Microsoft Outlook is a popular desktop email program used by corporations and individuals alike. It’s a powerful system, capable of managing many different email accounts, calendars, contact lists, and task lists. Use these tips and tricks to make your email tasks in Outlook more efficient and productive.
Information in this article applies to Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook for Mac, and Outlook Online.
Set up an out of Office Auto-Reply
While you are away from the computer, Outlook can automatically reply to incoming mail with a message telling senders when you’ll be able to reply individually.
Create an Email Signature in Outlook
Set up a short piece of text containing essential contact information, a tag line, or maybe an ad or quotation and insert this information in every email you send from Outlook. If you use several email accounts with Outlook, create several email signatures.
Insert a Graphic or Animation in Your Outlook Email Signature
Create a signature that appends to your outgoing emails in Outlook and makes it a richer experience by adding graphics, animations, and logos.
Send an Email to Undisclosed Recipients
If you want to send an email to a group of people but keep their email addresses hidden, send it to “Undisclosed recipients” in Outlook.
Prevent Outlook From Sending Winmail.dat Attachments
Winmail.dat is a proprietary Windows format for attachments that leverages the .dat file generic encoding. If your Outlook program sends attachments as Winmail.dat, it could confuse and concern recipients. Configure Outlook to make sure it does not send winmail.dat attachments to mail recipients.
Insert an Inline Image in an Email
You can include your photos, sketches, or other images in the body of your email messages instead of as attachments. These graphics are called in-line images and automatically display in the body of an email message.
Access Your Outlook.com or Hotmail Email
Use Microsoft Outlook to fetch and send email messages through your Hotmail or Outlook.com account easily and with all the power and flexibility of a desktop email client.
Change the Default Email Font and Size
Is the font Outlook uses when you compose a message or read an email too wide, tall, small, big, or blue? Specify the precise font, style, and color to use by default for emails in Outlook.
Increase the Font Size While Reading Mail in Outlook
Is the small font used in emails too difficult for you to read? Increase the size of the text in your email messages in Outlook.
Add a Background Image to a Message
Give your emails a colorful and original background in Outlook. Some recipients may not see this background if their email program is configured to not download or display images or special designs from the internet.
Add Blind Copy (Bcc) Recipients
Blind carbon copies are used to send copies of the message to multiple recipients without disclosing some of those recipients. This technique lets you send emails to many recipients without showing their names or email addresses to everyone else the message is sent to.
Sync Google and iPhone Calendars With Outlook
Integrate your Google or iPhone Calendar with your Outlook information. Set them up to sync with your Outlook calendar so all of your devices show the same events and appointments.
Set up a Distribution List in Outlook
Create your own mailing lists in Outlook and easily send messages to groups of people. A do-it-yourself list works great for home users who don’t have access to a corporate distribution list.
Backup or Copy Your Outlook Mail, Contacts, and Other Data
If your email, contacts, and calendars are in Outlook, create a backup of that information to make sure you don’t lose it if your hard drive crashes or Outlook stops working. Create backup copies of your Personal Folders (.pst) files — the files where this information is saved. Creating a backup is as easy as copying the file to a second location.
Set the Default Account in Outlook
When you start a new message in Outlook, the default account is the one that automatically determines which settings — the signature and the sending email address, for example — will be used. Set the default account when you have more than one account connected to Outlook.
Set the Default Message Format
You don’t have to choose your favorite message format every time you create a new message. Make your favorite settings your default in Outlook.
Automatically Cc: All Mail You Send
If you have an email account that you use to back up your messages, or if you need to copy someone on every message you send, Outlook can automatically send a carbon copy of every message you compose to another email address.
Increase the Outlook Attachment Size Limit
If you send a message with an attachment and Outlook won’t let you send it because the attachment exceeds some limit, adjust the Outlook attachment size limit. Set the limit to match that of your email server so emails don’t bounce back as undeliverable. Making this change helps avoid unnecessary Outlook errors, too.
Export Your Outlook Contacts to a CSV File
Keep your contacts even if you leave Outlook behind. If you save your Outlook contacts as a CSV file, you can easily import them elsewhere.
Import Contacts From Excel or a CSV File Into Outlook
It only takes a few steps to import contacts into Outlook. Then you can use those contacts to build the basis for a mailing list, for example. Outlook supports imports if the underlying file is a supported type, like a CSV document.
Set up an All Mail Folder
The search capabilities in Outlook make it easy to find a message when you need it. Creating an All Mail folder for all your messages makes it even easier — it’s a great way to create a unified inbox in Outlook.
Schedule Emails in Outlook
Tell Outlook to deliver a message on or after a certain date. Delayed sending is great for reminders, birthday wishes, and similar items you plan today but won’t send until some future date.
