Notes are the electronic equivalent of paper sticky notes. Use notes to jot down questions, ideas, reminders, and anything you would write on note paper. You can leave notes open on the screen while you work. This is especially convenient when you're using notes for storing bits of information you may need later, such as directions or text you want to reuse in other items or documents.

You can pop up an Outlook Note anytime that you have Outlook displayed. Just press CTRL+SHIFT+N and voila, a blank note appears. If you are more of a traditionalist, in the Navigation Pane, click Notes, and then on the File menu, point to New, and then click Note.

Don't see a Notes button in the Navigation Pane? Perhaps Outlook is only showing a few large buttons, and the other icons are just below the buttons? If you drag the bar above the first button toward the top of the window, those smaller icons on the bottom will appear as big buttons in the Navigation Pane. You can also customize which buttons appear.

Click to change note colors, add a category, forward to someone in an e-mail message, or link to one of your contacts.

Click and drag to resize the note.

Notes are fun

It is a technicolor world, so yellow isn't for everyone. Change the default yellow note to another color.

1.      Open a note, and then click the Note icon at the top of the note.

2.      Point to Color, and then select the color of your choice.

Want to stick that note somewhere else on the screen? No problem. Move the note to another location on your screen by dragging it by the solid stripe at the top of the note.

Notes can save your clippings

Now back to clipping. Open a Microsoft Office Word document or a Web page and size the window so that it does not overlap with your Outlook Note. See something that you would like to save for future reference?

Select the text, and then drag it to your Outlook Note. When you see the mouse pointer change to a plus symbol (+), you can release the mouse button. Your text is now saved in an Outlook Note.

Note The title is derived from the first line of text in the note.

Notes are versatile

The following are some of the things you can do with your notes.

·         Create different folders for different notes.

1.      In the Navigation Pane, click Notes.

2.      On the File menu, point to New, and then click Folder.

3.      Type a name for the new folder, and then click OK.

4.By default the new folder is created beneath the existing Notes folder that you are viewing.

·         Drag notes between folders by pressing and holding the CTRL key while dragging the note between two folders.

·         Put the same note in multiple folders by making copies of the note.

·         Forward a note to someone by attaching the note to an e-mail message by right-clicking the note, and then clicking Forward.

·         Easily print a note by right-clicking a note, and then click Print.