Contacts, tasks, automatic replies and shortcuts

Every Friday Murad sends a report to the same eight people, typing all eight addresses one by one. He often forgets the tasks people ask him for in emails. Next week he goes on vacation and has no idea what people who write to him will receive. The four tools in this lesson — a contact list, To Do, automatic replies and shortcuts — will save Murad hours every week.

Contacts and contact lists

Click the People icon on the navigation bar. For a new contact choose Home › New contact, fill in the name, email, phone and company, then save. A quicker way: click the sender's name in a message and choose Add to contacts on the contact card that opens.

1. 1
   Create a contact list

   In People, click the arrow next to New contact › New contact list. In classic Outlook it is called Home › New Contact Group.

2. 2
   Name it and add members

   Give the list a clear name such as “Weekly report”, then add the eight names or addresses and click Create.

3. 3
   Use the list

   Type “Weekly report” in the To field of a new message — Outlook adds all eight addresses in one step. When someone leaves the team, you only remove them from the list.

Tasks with Microsoft To Do

Tasks in Outlook sync with Microsoft To Do: something you create in the To Do app on your phone also appears in Outlook. There are two ways to turn an email into a task: flag the message (Insert) — it lands in the Flagged email list in To Do; or open the My Day pane on the right with View › My Day and drag the message onto its To Do tab. Drag a task from the pane onto the calendar to block time for it.

Automatic replies (out of office)

1. 1
   Open the settings

   In the new Outlook choose Settings › Accounts › Automatic replies and turn on the Turn on automatic replies switch. In classic Outlook: File › Automatic Replies.

2. 2
   Set the dates

   Tick Send replies only during a time period and enter the start and end times. That way the replies start and stop by themselves — even if you forget to switch them off when you return.

3. 3
   Write the message

   With a work account you can write separate texts for senders inside and outside your organization. Example:
   “Hello! I'm on vacation from 10 to 17 August and will reply from 18 August. For urgent matters, please contact Aysel Huseynova: aysel@example.com.”
   Then click Save.

Working fast with shortcuts

The new and classic Outlook share most shortcuts (Ctrl+R, Ctrl+Shift+R, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+U), but some differ. On the web and in the new Outlook you can switch the shortcut set under Settings › General › Accessibility — for example, pick the familiar ones if you come from Gmail.