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See more here: ... and now back to the tutorial :-) Using Outlook Without Folders, Without Filing - Version 2 (The AntiFile Methodology)Table of Contents:Note:
For those still using Outlook 2000, a previous tutorial is archived here.
New in Version 2
Back to Table of Contents... OverviewThis tutorial explains in detail how to use Outlook without folders or filing. We've christened this The AntiFile Methodology or AntiFiling for short. There is a single, fundamental objective with AntiFiling; minimize administration to maximize productivity. We firmly believe that people could file 95% less and be even more productive than they are now.AntiFiling is also more than just “not using folders”. We’ve taken a hard look at the user interface in Outlook to eliminate things that tend to derail a train of thought. We wanted a method of organizing information that is universal – one place to look, consistent – one method to look for it, and simple so that it quickly becomes instinct. The less distracted we get in organizing and gathering the information the more focused we are in accomplishing the task. Keep in mind, you may still use your folder in parallel with AntiFiling, but this may allow you to use a lot less of them and simplify your folder heirarchies for less filing. Back to Table of Contents... IntroductionLet’s start by looking at some of the problems with folders. If you’ve ever encountered any of these, this tutorial will simplify your life.
Back to Table of Contents... SetupThis section shows how to set up Outlook to use AntiFiling. We've put the "How To's" further down don’t worry if you get confused - it will all come together when you start AntiFiling in the following section. ;-). Don’t worry about messing up any of your existing folders either, nothing is changed with your current folders.Create an "All Mail" Search Folder
Back to Table of Contents... Create rulesNow we need to create a simple rule for Flags
 Back to Table of Contents...
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Back to Table of Contents... Add Fields with Field ChooserBecause
we’re now including Sent items in the All Mail
Search Folder, it’s nice to have both To
and From
fields to sort by.
To add them, select
your All Mail Search Folder. Right click one of the message
fields and select Field
Chooser. Scroll
down a bit and drag the To
button next to the From
field in your Mail list window.
 Back to Table of Contents... Organize Using ColorsNow we’re going to color our messages so that they stand out and blend in intuitively.
a.
select Using
Colors
b. Change “Color messages from [you] in Silver" c. Apply Color d. Turn on the “Show messages sent only to me in Blue” 
 Back to Table of Contents...
 Back to Table of Contents... Add Flags to ToolbarsFlags are incredibly useful as task managers for email. We’ll explain why later, but for now just add them to the toolbars as follows.
 Back to Table of Contents...
Outlook Plug-insWe've
included a few plugins here
just to make life easier with a large PST file. At around 300
MB
the PST begins to become unstable so it would be nice
to be able to shrink it down to avoid having to fragment it, and
without bogging it down with compression processes.
EZDetach from Techhit is an Outlook plug-in that can strip off message attachments and leave a link to them embedded in the message. The attachment gets saved to a folder on your hard drive so the message is shrunk down to a small text file. It can be set up with rules to do this automatically however it seems to interfere with the AntiFiling Inbox rule. It’s not a big deal; it just needs to be run manually every so often when your PST file becomes too large. You can download the fully functional evaluation version here. Rather than reinvent the wheel here, use their guide for help in setting it up. ROAMinder is another Outlook plug-in that saves you from missing a meeting by forwarding your reminders to your cell phone when you’re away from your desk. ROAMinder doesn’t have much to do with folders per se, but it does remain consistent with AntiFiling in keeping your calendar in one place without synchronization headaches. You can download it here to try it free for 30 days. Setup is a snap. Back to Table of Contents... AntiFilingAha.....
here’s where it all comes together, and it’s
actually very simple after it’s all set up. Select
the All
Mail Search Folder you
created and view the contents.
