Tutorials

Microsoft Outlook Tutorials

The Outlook Bar

The Outlook Bar provides a central location where you can access the features of Outlook, as well as select different folders that contain items such as messages, schedules, task lists, documents, shortcuts, and other folders. The Outlook Bar is fully customizable.

The Outlook Bar may contain two or three groups by default depending on your setup: Outlook Shortcuts, My Shortcuts, and Other Shortcuts. The Outlook Shortcuts group contains:

• the Inbox folder, a central folder for all of your messages;

• the Calendar

• Contacts

• Tasks

• Journal

• Notes 

• Deleted Items folder and

• the Outlook Today page

The My Shortcuts group contains mail folders. The Other Shortcuts group contains shortcuts to system and file management related tools, including My Computer. If too many icons are present to display them all at once, a scroll arrow appears on the Outlook Bar. You can open a folder or page by clicking its icon on the Outlook Bar.

 

You can hide and display the Outlook Bar by selecting the View menu and then selecting or deselecting the Outlook Bar command.

You can customize the Outlook Bar by adding folders and shortcuts as desired, as well as renaming them. To do this, right-click a blank area of the Outlook Bar and select the appropriate command on the right-click menu. You can also use this menu to change the size of the icons displayed on the Outlook Bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise:  Displaying Items in the Outlook Bar

 

 

1. To display the contents of a group on your Outlook Bar, click the group name.
2. To display the contents of your Inbox, click the Inbox icon on the Outlook Bar.
3. To display the contents of your Calendar, click the Calendar icon on the Outlook Bar.
4. To display the contents of your Contacts (local address book), click the Contacts icon on the Outlook Bar.
5. To rename an icon on your Outlook Bar, right-click on the icon you wish to rename and select the Rename Shortcut option.
6. To display the contents of your Outlook Today, click the Outlook Today icon on the Outlook Bar.