PST files are simply data files in Outlook 2016.   Whenever you create a file in Outlook to archive items, this is a PST file.   It stands for Personal Storage Table.  

Here's an example. Let's say you get a lot of emails from Joe Smith, and you want to save them to your Outlook instead of keeping them on the server.   You create a data file called Joe Smith to keep those emails in.   The folder is a PST file. It is a data file. That said, the best way to show you what a PST is so that you understand it is to create one.

To create a PST file, click on the Home Tab and select New Items from the Ribbon.

Select More Items from the dropdown menu, then Outlook Date File (as shown below).

You will then see this dialogue box:

Enter a name for your PST in the File Name field, and click OK.

The PST is now created and appears in the Folder pane.   It looks just like one of your email accounts.

Now let's say you want to find an item that you've stored in a PST.   To do this, click on the File tab, then click Open on the left. 

Select Open Outlook Data File.

Outlook 2016 makes it possible for you to preview attachments without actually opening the attachment. You can preview them in an open email or in the Reading pane, right where the body of your email appears.

To preview an attachment in an open email, click the attachment in the open message.   Select Preview. 

The attachment is displayed in the body of the email.

To return to the email message, click Back to Message.

Flags are a very important feature of Outlook. You can flag important messages to remind yourself to go back to it later.   You can also put a flag in an email that you send if you and the other person are both using Microsoft Exchange. 

Whenever you look at the messages in your inbox, you can see the outline of the flag that we're talking about. If you hover your mouse above an email in the Information Viewer, you will see it. It's in grey until you check it, but you can look at the snapshot below to see that it's there – and where it's located. 

If you want to flag an email, you simply click on the flag.   It will then turn to red.

This makes it easy to scroll through your inbox and see which messages need your attention.   Also, once you've flagged a message, it appears in the To-Do Bar.

Once you're finished with the flagged message, just click on the flag again to turn it off. It will now be replaced with a checkmark.

Set Flags for Different Days

You can also set a due date for the flag. This means if you don't want to take care of a flag today, but you want to take care of it on Tuesday, you can set Outlook to do this. 

Right click on the grey flag beside any email in the Information Viewer. You'll then see this dropdown menu:

By definition, Quick Steps are one-click buttons that allow you to perform several actions at once.   For example, if you file your mail, then you can just do one click and have your mail marked as read and filed away for you.   Let's say you send email to the same people frequently.   Just one click and you can send a new email to those people instead of digging through your address book.   You can configure Quick Steps the way you want to make the things you do quicker and easier.

There are five built-in Quick Steps in Outlook 2016. Each Quick Step can perform up to 12 actions.

1.   Move To moves the message to a specified folder the first time you use Quick Steps.   After that, the Quick Step name will include the name of the folder.

2.   To Manager forwards the message to a specified person or specified people.  

3.   Team Email will create a message to a specific person. 

4.   Done moves the message to a specified folder.

5.   Reply & Delete creates a response, then deletes the email.

To create a Quick Step, go to the Home tab and the Quick Step gallery.

Click the Quick Step you want to use.   We are going to select Files.

The Quick Step will move email to a folder that we specify.

Enter a name for the Quick Step in the Name field.

Next, specify the folder in which you want the Quick Step to move the mail – and check if you want the mail marked as read.

If you want to add more actions for this Quick Step, click the Options button.

Click the Add Action button to add another action.

If you want, choose a shortcut key to create a shortcut for this Quick Step.

Click Save when you're finished.

Now, click on the Home Tab and look in the Quick Steps gallery.

Sometimes you can get emails that don't pertain to you. Perhaps they did at one point, but as the conversation drags on between multiple people, the topics of the email are no longer relevant in your corner of the world.   Perhaps, for example, John, Jane, and you are emailing about Project A.   After a few emails between the three of you, John and Jane start talking about Project B – which you are not working on.   Instead of having to look at those conversations in your inbox, you can ignore them so you don't have to see them at all.

To do this, select the message in the Information Viewer.

