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Best Practices On Outlook

The document provides best practices for using Microsoft Outlook effectively. It recommends backing up Outlook data files regularly, shutting down Outlook before shutting down the PC, saving contacts to the Contacts folder, disabling unnecessary virus scanner integration and add-ins, regularly checking data files for errors, connecting rather than importing additional data files, avoiding network data file connections, using additional organization tools besides rules, and properly using the To, CC, BCC and From fields when composing emails.

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Naveen Kumar
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
52 views

Best Practices On Outlook

The document provides best practices for using Microsoft Outlook effectively. It recommends backing up Outlook data files regularly, shutting down Outlook before shutting down the PC, saving contacts to the Contacts folder, disabling unnecessary virus scanner integration and add-ins, regularly checking data files for errors, connecting rather than importing additional data files, avoiding network data file connections, using additional organization tools besides rules, and properly using the To, CC, BCC and From fields when composing emails.

Uploaded by

Naveen Kumar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Best Practices on Outlook

By,
S.Naveen Kumar
Backup
• Backup stands at the top and for good
reasons; nobody likes losing their data and
chances are that we can store a lot of
important data in Outlook.
Making a backup of Outlook is as simple as
copying a file (a pst-file to be more exact).
Using the Export function in Outlook will not
create a proper backup.
Shut down Outlook before shutting
down PC
• When we want to shut down our PC, it’s easy to go directly
for the shut down button in Windows; all applications will
be eventually automatically closed for us. However, we
really do not want to do this and especially not with
Outlook.
With Outlook being a database application (the pst-file is a
database and so is the ost-file when connecting to an
Exchange server), it will need a little more time to shut
down itself. Outlook failing to shut down gracefully on its
own can lead to corruption of the pst-file or even data loss.
To test if Outlook shuts down correctly on the system ,we
need to take a look on the Processes tab in Task Manager
(press CTRL+SHIF+ESC) and see if outlook.exe is still in
there.
Save your contacts

• When addressing a new email, we’ll find that Outlook


will suggest already names and addresses for us. This is
a very handy feature but dangerous as well as we
could easily forget to put them in the Contacts folder.
•
The AutoSuggest feature uses its own cache of
addresses (stored in an nk2-file) that we have used
before when addressing a new email or replied or
forwarded another email. It holds no relation to our
Contacts folder!
To add an address to your Contacts folder, right click
on the address and choose "Add to Outlook Contacts".
Disable virus scanner integration

• Having a virus scanner integrated with


Outlook sounds like a smart thing to do but in
fact it isn’t. Because we have an on-access
scanner already from the same virus scanner
running on the system, we are already
sufficiently protected.
Having a virus scanner integrated is also
known to cause a lot of issues with sending,
receiving and displaying emails and can really
slow down Outlook as well..
Disable add ins we don’t use

• Applications that we install sometimes also install


options into Outlook we don’t even use. For
instance, installing iTunes will also install an
Outlook addin to sync our calendar to the iPod
while we might not even use that function of the
iPod or the iPod version doesn’t even support it.
Having a lot of addins installed can Outlook to
perform slowly or even to malfunction when the
addin itself is faulty, is not compatible with the
version of Outlook or conflicts with another
addin. Therefore, we need to disable or uninstall
addins that we are not using within Outlook.
Keep our pst-files free from errors

• There are certain conditions under which errors can get into our
pst-files. An obvious one is when we had a crash in Outlook. After
that happens, we’ll often find that Outlook will trash our hard disk
for a while; it is then doing a quick integrity check on our pst-file
and fixes some small issues directly when needed.
While after such a check, Outlook will usually run ok again, we still
might want to regularly check our pst-file for issues with
scanpst.exe. This will do a bit more thorough test against our pst-
file then the quick automated check. Don’t forget to verify the
option that the tool will make a backup first before attempting to
correct any issues.
A pst-file free of errors can prevent (future) data loss, indexing
issues or even crashes when addins are trying to access information
stored in our pst-file.
Don’t import but connect pst-files

• When you have an extra pst-file (for instance an


archive) and we want to see what’s in there, don’t use
the Import function. You can directly open pst-files in
Outlook by using File-> Open-> Outlook Data File…
If there is anything in that pst-file that you want to
store in the main pst-file, simply copy those items from
one folder to the other.
In our account settings we can assign to which pst-file
we want our new emails to be delivered to.
There are really only a few occasions where importing
a pst-file makes sense.
Don’t connect to pst-files located on a
network share
• This is another thing that sounds like a good thing
to do (for instance centrally manage our backup)
but in reality it isn’t. As pst-files are databases,
they heavily rely on special hard disk operations
to perform properly and with decent responds
times. This is not possible when we connect to a
pst-file over the network. When we do, it could
lead to poor performance, corruption of data or
even complete loss of our pst-file. A good
workaround that suits most is to keep the pst-file
locally on the computer.
Use more than just rules to organize
your mail
• Rules are a great way to sort our emails but
having too many rules can make managing our
rules more complex than managing your emails.
Also, improper use of it could lead to duplicates
and when connecting to an Exchange server, the
amount of rules we can have is restricted by the
size of the rules.
Therefore it is good looking at the other email
management options that Outlook provides such
as Categories, Custom Views, Search Folders and
Automatic Formatting.
Use the To, CC, BCC and From fields
accordingly
• This last best practice is actually not specific to Outlook but applies to
general good email use. Knowing when to use each field can prevent the
receiver from being confused or even annoyed about your email. In
general you should consider using them in the following way;
• To:
• Always specify this field and specify the address of the main person or
persons you are talking to. If it is more appropriate to use the BCC field
(see below) then specify your own address here.
• CC:
• Specify this field when you want to send the message to an additional
person for informational purposes and also want to notify the person you
are sending to that this person is informed about the topic.
In general, people who are specified in the CC field do not hold any
actions specified in the email and are not directly requested to respond.
When the recipient presses "Reply to All" the persons addressed in the CC
field will also receive a follow up.
Use the To, CC, BCC and From fields
accordingly
• BCC:*
• Specify this field when you want to send the message to an additional person for informational
purposes but do not want to notify the person you are sending to that this person is informed
about the topic.
You could also specify this field when you want to send the same email message to multiple people
but these people do not know each other. Out of respect for their privacy, you then should not
expose their addresses to everyone either. Sending around "joke emails" for instance to a lot of
people should also be done via the BCC option.
If you want to send the same email to a lot of people who do not know each other and want to
personally address them as well, then you should use a mail merge.
When the recipient presses "Reply to All" the persons addressed in the BCC field will not receive a
follow up.
• From:*
• This field basically only has any usage when you are using an Exchange mail account and have
"Send As" or "Send on Behalf Of" delegate permissions to another mailbox, Public Folder, contact
or distribution group.
By specifying the From field you can send out an email with the name of the object that you are a
delegate of. The receiver will either see just that name/address or will see "<your name> On Behalf
Of <From name>"
The From field has little to no usage when you are using another mail account type such as POP3,
IMAP, HTTP or the Outlook Connector.
If you want to send out an email with another mail account which you might have configured in
Outlook, then you should use the Accounts button near the Send button instead.

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