Outlook organizes your emails, calendars, contacts, tasks, and to-do lists, all in one place. That organization starts with your email account. From there you can start working with emails, turning them into tasks or appointments, and storing information about the people you interact with in your contacts so that you never have to remember an email address or a phone number. Let’s take a quick walk-through of some basic tasks.
Create a new email message
- From any mail folder (such as your Inbox), choose New Email.
Keyboard shortcut: To create an email message, press Ctrl Shift M.
- When you’re done composing your email, choose Send.
Add an email signature to messages
Create personalized signatures that appear at the bottom of your messages. Signatures can include text, images, your Electronic Business Card, a logo, or even an image of your handwritten signature.
Create a signature
- In a new message, choose Signature >Signatures.
- On the Email Signature tab, choose New.
- Type a name and then choose OK.
- Under Choose default signature, do the following:
- In the E-mail account list, choose an email account to associate with the signature.
- In the New messages list, choose the signature that you want to be added automatically to all new email messages. If you don't want to auto sign your email messages, you can ignore this option as (none) is the default value.
- In the Replies/forwards list, choose the signature that you want to be added automatically (auto sign) when you reply to or forward messages. Otherwise, accept the default option of (none).
- Under Edit signature, type the signature, and then choose OK.
Add a signature
- In a new message, choose Signature, and then choose the signature that you want.
Forward or reply to an email message
- On the ribbon or in the reading pane, choose Reply, Reply All, or Forward
- In the To, Cc, or Bcc box, do one of the following:
- To add a recipient, click in the appropriate box and enter the recipient's name.
- To remove a recipient, click in the appropriate box, choose the recipient's name, and then press Delete.
Add an attachment to an email message
To share a file, you can attach it to your message. You can also attach other Outlook items, such as messages, contacts, or tasks.
- Create a new message, or choose an existing message and choose Reply, Reply All, or Forward.
- In the message window, choose Message > Attach File.
Open or save an email message attachment
You can open an attachment from the reading pane or from an open message. After opening and viewing an attachment, you can save it. If a message has more than one attachment, you can save them as a group or one at a time.
Open an attachment
Depending on the version of Outlook you're using, there might be multiple options available to open an attachment.
- Double-click the attachment.
Save an attachment
- Choose the attachment in the reading pane or the open message.
- On the Attachments tab, in the Actions group, choose Save As. You can also right-click the attachment, and then choose Save As.
Create a calendar appointment
In Outlook, appointments aren’t the same as meetings. Appointments are activities that you schedule in your calendar that don’t involve inviting other people or reserving resources, such as a conference room or equipment.
- In a Calendar folder, choose New Appointment. You can also right-click a time block in your calendar grid, and then choose New Appointment.
Keyboard shortcut: To create an appointment, press Ctrl Shift A.
Schedule a meeting
In Outlook, a meeting includes other people and can include resources such as conference rooms. You’ll get responses to your meeting requests in your Inbox.
- In a Calendar folder, choose New Meeting.
Keyboard shortcut: To create a new meeting request from any folder in Outlook, press Ctrl Shift Q.
Set a Reminder
Reminders pop-up in an alert window so you don’t miss an important deadline. You can set or remove reminders for almost anything in Outlook, including email messages, appointments, and contacts.
For appointments or meetings
- Open an Appointment or Meeting, and then in the Reminder list box, choose the amount of time before the appointment or meeting when you want the reminder to appear. To turn off a reminder, choose None.
For email messages, contacts, and tasks
- Choose Follow Up > Add Reminder.
Tip: You can quickly flag email messages as to-do items by using reminders. These reminders make the message appear on the To-Do List and in the Tasks folder, but doesn’t automatically add a reminder. Right-click the flag in the message list to add a reminder. Or, if you have the message open, choose Follow Up > Add Reminder.
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