Then, click on the Home tab and click Ignore.

You'll then see this message:

The Quota Thermometer shows you how much free space is left in your mailbox. This feature is turned off by default, so let's turn it on to see how it works.

Right click anywhere in the Status Bar in Outlook. This is the grey bar beneath the Information Viewer and Reading Pane if you're in Mail module.

You'll see this menu:

Click on Quota Information to turn it on. 

NOTE: If you don't have a space or size limitation on your mailbox, it won't turn on because it's not necessary.

Anytime you want to insert anything into the body of your email, chances are good you'll find the appropriate button under the Insert tab of an email message. Just keep in mind that your cursor must be placed in the body of the email before you will be able to insert anything.

If you want to insert a picture or other image, you will find the picture tools in the Illustrations group on the Ribbon.

You can also insert Microsoft Office clipart, images you find using Bing search, and images from your OneDrive into an email. To do this, click the Online Pictures button. It's also located in the Illustrations group, and it looks like this:

When you click the button, this window will appear:

If you want to search for images or clipart, type in a description of what you're looking in the Bing Image Search field. Use keywords, such as coffee, woman, shopping, etc.

We're going to type in coffee.

 

Select the picture you want by clicking on it, then click Insert.

In addition to inserting pictures from Bing search, you can also insert pictures stored in OneDrive.

Click Browse.

To insert images from Facebook or Flickr, click the Online Pictures button again.

For Facebook, click the Facebook icon at the bottom of the window.

Click Connect.

You'll then be prompted to sign in to your Facebook account.

Click Log in. Once you're logged in, you'll see this screen:

Click Done.

As you can see in the snapshot above, Facebook is now listed as a location for online pictures. Simply click Browse to search your Facebook photos and find one to insert into your email.

When you crop a picture, you cut away the outer edge of the picture to create a new version.

Let's crop the picture below.

Click on the image to select it. You will see a bounding box around the image.

Right click on the image, and you'll see the Crop option in the menu. We've highlighted it below.

Click Crop.

You'll now see crop marks around the image – at all four corners and on each side. These are the black marks. Click and drag your mouse on any of these marks. Click and drag inward on the image until you have cropped away the area you want to get rid of in the image.

The area you're cropping away is shaded in gray.

Click outside of the image and gray area to remove the cropped area.

You can easily adjust the color of any image you place in your emails. 

To do this, click on the image. 

You'll then see the Picture Tools Format Tab.

Click the Color button.

You can also adjust and modify the colors in your image through color correction. Once again, go to the Picture Tools Format tab by double clicking your image.

Click the Corrections button.

Just as you can use Photoshop and other photo editing software programs to add effects to your images, you can also use Outlook for this. 

Double click your picture to bring up the Picture Tools Format tab, then click the Artistic Effects button.

Although Microsoft Outlook is primarily an email program, it also offers some photo editing tools, as we've already seen in this article.   Perhaps one of the most useful photo editing tools found in Outlook 2016 is the background removal tool.   This tool allows you to remove backgrounds from your images.

We are going to remove the background from our image:

To use this tool, double click on the image for which you want to remove the background. Click on the Remove Background button in the Adjust group under the Picture Tools Format tab.

When you click the Remove Background button, you will see the Background Removal tab appear on the Ribbon.   Your image's background – and possibly your image – will also change colors. Don't worry. This is temporary.

The areas that appear in purple are the areas that Word has determined are background areas that it needs to remove.   If there is purple on any areas of your image that you want to keep, you can drag the handles of the bounding box that appears over the image.   Drag the handles outward to keep more of the image.

In the snapshot above, you can see that the stem of the flower and part of a petal appear purple.   If we leave them purple, they will be removed from the image.    We can drag the hands of the bounding box to fix this, as pictured below.

After you adjust the bounding box, if there are still areas of your image that are purple that are not supposed to be purple, go to the Background Removal tab in the Ribbon. Remember, any areas that are purple are considered background areas by Outlook.  

Click the Mark Areas to Keep button.

