Organize your email

If you use email a lot, after a while it begins to pile up in your Inbox.

Probably, the most basic way to keep your email under control is to delete what you don't need.

Select the message in the list and press the Delete key, or you can click Delete on the ribbon. To select multiple messages, pull down the Ctrl key as you select.

To select a whole block of messages, click the first one, hold down the Shift key, and click the last one.

If you are the type of person who has trouble deleting things, don't worry when you delete a message, it is actually sent to the Deleted Items folder.

If you change your mind about something you deleted, drag it back to the Inbox.

If you need to free up space in your email account, right-click the Deleted Items folder, and click Empty Folder.

Then, click Yes to permanently delete the email.

So, deleting is the ultimate organizational tool. But if you'd rather save the email, you can make it easier to get to by using folders.

Right-click a folder and click New Folder.

Then, type a name. We created this folder in the Inbox, but you can create one anywhere in your folder list.

Now, you can select one or more messages and drag them to the folder.

Create as many folders as you want. They are a great way to organize your email.

When you need to find some email, there are a couple of things you can try. First, Instant Search, click in the Search box at the top of the list and type the words that you think the message might contain.

The more words you type, the fewer results you'll get.

Notice that you don't necessarily need to type a whole word.

By default, Outlook searches your entire mailbox.

To go back to the full list, click the Xin the search box.

Another thing you can do is sort the message list.

Click this arrow at the top and choose an option.

Right now, it's sorted by Date.

But, let's see what happens when you click From.

The email is grouped and sorted by the people who sent the email.

If you want to see all the email related to a particular subject, you can try sorting by Subject.

Now the email is grouped by the Subject line. So, for example, it is easy to see all the email in the booking stores thread. It is like viewing a conversation. Let's think about that for a second, you carry on a conversation with someone in email by sending replies back and forth. So, sorting by subject allows you to see the whole conversation together in a group.

If you like that method of organizing your email, here is how to make it even easier.

Click the arrow and sort by Date.

Then, click the arrow and select Show as Conversations.

We'll change the view in this folder only.

Now, the list is sorted by Date, but the messages are grouped by Subject.

When you see a message with a triangle to the left of it, click the triangle, and you see all the email with the same Subject line.

So, those are some basic methods for using and organizing your email.

Next, you can learn more about the tools and options available in Outlook. To get started, check out the links in the course summary.