This is the fourth article in the Simply Put, by Ryn: Microsoft Outlook Tips series. Previous entries:

Today’s fascinating tips on Outlook cover the following:

  • Junk email filtering
  • How to compose email in HTML, rich text or text
  • How to force a spell check before sending email

This is Part IV (of I’m guessing VI) in a series of short articles about Microsoft Office Outlook. However, after this one, I *might* take a break and write about something else. I think I’ve had it with Outlook for a bit. I mean, is anyone enjoying it? Reading it? Or are you just thinking “would that chick shut up about Outlook already?” (That’s what I’m thinking.)

Junk Email Filtering

So, I have to be honest and tell you that for years I’ve been using Outlook and I didn’t even realize there was a junk mail folder. But here it is – right in the folder list.

folder list

I mean, I guess I knew there were junk mail filters, but since I only use Outlook when I’m forced to (as in “at my job”), there has always been a higher level Network junk mail filter, so I never used my own settings. But, that doesn’t stop a few junk mails from getting through. Like Hallmark. How do they even know I exist at Network Physics???

hallmark

After investigating, I am now able to block Hallmark – all future Hallmark mail will go to my junk mail folder. I’m pretty stoked (word from 80s surfer vocabulary that describes extreme happiness).

I also must mention that the person who requested I write about this feature told me he HATES the junk mail filter (his exact words were “can you tell people how to turn off the horrendous junk mail filter?”). So, you can use these directions to educate yourself about the filter and then turn it off (if you want to).

To get to the Junk E-Mail Options window, open Tools>Options and then click Junk E-Mail….

mail options

(Really been missin’ those arrows.)

The Junk Email Options window opens.

junk mail options

(I want to point out that Microsoft uses “e-mail” while I use “email” and sometimes just “mail.” Hopefully this won’t confuse anyone too much. And if it does, well…you know what they say – “It’s better to say nothing at all than to….”)

From the Junk E-Mail Options window you can set the level of protection (if you are like the person that HATES the junk mail filter, you’d set it to No Automatic Filtering), configure safe senders, safe recipients, etc. All these tabs are pretty self-explanatory. Here is some literature I plagiarized from the Outlook help (and added some of my own comments):

The Junk E-mail Filter in Outlook is turned on by default, and the protection level is set to Low. This level is designed to catch only the most obvious junk e-mail messages (I wonder what “most obvious is?”). You can make the filter more aggressive, but if you do, (I had to add that comma) it may catch legitimate messages sometimes. Any message that is caught by the Junk E-mail Filter is moved to a special Junk E-mail folder (luckily we know where that is). You should review messages in the Junk E-Mail folder from time to time to make sure that they are not legitimate messages that you want to see.

Starting with Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2, messages that are moved to the Junk E-mail folder are automatically converted to plain text format, and any links that they contain are disabled. Any message that you move out of the Junk E-mail folder has its links enabled and the original message format restored, unless the message is considered by the Junk E-mail Filter to contain suspicious links.

You can read more about mail filtering in the Outlook help. Just make sure you aren’t like me and you actually look in the Outlook help instead of the Word help (because I can assure you, there is no mail filtering information in the Word help and all it will do is frustrate you.)

Just to follow through with my story, Hallmark is now blocked:

hallmark blocked

How to Compose Email in HTML, Rich Text or Text

There is a default setting for how your mail messages are created. To view that default (or change it) complete the following (I’m not sure where this formal voice is coming from):

1. Open Tools>Options and click the Mail Format tab.

2. From the Compose in this message format list, select the format you want.

compose

(Hmm…I use HTML, but I think I’ll switch to Rich Text.)

You can also use a specific format for one message. In other words, create a one-time email in a format different than the default format. (If you still don’t get it, I don’t know what to tell you.) To do this open Actions>New Mail Message Using and then select what format you want to use for your one-time message.

composeusing

(What the heck is More Stationary???)

(Ok, I checked it out…OMG. It’s made for color freaks like me. But I also know I’d drive everyone insane if I started using it, so I’ll just stick with “blank.” Feel free to look at it.)

How to Force a Spell Check Before Sending Email

It’s just plain embarrassing to send an email with spelling mistakes. If I send one, I usually send a follow-up email pointing out which word I misspelled and apologize. Now, I’m a writer, so it could be considered more important that I don’t make a spelling error.

But…did you know you can force a spell check before you send? Yes! It is one of the ways Microsoft makes you look like you actually know what you are doing.

To do this, once again open Tools>Options and click the Spelling tab.

always_check_spelling

Select the Always check spelling before sending check box. You can see that there are a lot of other exciting options for checking your spelling.

Next time: I don’t know.

This is the fourth article in the Simply Put, by Ryn: Microsoft Outlook Tips series. Previous entries:

About Karyn: Karyn was given the nickname Ryn when she was 16-years old. She is the lone technical writer at Network Physics. She just bought a new bike, bringing her bevy of bikes up to five. She will be contributing articles like this one regularly to the site.