Organize your inbox - Microsoft Support (2024)

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Keep your inbox tidy and organized in Outlook on the web.

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Use Sweep

Select a message.
Select Sweep from the ribbon.
Choose when and where you want to move email messages from the sender you chose. For example, you can send all messages from that sender to a specific folder (even your trash) for one time or for all future messages.
Select OK to perform the selected action.

Create rules

Right-click a message and select Create rule.
Choose the folder where you want all messages from that sender or set of senders to be moved, and then select OK.
See Also
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The rule will be applied to all incoming messages. If you'd like to run the rule on your inbox immediately, select the check box for Run this rule now in Inbox.

Note:Additional Rules customizations are available to help you manage your Outlook messages in a way that makes sense for you.

Use folders and categories

Select a message.
Select Move to and choose a folder.

Or, select Categorize and choose a category.

Clean up your inbox

Select a message.
Select Delete. Select Archive if you might want it later.

Note:You can also right click on folders and perform bulk actions on those folders. SelectEmpty, Mark all as read, and Assign policiesto choose when emails within a folder will get automatically archived.

Use Sweep

Select a message.
Select Sweep from the ribbon.
Choose when and where you want to move email messages from the sender you chose. For example, you can send all messages from that sender to a specific folder (even your trash) for one time or for all future messages.
See Also
How to Automatically Label and Move Emails in Gmail
Select OK to perform the selected action.

Create rules

Right-click a message and select Advanced actions >Create rule.
Choose the folder where you want all messages from that sender or set of senders to be moved, and then select OK.

The rule will be applied to all incoming messages. If you'd like to run the rule on your inbox immediately, select the check box for Run this rule now in Inbox.

Note:Additional Rules customizations are available to help you manage your Outlook messages in a way that makes sense for you.

Filter messages

Use filters tofind a message based on one of these built-in searches.

Select Filter.
Choose an option.

Manage follow-ups

Flag email messages to track responses to messages that you send. You can also make sure that you follow up on messages that you receive. In either case, you can include a reminder alert.

Flag email for follow-up

Select an email.
Select Flag/Unflag on the email or on the ribbon.
Choose when you want to be reminded about this email.
To see all your flagged messages, select Filter > Flagged.

Pin/Unpin Emails

Pinning allows you to “stick” emails to the top of your inbox so it will never fall through the cracks. It’s easy! Click the Pin icon in a message to move to the top of your inbox until you unpin it.

Manage your inbox

To mark an email as read, right-click the email and select Mark as Read from the drop-down menu.

To mark an email as unread, right-click the email and select Mark as Unread from the drop-down menu.

If you want to respond to an email later, right-click the email and select Snooze and then select the time that works for you.This will hide the mail from your inbox, and show it as a new mail after the selected time so you can easily respond to it.

Organize your inbox - Microsoft Support (6)

Archive an email

Use Archive when you want to keep a clean inbox, but don't want to delete certain emails. Unlike deleted messages, archived messages can be searched.

Select one or more messages.
Right-click.
Select Archive.
Alternatively, you can archive an email by selecting the Archive tab on the ribbon.