Your cursor will turn into a pencil. 

Simply click on an area that you want to keep.

As shown in the snapshot above, a plus sign appears where you clicked.   If you look at our previous snapshot, you can see this area used to be purple, but by clicking on it, it's restored to its original color.

We can now click on all areas we want to keep.

You can also mark areas of your image for removal.   It's quite possible that Word will not detect all background areas, so those areas will not appear purple.   To mark areas you want the tool to remove, go to the Ribbon and click Mark Areas to Remove.

Click on the areas to remove just as you clicked on the areas you wanted to keep.   However, this time, those areas will turn purple.

When you're finished, click the Keep Changes button in the Ribbon.

Wrapping Text around Images

Outlook 2016 can also wrap paragraphs around a picture, charts and graphs as in the example below.

To wrap text around a picture or art object, click on the image. The Picture Tools Format tab will appear in the Ribbon. Go to the Arrange group.

In the Arrange group, click Wrap Text to view the dropdown menu.

Click More Layout Options to see all the wrapping options.

• Square means your image sits on the same plane as the text. The text flows around the image in a square pattern.

• Tight text flows around the image, hugging its shape. If you insert a circular shape, the text will take a circular pattern around the text.

• Through means that the text will flow around the image as best as possible. 

• Top and Bottom means text will appear on top of the image and at the bottom.

• Behind Text means the image is behind the text. The image looks like it is part of the paper.

• In Front of Text means the image is on top of your text. It's the same as if you printed a document and dropped a photograph on top of it.

NOTE: You can also wrap text around an image as soon as you insert it into your email without having to go to the Ribbon. Look at the text wrap icon in the snapshot below. Clicking on it reveals the Layout Options menu.

Inserting Shapes

There are so many things that you can do to customize your email. One of those things is adding shapes.  

To add a shape, go to the Insert tab and click the Shapes button in the Illustration group.

Select a shape.   We've selected a cloud in the Callout section. Now simply click in the document where you want the shape to appear:

You'll see a bounding box around the shape:

The little arrow at the top of the shape that looks like the Redo sign can be used to rotate the shape to the left or right. 

You can drag on the handles – or the little circles in the corners of the bounding box-- to enlarge or reduce the size of the shape.

To the right of the shape, you'll see the text wrapping button to format your text around the shape.

Double click the shape to bring up the Picture Tools Format tab on the Ribbon:

WordArt is a very popular feature in Word. To use WordArt, go to the Text group under the Insert tab. 

The WordArt button looks like this:

When you click the downward arrow, you'll see the WordArt menu:

Select the way you want your text to look and click on it.

Whenever a picture is inserted or selected, the Format tab will automatically appear as a tab in the Ribbon. It provides you with a few of the most commonly used features available in image editing software like Photoshop. You can change the contrast, add artistic effects, remove backgrounds, or crop them. To view the Format tab, select a picture by clicking on it.

In the center of this ribbon, you'll see styles you can add to pictures. You can add frames, drop shadows, reflections, etc.

You can also add your own formatting to your images. Remember, a style is just a chunk of formatting heaped together.

To add formatting to your picture, you can click the Picture Border, Picture Effects, or Picture Layout, as shown below. These are located in the Styles group under the Format tab.

When you add a picture border, you can choose the color of the border, the weight (or thickness) of the line, and even the type of line (dashed, etc.).

You can also add special effects to your pictures by clicking on Picture Effects.

If you choose Picture Layout, you can format your picture with a caption or more information. 

Here are the choices when you click Picture Layout:

Choose the layout you want to use. We chose:

Outlook 2016 now provides a box where we can enter the caption:

The screenshot feature was new with Office 2010. It gives you the ability take a screenshot and have it appear instantly in your emails. To use this feature, position the cursor in the place you want the screenshot to appear. Select the Insert tab and click the Screenshot button. It looks like this:

Be aware though, that this feature is somewhat limited, allowing you to only take screenshots of active windows. Windows that have been minimized to the taskbar will not be available. When we click the Screenshot button, we'll see a list of the windows that are available, as in the following example.

