Outlook Essential Skills

Build Confidence Using Microsoft Outlook for Effective Email, Calendar and Task Management

This practical half-day training course gives you the essential skills needed to use Microsoft Outlook confidently in the workplace. You will learn how to send and manage email, organise your calendar, create contacts and contact lists, and use tasks to stay on top of your work.

Whether you are new to Outlook or want to refresh your skills, this course builds strong foundations so you can communicate more effectively, stay organised, manage your workload efficiently, and work more productively every day.

Outlook Essential Skills is ideal for people who:

• Are new to Microsoft Outlook
• Have not received formal Outlook training
• Work with email, meetings and appointments regularly
• Need to improve organisation and communication skills
• Want to manage tasks, contacts and calendars more effectively

To attend Outlook Essential Skills, you should:

• Be comfortable using a computer, keyboard and mouse
• Understand basic file management, including opening, saving and closing files
• Have basic confidence using Windows and web applications
• No prior Outlook experience is required

After completing Outlook Essential Skills, you will be able to:

• Navigate Outlook confidently and understand its main components
• Create, send and respond to email messages effectively
• Organise and manage email using folders, categories, rules and search tools
• Create and manage appointments, meetings and calendar events
• Manage contacts, contact lists and tasks using Outlook productivity features

Introduction to Outlook

• Understand what Outlook is and how it supports workplace productivity
• Access Outlook across desktop and web versions
• Navigate Mail, Calendar, People, Groups and To Do, including New and Classic Outlook differences

Creating and Sending Email Messages

• Create, address and format professional email messages
• Use To, Cc and Bcc appropriately
• Attach files, use templates, schedule delivery and manage drafts

Reading and Managing Email

• Read, reply to, forward and respond to email efficiently
• Search, sort and filter messages to find information quickly
• Delete, recover, archive and manage email storage

Organising and Prioritising Email

• Create folders and apply categories to organise messages effectively
• Create rules and flags to automate follow-up and priority management
• Identify and report junk or phishing messages

Calendar and Meeting Management

• Create appointments, meetings and recurring events
• Invite attendees, manage meeting details and use the Scheduling Assistant
• Respond to meeting invitations, update events and apply calendar categories

Managing Contacts and Contact Lists

• Create and edit Outlook contacts
• Add contacts from email messages
• Create and use contact lists to communicate with groups efficiently

Using To Do and Personal Task Management

• Create and manage tasks in To Do, including tasks from flagged emails
• Add reminders, due dates, categories and recurring schedules
• Track assigned tasks, completed work and use views to prioritise workload