In this post, we’ll explore some useful tips and tricks to help you make the most of the new Outlook app for Windows 11.
The new Outlook brings the latest features, a modern and simplified design, and AI-assisted capabilities that enhance and streamline your classic Outlook experience. We have already seen how to use the new Outlook app on Windows 11. This guide shares some tips and tricks to help you use it effectively, improving your email management and boosting productivity at work.
Outlook (new) app for Windows 11: Tips and Tricks
The new Outlook for Windows comes pre-installed on many Windows 11/10 PCs or can be enabled manually via the toggle in the classic Outlook app. Here are some tips and tricks for using New Outlook:
- Add and manage email accounts
- Organize the day with My Day
- Add an email signature
- Enable Focused Inbox
- Pin or snooze emails
- Enable automatic replies
- Use @mentions
- Categorize emails with colors
- Undo send and schedule send
- Improved search experience
- Attach files quickly
Let us see these in detail.
1] Add and manage email accounts
Outlook has long supported adding various types of email accounts (Exchange, IMAP, POP, Gmail, etc.). However, the New Outlook for Windows enhances this experience by offering a simplified and intuitive UI for account setup, expanded support for more account types (including Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud), and the ability to switch between multiple accounts seamlessly within the same session, just like on the web.
When you launch the New Outlook for the first time, you’ll be prompted to add an account. You can add more accounts anytime by:
- Clicking the Settings (Gear icon) on the top right.
- Selecting Accounts > Your accounts.
- Clicking Add account and entering your credentials
2] Organize the day with My Day
My Day is a side panel in the New Outlook app that lets you view upcoming calendar events and to-do tasks, or quickly create events or tasks by dragging your emails into it. This feature is designed to help you stay organized without needing to switch views or apps. It appears when you click the My Day icon (a calendar with a tick mark) in the top-right corner of the Outlook window or go to View > My Day in the menu.
You can drag an email to the My Day panel to add it as a task or an event. When you drag it to the event section, a new calendar window opens where you can enter details, invite people, and save the event. If you drag the email to the task section, it quickly creates a Microsoft To Do task for you.
3] Add an email signature
The New Outlook offers a modern, web-style signature editor that supports multiple signatures, rich formatting, image/logo insertion, and automatic syncing across devices, making email personalization easier than ever.
To add or manage your email signature in the New Outlook for Windows, click the Settings in the top right corner. In the Settings pane, select Accounts > Signatures. Type and format your signature in the Email signature section. You can add text, images, links, etc., and choose whether to automatically include your signature in new messages or replies/forwards. When you’re done, click Save.
4] Enable Focused Inbox
Focused Inbox in the New Outlook intelligently separates high-priority emails from the rest, helping you stay focused and productive. It uses Microsoft’s AI to analyze your email habits and puts emails that are likely more relevant under the Focused tab.
Focused Inbox is usually enabled by default if you’re using a Microsoft account or Exchange. But if you don’t see the Focused/Other tabs in your inbox, you can turn them on via Settings > Mail > Focused Inbox.
If you find an important email in Other, right-click it and choose Move to Focused inbox.
5] Pin or snooze emails
The New Outlook lets you pin important emails to the top of your inbox so you can easily find them later. Just right-click an email and choose Pin, or use the Pin icon in the message list.
You can also snooze emails to temporarily remove them from your inbox and have them return at a time you choose. This helps keep your inbox focused on what matters now. To snooze, right-click the email and select Snooze, then pick a time.
6] Enable automatic replies
The New Outlook allows you to set automatic replies for when you’re away or unavailable. This feature is especially useful for vacations, holidays, or work absences.
To enable automatic replies, go to Settings > Accounts > Automatic replies, then toggle the feature On. You can customize the message, set a start and end time, and choose whether replies should go to just your contacts or everyone who emails you.
7] Use @mentions
The @mentions feature helps you quickly grab someone’s attention in an email message. It is useful in team communications where multiple people are involved.
To use it, type ‘@‘ followed by the person’s name (e.g., @John) when you’re typing an email. Outlook will suggest contacts from your address book, and when you select one, it will highlight their name in the email body and automatically add them to the To or Cc field if they aren’t already included.
8] Categorize emails with colors
The New Outlook lets you categorize emails using color-coded labels. These categories help you quickly identify and group related messages, making email management faster and more efficient.
9] Undo send and schedule send
The New Outlook gives you a few seconds to cancel a message after hitting “Send”. Known as Undo send, this feature lets you quickly recall a message if you notice a typo, forgot an attachment, or change your mind. You can adjust the delay period (up to 10 seconds) in Settings > Mail > Compose and reply > Undo send.
