it until you check. If you have questions on a letter your boss has asked you to do and are not quite clear, get clarification before sending it.

We all make mistakes

Sometimes we make typos and they get by us. With the computer, we tend to re-use letters and save the new information over it, but sometimes we leave the old date on it or the letter is addressed to Mr. Smith, but the salutation says Dear Mrs. Brown. I have received many letters that have these errors in them and I have made similar mistakes myself. I have gotten into the habit of going through a mental checklist before I send a letter or e-mail out. Is the date correct? Is it the correct recipient and is there an enclosure referenced and have I included it?

Depending on the position you hold and who you are assisting, your mistakes can be more costly. Be careful and always take the time to check everything that leaves your desk.

Mums the word

An error in judgment when revealing confidential information is a mistake that will cost you and could result in you losing your job. Read your confidentiality agreement and make sure you know what your responsibility is to your boss and to your company. If in doubt, don’t say anything is my advice.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

Filtering The Right Results in Excel

You have a tremendously large spreadsheet in front of you. Your boss asks you to find client information on particular criteria. You look at your spreadsheet and think to yourself, "This will take me forever. I would have to find every client that has these criteria."

 

Thankfully, Microsoft Excel comes equipped with a very easy to use feature called "Auto Filter". This function allows you to be able to filter as many criteria as you wish from an existing spreadsheet. It really cuts down on the amount of work you have to do in finding this information.

 

Here are the 4 simple steps on using this function:

 

1. Open the file that you want to gather information for. 

2. Click on the cell shown below. Then the entire spreadsheet will be highlighted.

3. Click on Data, Filter, AutoFilter.

 

4. Now you will notice that there are little boxes for each column with drop down arrows. You can now select the particular criteria in each column that fits your query. You can use as many drop down arrows or filters as you like to narrow down your search. 

Tip: If you are looking for particular words within the filters, you can click (Custom…) and type in the information you are looking for.  Just make sure to use the "and" and "or" commands correctly.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

Prioritization: A Colorful Outlook

Do you receive quite a bit of e-mail in your Inbox each day, but have trouble prioritizing them? Do you feel overwhelmed with trying to figure out who you should respond to first?

 

I recently added a post called "Outlook Rules That Rule" from a fellow Administrative Assistant's blog. This basically shows you how to make your e-mails go directly into certain categories, folders, you name it.

 

There is another method to this madness though. You can further prioritize e-mails by adding color to them. No, you are not making your screen more lively - well, if that's what you are intending to do, then go ahead.

 

When e-mails come in and you have set up your colors, you will notice that you have prioritized them by color. For example, I receive an e-mail from my direct supervisor. This will show up in red, since I know I have to get to this one first, before I can even touch any other one. Then I have my faxes set up as green. I know that this would be next, since people depend on these quite a bit around my office.

 

Here are the steps to doing this:

 

1. When you receive an e-mail, click on Tools, and then Organize.

 

2. Click on Using Colors. Click on the particular color that you want to apply to all of these types of e-mails from the particular person and click Apply Color.

 

3. Repeat steps 1 - 2 for each person that you want to create a different color. 

That's it! Now you have a new prioritization system set up.

 

Tip: Make sure not to use too many colors, since you might forget to distinguish the important from the less important.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

Outlook Rules That Rule

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Patricia Robb of Laughing All The Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant .

I have finally taken the time to create rules for my Inbox. It was getting out of control. I knew the rules option existed, but I never took the time to check it out. What I discovered is a time saver and e-mail management tool that is a best-kept secret. Sometimes taking the time is the biggest hurdle, but this one is well worth the effort.

I have written previously that to manage my work e-mail better I asked friends and family to send e-mails to my home rather than work. This has been a great way to clear up a lot of unnecessary e-mails at work. I also subscribe to feeds to my home e-mail account. Even though they are work-related, I rarely have time to look at them so it is easier for me to do that from home. Bottom line is -- my home e-mail account is now like Grand Central Station. I get home at night and regularly find 40 new messages in my Inbox that I have to sift through. Some e-mails are useful, but I don’t always have time to deal with them right away. This is where the rules feature has come in handy.

Here is an example of some sub-folders and rules that I have set up that would work for a work e-mail or home account: 

• I now send my subscribed feeds to a sub-folder that I can look at when I have the time. They are now at my convenience, rather than being in my face every time I look in my Inbox.
   
• I have set up a folder for Google Alerts to keep me updated on what is new in my profession. With my new rule they go directly to that folder.
   
• I have set up a folder for some personal e-mails that I receive that are special and I want to keep them together. I have also set a sound to play when they pop in so I will recognize when they arrive and who they are from.
   
• I have set up another folder for a personal acquaintance who is forever sending me joke e-mails and dire warnings. I have asked this person not to send them at work, which she has done and now sends them to my home. They are just as annoying to receive at home however, but for the sake of our friendship, I have set up a folder and they are dumped in there as soon as they come in. This has helped tremendously and with little effort on my part and no offence to my friend. I can then check the sub-folder at the end of the day and delete all the e-mails I don't want to read and just read the ones that are relevant.

