Turning Outlook 2000 into a Tag Cloud (sortof)
Where I work, I have a limited amount of space for email. As a result, my email account fills up rather quickly, and I’m forced to frequently delete emails in order to keep up.
When it comes time to clean up my emails, I usually delete those emails with big attachments (the biggest offenders) first. To do this, I usually go into the various subfolders and sort by “filesize”, then delete anything 1 MB or larger.
This got me thinking… What if I set up a series of Outlook rules so that at a glance I could determine email filesize? Sure, you can always use the “filesize” column, but I don’t make a note to check the filesize of every single email that I get. Instead, I could use the “tag cloud” method of information display, where font size is proportional to actual size.
Bigger font = bigger file.
Here’s how to do it (this works in Outlook 2000):
- In Outlook, click on the Organize in the top main tool bar. It looks like a broken yellow Rubik’s cube.
- A window pops down. In this window, click Using colors
- Click Automatic Formatting. A box appears.
- Click Add to create a new rule. Give it a name (e.g. files bigger than 500k)
- Click Condition. In the new window, click More choices
- Specify your parameters (e.g. *Size greater than 500k)
- Click Okay.
- Set the font size by clicking Font. Remember, the bigger the filesize, the bigger the font.
- Repeat steps 1-8, increasing filesize criteria and font-size incrementally.
You may have to play around with filesize criteria before you find something that works for you. The end result is an inbox with variable fonts, making it instantly apparent when a “big” email gets sent to you.
Bonus Points tweak font color in addition to font size in order to convey even more data at-a-glance.
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