March 3/6/26 Tech Tips

Outlook email tips, including using Copilot in Outlook, using Quick Steps, and setting up an out-of-office automatic reply.

Out-Of-Office Reply

Sometimes the simplest things can be the most frustrating or tedious tasks. For example, setting up an out-of-office reply is always a good idea, but perhaps a frustrating venture when you can't remember how to do it. Look below for the quick and easy steps to follow in Outlook.

1. Click the gear in the top right corner.

2. Be in the "accounts" tab on the left side.

3. Select "automatic replies".

4. Toggle on the "automatic replies", and set your start and end time.

5. Then type in the automatic reply to send out.

6. Hit save

**If desired, you can select to block people from signing up on your calendar, automatically decline invitations for events during that time, and automatically decline and cancel any meetings during that time.**

Copilot in Outlook

It should first be noted that right now, the integration of Copilot is only in the web version of Outlook, so if you are interested in these tips, please log in through the web version. First, you can have Copilot summarize an email for you. Simply click on the email, then at the top click Copliot summarize. It takes a longer email and cuts it down into the most important parts, and leaves out the "I hope you're doing well section. It can also help draft responses for you. Clicking the summarize and reply option allows it to suggest replies on top of summarizing the email. For more Copilot tips on outlook please see the video below.

Outlook Quick Steps

Outlook Quick Steps help by bundling several actions, like moving, flagging, categorizing, or forwarding emails, into a single click, which reduces repetitive work and speeds up inbox management. They’re especially useful when you perform the same sequence of actions many times a day, such as filing messages into a project folder, marking them as complete, or sending a templated reply.

To use Quick Steps, open Outlook and look for the Quick Steps group on the Home tab. From there, you can choose one of the default options, such as Move to Folder, Reply & Delete, or Create New, or build your own. Creating one involves selecting New Quick Step, choosing the type of action you want, and then adding additional steps like moving the message, marking it as unread, or forwarding it to a colleague. Once saved, the Quick Step appears in your toolbar, and you can run it on any selected email with a single click. This makes it easy to apply consistent actions without manually repeating the same steps each time.

I hope you have found these tech tips helpful! Please feel free to share these tips out or contact us with questions or comments.