At first, the To-Do Bar can seem a little confusing because things might turn up there that you didn’t put there directly. For example, if you receive an email message on a Monday and apply the flag labeled This Week, that message turns up for action two Fridays later, when you might have forgotten about it. That’s what the To-Do Bar is for — to prevent you from forgetting.
Adding an item to the To-Do Bar in Outlook isn’t such a big to-do. You have both a quick way and a really quick way to enter a new task.
1. Click the text that says Type a New Task.
The words disappear and you see the insertion point (a blinking line).
2. Type the name of your task.
Your task appears in the To-Do Bar Task List.
Your new task moves down to the To-Do Bar Task List with your other tasks.
Isn’t that easy? If only the tasks themselves were that easy to do.
Although the To-Do Bar is handy, it takes up quite a bit of space on the screen, which is a nuisance when you’re reading email or checking your calendar. You can clear the To-Do Bar out of the way by clicking the double arrow to the left of the words To-Do Bar. Clicking the double arrow shrinks the To-Do Bar into a tiny ribbon along the right side of the screen.
Click the ribbon along the right side of the screen to get a quick glance at the To-Do Bar; clicking anywhere else on the screen makes the To-Do Bar shrink again.
If you want to adjust how much of each of those items appear, or you want to turn one of them off, choose View –> To-Do Bar –> Options and enter your preference. If you don’t like the first choice you make, go back and make another. You can always change your To-Do Bar options.
Clicking the X to the right of the words To-Do Bar closes the bar completely, and it disappears without a trace. You can reopen the To-Do Bar by choosing View –> To-Do Bar –> Normal.