The Outlook Online Workspaces

Outlook Online allows you to manage several different kinds of information, including your email, calendar, tasks, and contacts. Each of these item types has their own workspace and commands related to managing those objects.

The Mail Workspace

When you first open Outlook Online, the Mail workspace will be displayed by default. This is where you can view and work with any messages that you receive. If it is not currently displayed, you can access it by clicking the Mail icon at the bottom of the Navigation pane:

Instructor Tip: You can also use the Ctrl + Shift + 1 shortcut.

Your messages will be stored in a variety of different mail folders. (A blue number next to a folder indicates how many unread items it contains.) You can find these folders inside the Navigation pane.

Click a folder to view its contents:

And then click any item to view it:

The Calendar Workspace

The Calendar workspace is used to add, remove, and manage events in the Outlook calendar. To switch to it, click its icon at the bottom of the Outlook Online screen:

Instructor Tip: You can also use the Ctrl + Shift + 2 shortcut.

The Calendar workspace will then be displayed:

We will take a closer look at its components in Lesson 4.

The People Workspace

The People workspace is used to manage your contacts. You can open this workspace by clicking the People button at the bottom of the Navigation pane:

Instructor Tip: You can also use the Ctrl + Shift + 3 shortcut.

You will be prompted to choose a view from the working area. You can also click a view from the Navigation pane:

When you are in a view, you will see a list of your related contacts and options to communicate with them:

The Tasks Workspace

Finally, let’s look at the Tasks workspace. You can access it using the right-most icon:

Instructor Tip: You can also use the Ctrl + Shift + 4 shortcut.

You will see a list of task folders on the left side, with the tasks in the selected folder displayed in the item list:

Searching Workspaces

You can search the Mail, Calendar, or People workspaces using the search field on the contextual command bar:

Simply type what you are looking for and click the magnifying glass (or press Enter). Matching results will be displayed in a list. The first item will be selected, with its details displayed on the right side:

Notice that you can edit the item right from this pane.

When you want to return to the main workspace view, click the X next to the search field:

This is an excerpt from Velsoft’s latest computer course release, Microsoft Outlook Online.