2007 MicrosoftВ® Office System Step by Step

The Outlook program window has three toolbars: the Standard toolbar, the Advanced toolbar, and the Web toolbar. Even people who use Outlook on a daily basis might find that they have never displayed the Advanced toolbar or used any of the commands available on it.

We don’t make use of the Advanced toolbar in this book, but you can experiment with it on your own-you might find it very useful to have its commands available to you. To display the Advanced toolbar, right-click the menu bar or toolbar and then click Advanced.

In the Mail module, the features and commands available from the Advanced toolbar include:

• Outlook Today. The Outlook Today page , which in a previous version of Outlook appeared by default when you started the program, presents information from your Calendar and Tasks list along with a count of the unread messages in your Inbox and all the messages in your Drafts folder and Outbox. If you would like to see this overview page when you start Outlook, display the Outlook Today page, click the Customize Outlook Today button, select the When Starting, Go Directly To Outlook Today check box, and then click Save Changes. On the Customize Outlook Today page, you can also configure what is shown in the message, calendar, and tasks areas, and choose between five page layouts and themes.

• Back, Forward, and Up One Level. You can quickly move between folders by using these commands.

• Reading Pane. Toggles the display of the Reading Pane on the right side of the window.

• Print Preview. Previews the currently selected item as it would be printed using the default settings.

• Undo. Reverts your most recent change. For instance, if you delete an e-mail message and then click the Undo button, the message moves back to the original folder.

• Rules and Alerts. Opens the Rules And Alerts dialog box, where you can create and manage rules for incoming e-mail and RSS feeds, and alerts.

• Current View list. This drop-down list includes all available views of the current folder.

• Group By Box. Toggles the display of a box in the content pane header from which you can choose how Outlook groups the displayed content.

• Field Chooser. Toggles the display of the Field Chooser window , from which you can specify the item fields you want to display in the content pane, by dragging fields between the Field Chooser window and the content pane header.

• AutoPreview. Toggles the display of the first three lines of message text within the content pane. AutoPreview is specific to the folder in which you select it, so you can choose to display extra message text in only certain folders.

In the Calendar module, the Advanced toolbar also includes:

• Plan a Meeting. Opens the Plan A Meeting dialog box in which you can view prospective attendees’ schedules. This is similar to the Scheduling page of a meeting window. After you enter information in the Plan A Meeting dialog box, Outlook displays a meeting window in which you can enter the meeting subject and location before sending invitations.

In the Contacts module , the Advanced toolbar also includes:

• New Meeting Request to Contact. Opens a meeting window addressed to the currently selected contact(s).

• New Task for Contact. Opens a task window assigned to the currently selected contact.

• Explore Web Page. Displays the Web page listed in the currently selected contact record in your default Internet browser.

When you display the Advanced toolbar it is available (in its different forms) from any module.