Continue with Office Outlook

Outlook is an email program from Microsoft’s Office package. It has very extensive options, but the basis is and remains the sending and receiving of e-mail messages. Get more out of the program with our tricks. Are you not yet familiar with this program? First read the article ‘Starting with Outlook’.

This article is written based on Outlook versions 2016 and 2019. Although Outlook 2013 looks slightly different, the steps are the same.

The handy thing about a mail program is that you can save your messages in different folders. Think of an ‘Important’ folder with messages that you want to be able to find quickly or a ‘Grandchildren’ folder. You can easily create folders in Outlook 2016.

• Start Outlook.
• In the Ribbon at the top of the screen, click the tab folder.
• click on New map.
• A window will appear. In the top box, type the name of the new folder.
• Determine in the bottom box where the new folder will be placed. Click on an email account with a black triangle in front of it. If you have multiple accounts, choose the account to which the new mail folder belongs.

• click on OK.

The new folder appears in the folder list.

Moving an email message to another folder is very simple. Click on the relevant message and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the message to the desired folder. Then release the mouse button. There is a second way: right click on the message. Then point Move and click on the desired folder.

Watch in the video below how to create a folder or move a message. The video was created in Outlook 2013 and may therefore look slightly different than you are used to.

Do you want a message from a specific person to automatically arrive in a specific folder? Then move the messages automatically with a so-called rule. Do that as follows:

• Open a mailbox and click on the e-mail of the person concerned.
• Click on the menu at the top Start.
• In the ‘Move’ group, click Lines.
• The top option is ‘Always move messages from (NAME)’. Click on that option.

  

• Now a window will appear with all the mail folders you have. Click on the correct folder. Or create a new one using the ‘New’ option.
• click on OK.

Any messages you have already received from the affected person will now be moved automatically. This may take a while, please wait patiently!

If you often e-mail with a certain person, it is useful to add that person as a contact.

• Double-click on an email message from the person you want to add.
• You will see the e-mail message, with the sender, the subject of the e-mail and the like above the text. Right-click on the sender’s name. You can recognize this by a name and an email address behind it. The letters turn blue when you point to them.
• click on Add to Outlook Contacts.
• A window will now appear where you can fill in everything about that person or adjust the data already entered. The most important data is already displayed, other sections such as ‘Work’ can be clicked to see entry boxes. You decide what you want to enter. An e-mail address and a (first) name are required to create the contact details. Preferably enter a first and last name for a clear address list.
• click on Save.
• You go back to the e-mail message. Click on the cross at the top right to close the message.

Do you want to send an email to someone who is in your contact file? That’s very simple.

• On the ‘Home’ tab, click new e-mail.
• Click in the box behind ‘To’.
• Type the first few letters of your contact’s email address or name.
• The address is automatically completed if the person is in your contacts. If more people have the same initials, a list of people will appear in which you can click on the correct one.

Outlook also has Favorites. That is a list of mail folders that are shown at the top left of the screen, just below the Ribbon. If you have many different mail accounts or use many folders, you can add the most used folders to Favorites. Adding folders to Favorites is very easy.

• Right-click a mail folder, for example the Inbox folder of one of your accounts.
• click on Show in Favorites.

From now on, the folder will also be shown in the Favorites. Remove a folder from Favorites?

• Right-click one of the folders under ‘Favorites’.
• click on Remove from Favorites.

Are you looking for that one important email and can’t find it? Then use Outlook’s search function.

• Click on the mail folder on the left that you want to search.
• Below the Ribbon is a white box that says “Search Current Mailbox.” Click in that box and type in a keyword. This can be a name or a keyword.

• As you type, Outlook immediately searches. All e-mails containing your search term will be displayed. Click on the desired email.
• Are you done searching? Then click on the cross to the right of the search box.

All emails are now visible again.