Bringing websites into Outlook

Did you know that you can change any folder in Outlook to display a web home page by default instead of its normal contents? For example you could change a mail folder to show a web page relating to a work project. The big downside of doing this is that you can't then see the normal contents of that folder, so this tip works best for empty folder that you intentionally create to display web-based information within the Outlook interface.

To set a folder home page, right-click on your chosen (preferably empty!) folder and select Properties. Then click on the Home Page tab and you'll see a dialog that looks like this:

Now simply enter a URL for your folder home page. You could choose a internet website, an intranet site or even an HTML page from your local computer. If you want to get really fancy you can even programme your own folder home page using the powerful Outlook View Control (see this KB Article for more information).

Don't forget to select the Show Home page by default option before clicking OK.

Now when you click on that folder you'll see the HTML page you selected, not the normal contents of that folder. I use this technique to display important intranet sites in a logical place in my folder structure. Useful stuff!