Documentation

Working with large volumes of email in Outlook

Create Folders

If you are receiving a large amount of email it is often easier to create folders to store them in rather than to try to deal with everything in your Inbox.

To create a sub-folder of your Inbox:

Right click on ‘Inbox’

Select New Folder from the menu

A field will open for you to enter the name of your new folder

Enter the name of the new folder and click Enter

The new folder will be added at the top of your subfolder list, regardless of its name. The sub-folder will however be automatically alphabetized by Webmail and Outlook on a Mac.

Organize folders

In Outlook Webmail and Outlook for Mac your folders will be automatically alphabetized, it is therefore recommended that you alphabetize your folders in Outlook for PC as well to avoid any confusion if you are changing machines.

To do this, right click on the Inbox folder and choose Sort Subfolders from A – Z

Sending Mail to Folders

When deciding how you would like to send your email to different folders you need to decide what you would like your workflow to be. Would you like to read everything from your Inbox and then send the mail to a folder? Or would you like to have the mail sent to a folder initially and then check that folder for emails?

First, make sure that students send information with a consistent subject line so that it is easily filtered.

Read in Inbox first

If you would like to read your emails in your Inbox and then organize them into your sub-folders there are several ways to do this:

Filter your Inbox

At the top of your email list there is a search field, enter the subject line you have instructed people to use and the emails with that Subject line will be filtered to your Inbox.

Move

There are several ways to move emails, which allows you to easily transfer emails from one folder to another.

Drag and Drop

If you receive an email that you would like to put into a folder:

1. Be sure that the folder you want to organize it to has been created
2. (Left) click on that email in your email list
3. Drag the email to the folder in the folder list

In Outlook Webmail you will see a notification at the bottom of your screen showing you where you moved the email and an Undo button. If you see that you have accidentally moved the email to the wrong sub-folder you can easily undo that action and try again.

In Outlook PC:

Select the email you want to move

Choose the Move button from the Home tab

Select the folder you would like to move the email (or emails, if you have selected more than one)

or choose Other folders for a comprehensive list of your Outlook folders where you can send an email.

Outlook Webmail

Select the email(s) you would like to re-organize

Choose Move To at the top of your screen

From the list choose which folder you are moving your email to

If your destination folder isn’t shown choose Move to a Different Folder for a comprehensive list of Inbox sub-folders 

Outlook Mac

Select the email you would like to move

Choose Move on the Home tab

Select Move from the menu

Select Other Folder

Enter the name of the destination folder

Send directly to sub-folder

Create a rule

A rule is a direction to Outlook to process an email in some way other that simply sending it to your Inbox

Outlook PC

Highlight an email that is like the one you would like to create the rule for

Select the Rules button and choose Create Rule

Read the directions on the Create Rule dialog box and choose the filters you would like to apply for your rule

Select the checkbox in front of the applicable rule in the ”When I get the Mail” section

In the “Do the Following” section select the checkbox in front of Move the item to folder

Choose the Select folder button

From the Rules and Alerts dialog box choose the destination folder.

Select Ok and Ok again

A dialog box will open asking if you would like to run the rule for existing emails, select the checkbox if you would like that.

Outlook Webmail

Click the Settings button

Choose View all Outlook Settings

Enter a name for the rule

In section 2 select the down arrow for a list of conditions to add, choose Subject Includes

Enter the wording that would be included

Select the down arrow in Section 3 to add an action

In the next field select the destination folder.

Select Save

Outlook Mac

Select the Move Button

Choose Rules and Create Rule

In the Rule dialog box change the name of the rule

In the conditions section delete the From condition and the Sent to condition by clicking the minus sign to the right of the condition

Select the wording in the Subject condition to open a new dialog box

Select the wording there and the minus sign to delete it

Click the plus sign and enter the new wording for the subject filter

Select OK

You can now see the new rule

Select OK