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The next time you open a message, try double-clicking the Message tab in the Ribbon. You can save a lot of screen real estate by collapsing the Ribbon. Plus, once you collapse the Ribbon it will stay that way for all messages you open! By default, the Ribbon is always visible. If you double-click the Message tab to collapse the Ribbon, you’ll see much more of your message. If you’re reading a message and need to take some action (i.e. Reply, Forward, or Delete), you can either single-click the Message tab to pop out the Ribbon temporarily or use a keyboard shortcut. Loving her Zune, Ellen Adams Program Manager

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In previous blog entries we have covered several aspects of the Outlook Rules engine, and some interesting ways to leverage its capabilities to better triage the constant inflow of e-mail messages. We often hear from users that they get confused whether to choose “Sent To” or “Received From” when creating ‘move incoming email messages’ rules for Distribution Lists. This confusion usually results in having messages from random senders getting moved unexpectedly to a folder that was created as part of a ‘move messages received from a Distribution List’ rule. Here’s how to choose which type of rule condition to use:

Choose “Sent To” for a Distribution List when… You want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received as a member of the specified Distribution List Choose “Received from” a Distribution List when… You want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received from any member of the specified Distribution List.

Let’s look at a real-world example. In the first case I will go into the Rules Wizard and create a rule by selecting the “Check When Messages Arrive” template. Then I will chose the “Sent to” condition to apply to the “Contoso Core team” distribution list of which I’m a member. First of all let’s open the Rules Wizard by clicking the Rules and Alerts option in the Tools menu, and then click on the “Check messages when they arrive” template. I now click the Next button and select the “sent to people or distribution list” condition. At the bottom of the Rules Wizard dialog, the rule template is displayed as follows: I then click on the “people or distribution list” to select the appropriate recipient (in this case it’s the “Contoso Core team” distribution list) and add it to the To field: Next, I click OK and the rules condition will reflect my choice: It’s now time to choose an action to perform. I click Next again, to get to the “Select action(s)” step. In this case I choose to move the messages to a folder (the topmost action in the list): At this point all I have to do is select the desired folder (in this case the aptly named “Contoso Core team” I had previously created) and click OK. The rule will look as follows: Now, all messages I will receive that are sent to the “Contoso Core team” distribution list will be moved to the Contoso Core team folder. So far, so good. Now let’s see what happens when I choose “Received From” condition for the same rule template. The steps are the same, except that I’ll chose the “from people or distribution list condition: At the end of the process the rule will look as follows: In this case, Outlook will move all messages sent to me by members of the Contoso Core team Distribution List to the Contoso Core team folder. More often than not this is not what the rule’s creator intended. Outlook reads this rule as “Apply this rule to all incoming messages that were sent to me by members of the Distribution List”. People often get confused by thinking that messages get sent to them by Distribution Lists, whereas Distribution Lists are simply a practical way to aggregate recipients. So next time you create a rule involving Distribution Lists, keep in mind these two rules of thumb:

Choose the “Sent To” condition if you want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received as a member of the specified Distribution List. Choose the “Received from” condition if you want to apply a certain rule action to all messages you have received by any member of the specified Distribution List.

Alessio Roic Program Manager

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