Office 2010 Quick Steps - How to Set Up Quick Steps to Perform Frequent Tasks

Office 2010 Quick Steps - How to Set Up Quick Steps to Perform Frequent Tasks
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Built-in Quick Steps

You will find Office 2010 Quick Steps on the Home tab in Outlook. Each predefined Quick Step is set up to perform a specific action. The first time you click on a Quick Step, you will be prompted to customize it for your use.

For example, the To Manager makes it easy for you to forward emails to a specific contact. The first time that you click the To Manager Quick Step button, the First Time Setup dialog box appears. You can enter a custom name for the Quick Step by typing the name you want to use into the Name field. In the Actions section, click the To button to select the contact or contacts you want to be able to forward messages to. Click the Save button to save your changes, or click the Options button to edit or add the actions that this Quick Step performs. In the Options dialog box, you can also assign a shortcut or change the tool tip text for the Quick Step.

The Team Email Quick Step opens a new email message to a specified group of contacts. The first time you select this Quick Step, you can specify which contacts you wish to include. Click the Options button to further customize the Quick Step by adding text to the subject line or body of the email messages.

Office 2010 Quick Steps

The Done Quick Step moves the selected emails to a folder that you specify the first time you use this Quick Step, marks the email messages as read and marks the email messages as complete. The Reply and Delete Quick Step creates a reply message to the sender and then deletes the original email message. The Create New Quick Step button is not a predetermined Quick Step. Rather, it allows you to create a custom Quick Step.

Create Custom Quick Steps

Office 2010 Quick Steps dialog launcher

The easiest way to manage your existing Quick Steps and to create new ones is in the Manage Quick Steps dialog box. To open this dialog box, click of the dialog launcher in the bottom right corner of the Quick Step group on the ribbon.

To view or edit the actions of an existing Quick Step, click on the Quick Step name in the manage Quick Steps dialog box. The Description box on the right displays the action, shortcut key and tooltip for the selected Quick Step. Click the Edit button to edit the Quick Step’s actions, shortcut or tooltip. Click the Duplicate button to create a copy of the selected Quick Step. Click the Delete button to delete the selected Quick Step.

To rearrange the order of the Quick Steps ribbon, click on the name of a Quick Step in the list and click the up or down arrow to move the Quick Step to your desired location.

Office 2010 Quick Steps: Details

Click the New button to create a new, custom Quick Step. Choose the type of action you want the new Quick Step to perform. You can choose Move to Folder, Categorize and Move, Flag and Move, New E-Mail to, Forward to, New Meeting with or Custom. You can also restore Office 2010 Quick Steps to the default settings by clicking the Restore Defaults button.

Once you have setup, customized and created Quick Steps, select the message or messages to which you want to apply the specified actions and click the appropriate Quick Step button. If only everything in life could be that easy!

Want to learn more about Outlook 2010? Read What’s New in Outlook 2010, Setting Up and Configuring Outlook 2010 and Importing Contacts to Outlook 2010.