Microsoft Outlook 2019 Tutorial

Microsoft Outlook is best known as an email application as part of Microsoft Office suite. Apart from creating and managing emails it helps handle different day to day activities systematically and easily. They are:

Mail

You can create and receive emails to communicate with others. Multiple views make it easy to manage your mailbox.

Calendar

This feature helps you add reminders (sound or message) to your appointments. Again you can display the calendar in different views.

Contacts

This is a powerful database to help you manage your contacts, where apart from emails, you can add phone numbers, address and notes.

Tasks

This functionality is actually designed to manage “To-Do-Tasks” easily where you can prioritize your tasks by assigning dates to them.

Notes

It is an electronic version of sticky notes. You can create notes in different colors and set reminders to them.

Like all other application in Microsoft Office suite, MS Outlook also gets updated regularly with improved and new functionalities. Version 2019 of Outlook is the latest one that not only retains the features you have been using already but makes some new additions as well.  Below are some of the new features in MS Outlook 2019.

Improved Accessibility

screenshot Microsoft outlook 2019 accessibility checker feature

Always run the Accessibility Checker feature before sending an email or sharing some MS document. This feature you can find on the ribbon interface under ‘Review’ tab. Once you run the Accessibility Checker you will see all the errors, and warnings and how you can fix them. Purpose of Accessibility Checker is to make sure your document or spreadsheet is well perceived and understood by users of all capabilities. See here Rules for Accessibility Checker.

Focused Inbox

screenshot Microsoft outlook 2019 focused inbox feature

With MS Outlook 2019 email sorting is now streamlined and easier. Under ‘View’ tab on the ribbon, check the ‘Show Focused Inbox’ and your inbox gets divided into two parts: ‘Focused’ and ‘Other’. To get your message organized, select the ‘Focused’ or ‘Other’ tab, and then right-click the message you want to move. Former handles your most important messages while all other messages are store in the later. You can easily switch between the two. It is important to note that Focused Inbox option is available to only those Outlook users that have an Exchange or Outlook.com account. Focused Inbox is available to users with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

@Mentions

At times when you are in hurry to send a message you forget to include someone on it who is referenced in the message. To help such situations there is a @Mention option in Outlook 2019 which enables you to tag someone mentioned in an email you are responding to; this way that person will automatically receive a copy of your message. You can use this option while composing your message. You proceed with the person’s name with an @sign. A drop down list will show up containing the name of all people in your Contacts list and here you can choose the name of the person you want from the list to add them to the recipient list.

The mentioned name gets highlighted when the recipients view the message and they will see that name. The name is in active hyperlink form that opens an information window about that person (from the recipient’s Contacts list) when clicked. It is important to remember that not all recipients see that but only those who are using a version of MS Outlook that supports this feature.

Visual Impact

screenshot Microsoft outlook 2019 svg icons library

Like other tools ( Excel, Word, PowerPoint) in Microsoft 2019 version, Outlook also comes with a library of icons in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) that are easy to insert in email messages. These icons are handy to handle and can be inserted more than one at a time; you can change their size and color.

screenshot Microsoft outlook 2019 toolbar icon function

Find these icons under ‘Insert’ tab on the ribbon. Scroll through the icons divided into different categories labelled on the top. Alternatively you can search them in the search field on the top. On editing these icons you can read here editing icons.

Different Time Zones

screenshot Microsoft outlook 2019 time zone settings

Working internationally may require meeting schedules in different time zones. In MS Outlook 2019 it is now easier to add multiple time zones. Changing the time zone in Outlook is easy and similar to changing time zone in Windows. Once you change the time zone it is reflected in all MS Window based programs as well as on the Outlook Calendar views. To change time zone settings click the ‘File’> click ‘Options’. Then On the ‘Calendar’ tab, under ‘Time zones’, type a name for the current time zone in the ‘Label’ box. From the ‘Time Zone’ list below you may select the time zone you want to set. Your Outlook Calendar may display three different time zones at a time.

You Can Listen Email Messages

Yes, if you are caught in multitasking or not in a mood to read your email messages then Microsoft Outlook version 2019 gives you a unique option that helps you listen your emails while you remain busy in other tasks. There is a ‘Show Read Aloud’ option that you can reach out through following path.

Select File > Options > Ease of Access> Check the “Show Read Aloud’ option  on the right hand window and then click ‘OK’. Then select a message you want to listen to and then from ‘Home’ menu hit the ‘Read Aloud’ option.

RSS Feed Reader

The latest versions of Microsoft Outlook including the 2019 version offers Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed reader that helps to distribute content in a standard form to display for the consumption of users. You can connect Outlook to an RSS feed and display content in the interface. This is a great time saver and helps you read your favorite web content directly in Microsoft Outlook which otherwise you have to find by yourself searching from site to site which is really a time consuming task.

Useful links for Microsoft Office Apps  – 2019 Tutorials:

Microsoft Word Tutorial – 2019

Microsoft Excel Tutorial – 2019

Microsoft PowerPoint Tutorial – 2019