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Recover Deleted Items in Outlook

Posted by  on Thursday, July 19th 2012     

I often tell people that deleting email, especially large emails, is the best way to keep their mailbox under its size limit. But occasionally, people (myself included) delete an email or other Outlook item, then realize it was important. If you haven’t emptied your Deleted Items folder yet, then getting the item back is a breeze– just find it in the Deleted Items folder and drag it to the folder it belongs in. But if you’ve already emptied the Deleted Items folder, things get a bit trickier.

Some items can be recovered even after the Deleted Items folder has been emptied, depending on the kind of item and how long it has been since you emptied the folder. The amount of time you have to recover an item depends on your Exchange Administrator.

Recover Deleted Items in Outlook 2010

  1. Select your Deleted Items folder.
  2. Go to the File tab on the ribbon.
  3. In the Clean Up group click Recover Deleted Items.
  4. Select the item(s) you would like to recover.
  5. Click Recover Selected Items.

Recover Deleted Items in Outlook 2007 

  1. Select your Deleted Items folder.
  2. Go to Tools > Recover Deleted Items…
  3. Select the item(s) you would like to recover.
  4. Click the Recover selected items button.

Please note: These instructions only apply to items sent to the Deleted Items folder and then emptied from it. If you deleted an item using the Shift + Delete shortcut (not recommended), or if you deleted an attachment but not the email, you cannot recover them through this method.

Related Items

Outlook 2010′s Clean Up Feature

Reduce Inbox Spam in Outlook

Keep Under Your Mailbox Limit by Deleting Attachments

Keeping Track of Where You Save Outlook Attachments

Send Email Without Saving It in Outlook 2007 & 2010

 

category: Outlook
tags: , , , ,

Out of Office Message Tips

Posted by  on Friday, July 13th 2012     

This week Ben came across a great article about best practices for using the Out of Office messages. I recommend it for any of you who use Out of Office messages or who are considering it.

8 Tips for Using Outlook’s Out of Office Assistant

When Ben sent me this article, I was shocked to realize that we didn’t have a post on the blog about how to set up the Out of Office Assistant in Outlook, so here goes:

 

Set Up Out of Office in Outlook 2010

You can choose to schedule when your message will begin and end sending, and whether you send only to people inside your organization or whether you send to people inside your org and out.

  1. Go to the File tab.
  2. Click on the Automatic Replies button.
  3. In the window that opens, select Send Automatic Replies.
  4. If you’d like to schedule your out of office message to start and stop automatically, check the Only send during this time range box. Set the start date and end date below.
  5. Select the Inside My Organization tab. In the box below, type and format the message you’d like people on the same exchange server to receive.
  6. Click the Outside my Organization tab. To send an Out of Office message to people outside your organization, check the Auto-reply to people outside my organization box. Type and format the message below. If you don’t want to send an Out of Office message to outside people, leave the box unchecked.
  7. When you’ve finished writing messages, click OK.

 

Set Up Out of Office in Outlook 2007

You can choose to schedule when your message will begin and end sending, and whether you send only to people inside your organization or whether you send to people inside your org and out.

  1. Go to the Tools menu and select Out of Office Assistant.
  2. Select Send out of office replies.
  3. If you’d like to schedule your out of office message to start and stop automatically, check the Only send during this time range box. Set the start date and end date below.
  4. Select the Inside My Organization tab. In the box below, type and format the message you’d like people on the same Exchange Server to receive.
  5. Click the Outside my Organization tab. To send an Out of Office message to people outside your organization, check the Auto-reply to people outside my organization box. Type and format the message below. If you don’t want to send an Out of Office message to outside people, leave the box unchecked.
  6. When you’ve finished writing messages, click OK.

 

Set Up Out of Office in Outlook Web Access

You can choose to schedule when your message will begin and end sending, and whether you send only to people inside your organization or whether you send to people inside your org and out.

  1. Log-in to Outlook Web Access.
  2. In the top right corner, click the Options button.
  3. In the left column, click Out of Office Assistant.
  4. Select Send out of office replies.
  5. If you’d like to schedule your out of office message to start and stop automatically, check the Only send during this time range box. Set the start date and end date below.
  6. In the box labeled Send an auto-reply once to each sender inside my organization with the following message, type and format the message you’d like people on the same Exchange Server to receive.
  7. To send an Out of Office message to people outside your organization, check the Auto-reply to people outside my organization box. Type and format the message in the box below.
  8. When you’ve finished writing messages, click OK.

