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Helpful Outlook Customization Features You Didn’t Know Existed

Countless professionals use Outlook on a daily basis, but many of them don’t know about these basic, built-in features that are designed to customize and optimize the Outlook experience. 

Optimized Email Communication: Three Outlook Settings You Should Know About

For organizational professionals in all industries, Microsoft Outlook remains an invaluable resource for maintaining team communication, staying in touch with clients, scheduling appointments, and getting work done. However, from our experience providing IT support to professional teams, we know that Outlook features are often under-utilized simply because many people don’t know they exist. 

That’s why we’ve put together a brief guide on the top three customization settings in Outlook. This guide will include a brief description of each feature and the step-by-step instructions on how to access them from your Outlook inbox. These features will help you keep clients and team members informed about your schedule, give your email communications a personal touch, and ensure you never miss an important message when it arrives. 

The Away Message

Email is such a fundamental part of operations for organizations in all industries. Professionals always want to rest assured that clients, colleagues, or stakeholders can reach them easily by email. That’s why it’s a great idea for you to set an automatic ‘Away Message’ to notify important parties when you’re out of the office. 

You can set your ‘Away Message’ to be sent automatically during periods of time you know you will be away from your inbox. You can explain your absence, notify clients and colleagues when you’ll be returning, and offer alternative contact information if the sender needs to speak to you or someone else more immediately. 

Here are step-by-step instructions for setting an automatic ‘Away Message’ in Outlook : 

  • Start by clicking the ‘File’ tab in your Outlook inbox  
  • From the ‘Info’ tab, select ‘Automatic Replies’ 
  • Choose ‘Send Automatic Replies’ 
  • You can then set the desired date & time range for your away message
  • Then, type your customized away message
  • You can also create two different automatic away messages from this tab – one for people outside your organization and one for team members within the organization
  • Once your customized message is ready, simply click ‘OK’ and your away message will be sent automatically during your specified time frame 

 Font & Colour Customization

Email correspondence for organizational professionals can often seem tedious and boring. However, as we’ve mentioned – and as you no doubt understand – email is simply an inescapable part of everyday operations for countless professional teams.

Luckily, Outlook gives you the option to customize the font styles, sizes, and colors that make up your email correspondence. This way, you can add a little personality and character to your drab, routine email correspondence. The best professionals know that personalization is a huge factor in successful business communications, and your email correspondence is no exception. 

Here’s how to easily customize your font style, size, and color in Outlook: 

  • Start by clicking the ‘File’ tab in your Outlook inbox
  • From the ‘Info’ tab, select ‘Options’
  • From the ‘Options’ tab, select ‘Mail’
  • From the ‘Mail’ tab, you can then select your preferred font styles, sizes, and colors and save them as defaults for easy customization of your email correspondence

Email Alerts & Notifications 

Have you ever been left kicking yourself because you missed an important email and didn’t read it until it was too late? What about a critical meeting or appointment that you forgot about? Without being glued to their inbox screen, many professionals fear they will overlook an important message or reminder. However, Outlook has a solution built-in. 

Outlook allows users to set customized notifications for email messages and important reminders to be sure they’re never missed. You can set on-screen display notifications or audio alerts to ensure you’re always in the know about important information as it arrives. The best part? You don’t need to have your inbox open and on your main screen to get the notification. This way, even when you’re busy getting other work done, important email alerts will never get overlooked. 

Here’s how to easily customize email and meeting alerts and notifications in Outlook: 

  • Start by clicking the ‘File’ tab in your Outlook inbox
  • From the ‘Info’ tab, select ‘Options’
  • From the ‘Options’ tab, select ‘Mail’
  • From the ‘Mail’ tab, you can then set customized on-screen and audio alerts and notifications to ensure you always know when new mail or important appointment reminders and requests arrive 
  • From this same tab, you also have the option to turn all alerts off if that’s what you prefer

Want to learn about more helpful Outlook features? Reach out to our team of Microsoft experts! 

Wondering what other Outlook or Microsoft tools and settings you might be missing out on? We can help! The team of IT professionals from K2 Technologies are certified Microsoft experts. We take pride in helping our clients get the very most out of the Microsoft applications and solutions they deploy. 

If you want to be sure you’re informed about all the tools and settings built into your Microsoft solutions, reach out to our strategic team of tech consultants. Give us a call (307) 209-3447, drop us a line at [email protected], or visit or website to chat with a live agent or book a consultation at www.k2technologies.net. Let’s make sure you’re getting the most out of the technology you’ve invested in!