Using the Journal and Contact Activities in Outlook
The Journal in Outlook can have many uses. Outlook power users find it very helpful in tracking their time spent on projects or activities. Today's tip will briefly describe how the Journal works, and how it might be helpful to users. The tip will close by showing users how the Activities Tab on an individual Contact might serve a similar use to the Journal, but is much more user friendly.
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Starting Journal
The Journal tool is available on the list of Navigation buttons or icons in the lower left corner of the Outlook window.
When first opening Journal a dialog box appears that explains what Journal does, and also mentions that the Activities Tab in Contacts might be more useful if users just want to track email. The dialog box asks if the users wants to turn the Journal on. There is also a checkbox to have the dialog box not show again. I would not check this box until the user is really comfortable with Journal.
After clicking on Yes to turn on the Journal another dialog box appears. It is the Journal Options dialog box. Users can determine which items are tracked, the contacts to track them for, and even record the use of other Office programs, like Word, in communicating with the contact selected. The other option provided is to allow opening the journal entry or opening the item referred to by the journal entry. I would recommend leaving it on the default setting, Open the journal entry. Users can open the item from the Journal entry.
Once the Journal Options are set, click on OK. As items the user selected are created, they are added to the Journal.
Journal Views
Here is an example of what the Journal looks like with a few items tracked by the Journal. This view is the Entry List View.
There are six views in Journal. Entry List is the default view.
Another which is very useful if a user wants to track items by type over time, is the By Type view.
Reading Journal Entries
To open a Journal entry, double-click on the item. Since we used the default setting that a double-click will open a journal entry, vs. opening the item, this is the view we see:
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To open the actual item, double-click on the item in the text box. In the image above it is outlined in Red.
Manually Creating Journal Entries
There are times when a user wants to be able to track their time on a specific activity. For example, if a user is spending a considerable amount of time on the phone for a project and they want to track phone time, they can manually create a Journal Entry and use the timer in the actual entry.
To manually create a Journal Entry, click on the New Journal Entry button.
It is in the familiar spot on the toolbar where the New button is located in all Outlook Folders. A dialog box like the one below opens. The user enters the Subject, selects the Entry type, and then can manually enter the start date and time, as well as the duration, OR Create the new entry just before the phone call and click on the Start Timer button at the beginning of the call to capture the duration. When finished, click on Save and Close.
Changing Journal Options and Stopping Journal
If a project ends and another is starting, it might be necessary to change the contact Journal is tracking. Or add some items to track. To make these changes click on Tools>Options. This will open the familiar Options dialog box. Click on the Journal Options button. It is next to the Contacts Options button. (See below)
This opens the Journal Options dialog box. It is here users can change any options, including items, programs and contacts. It is possible to save Journals before setting up a new one. Check with Microsoft Office Online for this information.
To TURN OFF JOURNAL uncheck all items that are checked in this dialog box. Then click on OK. Journal will stop tracking items for the contact the user had originally set. If the entries are not needed, they can be deleted by going to the Edit menu, and clicking on Select All. Then press Delete.
More Journal Resources
These links are to MS Office Online and provide more useful information about the Journal.
Track your time in Outlook using Journal
Analyze Journal entries in Outlook
Using the Activities Tab in Contacts
If the Journal seems like it is not user friendly enough, or has more bells and whistles than you need, try using the Activities Tab in Contacts. Open a contact and then click on the Activities tab. Outlook will search the Inbox, Journal and Calendar for items that are connected to that contact. Be patient, this could take some time depending on how much correspondence there was with that user.Here is an example:
To open any of the items listed, double-click on the item. Note is also shows where the item can be found.