Show email as conversations

One of the biggest challenges for managing your email is keeping up with all the threads. When you open a message, the thread you see might not be the whole conversation, especially if multiple people are involved.

However, the one thing all the emails in a conversation have in common is the Subject line. So one way to group them is to click the group control and group by subject. But there’s a better way.

Click the group control, and Date. Then, click the control and select Show as Conversations. Let’s click This folder for now. Here’s what happens.

The list is sorted by date. But emails with the same subject are grouped together in conversations.

You can tell this email is part of a conversation because it has an expansion triangle. Click the email to read the most current message in the conversation.

If the message contains multiple threads, the most current message in each thread appears below it.

Click the triangle to expand the conversation to show all the messages with the same subject, including those from other folders.

Our message list is sorted with the most current email at the top and it’s the same with the email in a conversation.

When you receive a new email with the same subject, the conversation moves to the top of the message list. Click the conversation to view the new message.

If you need more help managing conversations, go to the View tab and click Conversation Settings.

If the thread is too long, you can turn off Show Messages from Other Folders.

Use Classic Indented View shows a thread of emails as an indented chain. We’ll go back to the default settings with Indented view turned off.

When you reply to a message remember to do so from the most current thread to keep the thread intact. Click the triangle to collapse the conversation, and then select the message at the top.

The best way to learn how conversations work is to use them for a while. Don’t worry. Conversation view doesn’t change your email; it only changes how you view it. If you decide to turn off conversations, click the group control, and click Show as Conversations. Then, click This folder.

Up next, we’ll create and save a custom view.