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Outlook Tips & Tricks

If you want to get the most out of your Outlook, look no further! We have 5 awesome tips and tricks to make you more efficient.

Sync Google Calendar, Outlook, and iPhone Calendar

On the Windows machine running Outlook:

  • If you use a free Gmail or Google Apps account:
    • Make sure iCal4OL is installed.
      • You can use a different Google Calendar or CalDAV for Outlook add-on, of course; the CalDAV settings from below should still apply.
    • Launch iCal4OL.
    • Go to the Who tab.
    • Click Other under CalDAV Autoconfiguration for:.
    • Enter “https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/[email address]/user” under Server: replacing “[email address]” with your Gmail or Google account address.
      • If the Gmail address for your Google Calendar account is “example@gmail.com“, for instance, use “https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/example@gmail.com/user“.
    • Type the full Gmail (or associated Google account) email address under Login.
    • Now type your Google Calendar (or Gmail) password under Password.
    • Click Retrieve configuration from server and save it.
    • For each calendar on Google Calendar:
      • Select the desired calendar in Outlook with which you want to synchronize the Google Calendar calendar under Outlook:
        • To create and use a new calendar in Outlook:
          • Click New.
          • Type the desired calendar’s name under Add new Outlook Folder.
          • Click OK.
        • iCal4OL will use your Outlook’s default data folder.
      • Make sure Down and Up are checked under Synchronization/Simulation
      • Usually, leave Reminders checked as well under Reminders.
    • Click Save.
    • Click Save again.
    • Go to the Run tab.
    • Click Start Synchronization.
    • Now pick a schedule for up- and downloading data under Tasktray Autostart.
    • Click the play button.
      • To start a synchronization run at any time:
        • Click the iCal4OL system tray icon with the right mouse button.
        • Select Run now from the menu that appears.
  • If you use a Google Apps for Business account, you can also use Google Apps Sync:
    • Download and install Google Apps Sync.
    • Enter the email address associated with your Google Calendar account under Email:.
    • Type your Google Calendar password under Password:.
    • For full synchronization, make sure 2-way is selected under Sync Options.
    • Optionally, change the interval for automatic synchronization under Sync every ___ minutes.
    • Click Save.
      • You can change these settings at any time by double-clicking the Google Calendar Sync system tray icon.

On the iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone Calendar:

  • Tap Settings on the Home screen.
  • Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
  • Select Add Account… under Accounts.
  • Choose Other.
  • Tap Add CalDAV Account under Calendars.
  • Type “https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/[email address]/user” (not including the quotation marks and replacing “[email address]” with the Google Calendar account’s email address) under Server.
  • Enter the email address you use to log into Google Calendar under User Nameas well.
  • Enter your Google Calendar password under Password.
  • Optionally, tap “Google Calendar” under Description.
  • Tap Next.

Increase font size while reading mail in Outlook

  • With the message open in Outlook’s reading pane:
    1. Click Zoom In (+) in the Outlook status bar.
  • With the message open in its own window:
    1. Make sure the Message ribbon in expanded.
    2. Click Zoom.
    3. Select the desired zooming level under Percent:.
    4. Click OK.

Search inside a message in Outlook

  1. Double-click the message to open it in its own window. You cannot search inside a message shown in the Outlook preview pane.
  2. Press F4 or click Find in the message’s toolbar, assuming the Message ribbon is active and expanded. In Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003, you can also select Edit | Find… from the menu.
  3. Select your search options.
  4. Use Find Next to find all occurrences of your search terms in the message.

Change the way unread messages are highlighted in Outlook

  1. Open the View ribbon menu in MS Outlook.
  2. Click View Settings to the left.
  3. Select Conditional Formatting.
  4. Click the Add button.
  5. Name your new conditional formatting rule (Custom unread mail, for example).
  6. Click Font to change the font settings. You can select anything there, including multiple options, such as a larger font size, a different effect, and a unique color.
  7. Click OK on the Font screen to return to the Conditional Formatting window.
  8. Click Condition at the bottom of that window.
  9. In the More Choices tab, select Only items that are: and then choose Unread from that drop-down menu. If you want, you can define some other criteria there, but unread is all you need to apply the formatting changes to all unread messages.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Click OK once more to exit the Conditional Formatting window.
  12. Click OK one last time to save the rule and return to your mail, where the new rule should automatically apply.

Purge deleted emails in Outlooks

  1. pen the FOLDER ribbon from the top of Outlook. Click it if you can’t see the ribbon.
  2. Click Purge from the Clean Up section.
  3. Select an appropriate option from the drop-down menu.

    Click Purge Marked Items in All Accounts to eliminate deleted messages from all IMAP accounts, but you can, of course, choose to only purge the messages in just that folder or email account if you’d rather.

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