With Schedule Send, you can schedule a message to be sent at a later time. Click the arrow next to the Send button, select Schedule Send, then choose the date and time for delivery.
10] Improved search experience
The New Outlook offers a significantly improved search experience with faster, more accurate results. It uses AI-powered algorithms to understand your query better. You can also use advanced filters and natural language queries like “emails from last week” or “attachments from John” to find what you need.
After performing a search, you’ll see filter options at the top of the results pane. You can filter by From, To, Subject, Has attachments, Date, and more. This helps quickly narrow down what you’re looking for.
11] Attach files quickly
When composing an email, you can click the paperclip icon to quickly attach recent files from your computer, OneDrive, or other connected cloud storage services.
You can also drag and drop files directly into the message body.
If you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription, you may see in-line file name suggestions when you type a forward slash ( / ) in the message body.
I hope you find this useful.
How to make a new Outlook look better?
To make the New Outlook for Windows look better, you may switch to Dark Mode or change the theme. Go to Settings > General > Appearance. Choose from Light, Dark, or Use system setting. You can also pick an accent color or use custom themes to change how Outlook looks.
What are the new features in Outlook?
The New Outlook introduces a modern design and several productivity enhancements. It supports multiple email accounts and offers features like Focused Inbox, My Day, and improved search capabilities.
Read: New Outlook app not sending or receiving emails.
Tips & tricks for using Windows Mail App
In this section, we will learn about the earlier Mail app of Windows 11/10 and check the customization options along with some tips and tricks.
- Create a new Account in Windows Mail App
- Add Account in Windows Mail App
- Calendar in the Mail app
- Customize Background Picture in Windows Mail App
- Backup email using Mail app
- dd Signature in Mail App
- Set Automatic Replies
- Other tricks.
1] Create a new Account in Windows Mail App
If you are logged into your PC with your Microsoft Account, it will automatically get linked to the Mail app as well as the built-in Calendar app. If you are logged in with your local account, you first need to set up the email account in the Mail app.
Click on the Windows icon on the PC and click on the Mail App live tile. Follow the instructions to link your email account to the app.
2] Add Account in Windows Mail App
The Mail app is not just about the Outlook account; you can add any of your email accounts and get it handy. Just click on Settings Icon in the lower-left corner and select Add Account, follow the steps, and you can create any of your email accounts to the app.
3] Calendar in the Mail app
The new Mail app comes with a built-in Calendar, which indeed plays an important role in the productivity of the app. Type Mail in the search bar and open the Mail app and click on the Calendar icon in the lower-left corner of the app.
The Calendar comes with a very detailed interface with the birthdays of all your email contacts, holidays list, event lists, and more. You can adjust the Calendar view in Days, Weeks, or Months. The Calendar also lets you create a new event and keep a reminder too.
4] Customize Background Picture in Windows Mail App
You can customize the background picture with just a few clicks. Go to Settings and click on Background Picture. Browse and select any picture stored on your PC.
5] Backup email using Mail app
You can save or backup email messages as follows. Open the email and then click on the 3-dotted Actions menu in the top right corner and click on the Save as the link.
6] Add Signature in Mail App of Windows 10
You can now send personalized emails from the Mail app in Windows 10. Adding a signature is the only way to personalize the emails, and the Mail app here has an option for the same. Go to Settings and click on Options. Scroll down to get the Signature tab. Turn it ON and add the signature initials you want to show at the end of every email you send.
7] Set Automatic Replies in Mail app of Windows 10
Right below the Signature tab in the Options, you can see the Automatic Replies tab where you can turn the option On or Off. You can also add a message you want to send with every automatic reply. Do check the box below if you want to send those automatic reply messages only to your contacts.
The new Windows Mail Desktop App is a much need clean and simple app that helps you connect more email accounts than just Outlook. If you like the app, do not forget to leave your feedback at Microsoft.
Click on the Smiley near the Settings icon, and it will open up a Windows Feedback tab where you can leave your feedback for any of the Windows 10 apps.
Select the Mail App from the left pane, and you will get a window that shows the trending, most recent, and upvoted feedback left by the users. Click on Add a new feedback and leave your feedback about the Mail Desktop App.
8] Other tricks
- You can drag and drop attachments and also attach emails as attachments.
- You can control how frequently email should be synced. Click Settings > Manage accounts > Select the email account > Click Options for syncing your content and make the changes here.
- Enable or disable the use of Focused Inbox via Settings > Focused inbox.
- Use @mentions to tag a contact in an email conversation.
- Enable or disable Caret browsing via Settings > Reading pane.
- You can link email accounts together. You will see it at Settings > Manage accounts > Link inboxes.
I hope you find the post useful.
Windows 10 suck’s in alot of way’s !!!!
