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Dear Mr. Internet,
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I use Outlook XP and save all my important messages
in various folders. Is there an easy way find all messages related to a
particular person in my Outlook contacts database without having to search
various folders? |
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Edna Carter, CRS, GRI
RE/MAX Realty Associates
Champaign, IL
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Dear Edna,
A resounding "Yes!" to your question. However, before we go into the
details of how to do this, I want to first address the use of folders within
Outlook. Folders are a way to store incoming messages, typically after you
have read them. As I am sure you have already found, they are a great way
to organize your e-mail messaging according to any criteria such as
topic, transaction, person, etc.
Ideally, when you have your messages organized in this fashion, it should be
as easy as opening the appropriate folder to find the ones you are looking
for. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. For example,
when I receive a message from one of my many virtual assistants, I will
sometimes put it into their folder (the one with their name on it), or in
another folder that has to do with a specific project they are working on.
While this method of organizing my messages works for me in the way I think
about my business, it also means that I have my messages distributed among many
different folders. At first blush, this sounds like a recipe for extreme
frustration when looking for all messages from a particular person.
However, the professional version of Outlook (2000 or XP) makes it a snap to
find all messages (and everything else --i.e. appointments, notes, etc.)
associated with any person in your contact database.
Instant Bloodhound
Outlook's "Activities" tab highlighted in the contact record below is the key to
finding all messages, appointments, journal entries, notes, etc. associated with
the contact. To view a very cool animated Coach N' Click�
Flash movie on how this works just
CLICK HERE or on the image below.
This ability to find anything and everything associated with a particular
contact makes Outlook 2000 (or XP) very, very powerful. Now you don't have
to worry about where a particular message was saved because Outlook can find it
for you in a flash. And anything like this that saves you time and
frustration, will also save you dollars as well!
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