TABLE OF CONTENTS
Keeping Outlook Organized
Outlook offers a variety of ways to keep your messages organized so you can find what you need while making efficient use of your mailbox space. Learning to leverage Outlook’s organizational capabilities can make all the difference between inbox chaos and email efficiency.
Folders
Folders are a great way to keep emails organized. You can use folders to organize not only email messages, but also calendars, contacts, and tasks.
Create a Folder from the Left Pane
To create a folder, navigate to the left pane in Outlook and right click where you want the folder to go (such as your Inbox, or an existing folder), then click New Folder. In the Name box, enter a name for the folder and press Enter.
Create a Folder from the Menu
You can also create a folder by navigating to the Folder tab at the top of Outlook and then clicking New Folder.
In the Create New Folder window, type in a name for the folder, choose where you want it to go, and then click OK.
Once you’ve created your folder, you can manually move email messages into it to keep them organized, or you can use Rules to automatically move messages into your folders for you. For more information about that, check out the Rules & Alerts section below.
Search Folders
Search Folders are a special type of folder that don’t actually contain messages. Instead, they display search results as if they were contained in the folder.
To create a Search Folder, navigate to the Folder tab at the top of Outlook and then click New Search Folder.
In the New Search Folder window, choose the criteria you’d like to use from the menu, or scroll down to the bottom of the list and choose Create a custom Search Folder.
If you choose one of the predefined options, you can use the Search mail in dropdown menu to choose where the search folder will look for messages; by default, it checks your entire mailbox.
If you choose Create a custom Search Folder, you will need to specify your own criteria. To start, click Choose.
In the Custom Search Folder window, enter a name for your Search Folder, then click Criteria.
In the Search Folder Criteria window, choose from the options in the Messages, More Choices, and Advanced tabs to set the Search Folder’s criteria. When you’re done, click OK.
If you want to change where the folder searches, click Browse back in the Custom Search Folder window and choose a folder. When you’ve finished, click OK.
You will be able to find your new Search Folder in the left pane. It will display messages like any other folder, but the list will change dynamically depending on what messages meet the Search Folder’s conditions.
Favorites
You can add any of your folders or Search Folders to your Favorites, which will put them at the top of the left pane for easy access. This also works for high-level folders like your Inbox, Sent Items, and even Deleted Items.
To add something to your Favorites, right click on it and then click Add to Favorites.
Rules & Alerts
Rules allow you to move, flag, and even respond to email messages automatically. You can also use rules to display custom alerts or play sounds when a particular kind of new message arrives. Rules are most commonly used to organize messages that come from a particular sender or with certain words in the subject, but the possibilities go well beyond that.
Creating a Rule
From an Email
If you want to apply a rule to a specific type of message, the easiest way to do it is to right click the message and click Rules.
Select one of the options in this menu. Outlook automatically suggests creating a rule based on the sender or recipient of the message, but you can also click Create Rule to view more options.
In the Create Rule window, check any of the first three checkboxes.
In the Do the following section, select the action you want the rule to take by checking the boxes that apply. If you want to move the message to a folder, check Move the item to folder, and then click Select Folder.
In the Select Folder window, pick the folder you want messages moved to, then click OK.
Click OK to save your rule. If you want to run the rule on messages you’ve already received, check the box on the confirmation window that pops up when saving the rule.
Using the Rules Wizard
You can create three types of rules using the Rules Wizard:
- Stay organized are rules that help you filter, file, and follow-up with messages.
- Stay up to date are rules that notify you when you get a message that fits specific criteria.
- Custom rules are rules you create without a template. The possibilities with custom rules are almost infinite.
To use the Rules Wizard, click Rules in the Home tab of the top Ribbon, then click Manage Rules & Alerts.
In the Email Rules tab, click New Rule to begin.
- Select one of the templates listed. To start from a blank rule and specify your own criteria, choose either Apply rule on messages I receive or Apply rule on messages I send.
