Microsoft Outlook 2003, Introduction to

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
In our first lesson, you?ll get an overview of the course, along with an introduction to the revved up design that makes Outlook 2003 easier and more efficient to work with than earlier versions. We'll also take a quick look at the various ways you can get help from Outlook itself, and some keyboard shortcuts that will help you speed through some common actions.

Lesson 2
With the introductions out of the way, it?s time to put Outlook to work at its primary job: handling all your e-mail in one place. Whether you have one e-mail account or one dozen of them, Outlook can be the one place where you work with them all. This lesson covers the first step toward that by showing you how to give Outlook access to all your e-mail accounts.

Lesson 3
In Lesson 2, we got Outlook talking to all of your e-mail accounts. In today's lesson, you'll learn everything you need to know to send and receive messages using those accounts. We'll go beyond the basics to cover topics like using formatting, signatures, and the spelling checker to make the messages you send look professional and get results.

Lesson 4
This lesson is a transition point. After a few tips to improve your e-mail productivity, we?ll be ready to move on. The Contacts folder and the Address Book are powerful tools you can use to stay connected with other people. Once you get these two working smoothly, you?ll have electronic access to all your contact information, be able to get rid of all those old business cards you have lying around, and actually find the information you need about people. You'll learn how to do it all in this lesson.

Lesson 5
E-mail isn?t the only way to communicate electronically. Newsgroups and instant messaging are two of the other ways people communicate across the Internet, and you can take advantage of them through Outlook?s connections to two additional free programs, Outlook Express and MSN Messenger. I'll tell you all about them in today's lesson.

Lesson 6
It?s time for another change of direction. So far, we?ve concentrated on communication. Now we?re going to concentrate on the Personal Information Management, or PIM, side of Outlook. As we go through this part of the course, you?ll learn how to organize and manage the random bits of information that define much of our modern lives. In this lesson, we'll focus on the Calendar, which is the key to organizing and managing your personal time, undoubtedly the most valuable resource you possess.

Lesson 7
In the last lesson, you learned the basics of the Calendar. This time around you?ll learn some of the more advanced capabilities of Calendar, things you won?t need every day, but that will really pay off when you need them?if you know how to use them. We?re talking about techniques that will save you major headaches if you need them!

Lesson 8
Now that you?ve mastered the most important folders in Outlook (Inbox, Contacts, and Calendar), it?s time to look at three other default folders: Tasks, Notes, and Journal. These three tools enhance and complement the PIM capabilities of Outlook and help make it the core of my computing experience. We'll explore them in this lesson.

Lesson 9
Now we need to look at ways you can organize, manage, and print all the information you have in Outlook. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to add new folders and shortcuts, how to apply rules to automate the handling of information, and how to print information for those times when you just have to have it on paper.

Lesson 10
With all the information you'll stuff into Outlook, you'll eventually reach a point when you need to find some place to store old items. You?ll also want some help finding stuff you have in Outlook. We'll tackle both problems head-on in today's lesson.

Lesson 11
We?re integrating the online world into our daily lives. Unfortunately, there are people in the world who want to read your e-mail, infect your computer with viruses, and even take your computer over and use it to attack others. In this lesson, I'll show you some features of Outlook that can help protect you from those creeps.

Lesson 12
In the final lesson of the course, you'll learn to customize Outlook to make it work more the way you would like it to work. Outlook offers many ways to change the information it displays and the way its menus and other controls work. It even lets you add new data fields for some items. You?ll pick up an assortment of Outlook customization tips, techniques, and procedures to tweak Outlook and make living with it better and more fun.