Tip: Use Conversation view in Outlook to find related messages from other folders
You save: About an hour a week

Have you ever received a reply to an email and wanted to look at the other messages in the chain? What if the other messages were already moved into other folders? Or if you wanted to look at messages you sent?

In the dark ages, finding all these related emails required digging though folder after folder, hoping you weren’t missing any.

In the middle ages, there was search. Neatly tucked away in the right-click menu was this option:

Outlook context menu to find related messages

This was handy, but it opens yet another window to clutter your space, and you still have to wait for the search to find all the related messages.

Today, there’s a new way. Turn on Conversation view, and you can see the entire lineage of your email string anytime you want it. There’s no clutter or wasted space, and you won’t even know it’s there until you use it. This feature simply adds an expand button next to each message, which you can click to see items from any other folder, including your Sent box!

  • To turn on Conversation View, just check the “Show as Conversations” box on the View tab.

Black text items are in the current folder, while other messages, including replies, are shown in order. You can click any one to see it in the Reading pane, of course.

The Outlook conversation view

This is especially useful if you need view an older message – perhaps one of your own replies in the string – or need to grab an attachment.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.