Reading Email
After you're logged in to Outlook Online, the familiar 3-pane Outlook interface appears.
- Folders appear on the left
- Your messages appear on the right of the folder list
- The reading pane appears to the right of the messages.
Three new Outlook Online Features
There are 3 new features in Outlook Online that did not exist in the old Webmail
Focused Inbox
This is a function that automatically tries to differentiate between work and non-work related email message. It is designed as a way to help you focus on messages that may be important and those that could be read or reviewed at a later time. This can be toggled on and off.
You can switch between Focused and Other by clicking on the tabs at the top of the messages pane.
To disable the Focused inbox, click on the Settings icon (gear icon) in the upper-right next to your initials. Scroll down to Focused Inbox and click the slider toggle to turn it off or on.
If Focused Inbox is off, all mail will be displayed together.
Pin / Unpin
This feature is used to keep messages that you decide to pin near the top of your mailbox so they don't get lost in the scroll of email messages.
To use this feature, hover over any message in your mailbox and click the pushpin icon. The message will move up to the top of your inbox. If you wish to unpin the message, click the pushpin icon again.
Sweep
Sweep is a new feature designed to help you sweep or clean your mailbox more efficiently. You can perform the following actions with sweep:
- Quickly move messages from a particular sender to a specific folder
- Move any current and future messages (quickly creating a mail rule)
- Always keep the last message from a sender and move all of the others to a specific folder
- Always move messages older than 10 days from a sender to a specific folder
To use sweep, select a message from your inbox and then click the sweep icon that appears in the menu bar
Make a choice from the selections provided and click OK
Sending Email
To send a message, press the + New icon at the top of the email list (or the + New Message icon at the top of the folder list if you turned on the "New Outlook" feature)
You can draft your email message, send to primary recipients, CC recipients and BCC recipients just like you always could.
Note that if you turned on the feature, Outlook will try to check if you've suggested in your email context that there should be an attachment. If you don't supply one, you will get a reminder from Outlook before the message is sent.
Replying to Email
Replying to a message works the same as it currently does in Outlook. One thing to note, however, is the default reply is to reply all.
To reply to a message select the message and then you will see the Reply All icon in the menu bar above the email messages list. You can select the drop-down arrow next to Reply-All to choose Reply, Reply All or Forward.
For More Information
Microsoft has provided a quick , 2-page PDF "cheat sheet" that you can download providing a quick information about everything above and more. You can download it directly from Microsoft: Download PDF