Monday, March 31st, 2008...11:59 am

CTRL Shortcuts Make Outlook Easier to Use

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I work in a corporate environment. So as you can imagine, we are using Microsoft products exclusively here at the office. So I am constantly looking for ways to make Outlook more effective and efficient.

My use of Outlook has been streamlined a bit recently. I have used some keyboard shortcuts to create new emails (CTRL+Shift+M) and file memos away in my reference folder (CTRL+Shift+V) for a while now. However, I still opened about 7 windows in Outlook to keep my calendar, reference folder, action folder, notes, contacts and other things handy.

There is a better way.

I recently discovered that you can get to all of these things with simple keyboard shortcuts from one window.

CTRL+1 calls up your inbox
CTRL+2 opens your calendar
CTRL+3 brings your contacts up
CTRL+4 opens your task list
CTRL+5 takes you to your notes
CTRL+6 opens your folder list in a pane on the left
CTRL+Y has the same function as CTRL+Shift+V. It opens a window to move a memo to another folder.

Using these shortcuts has made my experience with Outlook much easier in recent days.

Outlook users, try them out and let us know if it helps you in the comment section.

- Jason

4 Comments

Filed under Productivity, Software

4 Comments

  • Jared Goralnick
    March 31st, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    These are great tips for people. My personal favorites are F11, Ctrl+K, and Alt+S.

    * F11 brings you to the Find a Contact box (since you should almost NEVER need to go to the contacts area otherwise)
    * Ctrl+K autocompletes your contact in any To box (since you should almost NEVER need to click TO, CC, or BCC)
    * Alt+S saves and sends your message or saves whatever other outlook item you’re in

    An Outlook user will literally use these dozens of times every day….

    Not looking for a plug since this is my corporate site not my blog, but I mention these tips and others on Productivity Tip of the Month

    Cheers.

  • longstride
    March 31st, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    I finish each email with F7, spell check. Then, navigate the spelling errors with ALT+C to ‘change’ or ALT+G to ‘ignore all’. ENTER completes the check and CTRL-ENTER sends the email. It’s much faster than I’ve made it sound.

  • Jason Echols
    March 31st, 2008 at 7:04 pm

    Hey…this is great, guys. Keep those Outlook tips coming.

    Thanks for your responses, Jared and longstride.

  • Ossi
    April 1st, 2008 at 1:54 am

    CTRL-y seems to open “Go To Folder” and not “Move”. For me at least go to does not seem very useful.

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