The Mail app is a perfect example of suckagry. It fail’s to sync any Gmail account’s after the first time. This has been going on since the first Windows 10 Developer Preeview was released. It’s not that Microsoft isn’t aware of this, as their are numerous post’s about it on the Insider Hub.
Gee, Microsoft really doesn’t give a shit about our feedback.
They killed Windows Media Center off and gave us the Movies & TV app. Funny how the Movies & TV app can’t recognize or use our tv tuner’s or cable card tv tuner’s to watch or record tv that we already pay our provider’s for.
File History is slow as molasses in Windows 10.
While we’re talking about backup’s, Microsoft really need’s to drop the Windows 7 naming in the system image, etc., as it confuses most people that aren’t technically inclined.
Theey also really need to start testing their update’s more thoroughly, as most have been buggy for the past year.
It truly seem’s like Microsoft fired the wrong people and promoted the wrong people.
Joe Belfiorre should be in charge of the o.s. division.
This app still messes up my inboxes. It don’t syncs correct, especially the Trash folder, it displays the messages not correct, it don’t syncs back to the server.
Only using it with Outlook accounts, so it should work like a native app, but don’t.
This is still – this misbehavior lasts now for 1,5 years – a very bad app.
Is there a way to get unified inboxes?
WHY can you not turn the reading pane to Horizontal, like most ‘normal’ email apps? (Outlook, Mailbird, Postbox, etc.)
Can anyone tell me how to empty the trash/deleted folder. The only way I can find is the delete every individual message. That can’t be right is it?
you can select a deleted message and then hold down the keyboard delete button and it will rapidly delete them all
That’s my biggest annoyance too. That’s why I stick with outlook.com.
I use Mailbird myself. (Standalone mail app). :)
Or eM Client Also a standalone mail app
sorry for my English i am from Belgium.
What you tell here is also my problem.
What i do to clear trash and to sync the sub inboxes is just get out of the new mail……..open edge and in the search bar just type gmail or Hotmail……it opens again your emailsaccount whitout setting your mail and pasword and there is your mail back with everything and you can clear trash just thesame as before. very strange but so it’ works …..hope you have somthing with this.
Regards Koen ,,,ps my wife discoverd it hahahahah .
When I reply to an email using W_10 mail app, the reply is NOT send. Some later I receive a message that my mail wasm]n’t sent and is in çoncepts’. Am I the only one?
what about spam filters and I don’t even have a trash file, no idea where these deleted emails are going.
How to downgrade to 8.1 version?! This actually is a bullshit :S
I have a problem with no way to add contcts in, I acant remember all my contacts and I don’t see how to put them in can anyone help me with this
I can not find no new Mail app. I still see Windows Live Mail tho and it has a flaw that I can not get fixed to work right. I click to work offline and it resorts back to work online by itself. That’s the only issue I have with Windows Live Mail.
thank you…I could not figure it out..appreciate
no mail groups, no html signature, no folders. Hm it is very obvious microsoft wants you to use “in the cloud” or paid software. I think Microsoft is on the wrong way.
Can someone please tell me how I can add a logo to my signature?
Me too. The same here. Cannot send emails.
The mail app automatically keeps on opening multiple times… This results in hanging of the computer and no other app can thus run smoothly… How to fix this??
Exactly… Same happens when you change the default app of mail to something other as well… Then that app keeps on opening continuously and prevents all other apps from opening.. What should we do??
How do you change the format of emails listed in the inbox view?
I want each message to be ONE line of info … ‘from’ ‘subject’ ‘date’ … all in one line across like we had in every previous generation of Outlook and Windows Live Mail, not to mention most web-based mail interfaces.
And I hate that preview / reading pane garbage. I’ve been using email clients for over 2 decades now and have NEVER once appreciated those stupid preview/reading panes. They suck, they waste space, they are inefficient and interfere with reasonable management of my emails. When I choose an email to read, I want it to open in a completely separate window, not in a stupid little flyout screen that uses up half of my client window.
How can I recover or see messagens from a year a go?
not good i cant add logo and hyperlinks in signature
This is driving me nuts as well, I always turn the preview pane off. I would also like the list to be in order from oldest to newest, with oldest at the top so I am reading them in order.
I feel your pain. I like Windows 10 as an OS, but the newish ‘Metro’ apps are almost all complete garbage on a desktop PC as opposed to a tablet … maybe on a tablet those apps may have some saving grace, but that doesn’t help me here and now. I just want actual PC applications that actually work properly and are fully functional and user-configurable just like 99% of the PC applications I’ve been using for over 20 years. MS is trying to push users onto the new garbage, and I’m either going to have to switch to a non-Microsoft email client entirely or (heavens forbid) bite the bullet and pay for a full installation of Office so I can have Outlook at home. I sure hope MS hasn’t effed up Office in the latest iteration … my work still uses Office 2010.
