During a recent one-hour Outlook hints and tips session, I checked whether those present could relate to having chunks of text that they use over and over again in their email messages. I showed them that, rather than copy and paste from other emails or Word documents, you can set up a Quick Part Gallery.
Going “off-piste”, I then told them about Microsoft’s Sticky Notes, but as soon as I got back to the office I wondered why I hadn’t promoted Outlook’s own Notes folder to store text you might need later.
Here’s how:
- In Notes, on the Home tab, in the New group, click New Note. (Or simply press CTRL + SHIFT + N if you are using Outlook 2016 and don’t see the Notes folder.)
- Type the contents of the note.
The note is saved automatically and there is no real need to close it. Simply continue your work in Outlook and go back to the Notes folder (CTRL + 5 anyone?) when you want to open, edit or delete your notes.
By the way, in Outlook 2016 you do not see the Notes folder at the bottom of the navigation pane. (You only see the first 4 components: Mail, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks.) If you cannot bear the CTRL + 5 keyboard shortcut, click on the three dots (…) next to the icon for Tasks, go to Navigation Pane Options and set the Maximum number of visible items to 5.
With thanks to Noel for today’s tip.
Related tips
- Create and insert frequently used text and graphics
- Automatically start an application such as Outlook or - my favourite! - Sticky Notes
- Quickly jump between the various Outlook components
- Quick way to paste content of the clipboard into an email message
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2 December 2019
Karen Roem offers software training and support through her company Roem Ltd. Contact her by email (Karen@roem.co.uk) or visit her website at www.roem.co.uk