Home / Non-Accredited / Microsoft Office & Computer Skills / Microsoft Outlook Beginners (1 day)
Quick Look Course Summary:Microsoft Outlook Beginners (1 day)
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Length: 1 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 5,654 EX VAT 3 Person R 3,982 EX VAT 10 Person R 2,940 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
Outlook 2016 Essentials – self-paced online, 6 months’ access: R1,250 per learner (ex VAT); teams of 10 or more pay less.
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Microsoft Outlook Beginners (1 day)
Delegates leave with an inbox they control, a calendar they trust and the habits to keep both that way.
In most South African offices the working day starts and ends in Outlook, yet almost nobody has been taught to use it. People scroll a 4,000-message inbox looking for last week's quote, miss meetings because the invitation was never accepted, and click a phishing link because it looked like it came from the bank. Practical Outlook training for beginners deals with all of that in one day.
Microsoft Outlook Beginners is a hands-on day for staff who use Outlook every day but have only ever picked it up as they went. Working in their own mailboxes where IT allows, delegates learn how the program is laid out and how their account works, then write and send professional messages with attachments, links and a signature, and schedule a message to go out at 08:00 tomorrow. They set up folders, categories, flags and search so anything can be found in seconds, and learn to spot junk and phishing and keep their account secure.
The afternoon covers the calendar – appointments, recurring meetings, invitations, colour-coding and views – and tasks and the To Do list, so follow-ups stop living in the inbox. The day closes with the collaboration features of Microsoft 365: @mentions, sharing files from OneDrive instead of attaching copies, and opening a calendar a colleague has shared with you. Rules, Quick Steps, search folders, calendar permissions and delegation belong to the Advanced day, so nothing is taught twice.
Why this course
For your organisation
- Faster responses to customers and colleagues because messages are found, not lost
- Fewer missed meetings and double bookings
- Staff who recognise phishing before they click
- Files shared from OneDrive, so mailboxes stop filling up with copies
- A single day that can be rolled out across a whole department
For your delegates
- An inbox you can clear and keep clear
- Professional, well-formatted emails with a proper signature
- A calendar and task list you actually trust
- Search that finds the message in seconds
- A security routine that takes two minutes a month
What delegates will be able to do
- Navigate the Outlook window, set up the workspace and understand how the account and mailbox work
- Write, format and send professional messages with attachments, links, a signature and scheduled delivery
- Use Cc, Bcc and reply options correctly, including Bcc for external mailing lists
- Organise mail with folders, categories, flags and sorting, and deal with old messages
- Find any message, attachment or contact with search
- Recognise junk and phishing, manage blocked senders and keep the account secure with multi-factor authentication
- Create appointments, recurring meetings and invitations, and manage responses, colours, time zones and views
- Capture follow-ups as tasks with reminders, priorities and due dates, and work from the To Do list
- Collaborate with @mentions, OneDrive links and a colleague's shared calendar
Who should attend
Anyone who works in Outlook all day and has never been shown how it is meant to work: administrators and receptionists handling a busy shared inbox, new hires and graduates standardising on company email practice, sales and operations staff juggling customers and meetings, and managers who want their calendar under control. No previous Outlook training is needed. Staff who already use folders and flags well and need rules, Quick Steps, delegation and shared calendars should book Microsoft Outlook Advanced (1 day).
Course outline
Day 1 – Mail, calendar and tasks under control
Getting to know Outlook and your account
- The Outlook window: folder pane, message list, reading pane, and the Mail, Calendar, People and Tasks views
- First-time set-up and customising the workspace: reading pane position, density, Focused Inbox on or off
- Understanding your account: Microsoft 365 or Exchange at work versus a personal IMAP or POP account
- Adding a second account, switching between accounts and where the account settings live
- Fixing the common problems: a stuck Outbox, a full mailbox, mail that will not sync
- Your contacts and the address book
Writing emails that get read
- Subject lines, structure and tone for a business audience
- Formatting text, bullets and tables without turning the message into a poster
- Attachments and links, and when to send a link instead of a file
- Cc, Bcc and reply-all etiquette; Bcc for external lists so you do not expose other people's addresses
- Scheduling a message to be delivered later
- Signatures, templates and Quick Parts for the replies you send ten times a week
Organising the inbox
- Folders and subfolders that match how you work: by client, by project, by month
- Sorting, filtering and the Focused and Other tabs
- Categories with colours, and flags for follow-up
- Dealing with old mail: archive, clean up, delete
- Search: tips, shortcuts and finding the attachment from six months ago
Security and privacy in the mailbox
- Outlook's built-in protection and what it does not catch
- Multi-factor authentication: why IT insists on it and how it works day to day
- Junk email, safe senders and blocked senders
- Spotting phishing: spoofed sender names, urgent payment requests, fake login pages and invoice fraud
- Personal information in email and what POPIA expects of you, as general guidance and not legal advice
- A monthly two-minute review of your security settings
Calendar and meetings
- Appointments, events and all-day items
- Recurring appointments and the weekly team meeting
- Sending invitations, tracking responses, proposing a new time, accepting and declining
- Colour-coding and categorising calendar items
- Views, work hours and time zones for colleagues in other countries
- Opening a calendar a colleague has shared with you
Tasks, To Do and working together
- Turning an email into a task; reminders, priorities and due dates
- The To Do list and the daily task view
- Assigning a task to someone else and tracking it
- Organising tasks in folders
- @mentions in email, and sharing files from OneDrive or SharePoint rather than attaching copies
- Closing exercise: a 30-minute clean-up of your own mailbox with the facilitator
How it is delivered
One day, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20, each on their own laptop; where IT allows, delegates work in their own mailboxes so the clean-up is real. Laptops with the software can be supplied on request. Printed workbook and exercise files. Taught on the Microsoft 365 version of Outlook for Windows; tell us whether your staff use classic Outlook or the new Outlook and the facilitator teaches on that one. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“The training was very informative and practical, leaving our employees feeling confident in their ability to leverage Excel more effectively.”
“The training courses were efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training. I look forward to working with Business Optimization Training Institute in the future.”
“We were particularly impressed by the quality of facilitation and the practical relevance of the content presented. The programme was delivered with professionalism, clarity, and a strong emphasis on real-world application.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa – Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and smaller centres. We can also host the day at a BOTI venue or run it live online.
Do you teach classic Outlook or the new Outlook?
Either. Tell us which version your organisation has rolled out – classic Outlook for Windows, the new Outlook, or Outlook on the web – and the facilitator teaches on that one and points out the differences for staff who use both.
Is it accredited?
No. It is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. If you need an accredited route, ask us about BOTI's End User Computing skills programmes (QCTO accreditation pending).
Can delegates work in their real mailboxes?
Yes, if your IT policy allows it, and it is the best way to learn: by the afternoon each delegate has folders, categories and a signature set up in the mailbox they use every day. Where that is not possible, we practise in a demonstration mailbox.
What if the team already has the basics?
Book Microsoft Outlook Advanced (1 day): rules, Quick Steps, search folders, calendar sharing and permissions, the scheduling assistant and room booking, delegation, contact groups and archiving. For a team that needs both, Microsoft Outlook Beginners to Advanced (2 days) runs them back to back.
How many people can attend?
From one delegate to a group of about 20. Smaller groups get more one-to-one time at the screen. The price per delegate drops as the group grows – see the price table or ask us for a quote.
Related courses
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Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00. After hours, we reply on the next working day – or call 011 882 8853.