Find your way around Backstage
Backstage is an all-in-one stop for doing common tasks such as changing your email account settings, cleaning up your mailbox and printing. It brings together a variety of functions that were found in multiple locations in previous versions of Outlook.
When you click the File tab on the Ribbon, you're sent to Backstage. The Ribbon disappears and is replaced by a series of items down the left-hand side of the screen. Some options, such as Print and Help, are self-explanatory. Here's what you need to know about the rest.
Save / Save As / Save Attachments / Save Calendar
The Save-related options at the top of the list may be grayed out or available depending on what you're doing when you click the File tab. If you're viewing an email, for example, all the options will be available and you can save the individual email in Outlook Message Format (.msg), HTML (.htm), plain text (.txt) or MHTML (.mht) format. You can also save any attachments.
Similarly, if you're viewing an appointment on your calendar, you can save it in iCalendar (.ics), vCalendar (.vcs) and other formats; you can open the file later to view just that appointment. If you're looking at your calendar but haven't opened an appointment, you can save the entire calendar in .ics format so it can be viewed or imported into another calendar app.
When viewing a contact, you can save it in the vCard (.vcf) format, which can then be opened or imported into another contact manager. Tasks can be saved in the same .msg format as emails.
Info
Click Info on the left to bring up a screen where you can manage all of your mail accounts. Click Add Account to add a new one, or dig into the Account Settings area to edit any of your existing accounts.
The Cleanup Tools button in the Mailbox Cleanup area lets you archive old emails. It also gives you tools to identify mail that you may no longer need so you can delete it -- for example, it can show you items older than a certain date or larger than a certain size.
Info is also where you set up out-of-office replies, and down at the bottom of the screen, Manage Rules & Alerts helps you organize incoming mail by automating actions to be taken. You can have mail from certain senders or with certain subject lines to be routed to specific folders, for example, or automatically flag certain messages for follow-up.
Backstage in Outlook 2010 is a one-stop shop for performing a wide variety of tasks, including managing your accounts. Click to view larger image.
Open
This screen lets you open a calendar that's in either .ics or .vcs format, open an Outlook .pst file (the file that contains all your Outlook email data), or import a variety of file types and information into Outlook, among other tasks.
Options
Here's where you can customize the way Outlook looks and works, such as the format you compose emails in by default (HTML, rich text or plain text); the hours that the Calendar should consider work hours; in what order Contacts should be displayed (by last name or first name, for example); options for setting appointment reminders, including text messages sent to a mobile phone; and what buttons appear in the Quick Access toolbar.
The Options screen, accessed via Backstage, is where you can customize the way Outlook 2010 looks and feels. Click to view larger image.
You can also customize the Ribbon from here. After you click Options, click Customize Ribbon in the left pane, and you can choose what you want shown on each of the Ribbon's tabs.