Selecting an available window will take a screenshot of the entire thing and insert it into your document. You can then use the Format ribbon to crop the screenshot or change other attributes.

If you do not want to take a screenshot of the entire window, you can select the Screen Clipping command at the bottom of the window.

According to Microsoft, SmartArt is a quick and convenient way to create a visual representation of the information in your document. That's a mouthful, isn't it? What they really mean is it's a quick and convenient way to create flow charts. The following is an example of an available SmartArt template.

The SmartArt button is located on the Illustrations section of the Insert tab.  It looks like this:

Click it and a dialogue box opens. It gives you a different categories of SmartArt to choose froom. There are lists, processes, cycles, hierarchys, etc.

If you have access to Outlook 2016, take a moment to explore the different SmartArt graphics available in each section. Seeing them all for yourself will give you the best exposure to all of the possibilities. You can even click "Office.com" and find SmartArt graphics that were created by other Office users.

When you've found a SmartArt graphic that you like, select it and click OK.

To insert a chart, navigate to the Insert tab and click the Chart button. It looks like this:

The Insert Chart dialogue will open.

The chart types are arranged along the left side of the window.

Select the chart you want to use, then click OK.

If Microsoft Excel is installed on your computer, it will also open with your chart. You can input data into Excel which will then be conveyed by your chart.

New Chart Types in Word 2016

Outlook 2016 brings with it some new chart types to help you better illustrate data that you include in your documents.

These chart types include:

• Treemap. A treemap chart displays hierarchically structured data. The data appears as rectangles that contain other rectangles. A set of rectangles on the save level in the hierarchy equal a column or an expression. Individual rectangles on the same level equal a category in a column. For example, a rectangle that represents a state may contain other rectangles that represent cities in that state.
• Waterfall. As explained by Microsoft, "Waterfall charts are ideal for showing how you have arrived at a net value, by breaking down the cumulative effect of positive and negative contributions. This is very helpful for many different scenarios, from visualizing financial statements to navigating data about population, births and deaths".
• Pareto. A Pareto chart contains both bars and a line graph. Individual values are represented by bars. The cumulative total is represented by the line.
• Histogram. A histogram chart displays numerical data in bins. The bins are represented by bars. It's used for continuous data.
• Box and Whisker. A Box and Whisker chart, as explained by Microsoft, is "A box and whisker chart shows distribution of data into quartiles, highlighting the mean and outliers. The boxes may have lines extending vertically called ‘whiskers'. These lines indicate variability outside the upper and lower quartiles, and any point outside those lines or whiskers is considered an outlier."
• Sunburst. A sunburst chart is a pie chart that shows relational datasets. The inner rings of the chart relate to the outer rings.   It's a hierarchal chart with the inner rings at the top of the hierarchy.

Using the Chart Tools

Whenever you insert a new chart into your document, the Chart Design and Chart Format tabs will open, as pictured below.

This is the Chart Design tab. By default, it's the tab you'll see. 

You can also click on the chart Format tab, to the right of the Chart Design tab.

Let's take a look at the chart tools available on the Design tab.

Just like in the text ribbon, you have a choice of Chart Quick Styles. You can apply them just like you would with text, paragraphs, and pictures.

Use the Chart Layouts group on the Ribbon to add chart elements or change the layout.

Now look at the Type and Data Sections. The data section lets us select an existing data set, or edit one.

With these, we can change the chart type, switch rows to columns or vice versa, select, and edit data. Say, for example, that after we entered our data, we realized that maybe a pie chart wasn't the right way to convey it. We've decided instead to use a graph chart. To do so, we'd click the Change Chart Type button and select a new chart.

Now let's take a look at the Format tab for charts:

Use the Current Selection group to change the formatting of the current selection.

Use the Insert Shapes group to add and insert shapes. Use the Shape Styles section to change the style of your shapes. You can also change WordArt styles that appear in your chart.

The Arrange group lets you arrange your data and images, including text wrap and position.