NEO Free Quick Start

Getting Started in NEO Free

Steps to get you going in NEO Free

Use NEO Free to create and send mail just as you would with Outlook. Here are a few things to help get you on your way with NEO Free.

First, get oriented by clicking each of the Viewtabs

	Manage your Outlook folders here just as you would in Outlook's Folder List
	For your e-newsletter type email. New Bulk Mail goes into the Unsorted Bulk Mail folder. Create your own Bulk Mail folders from there
	Enter your search words and NEO automatically searches across all your folders

More tabs are available in NEO Find and NEO Pro, e.g.:

In NEO Find and NEO Pro all your regular mail is automatically organized into Correspondent folders. There is no need to search for your mails anymore as you know exactly where they are – without any action from your side. Try NEO Find or NEO Pro free for 90 days to find out the benefits! You can download here.

How NEO works

NEO extends Outlook capabilities in many ways, but there's one feature of NEO that's worth knowing:

Virtual
Folders

NEO displays the same message in different ways

They are displayed in their Outlook folders and in the virtual folders NEO creates for you. NEO Pro creates many more: Correspondent, Today, This Month, Unread, Category, ..

One more thing .. don't worry about trying to understand all of NEO right away. Over time you will discover new things you can do.

Note you can continue to use Outlook just as before

Click the Go to Outlook button on the toolbar to jump to Outlook, or click to jump directly to an area.

Or double-click any of the following in your NEO Outlook view.

To return to NEO, click on the Outlook toolbar.

Ways to use NEO Free

Using email involves managing messages and finding messages.

Here are three ways to manage messages with NEO Free:

Stay on top of your incoming mail

Like Outlook, all new mail comes into your Inbox. However, with NEO:

· Messages are much easier to find - there's less need to file to specific folders.

· Keep your Inbox small. Use it for your To Do - messages you still have to take action on.

Ok, so how do you keep your Inbox small without the hassles of filing?

The key is how you file. In NEO you can quickly move messages out of your Inbox. You can file to your recently filed-to folders, and you can file to a single 'quick file' folder that you designate - perfect for messages you don't want to think about where to file (after all, isn't that where most of the filing frustration comes from … deciding where to file a message).

Turn your Inbox into your To Do: file messages you are finished with but want save, and leave in your Inbox messages still requiring action.

Use Quick File to keep your Inbox small

Click Quick File on the toolbar to file to your designated Quick File folder, or click Quick File Recent on the toolbar to choose from other recently filed-to folders. Pressing Backspace will also bring up your Quick File Recent menu.

It all comes down to three easy keys - Delete, Spacebar, Backspace:

Remember: Backspace doesn't delete the message! It just helps you file the message to another Outlook folder, so you can keep your Inbox small.

Flexible filing to any folders

As with Outlook, you can also file by dragging to folders, using File to Folder, or Outlook Rules.

Focus on your priority mail

Bring forward your Correspondent mail

NEO automatically separates your regular Correspondent mail from your Bulk Mail (e.g., e-newsletters).

That's so you can choose when to just see your Correspondent mail, your Bulk Mail or both. Most NEO users just want to see Correspondent mail during the business day, and see their Bulk Mail at specific times such as first thing in the morning.

Click icons to show just Correspondent or Bulk Mail messages respectively.

Zero in on folders with Unread messages

You can also filter NEO Free to just see folders that contain unread messages.

The 'Show folders with Unread messages' filter is especially helpful in Correspondent view but applies to Bulk Mail and Outlook folders too.

Notice that when a filter is set the background color changes to let you know a filter is active (you can change the filter background color). To clear the filters, unclick them.

Things to do each day - or at least often

Outside of your normal sending and receiving messages, here are the things you should build into your daily workflow.

1. Check your Unsorted Bulk Mail folder

NEO identifies new bulk mail and puts it here. If you don't use the Correspondent filter to filter out Bulk Mail you'll set it in your Inbox and can be managed from there too. However, if you do use the Correspondent filter, be sure to check this folder daily because the filter prevents this mail from appearing in your Inbox.

2. Empty your Spam Senders folder

If you block spam senders, you need to go to your Spam Senders folder in Bulk Mail view to view and empty it from time to time.

3. Empty your Deleted Items folder

When messages are deleted from NEO they go into the Deleted Items folder in Outlook view.

Customizing NEO Free

For a full description of the ways to customize NEO Free, see chapter 'Options & Customizing'.

