To organize your Outlook messages, you can create different Rules, but sometimes you don't want or can't create a rule for some messages because of “human factor”. E.g., some of your colleagues or friends doesn't use the correct words in the subject, doesn't use the agreed rules for messages.

It is polite to reply to every received message, even if you don't have a time to process the message. For example, if you get lots of CVs and cover letters, you can automatically send a reply to every email, and, just when you have time, process them and send an appropriate email with detailed information.

The Automatic Replies (Out of Office) or Out of Office Assistant feature is not available for non-Exchange accounts. For example, Gmail or other POP3 and IMAP accounts. You can combine an Outlook email template with Outlook rules to simulate the functionality of the Automatic Replies (Out of Office) feature, but do not forget to keep your Outlook running.

Sometimes when you create a lot of emails with the same text, subject or for the same recipient, it will be useful to create a template and then open it regularly, just add some specific information like numbers for regular report and send it:

To customize an automatic reply in Microsoft Outlook, first, you need to create a template of email message that will be send according to custom rules. You can use a template, also, when you need to send messages regularly such as some reports, if it contains the same text, subject or recipients and just need a little modification.

These five simple customizations of Microsoft Office Outlook mailbox view will save you a lot of time and improve the overall productivity.

E-mail communications is not plain text anymore and people want to send/receive well-designed email messages. There are many paid services that allow you to create a visually appealing e-mail template, but you can create it yourself using only Outlook.

If you frequently sign your messages using not only by your name, but also add an extra information such as your job title and contact information, you'll appreciate Outlook's Signature feature. Also, you can add to the signatures icons with links to your profiles or personal pages in Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.

Outlook can display either the number of unread emails or the total number of emails in a folder alongside the folder name.

This option controls which address book you see when you open the Address Book (via clicking Ctrl+Shift+B) and when you click the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons when composing e-mails.