Do all the Basics in Outlook 2007

Use Calendar to add appointments, meetings, events, birthdays, tasks, holidays and blocking out times you're not available. Create recurring appointments and view your calendar by day, week, month or customize the view. Those on Exchange Server can schedule meetings and reserve conference rooms.

Create a new appointment:

1. Click "New" from the "File" menu.
2. Choose "Appointment."
3. Enter a description into the Subject textbox.
4. Enter the location into the Location textbook.
5. Enter or select the start and end times.
6. Set any other options as needed.
7. Click "Save & Close" from the Appointments Tab.

Shortcut: Create a new Appointment by selecting Ctrl+Shift+A.

Cool trick: In the "Start Time" and "End Time" boxes, you could enter "Today," "Tomorrow," a holiday name, "one week from today" and so on, and Outlook fills in the correct date.

Every contact appears as an Electronic Business Card in Outlook 2007. As you update contact information, the changes automatically occur in the business card and vice versa. Add a new contact by simply entering the information into the contact's textboxes on top of the Contacts window.

For filling out the Contact form:

1. Click "New" from the "File" menu.
2. Choose "Contact."
3. Enter information in the form.

Shortcut: Create a new Contact by selecting Ctrl+Shift+C.

A Task is an item in Outlook that you track from start to finish. A To-Do is any Outlook item with a flag for follow up. To-Do includes tasks, e-mail messages and contacts.

By default, Outlook sets up all tasks for follow up even when there is no start or due date. Tasks appear in the To-Do Bar, Tasks list and Daily Task List in the Calendar.

To create a new task, simply enter text into the "Type a New Task" textbox in the To-Do Bar or in the To-Do List window.

Shortcut: Create a new Task by selecting Ctrl+Shift+K.

Instead of posting sticky notes all over your desk and monitor, create Notes. Outlook's Notes don't get lost or have prying eyes reading them. Notes work well for capturing anything as you would jot them on paper or stickies.

Unlike paper and stickies, you can organize and search Notes. Starting a new Note to capture a few words moves faster than opening Word to start and save a new document.

To create a new Note, do the following:

1. Click "New" from the "File" menu.
2. Choose "Note."
3. Enter text into the Note.

Outlook automatically saves the Note when you close or update the Note. Clicking the little X in a Note does not delete it.

Shortcut: Create a new Note by selecting Ctrl+N

Journal records dates, times and activities based on interactions with contacts. Activity includes Phone Calls, Task Requests, Conversations and Meeting Requests. For example, you can set up Journal to automatically track all your work with a specific contact.

To create a new Journal Entry, do the following:

1. Click "New" from the "File" menu.
2. Choose "Note."
3. Enter text into the Note.

Outlook automatically saves the Note when you close or update the Note. Clicking the little X in a Note does not delete it.

Shortcut: Quickly access Journal by adding the Journal view button to the Navigation Pane. Click the down arrow button at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar, choose "Add or Remove Buttons" and click "Journal."