How to Personalize Microsoft Outlook 2010

Everybody likes to have things their own way. That’s not always possible but there are a number of things you can do in Outlook 2010 to customise the user interface and the style of your email messages. Read on for our top customization tips.

1 Main theme

You have three choices when it comes to the main interface screen – black, blue and silver. The options were originally put in to bridge the gap between the Windows Vista theming method and Windows XP theming method, and to accommodate the new ribbon design.

You can change the theme by navigating to the ‘Options’ screen from the ‘File’ menu. Select ‘Signatures and Stationary’ and then select ‘Theme’. Here you can select your preference.

2 Navigation pane

You can change the appearance of your navigation pane (the main list of folders on the left-hand side of the screen) from blanket formatting right down to specific fonts for individual categories liked flagged or unread messages. This is particularly useful if you are running multiple email accounts through one Outlook install.

Open the ‘View’ tab and bring up the ‘Navigation Pane’ drop-down menu from the ‘Layout’ section. Then select ‘Options’.

This will bring up a screen where you can choose which buttons are actually displayed in the navigation pane e.g. tasks, calendars etc. You can also edit the order in which they appear from top to bottom. If you want to drill down further and change the font for individual buttons just select the button and then click on ‘Fonts’. You can select the font family, size and style as you would do in a Word document. Click ‘OK’ once you’ve got your desired look. Then click ‘OK’ again on the ‘Options’ screen to save the changes.

3 Email messages

You can change the default font family, size, style and colour of your messages in the compose window to inject some personality into your emails. Simply click on ‘Options’ in the ‘File’ menu. Then click the ‘Stationery and fonts’ button. Navigate to the ‘Personal Stationery’ tab and you can then select whether you want to change the default fonts for new email messages or replying/forwarding messages. Click on the ‘Font’ button under each of the categories to make the desired changes. Along with the standard family, size, style and colour options you can also add extra effects such small caps or superscript.

4 Email signature

Having an email signature containing your title and contact details is pretty much standard but a lot of people still don’t know how to create one. Even if someone else set one up for you, it’s good to know how to edit it in case you change your title or telephone number.

To create a signature, open up a new message and click on the ‘Signatures’ option from the ‘Signature’ drop-down menu. Then click ‘New’ on the ‘Email signatures’ tab. Create a name for your signature and then use the ‘Edit Signature’ box to create your masterpiece.

You can format text in the usual way and you also have the option of adding graphics and hyperlinks.

Once you’ve clicked ‘OK’ to save it, you can automatically add your new signature to all your messages or just add it when you need to.

Simon C

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!