Using the Outlook 2007 To-Do Bar
This article was written by MysticGeek, a tech blogger at the How-To Geek Blogs.
My favorite feature of Outlook 2007 is the new To-Do Bar, which shows you everything on your plate at a glance. There are a lot of features packed into a tiny space, so we'll go through some of them with you.
To-Do Bar Display Options
To turn on the To-Do bar, just click on View \ To-Do Bar, and then choose from Normal or Minimized to open the bar.
In Minimized mode, the To-Do Bar docks to the right side of the Inbox, but you can click on the little arrows at the top to expand it.
You can also right-click on the To-Do bar to choose which options you want to show. I wanted to show the calendar and task list, but didn't want to see the appointments.
Create Appointments by Dragging to the Calendar
If you want to create an appointment, all you need to do is drag an email or task item to the calendar, and it will open up a new appointment window already keyed to that day.
I find this feature alone incredibly useful.
Adding New Tasks Quickly
To add a new task for today, just type into the task bar and hit the enter key.
The task will then appear under the Today column.
Marking Tasks Complete
To mark a task complete, simply left-click the red flag. You could also right-click to quickly change the due date or add a reminder.
Organizing with Categories
Categories are assigned by color so you can visually see the importance of each task at a glance.
To customize the category list, you can right-click the categories and then choose All Categories from the menu.
This will take you to a screen where you can customize the colors and category names, and even better you can assign a shortcut key.
Hovering your mouse over a to-do list entry will show you all the most important information for a task. You can see that the category is "Important" as well as the due date, which is easier than having to open each task.
There's a lot more that you can do with this feature, like make the to-do bar only show today's tasks.
Thanks for the How-To, MysticGeek! I use Outlook 2007 and I feel that one of its most useful features is this To-Do bar. I've used Outlook 2003 and would always lose track of my tasks, but now they're right in front of me!
I personally didn't know that the To-Do bar could have a minimized option, so thanks for that information as well!
Great intro to the todo bar. I like the way Outlook 2007 integrates with Notebook 2007.
Many thanks for the To-Do Bar info. One question: can we change the order in which the 3 items (calendar, appointments, tasks) appear? I'd like to see Tasks at the top. Thanks.
I have Outlook 2007 running on Vista. Whenever I enter a task, it shows up twice on the To Do List. What is causing this problem and how can I stop it?
Mike
My appointments do not show up on the to-do list any longer. I know there is an issue with all day appointments, but this is any appointments. Help please.
After much hesitation and trepidation my curiosity finally got the better of me and I upgraded to Office 2007. I'm going to go out of my mind with the nightmare of merged categories in Outlook 2007. Previously (In Outlook 2003 and prior) I used color coded "Labels" in my calendar, Colored "Flags" for my emails (I had my toolbar customized to give quick access to the six colored flags), and categories in my contacts list. I spent years working out the perfect system for myself and Outlook 2007 has merged these three completely different things into one big mess called "Categories". My system for keeping track of everything is now rendered completley useless and I just can't see any good way to use the new categories system that Outlook 2007 forced upon me. Colors in Categories will do me no good. Especially since Outlook 2007 made EVERYTHING a category. I have many many categories in my contacts to seperate them out by various types. There are not nearly enough colors to attach to all of them. After all that complaining I guess my question is this… is there any way to get Outlook 2007 to NOT merge calendar "Labels", email "Flags" with the existing categories?
Thanks, J Brian
I totally agree with Mr Washman … I just want to see my 2003 categories. They are not even visible in 2007. I used categories extensively to group my contacts. How do I just go back to simple named categories? Why are they gone?
Damn!
I've been searching everywhere for an answer on how to get the flags in 2007 to be more like 2003. Now finally I find these comments abvove, but nobody answered HOW!!?? I really hate the new flag system in 2007 and I'm dying to change it if i can…..
You can actually turn the flags feature off by going to View \ Current View \ Customize Current View -
Now click on Fields … highlight Flag Status and hit the Remove button.
Help with to-do's. All of a sudden, my Outlook 2007 to-do's are all appearing in duplicate. Can anyone help me. jrg355@gmail.com
I am having the same problem as John G. Anyone know what causes these duplicates in the todo bar. when I try to delete one of the duplicates they both are deleted. Help
I'm having the same problem as John and Ron. Duplicate "to-do"entries in Outlook 2007. They are duplicated the moment that you enter them and if you delete one entry, they both are deleted. I've scoured the web for insight to no avail and spent an hour this morning with Dell Tech support(The tech even had access to my system and after many attempts, he wasn't able to figure it out)
I'd appreciate it if anyone out there could provide some info.
John G had the solution on this,
Here is what he found:
By default, Outlook 2007 looks to both your outlook.pst file and the outlook backup file at the same time. So, as soon as you do a backup of your Outlook file, the to-do’s from both files begin to appear. If this is in fact the source of your problem, the fix is easy. Simply go to Tools then Account Settings then Data Files and remove the backup file that appears in the list. The Personal Folders should be your default with the only other file appearing in the list being your archive file.
Those duplicate tasks are probably coming from a GMail account or another IMAP account. Outlook is scanning the multiple folders beneath the IMAP account directory and listing the individual tasks that are flagged. If you flag an item in the Inbox, it no doubt also flags it in the GMail All Mail folder and in the Starred Folder as well. What a pain in the butt.
Hi,
Thank you for the very helpful article. I have a question though.
When I followed "Adding New Tasks Quickly" section and typed into the task bar and hit the enter key, the new task was not created under the today section, but under the no dates uncategorized section.
I wonder why is this happening? Is there an option to change the default section to create the new task?
Thank you!!