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If you're a frequent user of X1, you know that X1 instantly locates any word in any email message, attachment, file or Outlook contact on your PC. This guide provides tips and tricks for experienced X1 users, or for beginners ready to dive right in and make the most of the tool.
- Download the complete Tips & Tricks Guide in PDF.
- For more basic tips, please see the Quick Start Guide.
- You can get the latest version of X1 Professional Client here.
- Review the search operators for the X1 Professional Client.
Tips
Get a 360° view of a client or subject, and restore it anytime with one click.
Stop investing effort in a hierarchical filing system or searching across multiple applications. Save searches according to your own intuitive system and reference them later, with one click.
Example: A sales representative is responsible for tracking the "IBM" account from initiation to the closure of the deal and beyond. She has access to many different systems—including the SFA solution, accounting, tech support and her own spreadsheets. The problem? Opening each application first requires a search for the account name and then a scan of the search results for the right file—all of which takes time.
With X1, the rep simply performs a Search All for "IBM," and all the results for the account— including email, objects in the SFA/ CRM solution and the sales forecast spreadsheet— immediately populate the results pane. She then clicks the Date/Time column heading once to sort all results by date, finds the desired email, and saves the search in X1 as "IBM." She can repeat this basic process for each named account.
Avoid unnecessary meetings—Bring X1 to get answers fast. This tip came to us from a system engineer at a leading infrastructure company. "When working with customers and government regulators, I often use X1 to search through RFCs (Requests for Comments documents) and government security documents while a conference call is in session. This allows me to have the exact answers to questions that come up during the call, thereby eliminating the need to have follow-up calls after doing research offline. This is an incredible timesaver for me and my team."
Never again waste time managing an email.
Many IT departments set a mailbox limit of around 150MB, which can cramp your style if you are an email power user. Now you can say goodbye to "Mailbox Full" messages. Because X1 instantly searches PST archives, you'll never worry about dealing with email file folders or deleting potentially important stuff just to make room.
Here's how:
- Open your Outlook Tools > Options, select the Other tab, and click the Auto Archive button.
- Next, set Outlook to archive everything, at whatever interval you want, so that your mailbox doesn't grow beyond its allotted size. Set auto-archive to happen every 7 days, and put anything older than one month into the PST archive.
- When you search using X1, archived email and attachments will automatically appear in results alongside those still in your Inbox.
Mine your contacts faster.
You don't have to export your entire Contact database to Excel in order to make it more usable. Use X1's Contacts search tab, and you can filter thousands of contacts down to just a handful—or even one—by entering a single keyword. Use the metadata filters in each column to filter for specific job titles, cities, states, first names or area codes.
Example: A sales rep wants to target a specific metropolitan area for an upcoming seminar. He enters the area code for a region (e.g., 949) into the Work Phone filter, and only those clients appear in the results.
He can either save the search for future reference or choose File > Export to export the target list to a text file or Excel—right from within the X1 application.
Stay on top of high-priority email.
Emails flagged for high priority can stack up and become difficult to prioritize. Keep on top of these messages by using Favorite Searches in X1.
Here's how:
- Choose the Email search tab, then Tools > Columns, and add the Importance column from the left side.
- Next, in the Importance metadata filter, enter “High,” and in the To field, enter your email name or group alias. If you want to limit the range of dates, such as for the previous week only, use the drop-down menu to select a range.
- Finally, save this search as “Urgent Email” and then drag it up to your Favorite Searches. It will appear as a search tab!
Create an instant task checklist.
This feature is particularly helpful when launching a new product or duplicating a past project. Here's how to do it:
- Search using the Documents tab and the keywords "Project [X]" to pull up all relevant work projects. Select the search results for the documents you'll be updating or reusing as templates.
- Choose File > Export to export the list along with authors and edit dates to Excel.
More tips and tricks
- Speed up sorting with drag-and-drop columns. When you see too many columns and/or want to rearrange them, simply expand the columns window all the way. Then just click, drag, and drop the columns in the order that you want.
- Use the deskbar and Outlook toolbar to recall searches. How many times have you searched for a file or email, found it, and then told yourself you would remember where it was next time? When you install X1, it adds a deskbar to the bottom toolbar of your screen and adds a toolbar to Outlook. Don't turn this feature off because it will come in handy. When you use the deskbar or toolbar to search, they retain your queries. Use the left and right navigation bars to recall searches, going forwards and backwards.
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Tips on email and file searching.
Search by an exact phrase. Use quotation marks to tell X1 to find a specific phrase instead of individual words. Entering "as fast as you can type" in the search tab will retrieve only those documents and messages that contain that exact phrase, and the entire phrase will be highlighted in a single color. - Show X1 icon in the system tray. Many users prefer to launch applications from, or minimize them to, the system tray rather than the Taskbar. You can perform both of these functions by choosing the option that allows you to display the X1 icon in your system tray. To turn this option on or off, go to Tools > Options and click on Basic Options.
- Multitask with simultaneous searches. You can have a different search active on every single search tab and you can then have multiple searches in play at one time. This allows for more effective multitasking. If, instead, you want to carry the search terms over from one tab to the next, you can press Shift while clicking on a new tab. You can also change this setting to carry search terms over automatically without needing the Shift key.
- Sort three ways. Yes, you can sort three ways at once! For example, you may want to sort your results by date, then by name, then by subject. To do this, simply hold down the Shift key before clicking on the column to make your second and third sort selection.
Next steps
Exciting, isn't it? Tell your IT group that you want to "X1 everything" in your environment. Ask them to email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), call 866.X1.TECH1, or visit our site for more information.
