Another great feature of Outlook is that it’s so customizable. The main place that we do this is using dialog boxes. Dialog boxes are windows that open and ask you to make choices. One of the best examples of a dialog box is the Options choice under the Tools menu. This box has an awful lot of options in it (hence its name); you don’t need to memorize all these options or even understand what they’re all for. We’re just going to go over the different ways you may have to enter data in dialog boxes. Remember, these concepts apply to any dialog box you may see!

 

-       Check boxes: These are easy to use. If the box is checked, click on it to clear it. If it’s cleared, click on the box to check it. (You can see one of these in the figure to the right.) 

-       Drop-down menus: Click on the drop-down arrow to choose from a predefined list. (There’s a drop-down menu circled in green in the figure to the right.)

-       Radio buttons: Click in the dot to move your selection. 

-       Text boxes: Click in these boxes to type something different.

 

Also, you can move around in a dialog box by clicking the tabs at the top. (In the figure above, they are labelled Preferences, Mail Setup, Mail Format, Spelling, Security, and Other.) When you’re done working, click Apply or OK to save your changes. If you don’t want to save your changes, just click Cancel.

You can also get help from within the dialog box by click the help icon () next to the close button in the top right hand corner.