Introduction
Outlook 2010 is a personal information manager included in the Microsoft Office 2010 suite, which is commonly used in the workplace. While Outlook is perhaps best known as a tool for sending and receiving email messages, it also includes powerful features for managing calendars, contacts, and tasks.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to navigate the Outlook 2010 interface, the Ribbon, and Backstage View. We’ll also talk about how to set up Outlook.
Microsoft also offers a free webmail service through Outlook.com. While they share some functionality, Outlook.com is not intended as a replacement for Outlook 2010.
All about Outlook 2010
To use Outlook 2010, you’ll navigate between several different views, including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks. Because of these robust productivity features, Outlook is often used in many offices and workplaces to help employees communicate, manage their time, and organize meetings.
Getting to know the Outlook interface
If you’re familiar with Outlook 2007 or 2003, you’ll notice several changes to the 2010 interface. The main change is the addition of the Ribbon, which appears in all Office 2010 applications. Outlook 2010 also uses Backstage view, which we will cover later in this lesson.
Whether you’re new to Outlook or familiar with previous versions, you should take some time to learn your way around the interface.
Navigation Pane
Every view uses the Navigation pane to display navigational options.
In this example, the navigation pane is displaying options for the Mail view.
The Ribbon
The tabbed Ribbon system was introduced in Outlook 2010 to replace traditional menus. The Ribbon contains multiple tabs, each with several groups of commands. You will use these tabs to complete the most common tasks in Outlook, such as composing an email, scheduling a meeting, or adding a contact. The commands on the Ribbon will change depending on which view you have selected: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks.
To minimize and maximize the Ribbon:
The Ribbon is designed to respond to your current task, but you can choose to minimize the Ribbon if you find that it takes up too much screen space.
- Click the arrow in the upper-right corner of the Ribbon.
- The Ribbon will be minimized. To maximize the Ribbon, click the arrow again.
When the Ribbon is minimized, you can make it reappear by clicking a tab. However, the Ribbon will disappear again when not in use.
Backstage view
Backstage view gives you various options for managing accounts, saving and printing items (like an email message or calendar), and more. Although it is similar to the File Menu from earlier versions of Outlook, Backstage view will expand to fill the entire screen, unlike a traditional menu. The options in Backstage view will change depending on which view you have selected.
To access Backstage view:
- Click the File tab on the Ribbon. Backstage view will appear.
Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using Backstage view.
