Home / Non-Accredited / Microsoft Office & Computer Skills / Microsoft Outlook Beginners to Advanced (2 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Microsoft Outlook Beginners to Advanced (2 days)
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Next Public Course Date:
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Length: 2 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 10,326 EX VAT 3 Person R 7,594 EX VAT 10 Person R 5,537 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.
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Microsoft Outlook Beginners to Advanced (2 days)
In two days a team goes from a cluttered inbox to a mailbox that runs itself: clean foundations on day one, automation, shared calendars and delegation on day two.
Email is where most office time goes, and much of it is spent on the mechanics: hunting for a message, retyping the same reply, chasing a meeting time, filing by hand. Fixing that across a whole team in one booking is the point of this Outlook course beginners to advanced: two days, one group, one way of working. Day one gives everyone the same clean foundation; day two hands the same people the automation, shared calendars and delegation that make a department run.
Day one is the Beginners day: how Outlook and your account work, writing and formatting professional messages with attachments, links, signatures and scheduled delivery, folders, categories, flags and search, junk and phishing and multi-factor authentication, the calendar with appointments, recurring meetings and invitations, tasks and the To Do list, and the Microsoft 365 habits of @mentions and OneDrive links. The day closes with a clean-up of each delegate's own mailbox.
Day two is the Advanced day and nothing from day one is repeated: rules and Quick Steps, search folders and advanced find, multiple signatures, automatic replies and Quick Parts, tracking, voting, receipts and recall, conversation clean-up and AutoArchive, shared and overlaid calendars with permissions and calendar groups, the scheduling assistant and Room Finder, delegate access to a manager's mailbox and diary, contacts, address books and contact groups, and exporting mail to a data file. Delegates leave with real rules, shared calendars and permissions set up in their own mailboxes.
Why this course
For your organisation
- A whole team on one email standard in two days
- Shared inboxes and managers' diaries run to a standard, not from memory
- Faster responses, fewer missed meetings and fewer phishing clicks
- Routine mail handled by rules and Quick Steps instead of by hand
- Mailboxes kept within their limits and mail preserved when staff leave
For your delegates
- A complete path from a cluttered inbox to a mailbox that runs itself
- Day one habits reinforced immediately on day two
- Rules, Quick Steps, shared calendars and delegate access set up in your own mailbox
- Confidence running a manager's calendar and mailbox
- Printed workbooks for both days to refer back to
What delegates will be able to do
- Navigate Outlook, understand how the account works, and write and send professional messages with attachments, links, a signature and scheduled delivery
- Organise mail with folders, categories, flags, sorting and search, and deal with old messages
- Recognise junk and phishing, manage blocked senders and keep the account secure
- Run a calendar with appointments, recurring meetings and invitations, and capture follow-ups as tasks in the To Do list
- Build rules and Quick Steps that file, flag, forward, reply and alert automatically
- Create search folders, multiple signatures, automatic replies and Quick Parts, and use tracking, voting, receipts and recall
- Create, share and overlay calendars, set permissions and calendar groups, and schedule meetings with the scheduling assistant and Room Finder
- Grant and use delegate access to a manager's mailbox and calendar
- Build and maintain contacts, address books and contact groups, configure AutoArchive and export mail to a data file
Who should attend
Teams and individuals who need to go from self-taught to fully capable in one booking: administrators and receptionists on a busy shared inbox, executive and personal assistants who run a manager's diary, project and sales coordinators, team leaders and new hires standardising on company email practice. No previous Outlook training is needed for day one; day two builds directly on it. Delegates who already have the basics can book Microsoft Outlook Advanced (1 day) on its own.
Course outline
Day 1 – Beginners: 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 and securing the inbox
- Folders and subfolders that match how you work: by client, by project, by month
- Sorting, filtering, the Focused and Other tabs, categories with colours, and flags for follow-up
- Dealing with old mail: archive, clean up, delete; search tips and shortcuts
- Multi-factor authentication, junk email, safe 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
Calendar and meetings
- Appointments, events, all-day items and recurring appointments
- 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
- @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
Day 2 – Advanced: automation, shared calendars and delegation
Setting Outlook up for productivity
- Customising settings: reply behaviour, default fonts and formats for outgoing mail, the navigation pane
- Working with more than one account in one profile
- Printing and saving: messages, calendars, contacts and tasks; saving attachments in bulk; saving a message in another format
- Exporting mail to a data file for a leaver, a project close-out or a legal request
- Search folders: everything flagged, unread, from a key client or over 5 MB, in one place
- Advanced find and searching by folder across mail, calendar, contacts and tasks
Rules, Quick Steps and advanced messaging
- Rules that file, categorise, forward and alert – and the order in which they run
- Quick Steps for the actions you repeat: move and mark read, reply with a template, forward to the team
- Automatic replies for leave and for a shared inbox; Quick Parts and multiple signatures
- Junk email and Clutter settings that are strict enough without losing real mail
- Tracking, voting buttons, delivery and read receipts, and redirecting replies
- Importance, sensitivity and follow-up flags on outgoing mail; recalling a message – what works and what does not
Managing the mailbox at scale
- Sorting by conversation, ignoring threads and the clean-up tools
- Categories and local folders for long-running matters
- AutoArchive settings and manual archiving so the mailbox stays within its limit
- Delegate access: giving a PA or colleague the right level of access to your mailbox and calendar, and working as a delegate
Calendars for teams and managers
- Creating and adding calendars; viewing details, work times and time zones
- Multiple calendars side by side or overlaid; calendar groups for a team or a site
- Sharing calendars and setting permissions
- The scheduling assistant, free and busy status, and booking a boardroom or projector with Room Finder
- Recurring series: changing one occurrence or the whole series, and cancelling properly
- Creating a meeting from an email, forwarding calendar items, reminders, participants, responses and shared meeting notes
- Categorising calendar items; notes and tasks alongside the calendar
Contacts, address books and groups
- Creating, editing and tagging contacts; attaching a photo; sharing a contact
- Importing contacts from a spreadsheet or another system
- Address books and how Outlook searches them
- Contact groups for a project team, a tender distribution list or a committee: building, updating and removing members
- Closing exercise: automate your own mailbox
How it is delivered
Two consecutive days, 08:30-16:00 each day. 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 and practise calendar sharing and delegation with each other on day two. Laptops with the software can be supplied on request. Printed workbooks and exercise files for both days. 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
“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.”
“The facilitator effectively encouraged participation and used practical examples, discussions and interactive activities to ensure that the concepts were understood and could be applied in the workplace.”
“Business Optimization Training Institute facilitated Microsoft Excel Training for our company. The course was efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training.”
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 it at a BOTI venue or run it live online.
Can we book the two days separately, or a week apart?
Yes to both. Day one is sold on its own as Microsoft Outlook Beginners (1 day) and day two as Microsoft Outlook Advanced (1 day). Many clients run the two days a week apart so delegates can live with their new folders and habits before adding the automation; just book the pair.
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 and calendars?
Yes, where your IT policy allows it, and it is the best way to learn. On day two, delegate access and calendar sharing are practised between the delegates in the room, so the group leaves with real permissions set up. Room and resource booking depends on how your Microsoft 365 tenant is configured; the facilitator checks this with you beforehand.
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.
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.