Hello
I’m usually use Mozilla thunderbird as Mail application
Since I’ve two new machine installed with Windows 10 I’m trying to figure out if the native Mail application in Windows 10 can be a good alternative
For now my feeling is mostly negative
– I didn’t find any way to create Mail folder and organize my Mail
– No way to create mail rules
I can’t believe that Windows 10 mail is so “primitive”
I look around on internet to find solution
I’ve found this
Organize e-mail using rules and folders
But it does not work on my version of mail, no “File menu”
Is Mail on windows 10 really so “bad” ?
Thanks for any help
The mail app is pure and utter garbage.
The signature function is rubbish, as it doesn’t allow for images.
There is no easy way to get the mail out of the mail app and into something else.
It mess up the inboxes.
You don’t get a unified inbox.
Very poor organization functions.
It will probably work for someone who receive a mail once a leap year…
Run, do not walk away fro the mail app. Thunderburd is a proper mail client. Windows 10 mail is rubbish.
@johankristianwold:disqus : Yes u r right
Trying to use Outlook App from Windows 10 in a corporate ( Exchange ) environment. I have managed to establish the account and I can view all of my folders etc but two failures at the moment. Firstly the Signature option is very crude and basic and I would like to learn how to add a full signature, similar to what I may achieve in a full blown version of Outlook ( WYSIWG editor, as such). Also I need to be able to view other corporate email accounts to which I have delegation, but I cannot find a method. Any suggestions / advice would be appreciated. Regards
Mick
Can I add a signature to Windows 10 that includes my logo? not just text?
I have the same question as Sarah has … I need to add a logo to my signature.
Can any one help with this?
Also, I need help in changing my font style and color and set as default.
Yup, this is a complete joke of an application. I think I’ll stick with Thunderbird, which, while it freezes a lot (!), at least has a LOT of flexibility. Maybe I’ll give Outlook another try, last time I tried it was VERY sluggish with Gmail/IMAP.
My issue is I don’t want nor did I sign up for a load of SPAM from MICROSOFT. I don’t even use this email account, I only have it because I cant sign in without it.
Windos 10.—– I am trying it out: it’s pure, unadulterated garbage designed to make us all beholden to Microsoft, so that at some time in the near future, we’ll have to püay them a monthly fee to Keep working. It’s shocking: I’ll Keep this stupid PC for another 6 months, and then I am migrating to Apple. Or Linux.
Good bye Microsoft. Here’s a parting ord of advice: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I’ve tried for a dozen hours to get this awful Windows 10 Mail program to work. After just a few hours I was able to get the account created but it won’t download from Comcast not matter what I try. Funny thing…. Microsoft’s own website says “click the Tools menu, and then click Options”. Guess what… THERE ISN’T A TOOLS MENU!!!!
There aren’t any tabs either. Either they don’t exist at all or they’re very well hidden.
Why can’t it be intuitive like Outlook Express was? Microsoft laid an egg on this one.
When I try to empty junk mail folder I get the following error:
“the junk folder couldnt be emptied. It’s possible that your username or password is incorrect, or that your email server isnt configured to allow this folder to be emptied”
The fact that you can’t disable the mail preview makes this app too risky to use for anything meaningful.
“Backup email using Mail app
You can save or backup email messages as follows. Open the email and then click on the 3-dotted Actions menu in the top right corner and click on the Save as link.” DOES NOT WORK. I HATE THIS MAIL APP
Still waiting on the ability to mark messages as spam. Guess I’ll just keep using the actual services rather than this POS.
Is there a way to turn off the annoying flyover URL stuff that comes up in mail when you flyover a link in your mail text?
My problem is I need an auto save for read mail. I get so much email, I don’t have time to individually save each one. I need a setting that just does it. Windows Live Mail does. They shouldn’t have dropped support for it.
I am missing the background picuure pane (reading Pane onmy Windows 10 Mail on my new Lenovo Laptop. Its been there for the past five months and then, suddently, overnight, it disappeared. How do I restore this Pane so I can see the BG picture and/or preview my emails?
How do you create email templates on this thing?
I am in need of reverting back to windows 10 before update on Sept 12th, via a MS tech who told me I would NOT lose any personal data. Well, they left me during the download and I said no problem. WELL, since I am reverting, it means I will lose ALL data. So, I have been up all night putting all my stuff on my onedrive because I have no other choice at this moment. I searched and search for how to backup a copy of my saved E-mails. I found this. I can say Save as is working for me, but do you mean to tell me I have to do EVERY SINGLE E-mail one by one?!?! I have 1,638 saved E-mails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!