Sort Outlook mails automatically - this is how it works!

Office management without Outlook? Almost unthinkable! From receiving and sending e-mails to calendar management and tracking tasks to storing all contact data, the programme in Microsoft Office 365 on Windows 11 is a real jack-of-all-trades. But what many people don’t know: You can also sort mails with Outlook and move Outlook mails automatically.

Sort Outlook mails

In order not to lose the overview in the overflowing mailbox, you can sort Outlook mails by size with Microsoft Outlook 2019. But also by sender name, read or unread messages, subject or date. If you want to sort Outlook mails by size, the procedure is very simple:

Sort Outlook mails by size

In the inbox, first click on „Filter“ in the upper area.
Now various options appear under „Sort by“, here select „Size“.

Sort Outlook mails by subject line

The programme also allows you to sort mails not only by size and other options, but also by certain keywords in the subject line. To do this, first create a subfolder in which every incoming mail containing this keyword in the subject line is automatically filed. The prerequisite for this is, of course, that the sender also knows and uses this keyword so that Microsoft Outlook 2019 recognises that it should sort this mail.

Click on the relevant mail and select the „Start“ tab.
Next, click on „Rules“, then select the option „Create rule“.
In the subsection „If an incoming message meets all conditions“ in the „Create rule“ dialogue box, activate „Subject contains“.
Enter the keyword in the corresponding text field.
Now go to the subsection „Execute the following“ and select the created and named subfolder under „Move item to folder“.
Press the „OK“ button and answer the control question with Yes.

Move Outlook Mails Automatically

With hundreds of mails arriving in a short period of time, confusion can quickly arise. A function of Microsoft Outlook 2019 as part of Microsoft Office 365 in Windows 11 helps to create clarity and order. This is the option to automatically move certain Outlook mails to previously created subfolders with the corresponding names.

First, click on the e-mail folder with the right mouse button.
A context menu appears. Select the option „New folder“.
Each new folder must now be given its own name.

In order to be able to sort the individual Outlook mails so that they are automatically placed in the correct folders according to the specifications, a few rules must be set:

Automatically move Outlook mails to folders

If, for example, you want to move all Outlook mails from a certain sender automatically into folders, first click on any mail from this sender.

Select the „Rules“ option on the „Start“ tab.
In the context menu that appears, select the option „Always move messages from (name)“.
Now just select the corresponding, previously named subfolder in the „Rules and Notifications“ dialogue box and click the OK button.

More tips

Time-shift sending: With Microsoft Outlook 2019, you can also send mails at a later time. To do this, select the „Options“ tab, go to the „Delay transmission“ button and select the date and time in the dialogue box. Then click on „Send“ as usual. Automatic forwarding: Before sending a mail, click on the „Options“ button and select „Reply directly to“. Then enter the desired recipient under „Forwarding functions“. The reply mail is now automatically sent to the selected recipient – for example, to a colleague if you are on holiday yourself. Recalling mails: If you have sent a mail by mistake, you can edit it with the „Actions“ button. After clicking on the corresponding mail, select the option „Recall this message“. Then select either „Delete unread copies of this message“ or „Replace unread copies with a new message“. Now the mail is deleted at the recipient’s or replaced by a corrected or extended mail. However, this only works if the recipient has not yet opened the original message.

Sort Outlook mails automatically - this is how it works!