Mastering Email Using Quick Steps in Outlook

Making use of Quick Steps in Outlook is a great way for users to automate actions that are common to particular types of messages. Learning to use them effectively can greatly improve your ability to manage your email efficiently and effectively, reducing often complex series of actions to a single mouse click or keyboard shortcut.

As an example, many email messages come with a request that the recipient take some form of action, necessitating the creation of a task. If handled individually, the user must first perform actions like assigning a category, flagging the message as a task so that it is listed in the user’s task list, and then moving it to a folder. Creating a Quick Step to perform all of those functions allow them to be accomplished with a single click of the mouse.

The Quick Step menu is found on the Home Ribbon. Click on the lower right corner to create or edit a Quick Step.

From the Manage Quick Steps dialogue box, users can create a new Quick Step or make changes to an existing Quick Step. To create a new Quick Step select the “New” option under the list of Quick Steps. A series of common action templates will be presented on the context menu that opens. Users can select the template that is applicable to the Quick Step needed or choose Custom to create an entirely unique Quick Step.

If Custom is selected, a new dialogue box opens where a name can be assigned and a series of actions can be applied. When the user selects the first action desired, the Quick Step icon will change to match the action and a default name will be created. In our example, we will be creating a Quick Step named @ACTION that will prompt the user to assign a category to the message, flag the message with a “No Date” flag, mark the message as unread, and then move it to the @ACTION folder so that it can be found easily when needed.

Begin by selecting “New,” then “Custom” from the Manage Quick Steps dialogue box. Next, select “Categorize message” from the “Choose an Action” dropdown menu. Continue adding actions by selecting the “Add Action” menu. The order of tasks can be customized and as many steps as needed can be added. Additionally, the user can assign a Shortcut key and Tooltip message. Once you have added all the steps you need choose Finish.

You now find the Quick Step named @ACTION in the list of Quick Steps on the Home Tab.

Outlook creates several generic Quick Steps by default that can be customized to work for each individual user. You can forward certain types of emails to your manager, for instance, by selecting the “To Manager” Quick Step and editing it to include your manager’s email address.

A great way to learn what is possible is to edit one of the default Quick Steps that are created when Outlook is installed. If you make a mistake or want to return to the original configuration you can easily do so by simply clicking “Restore to Defaults” from within the Manage Quick Steps dialogue box.

The number of Quick Steps and what they do is limited only by your imagination.