Most of our readers will spend a lot of time working with Microsoft Outlook as it is probably the most widely used mail and calendar client in organisations today. Here are some helpful keyboard shortcuts to lessen the time you spend in your Outlook in-box.
1. Open the address book with the ‘to’ field selected: ALT + .
2. Open the address book with the ‘bcc’ field selected: ALT + B
3. Move to the subject field: ALT + J
4. Check names in ‘to’ and ‘cc’ fields against the address book: ALT + K
5. Reply all: ALT + L
6. Reply: ALT + R
7. Send: ALT + S
8. Forward an item: ALT + W (will open a weekly calendar view if you are in the calendar)
9. Activate the find toolbar: F3
10. Spellcheck: F7
11. Select all: CTRL + A
12. Forward a message: CTRL + F
13. Open a new journal entry in selected message: CTRL + J
If you take the time to make these shortcuts habitual you will wonder why you ever used a mouse. There are many more keyboard shortcuts for Outlook and MS Office; in fact, most applications have them. Once you get started with shortcuts, you will never stop.