Every day, more than 300 billion emails are sent worldwide. Email is one of the most widely used tools for business: it is the preferred method of communication for over 63% of professionals. Email is now a big part of our lives both at work and at home.
The average office worker receives around 121 emails every day. 90% of Americans over the age of 15 have an email address. It is estimated that Americans spend over 5 hours a day checking emails, answering emails, writing emails, and engaging with their email software.
That’s a lot of time on email. Estimates show that easy access to email through smartphones has only increased the amount of our time that we spend on email. It’s backed up by the fact that Apple’s iPhone email app is currently the most used email software in the world. Second to the iPhone app is Google’s web-based email Gmail.
Who Uses Microsoft Outlook?
However, the go-to email software for businesses is Microsoft Outlook; over 10% of all emails are sent using Outlook. Despite the growth of email on smartphones and rival programs, Outlook has continued to increase its market share as the preferred email software for businesses.
Microsoft Office is used by over a million companies worldwide, including many United States government offices. According to CNBC, email is the preferred method for asking coworkers a quick question and providing feedback, meaning most people interact with their coworkers using Outlook.
Microsoft Outlook vs. Other Email Programs
Microsoft Outlook is the email client and personal information manager software program in Microsoft Office, the world’s most widely-used productivity platform. In addition to Outlook, the Microsoft Office suite of programs includes Word (word processing), Excel (spreadsheets), PowerPoint (presentations), Publisher (desktop publishing), and Access (databases).
The difference between an email client and webmail is that an email client (like Outlook) downloads the emails to your computer while webmail (like Gmail) stores everything in the cloud. This makes Outlook a more secure option for businesses and individuals who need to maintain confidentiality. Another business advantage this gives to Outlook is that you can access emails offline once they’ve been downloaded: you can do all of your replying while in flight or on the go. And, not just emails: you can access all of Outlook’s powerful features while online. Email clients also enable managing multiple email addresses in the same place.
While Outlook is mainly known for email, it also includes a collection of powerful personal information management features, such as calendars, task management, contact management, note-taking, journal logging, and web browsing. Microsoft has retooled Outlook to go beyond helping you stay connected. It will now also help you stay organized.
Using Outlook’s Advanced Features
Learning more about using Microsoft Outlook’s advanced features can maximize your productivity and organization. Using Outlook’s more advanced (and coolest) features can streamline some of the time you spend with email and planning.
For example, Outlook has a ton of keyboard shortcuts built into the program that allows you to reply and send faster or switch between functions, such as transitioning from your inbox to your calendar with a single keystroke (Alt-R). That’s one of Outlook’s most significant advantages: you can open multiple Outlook windows to easily view your calendar, notes, or tasks while writing an email.
Outlook can also access your computer’s clipboard, and you can type Ctrl-V to create a new email or note with the clipboard text already pasted in. If you need to concentrate on a task, Outlook allows you to limit notifications so that you’re not disturbed.
One of Outlook’s most powerful features is “Rules.” You can set up a “rule” for when certain things happen: for example, create a task automatically whenever you receive an email from your boss.
Another unique feature of Outlook is that it allows you to leave reply-all email chains. For example, if you really don’t want to read the petty office argument happening in an email thread, Outlook allows you to leave the chain without having to block any of the participants. On the flip side, Outlook also allows you to @ people on the recipient list so that their mention is highlighted. This makes it easier to assign tasks and get your group messages noticed by the right people.
Other cool advanced features include: Outlook allows you to record a video invitation for meetings and other calendar events. It will remind you to attach a file if you compose an email with the word “attachment” or “attached.” And, it will automatically add any fight confirmations that come through your inbox directly to your calendar so you never miss a flight. Or, you can set up alerts that meet specific criteria to ensure you don’t miss a job offer or a concert presale code.
Like other Microsoft Office products, Outlook has a substantial library of add-ins that increase the program’s power and versatility. Some popular add-ins include Grammarly for proofreading, desktop links for specific features such as your calendar or notes, folder alerts, Boomerang for scheduling emails, and text lighting, which allows you to save commonly used text chunks to reuse in emails. Outlook also offers integration add-ins for popular programs such as Evernote, Trello, Dropbox, and PayPal.
Learn Outlook
These are just a few of the features that you can use when you learn Outlook. NYIM offers several courses on Microsoft Outlook, both in-person at their campus in Midtown Manhattan and live online. Their Microsoft Outlook Level 1 teaches students how to use Outlook to reduce time spent on emails and increase productivity or become an Official Microsoft Certified Outlook Specialist. After mastering Outlook’s basic features, students can enroll in NYIM’s Microsoft Outlook Level 2, which builds on the training to help you transform Outlook into a fully customized and automated personal information service. Both courses provide graduates with a Certificate of Completion that is sharable on LinkedIn.