View the Complete Message Source
Make Outlook retain the original message source when it retrieves emails from the internet. Full headers are useful when troubleshooting a problem or if you need to prove some fact about the receipt of a message.
Edit a Received Message in Outlook
Outlook makes editing received emails easy. Use this technique to adjust subject lines and other important information.
Forward an Email as an Attachment
Forward the full email and in the state in which you received it as an EML attachment in Outlook. This preserves all the metadata of the original message, which is useful especially in troubleshooting or legal contexts.
Separate Email Recipients With Commas
Use commas to separate multiple email recipients in a message. By default, Outlook uses semicolons, but you can change the divider to commas if you wish.
Quickly Find All Mail From a Specific Sender
Unless you have permanently deleted a message, Outlook retains all the messages from a particular sender in a folder. Use this feature to quickly find them for reference.
Delete an Address From the Outlook Auto-Complete List
If Outlook remembers an email address you mistyped or if you want to get rid of an outdated name, clear unwanted entries from the auto-complete list that appears when you type an email address in the To field.
Restore an Outlook PST File for Mail, Contacts, and Data
Recover messages, your address book, calendar, and other essential Outlook data from a backup copy. Restore this important email information from a saved version of your PST file.
Automatically Filter One Sender’s Mail to a Specific Folder
If you receive emails from a specific sender that you need to file away for future reference, set up Outlook to send those messages to a specific folder as soon as they are received. Start with a message, then set up an Outlook filter to automatically move all of the sender’s future emails to a particular folder.
Permanently Delete a Message
Do you want to permanently delete a message forever in Outlook but not empty the Deleted Items folder? Learn how to recover deleted Outlook emails.
Search Inside a Message
Search the text in a message in Outlook to find a specific word or phrase.
Save Multiple Attachments at Once
If you receive an email with multiple attachments, don’t save them individually. Instead, save all files attached to an email to a folder at once.
Change the Way Unread Messages are Highlighted
When you want unread messages to stand out, highlight unread mail in Outlook using special fonts, colors, and more.
Make Replies to Emails Go to Another Address in Outlook
Set your default reply-to address for an email account in Outlook. This technique is useful when you receive emails from several email addresses associated with the same account.
Import Your Outlook Contacts into the Mac OS X Mail Address Book
The OS X Address Book application imports Outlook contacts for use in Mac OS X Mail.
Use Contact Categories as Distribution Lists in Outlook
If you categorize your contacts, turn your Outlook contacts into elegant, flexible, and stable mailing lists by using categories instead of distribution lists.
Attach a File in Outlook
When you want to send a file along with your email using Microsoft Outlook, attach the file to the email message.
Purge Deleted Messages
When you delete an email in Outlook with certain kinds of accounts, the deleted message may appear grayed out with a line through it. To permanently erase it, purge the messages marked for deletion in the IMAP folder.
Send an Email With Any From Address
To unsubscribe from unwanted mailing lists, you may need to send an email with an old email address you stopped using years ago. When you no longer have access to the old email address, send an email from any address in Outlook.
Move Email Messages Quickly in Outlook
Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly move emails. It’s easy to set up shortcuts to file mail in Outlook.
Turn off the Outlook Reading Pane
Do you prefer not to have messages open automatically? Do you like the flow of a preview pane-free message list? Here are two ways to disable Outlook’s reading pane — for all folders, and by default.
Change the Font Size of the Outlook Message List
Change the font style and size of the list of messages in Outlook to suit your fashion and needs. This tweak helps if you work better with larger type.
Access an AOL Email Account With Outlook
Use your AOL email accounts with Outlook. Here’s how to set up AOL screen name as IMAP email accounts in Outlook.
Hide Strikethrough Messages Marked for Deletion
If you don’t want to constantly purge deleted messages from your IMAP inbox in Outlook and don’t want to see messages that should be gone, hide the messages marked for deletion from view.
See Total Inbox Message Count in Outlook
Set up Outlook to show you total folder message counts. By default, it gives you an unread message count, but you can make it show you a total message count instead.
Make Outlook Your Default Email Program
Use Outlook for all your email tasks by configuring Windows to recognize Outlook as your default email program. That way, the next time you click a mail-to link, Outlook opens.
Always Send Plain Text to Certain Addresses in Outlook
Compose your emails with style and rich formatting in Outlook and make sure that people who prefer or need a plain text version, get it automatically. With so many viruses and malware spread by rich-text or HTML messages, relying on plain text isn’t a bad idea for all your outgoing emails.
How to Forward Multiple Emails Individually in Outlook
To forward several emails individually and automatically in Outlook, you need a folder and a rule. Follow these instructions to set up the folder and rule to automatically forward multiple emails individually.
Access Your Free Yahoo Mail With Outlook
Your Yahoo Mail account is not made for the web alone. Download mail from a free Yahoo Mail address into Outlook. And send through Yahoo! Mail, too.
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