Create a new rule “from people or distribution list” or “with a particular subject”— whatever you need. When you chose your action, instead of choosing “file in a particular folder,” choose “make a copy in a particular folder.” Now the email is automatically filed as it arrives, but still in your inbox where you can read it easily. Once you’ve acted on it, throw it away. This eliminates all the clicking and dragging you do to file your emails.

There is a reason I said “commonly used folder.” If you give Outlook too much to think about, it has a hissy and breaks all the rules. I run 10-12 rules without a problem; that covers the things I file most often, and the remaining “keepers” I file manually by sorting by name or title and dragging the whole group into the folder. This has drastically cut down the time I spend managing my inbox, and I love it, because I hate to file!

Are you worried that all those duplicates will bloat your inbox? They won’t, for two reasons:

1) You’ve set up an autoarchive that dumps your trash on a regular basis (haven’t you?).

2) You’ve set up your personal files so they aren’t eating up space in your inbox.

You haven’t? Well, now that you have all this free time, get to it.

Or you could just let the cat take care of it...

eMail programs have a choice of format: HTML (shows all formatting, including web items), Plain Text (looks like it came from a Blackberry) and Rich Text (shows all the formatting but isn’t written in the computer language used for web posting).

All you have to do is change the format from HTML or Rich Text to Plain Text. Now change it back. The double spacing will disappear, but your formatting will remain.

The format choices are available somewhere in almost every program. In Outlook 2007 and 2010, it’s in the “Options” Tab:

Outlook 2003 and before, it’s here:

In Apple Mail, look under the “Format” menu, at the bottom:

the choice changes:

Most programs have this option – if yours isn’t here, poke around…it’s there somewhere!

If you have a newer version of Outlook, the invitation is in your Outlook trash folder and you can retrieve it. If you have an older version, however, it’s just gone. You’ll need to ask the host to send you a new copy of the invitation, or ask someone to forward* it to you. The way to avoid this in the future is to open the calendar, open or right click on the meeting, and decline from there. The invitation will remain in your inbox where you can accept it again, thereby putting it back into the calendar.

If you want to the invitation to remain on the calendar but not show as busy, you’ll need to “reply to” the originator saying that you won’t be able to attend, then change the “show time as” option to “free.” If you choose “decline” it will be removed from the calendar.

Tip: I like to make a personal folder for declined invitations so that I can quickly review what I’ve turned down if the conflict changes.

• How do I send something from my computer “from” my manager?
• Why does the email say it’s from me even though I was in his inbox when I started a new email?
•  How do I keep my manager’s mailbox from being deluged with responses to big meetings?
• Why does my executive’s inbox keeps getting overloaded even though s/he is using personal folders?
• Sometimes I open a distribution list or copy a long list of names into the “To” box. When I hit “Send,” Outlook checks the addresses against my company directory and gives me the opportunity to choose a name if it can’t identify it. If the name isn’t there, I have to close out of the window, take the name out of the “To” box and start all over! Is there a way to avoid this?
• Why is an appointment suddenly appearing as nonsense text (“Greek” or gibberish)?
• When I try to accept a meeting, it says ”The function cannot before performed because the message has been changed.”
• When I try to save changes to a meeting I created in my manager’s calendar, it says something along the lines of “The item cannot before saved because the item has been changed. Would you like to save to the default folder?”
• How do I decline a meeting without having the meeting notice disappear? I changed my mind later and the invitation was GONE!

Find those answers or submit your own questions here.

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If you have a newer version of Outlook, the invitation is in your trash and you can retrieve it. If you have an older version, however, it’s just gone. The way to avoid this is to open the calendar, open or right click on the meeting, and decline from there. The invitation will remain in your inbox where you can accept it again, thereby putting it back into the calendar.

If you want to the invitation to remain on the calendar but not show as busy, you’ll need to “reply to” the originator saying that you won’t be able to attend, then change the “show time as” option to “free.” If you choose “decline” it will be removed from the calendar.

Tip: I like to make a personal folder for declined invitations so that I can quickly review what I’ve turned down if the conflict changes.

Want to find this information later? Bookmark out the FAQ section of the Outlook Wiki

Looking for the Forum? Click here.