Task Management and the To-Do Bar in Microsoft Outlook 2007

My favorite new feature of Microsoft Outlook 2007 is the To-Do Bar. The To-Do Bar allows you to see your upcoming calendar appointments, tasks, and flagged email all in one place. The Outlook 2007 To-Do Bar helps me organize my day and stay on track of important items.

Customizing the Outlook 2007 To-Do Bar

You have several options for displaying and customizing the To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007. At the top of your Outlook window click View and scroll down to the To-Do Bar option. When you place your mouse over To-Do Bar you will see an option for displaying the To-Do Bar normally. This opens the To-Do Bar up and places it on the right-hand side of your Outlook window. You can also choose to display the To-Do Bar in a minimized configuration. This will shrink your To-Do Bar to a small column on the right-hand side of your Outlook window. The third option is to turn the To-Do Bar off so that it is not visible.

Under the To-Do Bar view options you will see the features that you can turn on in the To-Do Bar. The Date Navigator shows a calendar. The Appointments option allows you to display upcoming calendar appointment summaries. The third feature is the Task List. The Task List is where you can keep track of your tasks and flagged emails. To keep track of an email in the Task List you can flag it or drag it into the Task List area.

By selecting Options you can choose the number of rows shown in the Date Navigator as well as adjust the number of upcoming calendar appointments that are shown in the Appointments section.

Task Management

Create tasks by clicking the down arrow next to New at the top of your Outlook window and selecting Task. This will open the Task creation window. Outlook 2007 allows you to enter task details, assign the task to another recipient or send a status report. You can set up recurring tasks by clicking on Recurrence at the top of the Task Creation window. Categorize a task by color by selecting Categorize at the top of the Task Creation window. Outlook 2007 allows you to mark a task as private by clicking Private at the top of the Task Creation window. The most useful feature of Outlook 2007 Task Management is the reminder function. You can set a reminder to pop up or make a sound on a specified date.

The Microsoft Outlook 2007 To-Do Bar has helped me keep track of my projects and appointments. It also integrates with Microsoft OneNote 2007, Microsoft Project 2007, and Windows SharePoint Services.

Sources:

Microsoft