Keep a Journal and Notes

 

Create a Journal Entry

		New Journal Standard Toolbar		Actions ► New Journal Entry		Ctrl + Shift + J		Ctrl + N

The Journal feature can used to record conversations, phone calls, meeting notes, and other encounters.

• To open a Journal form, click Journal on the Navigation pane, then click New Journal Entry on the Standard toolbar.

• If Journal is not on the Navigation pane, click More Buttons ► Add or Remove Buttons ► Journal at the bottom of the Navigation pane.

• To automatically record the duration of a phone call or other entry, click the Start Timer button on an open Journal form (to record the time, it must exceed one minute).

Track Office Documents Automatically

Journal can automatically record your time spent working on Office documents. (It also can record Outlook items related to specific Contacts, but the Activities tab in Contacts handles this much better. See Review Activities Related to a Contact, in the previous section).

• To set Outlook to record work on Office documents automatically, click Tools ► Options, then the Journal Options button. Click the applications you want to capture by selecting them in the Also Record Files From checklist. Outlook tracks the work you do on any open document in the selected applications and creates journal entries to document the work.

 

Create Notes

		New Note Standard Toolbar		Actions ► New Note		Ctrl + Shift + N		Ctrl + N

When you want to keep information but don’t know where to put it, put it in Notes. Notes is a holding place for any data, from shopping lists to frequent flyer numbers, that doesn’t fit in other Outlook folders.

• To create a note, click Notes on the Navigation pane and click New Note on the Standard toolbar. Enter a title for the note and press Enter to write the note’s content.

Customize Notes

• To change the color of a note, click the Note icon at the top of an open note and choose Color from the shortcut menu.

• To set color and font and change the size of the default note, click Tools ► Options from the Standard toolbar. Click Note Options and set the Color, Size, and Font options.

Assign Contacts & Categories to Notes

To keep track of notes, assign them to contacts and categories.

• To assign a note to contacts, click the Note icon at the top of an open note and choose Contacts. Click the Contacts button to select contacts from the Select Contacts dialog box.

• To assign a note to categories, click the Note icon at the top of an open note, or right-click the note and choose Categories. Select the categories from the Available Categories list.