Importance: Sort the tasks by the Importance flag – High, Normal, or Low.

Type: Sort the tasks by whether they’re a mail or a task (you can drag emails into Tasks to create a to-do item).

Folder: Sort the tasks by the name of the folder they’re in (tasks can be created in, or moved to, any folder in Outlook).

Due Date: Sort the tasks by the date on which they’re due to be completed.

Start Date: Sort the tasks by the date the task was started.

Categories: Sort the tasks alphabetically by the category you’ve assigned them.

The “Arrange By” option lets you sort by different criteria from the default “Due Date.” These options are three standard filter options in a mail folder and have no use in your Tasks. The first three options-“All Mail,” “Unread Mail,” and “Mentioned Mail”-are, somewhat oddly, completely useless within Tasks. Right-click anywhere on the header, and you’ll see a context menu of customization options. If you click the black arrow next to “Today,” the sort order will reverse and show your tasks in descending order. By default, your tasks are arranged by Due Date in ascending order. In fact, it acts like a regular email folder, which means you can customize it just like any other folder. The Tasks item has a lot more customizations available. The People item lets you search your contacts, but that’s it.

These just display your upcoming appointments and your favorite contacts, respectively. There are no customizations available for the Calendar or People items in the To-Do pane.

If you don’t want to show the To-Do pane at all, click View > To-Do Bar > Off, or untick all of the other options. We’ve added them in the order in which they appear in the menu-Calendar, People, Tasks-but if we remove Calendar by clicking View > To-Do Bar > Calendar, and then add it in again, it will appear at the bottom under Tasks. The items appear in the order in which you turn them on in the To-Do Bar options. They all exist in the To-Do pane, which sits in the right-hand side of Outlook. You can choose to display the Calendar, People, Tasks item, a combination of two of these, or all three.

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