in May 2013, Microsoft finally killed
off Hotmail and transferred all of its accounts to Outlook.com. While most of
the basic functionality remained the same, Microsoft added a slew of new
features – such as integration with SkyDrive and instant search, which lets you
quickly search by sender, recipient, or subject line.
However, there are also some less
well-known features that users might like to take advantage of. Here are a few
of the best:
1. Create an Outlook
alias
Many of us set up separate email
address to keep apart disparate kinds of mail, but maintaining multiple accounts can
be a pain. With Outlook.com, Microsoft lets you add new aliases to your
existing account.
To set up an alias, click the
settings icon at the top right of the screen and click on 'More email
settings', then click 'Create an Outlook alias' link under 'Managing your
account'. Enter the user name part of the new email address alias under 'Email
address', pick a domain name following @ and click 'Create an alias'.
To set up a rule for automatically
filing messages received at the new alias address to a special Outlook.com
folder, you can type its desired name under 'A new folder' and click 'Done'.
2. Use keyboard shortcuts
Outlook.com supports a variety of
keyboard shortcuts, helping users to save time when navigating around their email accounts If you memorise only a
few, let it be these:
• N: Start a new message
• Ctrl-Y: Insert an emoticon or emoji
• Insert: Flag the email for follow-up
• Ctrl-3: Go to People (the Outlook.com address book)
• Shift+E New Folder
• Ctrl-Y: Insert an emoticon or emoji
• Insert: Flag the email for follow-up
• Ctrl-3: Go to People (the Outlook.com address book)
• Shift+E New Folder
3. View content from
Facebook and Twitter
Outlook.com is designed in such a way
that you can add contacts from social networks, manage Facebook and Twitter
content, and even post comments or accept friend requests directly from your
Outlook.com inbox.
Click the settings icon at the top
right of the screen and click on 'More email settings', then click the 'Content
from third-party networks' link under 'Reading email'. At the bottom of the
page, under 'Showing additional content, click 'Manage connections'. Here you
can view whichs accounts are social media connected to your Outlook and manage privacy
settings.
4. Sweep emails
The sweep feature allows you to
quickly clean up your inbox and keep it tidy. For example, if you get automatic
emails with special offers that are only valid for a short period of time, you
can have Outlook.com automatically clear out old versions of the email when a
new one arrives.
To set up automatic cleanup for a
particular sender's mail or an entire category in Outlook.com, open a message
from the sender or newsletter you would like cleaned up automatically, click
'Sweep' in the Outlook.com toolbar and then select 'Schedule cleanup' from the
menu that comes up.
You can choose to 'Only keep the
latest message from this sender', 'Delete all messages older than __ days' or
'Move all messages older than __ days to <select>'. Optionally, you can
tick 'Do this for everything in the ___ category' to apply your rule to all
emails classified as Newsletters, for example. Then click 'OK'.
5. Revoke easy access
from devices
Microsoft has made a feature of the
fact that you can login quickly from devices you keep around and only use
yourself using a password alone. However, if you lose that device you may want
to revoke one-step access quickly.
To delete Outlook.com's list of
trusted devices and require two-step authentication in all browsers, click your
name or profile image in Outlook.com's top navigation bar, select 'Account
settings' from the menu that has appeared and open the 'Security info' category
under 'Overview'.
Click 'Remove all the trusted devices associated with my account' under
'Trusted devices' and then click 'Remove all trusted devices'.
6. Set up one-click
actions for emails
Sometimes you don't even need to open
an email to know that it's spam, or maybe you're on a call when an important
email pops up and you want to flag it for later rather than read it while
you're distracted. Outlook.com lets you set up one-click actions that deal with
these issues instantly.
To configure quick actions, click the
settings icon in the toolbar and select 'More email settings' from the menu
that shows up. Then select 'Instant actions' under 'Customising Outlook' and
make sure 'Show instant actions' is ticked.
7. Check the Outlook.com
service status for issues
If Outlook.com is down or slow, you
can find out whether Microsoft is aware of the problem and if the company is
working on a fix. You can also learn about past problems, and when you can
expect the Outlook.com service to be up and running again.
To find out whether any problems you
have with Outlook.com are known, and when you can expect a resolution or more
information, visit theOutlook Service Status page. To see recently resolved issues,
visit theMicrosoft
Services Status History page.
If your current issue is not listed,
you can report it to the Outlook.com team here.
Source:TheGuardian
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