Here are a few of the more common ones:

Workflow Options	Decide how you want Backspace to behave.
Format Options	Choose formats for names, dates and colors. Suggest changing the colors for Sent and Received messages.
New Mail Options	Perhaps disable alerts for Bulk Mail if you get a lot of it.
Resizing the reading pane	These keyboard commands are well worth learning.
Folder List sort orders	You can have custom orders by view. You might like Recently Used Order for Correspondent view.
Adding and changing columns	You may want to change the column order or determine what columns you want listed.

Key Features in NEO Free

Quick Filing in NEO Free

In addition to all the basic filing methods such as dragging messages, using File to Folder (Ctrl+Shift+V), and Outlook Rules, NEO has two Quick File features:

Quick File

Click Quick File on the toolbar or on the right-click menu (or press Ctrl+I).

This will immediately file the message to your designated Quick File folder.

Use it when you don't want to file to a specific (topic) folder.

Quick File Recent

Click Recent on the toolbar or Quick File Recent on the right-click menu (or press Ctrl+Alt+V). This displays a list of your most recently filed-to folders for easy selectionHelp_Setting_the_Quick_File_folder.

Use the accelerator keys for quick selection. For example, pressing m will file immediately to the Meetings folder.

NEO Pro users can change the Quick File Recent menu using the Clear List and Disable List Updates commands.

Changing how Backspace works with Quick File

You can get more productivity by setting your Backspace key.

If you file frequently to specific folders, 'Display the Quick File recent menu' is a good choice. Otherwise, choose 'File to the Quick File folder'. Try each one to see what works best for you.

Note that Backspace is an additional (surrogate) key. You can always use the permanent key to perform each action:

Quick File	Ctrl+I
Quick File Recent	Ctrl+Alt+V

Using Bulk Mail in NEO Free

What is Bulk Mail?

Bulk Mail is all your non-correspondent mail. Some users think of bulk mail as analogous to the "To the Householder" paper mail they receive - it finds its way to their mailbox but is addressed indirectly.

NEO initially puts new bulk mail into your Unsorted Bulk Mail folder in Bulk Mail view. It includes:

1. Some types of junk mail (the best approach is simply to delete it).

2. Bulk mail such as e-newsletters, mailing lists, administrator messages and so on (you can create a Bulk Mail folder for it).

3. Sometimes mail arrives here that you may think of as correspondent mail (you can reclassify it by creating a Correspondent folder for it ).

How to manage it?

Don't be alarmed to see a lot of your mail identified as Bulk Mail. You can just leave your Bulk Mail organized this way. Unsorted Bulk Mail is an additional virtual folder that NEO organizes for you - all these messages are still in your Inbox or whatever other Outlook folder you may have filed them to.

So why organize your Unsorted Bulk Mail into Bulk Mail folders? Suppose you subscribe to e-newsletters (such as the ones shown below) and you like to read them 'off hours'. With NEO Free's filtering you can choose just to see your Correspondent mail when in your Outlook and Search views so you won't be interrupted by new Bulk Mail when it arrives. If you get lots of bulk mail that can prevent a lot of distractions.

Creating your own Bulk Mail folders

You may have many messages in Unsorted Bulk Mail. However, as you create each Bulk Mail folder, all its associated messages immediately disappear from your Unsorted Bulk Mail folder and reappear in your newly created folder.

If you start with ones with the most messages, you should see your Unsorted Bulk Mail shrink quite quickly. Also, remember that you need only do this once for each folder you create. Along the way, you should also delete any junk mail you see.

To begin, right-click a Unsorted Bulk Mail message and choose Reorganize Message (see creating Bulk Mail folders).

Notice that Unsorted Bulk Mail is in the New area.

When you Block Spam Senders, the mail and list of blocked addresses appears in the Spam area.

The Current and Dormant areas are just like the Current and Dormant areas for Correspondents.

There is no limit to the number of Bulk Mail folders that you can have.

Creating your own Bulk Mail folders based on Rules

When you need more flexibility try NEO Pro where you can assign messages to Bulk Mail folders based on words in the subject: NEO Rules.

Finding messages quickly in NEO Free

Click the New Search button on the toolbar (Shift+Ctrl+F). Enter car and press Enter or click Go.

You can even logical phrases like (car or bus) near accident.

Or enter parameters to limit your search such as searching within a folder.