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Outlook Training
3:00 PM EDT 7/18/06
I am going to be conducting Outlook training for managers and would like to get some opinions from others about the best way to store messages in a PST. In folders or not in folders. We have some staff that have hundreds of folders and folders within folders and I have read quite a bit lately that it is more efficient to store everything in one folder and search or use filters.
Just wondering what other opinions are.
Lori R.
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Re: Outlook Training
8:33 PM EDT 7/18/06
as a reply to Lori Reed.
Lori-
I think there are two important variables here - technology and personal preference/style.
In the past, search technology available made folders an almost necessary organizational strategy. But this has changed a lot, and I can certainly see the argument for using folders.
But on the other hand, even though I have a desktop search on my laptop, and will use it when i really can't find something, I really prefer folders. On the other hand, I know that Anna - in our office - completely relies on search and I don't think she uses folders at all now.
I think if you are teaching Outlook, it is a good idea to at least open up people's eyes to what desktop search can do now, and how to use it. It can be a big hurdle to change those daily habits, and I don't think there is necessarily a single answer, but it is good to give people an alternative to the way they have been working.
Dale
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Re: Outlook Training
8:44 PM EDT 7/18/06
as a reply to Lori Reed.
I like using folders in Outlook so I can create message rules. With message rules, email from lists I subscribe to (like web4lib and PRtalk) can be routed to folders where it waits patiently for me to find time to wade through it all. With a glance I can tell that I have 200 messages that say (for example) "out of office auto reply" and then I can quickly mark everything in that folder as read and never bother with it again.
Also, I find it useful to route messages from various departments into folders and form mail from the website into its own folder so I can determine that I have 40 patrons to respond to and only 3 messages from the City Librarian, or whatever.
I use gmail for my personal email, and I have much more trouble finding things than I do with the folder system.
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