Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Learn how to find a contact and use the People Pane to find all related activities.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Search Contacts and People Pane
Learn how to find a contact and use the People Pane to find all related activities.
When to use
If you find yourself digging through folders looking for an attachment from a certain person, turn on the People Pane, click on that person’s contact file (or an email from them), and all of the meetings, attachments, and emails they have ever sent you will appear.
Instructions
People Pane to find activities with a contact
- Click on the email Inbox view.
- Click the View ribbon.
- Click the People Pane button and select Normal.
- Observe the results while clicked onto an email, then go to the People or Contacts view.
OR
- While the People Pane is still on, double-click to open a contact.
- Observe the bottom of the contact window.
Search Contacts
- When on your contact screen, above the contacts list is a Search Box.
- Type a portion of a name into the box and Outlook will search for and deliver the closest match.
- To clear the search, simply click the X in the search box.
Search People
- When on your contact screen, above the contacts is a Search People Box.
- Type a portion of a name into the box and Outlook will search for the closest match.
- The new window will have options to email, schedule a meeting, edit the info, link multiple cards as one.
- It also has a pin feature to stick this contact card to your task bar (in case you reference it frequently and need it to be handy.)
- 00:04 This lesson is about searching for your contacts and searching for your people.
- 00:09 Now why do I say two different words?
- 00:11 Because Microsoft is working its way over to the word, people.
- 00:14 All right, so we do have some holdovers, this is My Contacts.
- 00:18 Right up here it says New Contact, New Contact Group.
- 00:20 Right down here, this says Search People.
- 00:24 Take a look at this search boxes, Search Contacts.
- 00:26 Take a look above it, it says Search People.
- 00:29 So they kind of go hand in hand,
- 00:31 some items bring up different windows than other items.
- 00:35 Take a look, first of all when we're searching, this is called a Rolodex.
- 00:39 So we can click on any of these and
- 00:41 quickly zoom to that area, our business cards.
- 00:45 I can even type into my search context, type my first name and see what shows up.
- 00:50 There we go. And you might be questioning,
- 00:52 why did Microsoft show up when I type my name?
- 00:54 Because within this, in my previous lesson I had done a drag and
- 00:58 drop of an email, so my name was within that email note.
- 01:02 And so that's why this showed up.
- 01:04 So that might happen once in a while, so it's good to know why that's happening.
- 01:07 Now I'm going to clear this search simply by hitting the X.
- 01:11 Now watch what happens when I click into this Search People and type my name.
- 01:14 Again, these two items show up.
- 01:16 So I'm going and click one of them, and this is basically a people card.
- 01:21 I can send an email, I have a ..., which means more and more and more.
- 01:26 So I'm going to click on the ..., okay.
- 01:28 i can edit this, link this, add to favorites, schedule meeting,
- 01:31 view the profile, can send an email right here if there was more info in here.
- 01:36 I'm going to go ahead and close this.
- 01:38 So two separate things showed up, all right?
- 01:40 I do need to show you one more thing.
- 01:42 And that is called the People pane, yes, folks, the People Pane.
- 01:47 So in order to show you that, I have to jump on back to my email.
- 01:50 So Ctrl + 1, jumps me back to my email.
- 01:53 It is on the View ribbon, and right over here on the right hand side,
- 01:57 there's an entire box that says People Pane.
- 01:59 There's a little bit of magic in here, so it's worth talking about right now because
- 02:03 it helps us search for people and search for activities with people.
- 02:07 So when I click the People Pane, I have normal minimize.
- 02:10 I'm currently turned off.
- 02:11 I'm going to hit Normal, and
- 02:13 nothing will change on my screen because I've got one more setting to change.
- 02:16 So People Pane set to normal, click, there we go.
- 02:21 Now, my Reading Pane is currently off.
- 02:23 You're never going to see the People Pane if you don't have your Reading Pane.
- 02:27 Your option, put it to the right, put it to the bottom.
- 02:29 I'm going to put it to the bottom just so you can see the whole thing.
- 02:32 So, I'm going to hit the bottom and check this out.
- 02:34 This is the people pane.
- 02:37 Now, everything that I have done with this particular person on this email
- 02:41 is showing up right here.
- 02:42 It's searching for all the emails with that person.
- 02:45 It's searching for all the attachments I've sent to this person.
- 02:48 It's searching for all the meetings I've scheduled with this person.
- 02:51 Could just hit Search ALL.
- 02:53 Now notice again in here, let's see, it's kind of a tight screen.
- 02:57 Let me see if I can resize that to see more, here we go.
- 03:00 Notice at the top, it says toggle between page views.
- 03:04 Or I have this button, I can collapse this list.
- 03:08 And that was the equivalent of telling this to minimize or normal.
- 03:12 Well, you have to turn it on when you're in email, but
- 03:16 now I can use it when I'm in Contacts.
- 03:18 So go ahead and click My Contacts button again, come right over here, and
- 03:22 now I can double-click this and check out what happens.
- 03:25 The same thing.
- 03:27 So keep in mind, now I'm in my contacts, not my email, so
- 03:30 I can open up a contact and I can see all the emails I've sent,
- 03:33 all the attachments I've sent, all the meetings I've scheduled.
- 03:37 How much time did this just save you from digging, digging,
- 03:41 digging through all the folders that you have included this person in?
- 03:45 This is a gift from the gods of Microsoft people, I'm telling you right now.
- 03:50 Turn on your People Pane and jump back into your context and
- 03:54 check out the context and everything you have sent to them.
- 03:58 This is possibly the best kept secret in Contacts.
- 04:02 Get that People Pane open, because it is worth its weight in gold
- 04:06 right here on the time savings for hunting down a specific emails to that person.
- 04:11 Thank you.
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