So, what do you do when you get up in the morning, and go to check your email – but Outlook says your files are corrupted, and it won’t get your email.

I know – it happened to me recently, and I was afraid I’d lost almost 3 years worth of email correspondence.

This stuff has been with me through 3 laptops and quite honestly, I’ve taken darn good care to back it up and make sure I don’t lose a thing.

I’m still not sure how it happened (it wasn’t a virus – that I know), but happened it did.

I started to freak.  I was panicking.  I found a program online that could fix it (supposedly) for the low-low price of $79.95.  Seems like a small price to pay, right?

No.  I’m not paying that much at this point.  So, after calming down, I actually read the error message I was getting.

Scanpst.exe was apparently my answer, and it was already on my computer – thanks Windows!

So, I did a search, ran the scan for all of my .pst files (scanpst.exe knows where they are located by default), and it fixed me right up.

I didn’t lose a single email, and I didn’t die of a stroke either, so I’d say it was a success.

Have you ever received an email containing information that is valuable to you but the subject line in no way reflects the contents of the message?

It makes going back and looking for that email a major pain.

By changing the subject line of the received email, you can have it better reflect the information contained within.

1. Double-click the desired message to open it.

2. Highlight the existing Subject.

3. Input the desired Subject.

4. Close the message.

5. A dialog box will appear, asking if you want to save the message. Click Yes.

There’s nothing worse than sending a professional email with a bunch of spelling errors.  Your family and friends will forgive you (probably…), but the impression you leave on your business associates is worth the few extra minutes it takes to set this up.

You can make Outlook automatically spell check all outgoing e-mails before sending. The following option will force this to occur before you send out composed messages.

1. Open Outlook.

2. Go to the Menu and select Tools.

3. Click on the Options button.

4. In the left pane, select Mail or Spelling.

5. Check the Always check spelling before sending checkbox.

If you are worried about your Deleted Items folder becoming overly large, you can configure Outlook to automatically empty the Deleted Items folder whenever you exit the Outlook application.

This comes in especially handy when you have size limits on how large your inbox can be.

1. Open Outlook.

2. Go to the Menu and click on Tools.

3. Click on the Options button.

4. In the left pane, select the Other or Advanced tab.

5. Check the Empty Deleted Items folder when exiting Outlook checkbox.

7. Click the OK button.

Have you ever clicked send on a message and then remembered that you forgot to attach that important file, or realized you put the wrong time down for a meeting? Outlook allows you the option of recalling a sent message. Here’s how:

For Outlook 2003:

1. Go to the Sent Items folder.

2. Find the message you want recalled and double-click it.

3. Go to the Actions menu and select Recall This Message.

4. To recall the message:

Select Delete unread copies of this message.
(Note: the recipient needs to have Outlook opened for the message to be deleted)

To replace the message:

Select Delete unread copies and replace with a new message, click OK, and type your new message.

To be notified about the success of the recall or replacement:

Check the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient check box.

5. Click OK.

UPDATE: How To Recall a Sent Message in Outlook 2007:

1. Click on Sent Items.

2. Find the message you want recalled and double-click it to open.

3. Go to the Ribbon.

4. In the Actions section, click Other Actions and select Recall This Message.

5. Select Delete unread copies of this message.

6. To be notified about the success of the recall, check the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient checkbox.

7. Click OK.

Sorting your emails will help you find the message you are looking for in a snap!

You can sort messages by the person who sent it, the subject, includes an attachment and more!

Once sorted you can move a group of messages into the folder of your choice or even delete a whole group with only a few clicks!

Sorting steps:

Depending on your view look for on the shaded box displaying “Arrange By” or find boxes that say FROM, RECEIVED, SUBJECT, ATTACHMENT.

2. Use either the drop down of various filters such as Date, Subject, From, Attachments, etc. OR click on the boxes themsleves

3. This is how you choose the filter choice

You may also see a box that says SEARCH: This is where you can type in the criteria for a faster search.

I don’t know about you, but it easy extremely easy for my 2007 Outlook email, contacts and calendar to get out of control. The first step and a great tool to taking control is to create categories and view your Outlook items by category.

Action 1: Think about the different areas of your life and make categories accordingly.

• Friends & Family
• Clients
• Vendors
• Prospects
• Networking Contacts

Action 2: You may want to take it one step further and think about sub categories.

Friends & Family

• Book Club Friends
• Wine Tasting Friends

Networking Contacts

• Women In Networking
• BNI
• ROK

Action 3:
Think about some colors that would work for specific types of items. For example, green for clients (because they bring in the green – gold for networking, etc.)

Steps

1. From the Toolbar, click on the Categories button (Looks like a little Uno board).
2. Select All Categories (at the bottom of the list).
3. The Color Categories dialogue box will appear.
4. On the right side of the Color Categories dialogue box, click on New.
5. The Add New Category dialogue box will appear.
6. Write the name of your category in the Name field.
7. Select the color you would like to choose in the Color field.
8. Click OK.
9. Click OK.

Just In Case: Most likely you will see the email message or contact that you had selected (inadvertently) become categorized. You can “clear” the categories by:

1. Click on the Categories button on the tool bar.
2. Select, Clear all Categories.

I love staying connected, but it’s very easy for my Inbox to get out of control.  I often find that I really *need* to find something, but it’s buried.

Sorting your emails will help you find the message you are looking for in a snap!

You can sort messages by the person who sent it, the subject, includes an attachment and more!

Once sorted you can move a group of messages into the folder of your choice or even delete a whole group with only a few clicks.

Sorting steps:

Depending on your view look for on the shaded box displaying “Arrange By” or find boxes that say FROM, RECEIVED, SUBJECT, ATTACHMENT.

Use either the drop down of various filters such as Date, Subject, From, Attachments, etc. OR click on the boxes themselves.

And that’s IT.

You may also see a box that says SEARCH:   If you know who you are looking for, or a keyword, this is a good option too.