You can still be notified when these e-mails arrive by setting a sound rule. The sub-folders where they are sent are bolded to indicate there are new messages in it. Don’t worry, these e-mails do not get lost or are completely out of sight. They are just put out of the way until you have time to deal with them. I would recommend keeping your Inbox folder expanded so you see the sub-folders and are aware of what is happening in them.

I now only have e-mails that I need to see come directly in my Inbox. Everything else is at my convenience and that is good. You can do the same thing with your work e-mails. You will notice your Inbox will be less crowded and easier to manage. I would not recommend setting a rule to send e-mails from your boss to a sub-folder however. Some things are best coming directly in your Inbox. You will know what works best for your working situation.

I have also set up a To-do sub-folder which I drag and drop items in if I am waiting on a reply or need to do something with it. Some things you do not want to set up as a rule, but you don't want them sitting in your Inbox either. Flagging these items and setting reminders would be a good idea. I have also named the sub-folder *To-Do List to ensure it is at the top of my alphabetical listing of sub-folders. Putting the asterisk makes sure it is first on my list.

There are many other things you can do with rules so take the time to check them out and feel your way around. It will be worth the effort.

Share what you have learned with your boss. Most executives I know want the help and this would be a great way of organizing them. If you have access to their Inbox you can set them up. Always be in communication and agreement with them however on what is best before forging ahead and changing everything. Otherwise, you will have a very frazzled and frustrated executive on your hands. A simple system is best as they are normally on the move and cannot take the time to figure out elaborate filing systems. I would suggest a folder for News, and set a rule to move all their feeds into that sub-folder, and perhaps a Junk Mail folder that they can later go through to determine if they want to delete the item or unsubscribe.

Keep in mind that sub-folders are not always accessible with some wireless hand-held devices so I would be very careful about moving everything to a sub-folder, just things that are not urgent and can be looked at later. I am sure your boss would be very happy to have an uncluttered Inbox with only things that need their attention. On a semi-related matter, I read a tip on OfficeArrow.com that you should keep in mind -- setting flags on your e-mails are not visible to users on their wireless.

Normally the assistant does not have a wireless and therefore we don't realize the limitations. It is a good idea to have that discussion with your boss before trying to organize their Inbox.

My Inbox is now empty

If there is an e-mail that I haven't looked at in awhile and regularly press delete when I get it, that is my cue to unsubscribe. Wow! It feels like I just went through my closet and threw a whole bunch of clothes out that I never wear. It's great, but I am so used to having e-mails popping into my Inbox that now I am wondering, "Where have all my e-mails gone?" I am having withdrawal symptoms... I better go and check my new sub-folders, but at least now it is at my convenience.

It is simple to set up a new rule in Outlook 2007

From your Toolbar, drop down the Tools menu and click on Rules and Alerts, click on New Rule. For a simple rule to send e-mails from a particular address to a folder, do the following:

Under Step 1 Stay Organized, choose Move messages from someone to a folder and in Step 2 click on people or distribution list and highlight the e-mail address you want. Press the From button and press OK. Then while still in the Step 2 portion, click on specified and choose which folder you want it to go to. Click Finish, then Apply and OK to seal the deal. And voila it is done. Scroll through the options you have for other rules.

When e-mails are received and sent to the sub-folder, it will be bolded and the number of e-mails will be written beside the box so you will know you have new mail.

Tip:
Before creating the rule you need to put the e-mail addresses of your feeds (or whatever you want to create a rule for) in your contact list and open a sub-folder that you want things like this to go to in order to complete the process above.

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

Productivity With Shared Files

Do you share your files with others in your firm? Do you find that you are being bombarded with updates to the same files time and time again?

 

Imagine that your boss comes to you and asks you to merge several files into one main file (Microsoft Word document). You spend quite a bit of time copying and pasting everything together. Then you think to yourself, "How can I make this more efficient?"

 

One of the most productive ways to update information on files is to either create or move a file into a shared folder on your company's network drive. Instead of each person creating their own files and you having to merge them together, it would be much faster for everyone to add their own information to one main file. This cuts down on you having to do the same job twice and saves you and the company time and money.

 

If your company doesn't have a network, since you might be in a smaller organization, you can e-mail the file around to the various people and ask them to add their information. Then ask them to pass it on to the next person on the list, while removing their name from the list. Then the last person would e-mail the file back to you.

 

Can you think of any other productive and efficient ways to make this happen?  Leave a comment!

Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

Post from: Assistant Tips

Continue reading...

4 Steps to Setting up E-mail Distribution Lists

Do you find yourself having to write each person's e-mail address over and over again for certain e-mails? Do you wish that you could make life simpler by just entering one item that would include a list of e-mail addresses?

 

Here are 4 simple steps to creating an e-mail distribution list in Microsoft Outlook:

 

1. Make sure that you are in the "E-mail" section of your Outlook. 

2. Click on the arrow down button right beside the "New" button, then click "Distribution List"

 

 

3. Here you can either "Select Members" or "Add New". Select Members is used to find contacts that are already in your address book. Add New, of course, would be used to add a brand new contact.