Flagging Messages In MS Outlook

Most people have their official mails configured on Outlook. While some  of these mails are circulars or internal information, some of them need a  response in return. If you are in the middle of something important, you may have to put off the replying for another time. How do you ensure that you reply to your mails without forgetting?

This article looks at the importance of follow-up and how to use Outlook Flags to assist with follow-up and keeping track of contacts. Many people think that they are capable of handling all their follow-ups without an organized system, but usually they are just not aware of how much business they’re losing because they actually cannot cope with the amount of follow-up required.

Flags are used as follow-ups and reminders on e-mail messages and contacts. You use Outlook flags to remind yourself to follow up on an issue or to indicate a request for someone else. A reminder date and time can also be added and displays in the reminder window.

There are 6 different coloured flags available for e-mails. You use the colored message flags to manage your incoming e-mail items by flagging the items for different kinds of follow-up. For example, use the red flag to mark messages that require immediate attention, and the blue flag for messages to read later. When you add a message flag, the background color of the Flag Status column changes color to make it easy for you to quickly find items in the message list while scrolling.

To Flag an Outlook Message

Start Outlook  Application.
Click the folder in which the mail appears.
Right-click on the mail to be replied to.
In the context menu, select the “Follow Up” option.
Right-click in the flag column of the message and choose the desired flag.
OR
Right-click on another column such as the message subject, choose Follow Up and then the flag color

• In the Flag to list, you can add a reminder  if you want, or type your own.Right click on the Flag
• Enter a date and time in the Due by boxes.
• On clicking OK, note that the e-mail message is now marked to be followed up (in this case Read by Thursday, 30 April  at 4.00 PM):

Creating Views to Organize your Follow-Ups

Once you marked various items to be follow-up, you need to create a series of views to focus on items to be followed up.For this you have to  create a filter

To open the Filter dialog box, point to Current View on the View menu, click Customize Current View, and then click Filter.

In “More Choices”  you can create filter and press “OK”

Marking an Item Complete

Once you have done the follow-up, you can mark the item complete. Do the following:

If it’s an e-mail message, clicking on the Flag Status column will mark the e-mail complete.Alternatively you may right-click on the e-mail and select the options from the Follow Up menu.

Also check:-

  Keep track of messages with flags and the To-Do Bar

Category: Outlook, Tips, Tutorial