It has taken me a long time to work out how to ‘improve’ and personalise Outlook Forms. Now that I have, I can only assume that I was only trying half heartedly before because, like many things, it’s pretty easy once you know how. These are two that I’ve created. Use them ‘as is’ or adapt them to suit your own requirements. (I’m quite happy to answer ‘short’ questions if you need to ask, but I’m not going to get into a long ‘how to’. Other people on the net have done that – you just need to look!)

The first form is a Task template. It has extra date boxes to record Viewed, Applied and Chased, as well as boxes to assign it to Projects, etc.

It’s pretty specialised so you’ll probably only want to use it as is if you understand why the boxes are there and what they’ll do. However, if you have a partial understanding of how to design Outlook forms already, or want to learn, you can use it as a base from which to re-engineer exactly what you want.

The second form is a Contact template. It uses the full screen width to display both personal and business info about the person, and commonly needed phone numbers, so that there’s no need to keep using drop down lists to show the appropriate information. Click the form for a larger image where you can see all of the fields.

Tip: Save them as Personal Forms. If you decide you don’t like them after all, it’s easy to revert back to the standard Outlook forms.