Office 2010: The Missing Manual

Chapter 12. Getting Organized with Folders

Outlook is built on folders. No matter what you’re working with—an email message, a contact, a task, or an appointment—it gets stored in a folder. Learn how folders work in Outlook, and you’ll work faster and more efficiently.

This chapter covers how to find folders in Outlook’s Navigation pane, how to create and manage folders, and how to move items between folders. It’s also got techniques to make working with folders easier: Categories help you organize items within folders; customizing Outlook’s panes puts folder items at your fingertips; and search techniques zero in on what you’re looking for, no matter what folder it’s in. Finally, because virtual folders can fill up and get messy just as fast as their physical counterparts, this chapter closes by showing how to clean out your Outlook folders and archive their information.

Finding Folders in the Navigation Pane

Outlook’s Navigation pane is the place to go when you’re looking for a folder. The bottom part of the pane shows Outlook’s main offerings: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks. Click any of these links to open that folder and whatever items it holds.

The top part of the Navigation pane displays the currently selected task’s subfolders. When you’re working in the Mail folder, for example, you’ll see Inbox, Drafts, Sent Mail, Deleted Items, Junk E-mail, and so on. Figure 12-1 shows what the Navigation pane looks like when Mail is on center stage. Other folders, like Calendar and ...