- In the Step 2: Edit the rule description box, click on any underlined options to set them. For example, if you selected the template Flag messages from someone for follow-up, you’d want to click people or public group to select which senders’ messages you want to flag, then click follow up at this time to select a flag and a follow-up date.
- Click Next.
- On this page of the wizard, you can add more conditions. In the Step 1: Select condition(s) box, everything you set on the previous screen will be checked. You can check additional conditions here to make the conditions more specific.
- In the Step 2: Edit the rule description box, click on any additional underlined conditions you just added.
- Click Next.
- On this page of the wizard, you can add any exceptions to your rule. In the Step 1: Select Condition(s) box, check the boxes next to any exceptions you wish to add.
- In the Step 2: Edit the rule description box, click on any additional underlined exceptions you just added.
- Click Next.
- On the last page of the Rules Wizard, enter a name for your rule.
- If you want to run the rule on messages you’ve already received, check Run this rule on messages already in “Inbox.”
- By default, Turn on this rule is checked. You can uncheck this box if you don’t want the rule to be enabled right away.
- Click Finish to save and enable your rule.
Server-Side vs. Client-Only Rules
Depending on the criteria or actions contained in a Rule, it will be classified one of two ways:
- Server-Side rules run on the Exchange server as messages arrive, which means they will run 24/7, even if Outlook for desktop isn’t open.
- Client-Only rules can only run when Outlook for desktop is open.
When you create a rule, Outlook will tell you if it’s client-only.
Client-only rules will also have (client-only) displayed next to their name in the Rules & Alerts window.
If you create a rule and receive this message, you may want to split it up between client-only and server-side functions. For example, if you have a rule that moves a certain kind of message into a folder and then plays a sound, that rule would be client-only due to the Play a sound action. If you create one rule that plays the sound, and another that moves the messages to a folder, the rule that moves messages to a folder will continue to process even if Outlook isn’t running.
These lists are by no means comprehensive, but here are some of the commonly used Criteria and Actions that are client-only:
Client-Only Criteria
- With specific words in the subject
- Marked as importance
- Flagged for action
- With specific words in the body
- With specific words in the message header
- With specific words in the recipient’s address
- With specific words in the sender’s address
- Assigned to category
Client-Only Actions
- Assign it to the category
- Permanently delete it
- Flag message for follow up at this time
- Clear the message Flag
- Print it
- Play a sound
- Mark it as read
- Display a specific message in the New Items Alert window
- Display a Desktop Alert
Keeping Your Inbox Clean
Mailbox Size Limitations
Your Mailbox includes everything in your Inbox, Drafts, and Deleted Items. All the messages in these folders can’t exceed 100 Gigabytes (GB).
You can see how much of this 100GB is available in the lower left corner of the Outlook window.
To avoid using up all of your available space, you can Archive or Delete email messages.
Archiving vs. Deleting
Archiving
When you Archive an email, the message is removed from your mailbox, but it gets retained in your Archive Folder so you can access it later. Items in your Archive Folder don’t count against the 100GB mailbox limit.
To archive a message, select it, and then click Archive at the top of the Outlook window.
Note that anything you don’t delete from your inbox will be moved to your Archive after 30 days. If you can’t find something in your Inbox, check your Archive. You can access it in the left pane of the Outlook window.
When to Archive
Generally, you want to archive emails that you want to keep, but don’t need immediate access to in your Inbox or other folders. Using your Archive Folder to store messages is a great way to make sure you don’t hit the 100GB mailbox limit.
Deleting
When you delete an email, it moves to your Deleted Items folder. After 30 days, the message will be permanently deleted.
To delete a message, select it, and then click Delete at the top of the Outlook window.
When to Delete
When you won’t need an email message ever again, you should just delete it. This will help to keep your mailbox size down and ensure that your Archive Folder only contains important messages.
Be sure to never use the Deleted Items folder as storage! As stated, anything in the Deleted Items folder will be permanently removed after 30 days.