Six unexpected Outlook settings you’re overlooking

Outlook is one of the most popular email providers. Explore these Outlook email settings that you may not have known existed.

Your Outlook can change everything

Spend less time organizing your life and more time enjoying it with Outlook

Learn More

1. Customize your Outlook ribbon

Your Outlook ribbon is the toolbar at the top of your inbox. While it is pre-loaded with helpful buttons and tools, you can add even more buttons to your ribbon. Adding new items to your ribbon can make your workflow faster and more efficient. For example, if you find yourself frequently scheduling meetings, you can add the Meeting button to your ribbon. To add new buttons to your ribbon:

• Right-click your ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon.
• Select New Group and determine which tab you want your button to be placed.
• Choose the command that you want to add to your ribbon and select Add.
• Click OK.

Now, your favorite commands in Outlook will be easier to access.

2. Focused inbox mode

Focused Inbox mode is an Outlook email setting that divides your inbox into two tabs¬—Focused and Other. Your most important messages will go to the “Focused” tab, while less important emails will go to the “Other” tab. Outlook considers the emails that you interact with the most and will add them to the Focused tab. The more you use Focused Inbox mode, the more precise it gets. To turn on Focused Inbox mode, select the View tab, then select Show Focused Inbox.

3. Personalize your Outlook theme

If you want to make your Outlook experience more exciting, try changing its theme in your settings. To change your Outlook theme:

• Select the File tab.
• Click Options.
• Under General, find “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office.”
• You’ll find an option that says Office Theme. Select the dropdown. The theme options include Colorful, Dark Gray, Black, White, or you can use your system setting.
• Once you’ve selected your favorite theme, select OK.

4. Automate Outlook with Quick Steps

Quick Steps allow you to swiftly manage your mailbox. For example, if you frequently need to forward messages to your manager, you can make this a Quick Step to automate the task. This helps save time as you no longer need to enter their email every time you want to forward them a message. Some Quick Steps options include:

• Move to:? which allows you to move a selected email to a designated folder after reading it.
• To Manager which lets you quickly forward messages to your manager.
• Team Email which allows you to create a new email to send to your team in seconds
• Done which marks the selected email as complete, moves it to a new folder, and marks it as read.
• Reply & Delete which lets you reply to an email, then automatically deletes the original email. This is a great tool to use if you frequently deal with sensitive information.

You can also create a new Quick Step to suit your needs. To create a new, custom Quick Step:

• Click Quick Steps.
• Click Create New.
• Name your action, then select an action.
• If you’d like, you can select a shortcut key for your Quick Step.
• Click Finish.

5. Create Outlook categories

Categories in Outlook can help you organize and color code emails. To use this Outlook inbox setting:

• Choose the email that you want to add to a category.
• Under the Home tab, click Categorize.
• Select the color that you want to associate with the category.
• To rename a category, click All Categories.
• Check the box next to the color that you want to rename, then select Rename. Naming each category will improve your inbox organization and help you remember what each category color is for. For example, you could name one category “Due Friday” and another category “Due Monday.”

6. Automatically accept (or decline) meetings

If you frequently receive Outlook meetings that you know you’ll go to, or you’re required to attend any meetings you receive, you can go into your email settings and make Outlook automatically accept them. To auto-accept or auto-decline meetings:

• Click the File tab.
• Select Options.
• Click Calendar on the left-hand side.
• Scroll down to “Automatically accept or decline” and click Auto Accept/Decline.
• From here, you can choose to automatically accept meetings and remove canceled meetings, automatically decline meeting requests that conflict with an existing meeting, or automatically decline recurring meeting requests.

Automating your meeting invitations will make scheduling much simpler.

Outlook is full of powerful tools to make emailing and scheduling meetings faster and easier. Now that you know a little more about Outlook settings, explore how you can harness the power of email filters.