 

category: Office 2007, Office 2010, Outlook
tags: , , ,

Use the Notes Feature in Outlook

Posted by  on Friday, June 15th 2012     

If you’re like me, your desk, monitor, and the rest of your office are covered in sticky notes. They remind me of things I need to do, processes, phone calls I need to respond to, and who does what in which office. They’re generally too short to warrant their own Word document, and anyway, they’d clutter up my Documents library.

Short notes like this are a great opportunity for the Notes feature in Outlook. It is often overlooked, but very useful. It allows you to easily access bits of information you don’t want to write on a sticky note or save to a Word doc.

Access Notes in Outlook

In the Navigation pane on the left, click on Notes or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 5. (Learn more keyboard shortcuts to change views in Outlook.)

Don’t see Notes in the Navigation pane? Look for the yellow notepad icon in the bar across the bottom of the Navigation pane.

Create a New Note

Here are three ways to start a new note:

  • Go to the Notes view and click the New button.
  • In any view, click the drop down arrow beside the New button and select Note.
  • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N.

Once your new note has opened, click in the body. The first line you type will be the name displayed below your note. Below that, type or paste information. When you’ve finished, no need to save. Just click the X in the top right corner to close it. It will appear in the Notes section of Outlook.

Organize Notes

To organize your notes, just click and drag them around the white space in the Notes view. Use the buttons on the toolbar/ribbon to view them with large icons, small icons, or as a list.

Delete a Note

When a note is no longer useful, you can always delete it.

  1. Go to the Notes view.
  2. Click on a note.
  3. Click on the Home tab of the ribbon.
  4. Click the Delete button (a black X).

 

category: Outlook
tags: , , ,

Open Programs Faster By Creating Your Own Windows Shortcuts

Posted by  on Thursday, April 5th 2012     

Screenshot of Windows shortcut properties

Which Windows programs do you use day in and day out?  Most of us use the same three to five programs every single day.  If you are in the same situation, you can save time by creating keyboard shortcuts to open them.  I use shortcuts to quickly open Outlook and Firefox.  It saves me a couple of minutes every day, and those minutes add up to several hours of saved time over the course of a year.  Plus, pressing a few keys to make Excel open instantly makes me look awesome in front of co-workers.  And isn’t that really the point of technology?

To create your own shortcuts in Windows:

  1. Browse to the application in your Start menu, also known as the Windows button for Windows 7.  You might have to browse to the All Programs menu and find the application there, rather than finding the application in the ‘frequently used’ initial section of the Start menu.
  2. Right-click on the application name, and choose Properties.
  3. On the Shortcut tab, type a letter in the Shortcut Key field.  I find it easiest to use the letter that starts the application name.  For example, I use “E” for Excel.
  4. The new shortcut to open that application will now be Ctrl + Alt + the letter you chose in Step 3.  In my Excel example, I use Ctrl + Alt + E.

Occasionally, I find an application that does not let me add a keyboard shortcut.  In those cases, once you right-click in Step 2, choose either Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu to create a shortcut on either the Taskbar across the bottom of Windows, or the Start Menu, respectively.

If you pin a shortcut to the Taskbar, you can use a built-in keyboard shortcut to open that application instantly.  The shortcut is the Windows key and a number, where the number you press is the application’s position in the Taskbar.  The Windows key is the key with the Windows logo on it, usually found on the bottom row of your keyboard.  For example, in the screenshot below, I would press the Windows key, and then 2 to open Internet Explorer.

Screenshot of the Windows 7 taskbar

A word of caution: when choosing a letter in Step 3, do not create a shortcut already using the Ctrl and Alt keys.  For example, Ctrl + Alt + Delete brings up different Windows options.  Similarly, Ctrl + Alt + Arrow keys can change the orientation of your monitors.

Now go out there and show off your super speedy Excel-opening skills!

category: Excel, General, Keyboard Shortcuts, Office 2007, Office 2010, Outlook, PowerPoint, Windows, Word

The McCombs Trainers are on YouTube

Posted by  on Friday, March 30th 2012     

Love the Microsoft Office tips you find on the MOST? Then check us out on YouTube, where we’ve posted all of our video tutorials.

http://www.youtube.com/mccombstrainers

And if you like learning through video tutorial, there are thousands more technology tutorials on YouTube. One of our favorites is Excel is Fun.

category: Email, Excel, General, McCombs Tech Resources, Office 2007, Office 2010, Outlook, Self Support, Useful Web Sites
tags: , , ,
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