Quick Parts & Custom Search Folders Save Time in Outlook

There are some shortcuts that may make completing a work task easier and others that’ll leave workers breathing a sigh of relief. These Outlook 2016 and Office 365 tips fall into the latter category.

Quick Parts In casual instances, using CTRL + C and CTRL + V come in handy for documents that need to repeat the same instructions or information. However, if this shortcut is used for multiple pieces of text, then a separate document would need to be created in order to keep them in order. With Quick Parts, that separate document is unnecessary. Just highlight whatever text needs to be re-used, select the “Insert” tab, choose “Quick Parts” in the drop down menu, select “Save” and that text will be available in the “Quick Parts” gallery. After it’s saved the first time, simply typing the beginning of the phrase again will notify Outlook, which will suggest the entire text to be inserted again.

Search Folders Similar to most mainstream email sites, there’s usually a search option to look for specific keywords or people. Outlook fine-tunes this option a little more with the “Search Folder” option. This will not only allow an option to filter important emails or those from specific people but also create a custom folder about searches that meet all of this criteria so it doesn’t have to be done on a repeated basis. Just choose “Folder,” then “New Search Folder” and create a new search option.

Encrypted Messages If there is a message that needs to be sent but the recipient needs to understand that this is a private message, this Outlook tool will come in handy. Under the “Trust Center Settings,” choose “File,” then “Options,” then “Trust Center,” then “E-mail Security.” After choosing security options for enabling encryption, digital signing and a digital ID, select a provider for a free email certificate. The only way for the recipient to access the message is with a shared key code.