How to Customize Outlook Notes

Written by: Tricia Goss • Edited by: Michele McDonough
Updated Nov 18, 2009 • Related Guides: Sticky Notes | Outlook 2007 | Keyboard Shortcuts

Outlook notes can help you stay organized and on task. While notes are a practical feature, you can have a little fun with them, too. This article will show you how to customize them to your liking.

What Are Outlook Notes?

Are you a sticky note type of person? Do you keep colorful pads of “Post-Its” on your desk, jotting down phone messages, to-do’s and other important info? If so, you will probably appreciate Outlook notes. Outlook is likely the one Office application you have running throughout your workday, which makes the “electronic sticky notes” a practical, useful feature. Don’t settle for using them as-is, though. Customize your Outlook notes to look just the way you choose.

Creating a New Note

Let’s start with creating a note in Outlook, just in case you never have. All you have to do is go to the File menu, point to New and click Note. Or, you can use the New dropdown on the Outlook toolbar and click Note. If you are into keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+Shift+N. A new note will appear. You can move it around the screen by clicking the dark area across

click to enlarge

the top of the note and dragging it around. You can even leave it open on your desktop when you minimize Outlook. You can create several notes and have e-stickies all over your desktop, if you so choose. If you close Outlook, though, the notes will also close.

Customize a Single Note

click to enlarge

If you have several Outlook notes open at a time, you may want to customize them independently. This will make it easier to distinguish between them at a glance. To customize a single Outlook

click to enlarge

note, click the little icon that’s in the upper-right corner of the note itself. In Outlook 2007, point to Categorize in the note options dropdown menu. Choose the color you want for this note from the category list. In Outlook 2003, point to Color in the note options dropdown. Customize the individual note by selecting a color from the list.

Change Default Settings

click to enlarge

If you just don’t like the yellow note color, you can change the default color for all your Outlook notes. On the Tools menu select Options. On the Preferences tab, click the Note Options button. The Notes Appearance dialog will open, allowing you to select one of a handful of colors and customize all of your new notes.

You will notice that when you type onto a new note, the font will be your default font for new Outlook messages. While there

click to enlarge

is no way to customize the font on a single note, you can change the default font, including style, size and color, by clicking the Font button in the Notes Appearance dialog. (For more information on Outlook fonts, see Change Outlook’s Default Font.)

click to enlarge

Outlook notes don’t automatically expand to show all of the text. You can easily make a note larger if needed by hovering your mouse near a corner or edge, clicking the arrow-shaped grab handle, and

click to enlarge

dragging it to your desired size. However, if you typically jot down large notes, are using a supersized font, or just want a different default size, you can customize the note size in the Notes Appearance dialog; choose from Small, Medium or Large. When your default note settings suit you, click OK to apply them to all of your new Outlook notes.

More Information

To learn more about using notes in Outlook, read Manage Outlook 2007 Notes and Outlook 2007 Notes: Change, Delete and Forward.

Tiffanysjunkemail Nov 9, 2011 8:56 PM

RE: How to Customize Outlook Notes

Had the same problem myself... If you just double click on the top bar of the note, it should shrink. Took me a while to figure out!

Kelly C Jun 17, 2010 12:24 PM

Tricia is correct!!

Ellen and Lisa, Tricia's solution works. I had the same problem. When the note is bigger than your screen, you can still see the blue "title bar" at the very top of your screen.

Double click it and it will resize the note. Good luck!

Thanks Tricia!

Lisa Apr 14, 2010 3:41 PM

Mimimize Notes

You're awesome, that worked! I'm so glad I found your site, I'll be bookmarking it for sure. Thanks so much, have a great rest of the week!

Tricia Goss Apr 14, 2010 3:28 PM

Can you access the title bar on the note? If so, try double-clicking it and see if this resizes it.

Lisa Apr 14, 2010 3:15 PM

Minimize Notes

Hi, thanks so much for looking into this, I'm in Outlook, I have it on the left side, I believe it's called a "navigation pane".

Tricia Goss Apr 14, 2010 1:59 PM

Hi Lisa,

Do you open the note from within Outlook, or from your desktop?

Lisa Granberry-White Apr 14, 2010 1:10 PM

I'm having the same problem as Ellen, however, I had a menu that displayed (I think I right clicked to get it) then I clicked the option to maximize, this was before reading your post on the correct way to increase the size of the note. Now when I open my notes they are as large as my pc screen and I can't find an option to minimize it back. Please help this is driving me bonkers. I'm using Vista and Outlook 2007. Thanks

Tricia Goss Apr 1, 2010 11:17 AM

Try Tools>Options>Preferences Tab>Note Options>Change Size.

It is Outlook notes that are causing this problem, not Vista desktop notes, correct?

ellen Mar 31, 2010 9:36 PM

Windows Vista and Outlook 2007

Windows Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 2
Outlook 2007 12.0.6514.5000 SP2 MSO 12.0.6524.1000

Tricia Goss Mar 31, 2010 7:22 PM

Version?

What versions of Windows and Outlook are you using, Ellen?

Ellen Friedlander Mar 23, 2010 11:21 PM

size of sticky note larger than window

somehow, the size of my sticky note is larger than the size of the window. All new notes are also too large. I can't grab any corners to resize it downward because it's beyond the edge of the screen - any suggestions?

How to Customize Outlook Notes

What Are Outlook Notes?

Creating a New Note

Customize a Single Note

Change Default Settings

More Information

Comments