In an article by Dave Paradi, he points out that Outlook was designed as a Personal Information Tool (PIM), and Jay Lee defines it this way.

Outlook Express is a free program that comes with Internet Explorer and is a part of Microsoft Windows; it is not a part of the Microsoft Office suite of software. It supports email and has a very limited capacity for contact management. It does not replace Outlook, nor is it a tool for business. It may be fine for the home computer user.

Outlook is much more than an email (client) program; it’s a contact manager, calendar and scheduling manager, and a task manager just for *starters*. Outlook synchronizes easily with other databases such as ACT and is also linked to handheld PCs, which run on the Windows platform. If you want an all-in-one program for task, time and email management, and you want to stay with a Microsoft-based program, Outlook is the answer. Can you tell that I’m an avid Outlook user?

Here are a couple of tips for organizing and moving email from your Inbox:

Organizing Email Messages in Outlook

Email messages initially arrive to your Inbox, but what do you do with them as they accumulate? If you want to save your incoming email messages, organize them much like you’d organize your office – put them in alphabetical folders by subject in a file cabinet. In this case, the file cabinet is your Inbox, and the file folders will be created preferably by subject.

To create a folder within your Inbox:

• Right click on the Inbox icon or name.
• From the drop-down menu, select New Folder.
• In the Create New Folder dialog box, type the name of the folder and highlight the Inbox folder (where to place the folder). Outlook will place the new folder in the Inbox.
• Click OK. The New Folder will appear in alphabetical order under the Inbox.

Move Messages to the appropriate folder:

There are several ways to move messages from the Inbox to a different folder.

• Drag: You can left click and hold, then drag the message to the appropriate folder.
• Move: Open the message. Slowly move your mouse over the icons on the Toolbar and left-click on the Move to Folder icon. On the drop-down menu, select Move to Folder. The Move Item To dialog box appears. Select the appropriate folder and click OK or click on New to create a new folder within the Inbox (which is another way to create a new folder).

Future Tips will address the Outlook Task List, Creating and Scheduling Tasks by dragging messages to the Calendar and Task List, Managing the Outlook Calendar, and utilizing Contacts to record data and contact information.