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You can apply sensitivity labels to your files and emails to keep them compliant with your organization's information protection policies. 

Note: This feature requires a Microsoft 365 subscription. For more info, see Does my version of Office support sensitivity labels?

  1. On the Home tab, select Sensitivity button Sensitivity.
    If you're in Outlook select Sensitivity button Sensitivity when composing an email on the Message tab.

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your file or email.

    Sensitivity Labels menu

    Note: You'll see Learn more info icon Learn more if your organization has configured a website to explain more about their sensitivity labels.

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu.
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

Important:  Sensitivity is only available if:
• Your Office account is a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned.
• Your administrator has configured sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.
• The Azure Information Protection client is running in Office.

Meet the sensitivity bar

The sensitivity bar can be found on the title bar of the app next to the file name in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Select the icon to see the report.

Sensitivity bar at top of document

If the file has an existing label, you'll see it displayed there. Select the sensitivity bar or the filename if you need to change the label.

The sensitivity bar makes it easy for you to see what label is applied to your file, and to apply or change a label whenever you need to, including when saving the file. Just select the sensitivity bar in the save dialog to see the labeling options for this file.

Sensitivity bar menu

If there's no label on the file yet, the sensitivity bar tells you if one is required or not. If a label is required, you'll see the prompt to Select a label. If no label is required, the prompt simply says No label.

For more information see New sensitivity bar in Office for Windows.

Tips: 

  • Not sure what a label is? Hover over the label to see any description your organization has added to explain it.

  • If you're an IT Pro looking for information on configuring or managing the sensitivity bar, see Manage sensitivity labels in Office apps.

Sensitivity label restrictions

The sensitivity label you select may come with pre-defined restrictions or you may be prompted to choose who can read or change the file. If permissions are required, you'll see a dialog box like this:

The restrict permissions dialog lets you specify which users or domains can read or change your file.

Important considerations if you're granting permissions by domain

If you specify a domain to grant permissions to, you're granting those permissions to all of the accounts in that organization.

That means if that organization has other domain names in their Azure Active Directory (AD) these permissions also extend to those users. For example, if Tailwind Toys also owns the contosogames.com domain in their Azure AD then all the users of contosogames.com would also gain the permissions granted to tailwindtoys.com users.

This is also true of subdomains. Granting permissions to sales.tailwindtoys.com also grants those permissions to all of the other accounts in tailwindtoys.com, as well as any other domains they may have in their Azure AD.

  1. On the Home tab, select Sensitivity button Sensitivity.

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your file or email.

    Sensitivity Label Menu

    Note: You'll see Learn more info icon Learn more if your organization has configured a website to explain more about their sensitivity labels.

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu.
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

The sensitivity label you select may come with pre-defined restrictions, or you may be prompted to select who can read or change the file. If the label requires you to set your own permissions, you'll see a dialog box like this:

Set permissions dialog box

Important:  Sensitivity is only available if:
• Your Office account is a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned.
• Your administrator hast configured sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

  1. On an Android tablet, select the Home tab and choose Sensitivity.

    On an Android phone, select Edit icon Edit at the top of your screen to expand the ribbon. On the Home tab, scroll down and select Sensitivity.

    Screenshot of the Sensitivity button in Office for Android

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your file.

    Screenshot of sensitivity labels in Office for Android

    Note: You'll see Learn more info icon Learn more if your organization has configured a website to explain more about their sensitivity labels.

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu.
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

Important:  Sensitivity is only available if:
• Your Office account is a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned.
• Your administrator hast configured sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.

Outlook

  1. When composing an email, select  Show more icon in Outlook mobile.

  2. Select Add Sensitivity or Edit Sensitivity.

    Screenshot of Add sensitivity button in Outlook for Android

  3. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your email.

    Screenshot of sensitivity labels in Outlook for Android

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu. 
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

  1. On your iPad, select the Home tab (if it isn't already selected), then select Sensitivity.

    On your iPhone, select the Edit icon Edit icon on the top of your screen to expand the ribbon. On the Home tab, scroll down, then select Sensitivity.

    Screenshot of the Sensitivity button in Office for iOS

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your file.

    Screenshot of sensitivity labels in Office for iOS

    Note: You'll see Learn more info icon Learn more if your organization has configured a website to explain more about their sensitivity labels.

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu.
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

Important:  Sensitivity is only available if:
• Your Office account is a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned.
• Your administrator hast configured sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.

