10 Minute Guide to Outlook 97 - 9 - Setting Mail Options In this lesson, you learn to set options for messages and delivery, and for tracking messages. Customizing Options Outlook provides options that enable you to mark any message with priority status so that the recipient knows you need a quick response, or with a sensitivity rating so your words cannot be changed by anyone after the message is sent. With other available options, you can enable the recipients of your message to vote on an issue by including voting buttons in your message and having the replies sent to a specific location. You also can set delivery options. For example, you can schedule the delivery of a message for a specified delivery time or date if you don't want to send it right now. To set message options open the Untitled - Message window and click the Options tab. As you can see in Figure 9.1, the options on this tab are separated into four areas. The next four subsections discuss each of the groups of options in detail. General Options In the General Options area, set any of the following options for your message: Click the Importance drop-down arrow and choose a priority level of Low, Normal, or High from the list. (Alternatively, you could click the Importance High or Importance Low tool button on the toolbar.) If you don't specify the level of importance, the message is given Normal Importance. Figure 9.1 Use the Options tab to govern how your message is sent. Click the Sensitivity drop-down arrow and choose one of the following options: Normal Use this option to indicate that the message's contents are standard or customary. Personal Use this option to suggest that the message's contents are of a personal nature. Private Use this option to prevent the message from being modified after you send it. Confidential Use this option to denote that the message's contents are restricted or private. Timesaver Tip: You Can Mark All Messages As Private You can mark all of your messages so that no one can tamper with your words by choosing Tools, Options and clicking the Sending tab. In the Set Sensitivity box, choose the level you want. Select the Use Voting Buttons check box to add the default choices (Approve and Reject) to your message. You can also add Yes and No choices or Yes, No, and Maybe choices. If you want to provide other choices, enter your own text in the text box. Choose the Have Replies Sent To check box and specify in the text box the person to whom you want the replies sent. You can use the Select Names button to view the Address Book and choose a name if you want. Select the Save Sent Message To check box to save your message to the Sent Items folder by default. Or specify another folder to save the message in, using the Browse button and the resulting dialog box if necessary to locate the folder. Delivery Options In addition to message options, you can set certain delivery options, such as scheduling the time of the delivery. In the Delivery Options area of the Options tab (Message window), choose one or both of the following check boxes: Do Not Deliver Before Check this option to specify a delivery date. Click the down arrow in the text box beside the option to display a calendar on which you can select the day. Expires After Select this check box to include a day, date, and time of expiration. You can click the down arrow in the text box to display a calendar from which you can choose a date, or you can enter the date and time yourself. Tracking Options You might want to set tracking options so you'll know when the message has been delivered and/or read. Tracking options are like receipts: they notify you that the message arrived safely. You set tracking options from the Options tab of the Untitled - Message window. Choose one or both of the following Tracking Options: Tell Me When This Message Has Been Delivered and Tell Me When This Message Has Been Read. Categories Outlook enables you to assign messages to certain categories--such as Business, Goals, Hot Contacts, Phone Calls, and so on. You set the category for a message in the Categories dialog box. Plain English: Categories Categories offer a way of organizing messages to make them easier to find, sort, print, and manage. For example, to find all of the items in one category, choose Tools, Find Items. Click the More Choices tab, choose Categories, and check the category for which you're searching. To assign a category, follow these steps: 1. In the Options tab of the Message window, click the Categories button. The Categories dialog box appears (see Figure 9.2). 2. To assign an existing category, select the category or categories that best suit your message from the Available Categories list. To assign a new category, enter a new category in the Item(s) Belong to These Categories text box, and then click the Add to List button. Figure 9.2 Organize your messages with categories. 3. Click OK to close the Categories dialog box and return to the Message window. Using Message Flags A message flag enables you to mark a message as important, either as a reminder for yourself or as a signal to the message's recipient. When you send a message flag, a red flag icon appears in the recipient's message list, and Outlook adds text at the top of the message telling which type of flag you are sending. In addition, you can add a due date to the flag, and that date appears at the top of the message. The following list outlines the types of flags you can send in Outlook: Call No Response Necessary Do not Forward Read Follow Up Reply For Your Information Reply to All Forward Review To use a message flag, follow these steps: 1. In the Message window, click the Message Flag button or choose Edit, Message Flag. The Flag Message dialog box appears (see Figure 9.3). Figure 9.3 Flag a message to show its importance. 2. Click the Flag drop-down arrow and choose the flag text you want to add to the message. 3. Click the By drop-down arrow and select a date from the calendar, or enter a date manually in the text box. 4. Click OK to return to the Message window. Timesaver Tip: View the Message Header You can view just the header of a message to allow you more message text room, if you want to hide the Cc, Bcc, and Subject lines. Choose View, Message Header to show only the To text box and any flag text; select View, Message Header again to redisplay the Cc, Bcc, and Subject fields. In this lesson, you learned to set options for messages and delivery, and for tracking messages. In the next lesson, you will learn to attach items to messages.

©Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.