A Bookseller's Guide to Microsoft Outlook by Shawn Tyler 25 May 2009

Think: Microsoft Outlook. Ever used it? Using it now? What help can it be to a simple bookseller such as I? You might be surprised - even if you already use it. Microsoft Outlook, not Microsoft Outlook Express. Express is what it says - Express, and therefore has fewer features than its bigger brother.

Outlook is probably the most popular e-mail software currently in use. And for good reason! You can manage priorities, tasks, book sales, e-mail, contacts, appointments and much, much more. Plus - for obsessively compulsed people like myself - it's extremely customizable and offers an extensive number of organizational tools. It has many, many other features which will not be discussed in this article such as Calendar, Address Book, Notes, Forms, Macros, Journal, sharing features, and on and on. I will, however, get a little in-depth in how you can best put Outlook to use for your many bookselling needs.

Now - if you haven't used Outlook before and you don't have your own e-mail address, I highly recommend getting one. Lots of people have their e-mail going through such sites as Yahoo or Hotmail. That isn't a bad thing, as I myself have a Yahoo account. However, having your very own e-mail address looks more professional and probably costs a lot less than you think. Say your business name is Forever Books. Wouldn't it look more professional if your customers received an e-mail from, say, orders@foreverbooks.com? If that sounds appealing, I personally recommend www.GoDaddy.com. That's who I go through, and I must say, not only are they extremely inexpensive but also their customer service is superb. Every time I've spoken with them they've been very cordial, fast, and professional. If you don't know what you're doing, they'll be patient and help you through any process that you're having difficulty with. Here are their e-mail price plans.

The cheapest plan is $1.19/month, but you can buy a 2-year package for an even bigger discount. Usually you'll pay in one or two-year increments as opposed to monthly (I pay around $25-$30 per year). Some packages allow you to have multiple e-mail addresses such as inquiries@foreverbooks.com, refunds@foreverbooks.com, do-not-reply@foreverbooks.com, editor@foreverbooks.com, and so on. This is why I recommend looking at their group plans even if you're just an individual looking for one e-mail address.

After you've got your own e-mail address (or if you already have one), you can set up Outlook to manage all of your e-mail. This web site will show you how to incorporate your e-mail address into Outlook (this will not work for free Yahoo, Hotmail, etc., ccounts).

Of course, you'll need to get Outlook as well if you don't have it, and you can download a free 60-day demo trial of it at Microsoft's web site.

That will take you to the 2007 version, which I'm sure is equal to or better than the 2003 version - the version that will be discussed in this article. Also, you may want to check to see if it's on your computer already (for those who aren't very computer savvy). If you use Microsoft Word and/or Microsoft Excel on your computer, chances are you probably have Microsoft Outlook as well.

For that matter, I strongly recommend that you look into the entire Microsoft Office Package before you download Outlook. This package includes not only Microsoft Outlook but also Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and PowerPoint. I use all of these programs extensively with the exception of PowerPoint. Microsoft Excel is used for all of my financials including tracking sales, expenses, donations, mileage, and anything else that I need come much anticipated tax time! I literally use Excel almost every day of the week.

Also, as a bookseller, chances are you work with tab-delimited and/or .csv files. Excel is exceptional at this! Have you ever tried to read a tab-delimited or .csv file in Notepad? It's a big, jumbled mess, right? Open the same file in Excel and the entire file makes sense. Aside from financials, I also use Excel to upload new listings to half.com, make revisions to inventory, run spell checks on new listings, and much, much, more.

Lastly, Microsoft Word isn't half-bad either. I use it to print out my own shipping labels, create invoices, business cards, and a whole slew of other things. As I type this very sentence, I'm doing so in Microsoft Word.

With that being said, if you don't have the Microsoft Office Package, which includes all the aforementioned programs, then I highly recommend it. The following is Microsoft's web site for their 2007 Microsoft Office Package.

You can download a free 60-day demo trial of the entire package, which as I said, includes Outlook. If you've recently purchased a brand new computer, it may have come with the Microsoft Office Package already installed on it.

So, now that you've got your e-mail running through Outlook, here are some invaluable features that can help you in your bookselling business.