Course Outcomes

This Outlook training course will:

  • Show participants the ins and outs of Outlook.
  • Offer a variety of methods for staying on top of incoming mail.
  • Suggest strategies for leveraging templates to respond to common requests.
  • Explain the calendar function tips to make it more efficient.
  • Review various add-ins to increase productivity.

Course Overview

Whether you love it or not, Microsoft Outlook is the email program used in most organizations as the primary tool for written communication. Although some people know it well, many are overwhelmed by the program and underuse its capabilities. If your team complains about email overload, this course will make a difference.

Taught in an interactive half-day workshop format, this training program explores Microsoft Outlook’s common and lesser-known functions. The class is designed for anyone who wants to become more productive and better skilled at managing contacts, calendars, tasks, and email.

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Establish goals for email communication, calendaring, and managing contacts.
  • Determine how to organize folders, incoming mail, and templates.
  • Create rules, quick steps, and quick parts.
  • Use the scheduling assistant.
  • Organize contacts.
  • Create and assign tasks and to-do activities.
  • Explain various third-party add-ins.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

Know the Goal: Determining What You Want from Outlook

Getting Outlook to function well is not a one-size-fits-all activity. Depending on a person’s job, personality, time constraints, and other factors, some approaches will work better than others. This workshop begins with a short discussion about how different people successfully use Outlook. Next, we will talk about the importance of establishing goals for managing email, schedules, and contacts. Then, we will set some preliminary targets.

The Organized Inbox: Digital Decluttering Made Easier

Whether it occurs in the physical world or digitally, disorganization helps no one. This part of the course shows the various ways one can organize an inbox, the value of folders and mail rules, and methods for viewing mail efficiently.

From Hateful to Helpful: Becoming Friends with Routine and Repetition

Most people have routine emails they send and receive. At times these rote messages can seem tedious and time consuming. This workshop segment looks at tools for automating repetitive communication: keyboard shortcuts, quick parts, quick steps, templates, and other functions that can leverage Outlook’s power.

Type to Text and the Wonder of Word: Connecting with Outside Programs

Knowing how to create multiple emails at once and how to send an email to a phone number are skills that can make communication more efficient. This part of the program shows participants how to do both and offers examples of how using these skills increases productivity for others.

Top Task Master: To-Do Lists, Tasks, Notes, and Getting Things Done

Outlook offers a few ways to track tasks and to-dos. In this portion of the course, we will explore the various options available for keeping work visible and the pluses and minuses of each.

Calendar Mastery: Keeping Work Visible

The Outlook calendar is a home for meetings, to-dos, and appointments. During this segment, we will look at efficient ways to create meetings from an email message, share calendars, and take advantage of the scheduling assistant.

Nice Add-In: Outside Help

While Outlook is a fine standalone program, over the years many third-party providers have created extra functionality. In this final discussion, we explore some of the more popular options available.

By the end of this program, participants should understand Outlook’s functions, keyboard shortcuts, methods for organizing mail, and how to use the contacts and calendar.