Outlook 2010 has undergone some big changes but in this article we will be looking at some of the features of the new Outlook 2010 status bar that appears at the bottom of each window in Outlook 2010.

 

All of the items in the new Outlook status bar can be switched off and on by right clicking on the status bar, so if you wanted to you could switch off everything and have it blank. However, there are some neat and useful touches to the status bar which are explored here.

Items: The first item in the status bar shows the number of Items in your current view, be it the inbox, outbox, sent items or other area. You can also see the number of header items in the current view if you have headers configured.

Unread: The next item shows the number of unread items. It would have been useful here to be able to click on this item and Outlook to filter the list to show just the unread items, however as a visual reference it is still quite handy.

Reminders: This is a key new feature. You are probably familiar with the current reminder window which pops up letting you know about an upcoming meeting you might have missed. You might have missed it because it’s quite easy to cancel this warning when you are busy.

However, Outlook 2010 now includes this information in the status bar too. Not only that but you can click on the area to bring up the Reminder pane which puts you back in control.

Shortcuts: Two new icons have been added, Normal and Reading and, when clicked, these change the current layout to be more appropriate with how you want to work. Selecting Reading minimised the navigation pane, and the to-do bar. It also closes the ribbon bar, offering much more screen space for simply reading your emails. Clicking the Normal icon switches the items back on

Zoom: The Zoom now has two methods. The first shows the current Zoom level and clicking on it brings up the familiar Zoom dialog box (the same as the one in Word), allowing you to read the contents of the reading pane easier. Next to the Zoom indicator is a Zoom Slider which offers more immediate fine grained control over the zoom, from 10% to 500%

The Status bar in Outlook 2010 has been enhanced to make you more productive and the new features, especially the inclusion of the Reminders indicator and the Zoom slider are small changes that make a big difference.