Outlook

  1. When composing an email, select  Outlook mobile overflow menu.

  2. Select Add Sensitivity or Edit Sensitivity.

    iOS Edit Sensitivity setting in message

  3. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your email.

    Screenshot of sensitivity labels in Outlook for iOS

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, select Edit Sensitivity and then choose Remove. You won't be able to remove it if your organization requires labels on all files.

Outlook

  1. When composing an email, select  The Sensitivity icon. Sensitivity on the Message tab.

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your email.

    Note: You'll see Learn more if your organization has configured a website to explain more about their sensitivity labels.

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu. 
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

Important:  Sensitivity is only available if:
• Your Office account is a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned.
• Your administrator hast configured sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint

  1. On the Home tab, select Sensitivity button Sensitivity.

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your file.

    Sensitivity label menu

    Note: You'll see Learn more info icon Learn more if your organization has configured a website to explain more about their sensitivity labels.

  • To remove an existing sensitivity label, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu. 
    You won't be able to remove a label if your organization requires labels on all files.

Important:  Sensitivity is only available if:
• Your Office account is a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned.
• Your administrator hast configured sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.

Does my version of Office support sensitivity labels

This feature requires a Microsoft 365 subscription and is available for users and organizations whose administrators have set up sensitivity labels. If you're an administrator looking to get started with sensitivity labels see Get started with sensitivity labels.

Many of the features in the new Outlook for Windows work the same or similarly as Outlook on the web. If you’re interested in trying the new experience, check out Getting started with the new Outlook for Windows.

Your organization customizes the label names, tooltip descriptions, and how each label is to be used. For additional information about which label to apply, and when, contact your organization's IT department. 

Automatically applied (or recommended) labels

Your administrator can set up automatic labeling. Specific labels are then either recommended for, or applied automatically om files or emails containing certain kinds of information, like social security numbers, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information. 

If a label has been applied automatically you'll see a notification below the Office ribbon.

Screenshot of a Policy Tip for an automatically applied sensitivity label

The notice for when a label has been recommended, but not automatically applied, looks similar.

For more information see Automatically apply or recommend sensitivity labels to your files and emails in Office 

Note: Even if your administrator has not configured automatic labeling, they may have configured your system to require a label on all Office files and emails, and may also have selected a default label as the starting point. If labels are required you won't be able to save a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file, or send an email in Outlook, without selecting a sensitivity label. 

How do I know what label is currently applied?

The way to see the currently applied label, if any, varies slightly depending upon whether you're on the desktop, web, or mobile.

On desktop and web apps, an existing sensitivity label appears next to the file name in the upper left of the document. 

Sensitivity label on presentation

On the Office mobile apps, select the  Three dots icon  menu.

To see more details provided by your organization, hover over or select a sensitivity label. 

Sensitivity label detailed description tooltip

Outlook is a bit different

In Outlook nothing appears if no label has been selected or if you're composing an email and only the default label is applied. 

If a label has been selected, you'll see it at the end of the end of the Subject line when creating a message,.

Sensitivity label icon in new mail 

When reading mail, the sensitivity label appears under the address block.

For Outlook for the web, you'll see the sensitivity icon in the upper right on the message page.

Outlook for the Web Sensitivity icon in a message

When reading messages, the sensitivity label appears on a line above above the message.

What happens when I apply a sensitivity label?

When you apply a sensitivity label, the label information will persist with your file or email, even as it is shared between devices, applications, and cloud services. Applying a sensitivity label may also result in changes to your file or email according to your organization's configuration, such as:

  • Encryption with Information Rights Management may be applied to your file or email

  • A header or footer may appear in your file or email

  • A watermark may appear in your file

Note: If you don't have permission to change or remove a sensitivity label, you'll be prevented from doing so with an error message in most apps. In some apps, like Outlook mobile, the sensitivity labels will simply be disabled.

Not all apps on all platforms support the same behavior, so the exact results of applying a sensitivity label may vary slightly. For more information about what capabilities are supported on each platform see Support for sensitivity label capabilities in apps.

Justify changes to sensitivity label

Your administrator can have a policy that requires you to provide justification before changing a sensitivity label from a higher sensitivity to a lower sensitivity. In this configuration, you may be asked to choose a justification reason or provide your own when selecting a less sensitive label.

Note: You will only be asked to justify changes one time after opening a document or replying to forwarding an email message. After justifying once, subsequent changes will not require justification until that document or email message is closed and opened again.

The dialog box that appears when your organization requires you to provide a justification for changing a sensitivity label.

See also

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