ColorDo you naturally skim over the grayed out email sent by you and focus in on the blue ones sent directly to you? Color does not actually filter your email in Outlook, but it sure does in your brain.Sorting EmailThe nice thing about email is how much data is attached to it automatically. From, To, Subject, size, Attachment, Date, etc can all be used to find a message by sorting. There is one critical sort feature that is unknown to most people – SORT, THEN TYPE. If you sort by From, typing the first few letters will jump to that name. The same goes for Subject and To. Try it now. Sure beats scrolling, doesn’t it? Remembering who sent an email is usually an easy way to find it and once you’ve grouped your Inbox by sender the list becomes considerably shorter to scroll. At this point, even vague knowledge of when it arrived will narrow it down enough. Now here comes the real power of having ALL your messages in one place. When you sort by subject every message on that entire thread is right there, including the ones from you! How many times have you wanted to find an entire conversation and had to piece it together from a bunch of different folders, including your sent items? Many new email clients have the “group by conversation” feature built in because it’s so valuable and Outlook had it all along! So
let’s try this quickly.
Sort From, type name, select message, sort Subject. There's the entire thread. Try it
faster:
Voila – you found that entire conversation without having to file it! Try it a few more times with other messages. Notice how you really don’t need all those folders, especially those labeled with someone’s name? Now there’s one more sort feature that hardly anyone knows about; shift-sort. If you want to constrain your sort list even further, such as when you’re sorting through a long list from one sender, you can sort by From, hold down the shift key and sort by Subject. This sub-groups messages by subject within the From group. It’s not required often, but it makes scrolling through it a bit easier. Flagging
 But
here’s something that you simply can’t do
with folders.
We can also check it
off
while reading the message!
With folders
we need to exit the message first and then file it somewhere. This
is what we were referring to regarding
accomplishing tasks in context.
As soon
as we leave a screen there is a tendency, even if it’s
minute, to lose our
train of thought.
Back
to Table of Contents... Now
let’s say you did everything you needed to
do, but you wanted to follow up with the person you replied to. You
can add a reminder for that.
Just click –
you guessed it – Add
Reminder on the tool bar next to
the check box and set it for your follow up date. And
of course, you can do this while reading
your message or
after you’re done
and back in the Mail list view.
Back
to Table of Contents... Flags
can also be sorted the same as any other field, and grouped so that it appears
that they’re in a different
folder.
If you have the
Grouping
function turned on you can show only the messages that are flagged. To
group
messages by flag, right click on that field and select Arrange
By> Flag.
 Is it
starting to become apparent that AntiFiling is a
universal means of finding your stuff? Sort,
type, select, sort – it’s all the same no matter
what you’re
looking for and you always know where
to look.
In the above example,
if you
want to see the entire conversation relating to an item that is
flagged, just
select a flagged message and sort by Subject.
One more thing, usually messages from your boss require the quickest action. You may want to set up a rule to red flag every message from her, and if you’re using a cell phone with text messaging, you can also have every one of those messages forwarded to it. Just set a rule with the “Redirect”* condition checked off and enter your phone’s text address**. *Note:
Use Redirect as opposed to Forward as it retains your bosses email
address in
the From field.
Forward will change it
to your own.
**If you don't know your phone's text address, visit ROAMinder support for more information on how to get it. Searching
We have released Tagle in Beta and are currently testing an Outlook plugin that will search and organize all your email in Outlook. Until we have that working well enough to release publicly, try out Tagle for searching all your Windows files, Facebook messages, Twitter messages, Delicious bookmarks, and Firefox bookmarks. Consolidate,
Color, Sort, Flag, Search – that about covers
what you need to be an AntiFile. Give
it
a go; skim the colors,
use STaSiS, Flag
and follow-up, but above all, relieve the pain of endless filing. You’ve
got better things to do on a Friday
afternoon than clean up your inbox!
This tutorial is a great way to do less filing, however, there is no doubt a need for a mechanism of categorization further than what is available with embedded email meta data (From, Subject, etc). Stay tuned to www.tagle.it for an Outlook plugin that can do just that. If you have feedback on this tutorial, please send us an email here. If you’d like us to deliver a training seminar on AntiFiling, please send us details of your organization and how many students you’d like to participate. Sincerely, Team CNXN Back to Table of Contents... |
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