Outlook has been a popular email service for a long time and one of the biggest reasons for this is thanks to how many features it offers. It has various productivity-enhancing features that are especially useful for any business setting. One of these features that isn’t used as much as it should be is Outlook Quick Steps.
Quick Steps was created to help tackle those repetitive actions that many people carry out throughout their day on Outlook. Instead of manually completing tedious tasks you can use Quick Steps to automate single tasks or a series of steps. Quick Steps has been available and recommended by many IT Support Services in London since the release of Outlook 2013.
Like most Microsoft services, Quick Steps is easy to use and allows you to automate multiple repetitive actions. This enables you to easily manage multiple mailboxes at the same time and overall save time every day.
Whether it’s to automatically move emails to specific folders, forward emails to colleagues or flag specific emails, Quick Steps can be used in a variety of ways and scenarios.
There are three ways to set up and use Outlook Quick Steps and its dependant on how customised you need them to be. If you’re just getting started with Quick Steps then TechQuarters, who provide top IT Support in London, suggest using the provided default Quick Actions which Microsoft has identified to be the most commonly used.
The default Quick Steps are the simplest and fastest to set up. They consist of six predefined Quick Steps which include Move To, To Manager, Team Email, Done, Reply & Delete and Create New. All you need to do to set them up is configure them with the preferred folders and correct recipient email addresses.
If the Default Quick Steps aren’t exactly what you’re looking for you can also configure and customize them. You can customize any default Quick Step by going to the ‘More’ arrow in the Quick Steps box. Once you’ve selected and edited the Quick Step you just save and carry on from there and use the Quick Step as you normally would.
The last way to use Quick Steps is by creating custom Quick Steps. You’ll be creating Quick Steps when the default Quick Steps don’t fit the workflow you’re looking for. These Quick Steps can be for a single simple task but also for completing a series of actions simultaneously.
This means that instead of doing multiple actions manually one at a time you can just do all of them with a click of a button. For example, you can forward an email to a coworker, move it into your own dedicated folder and flag the email as important all at once.
According to top Microsoft 365 Consulting providers, it’s a bit more time-consuming than just selecting your default Quick Steps but it’s still fairly simple and straightforward. Instead of selecting a default Quick Step, you will select the ‘Create New’ option in the Quick Steps tab.
From there you will need to name the Quick Step and then select and add as many actions as you need with the correct designated folders and recipient email addresses. You can also additionally add a shortcut key from the dropdown. From there you will use the Quick Step just like you would with any of the defaults by either selecting it in the Quick Steps section or using the configured shortcut key.
Microsoft has always prided itself on being a provider of some of the best productivity products and services. Outlook has been one of the most used email services for businesses for a long time and it’s clear why with all its additional built-in features like Quick Steps.
You won’t be using Quick Steps for the most complex tasks that you need to complete daily, but the smallest and most tedious tasks can sometimes be the most annoying. By automating those simple tasks will just make your life a little easier and overall boost your productivity.
