An Outlook gem to save hours

WORKING IT

A huge problem we all have is the time we need to spend working with email, coupled with the lack of it to explore and learn if there are new or easier ways of doing things.

A perfect example of a little used gem is something Microsoft brought out in the 2007 version of Outlook called Quick Parts.

I use it often and if you add up the time saved over a year it would amount to a full day at least.

In essence, don’t retype. Quick Part.

During the course of the year, do you have certain phrases, paragraphs, responses that you type over and over again in different emails?

The same or similar questions you answer time and again?

You might save bits in drafts, or search through your sent emails.

If you were clever, in previous versions of Outlook you could have made different signatures and inserted them.

If you haven’t discovered Quick Parts yet, you are going to love this tip.

It can help you respond faster, initiate new emails in a second or two and also help your relationship management by helping you to send courteous or "nice meeting you" emails when normally you wouldn’t have the time.

A few Quick Parts thoughts:

• Thank you (for your inquiry, response, interest, request for more information).
• Responding to a meeting request.
• Responding to applicants.
• Forms normally sent to staff.
• Pieces of quotes, proposals.
• About our company.
• Emails to other departments requesting information.
• We need further information.

Quick Parts saves formatted text (if your email server allows you to send it – some large companies are plain text only).

It is very easy to create a quick part.

1. Open and type out what you would like to save in an email.

2. On the Insert tab of the ribbon, in the Text group, click Quick Parts

3. Click Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.

After you save your content to the Quick Part Gallery, you can reuse it over and over again.

To use the Quick Part it is as simple as putting your curser in the body of a new email you have opened (where you want to insert the text).

Go back to the Insert tab, select Quick Parts and tap the text that you want to use from your selection (if you’ve built in many).

Debbie Mayo-Smith is an international speaker and productivity guru. For more tips on saving time and earning more, go to www.successis.co.nz for a free monthly newsletter. There are also more than 500  articles, computer quick tips and ideas.