10 insider's shortcuts for Outlook

Shortcuts are generally good:

  • When training to do heart surgery? Not good.
  • When developing software that helps people be more productive? Not good.
  • When using software more efficiently? Good.

These last two are obviously related: When the developers of Outlook created the program, they did not take shortcuts so that you, as the user of aforementioned software, could. And Outlook has a bevy of really great, really easy to remember keyboard shortcuts that you should know if you want to speed up your everyday interactions with it. (Keyboard shortcut: individual keystrokes—or combination of keys pressed at the same time—used to execute commands.)

That being said, I took a little poll around here at work and discovered that some of my coworkers use a LOT of keyboard shortcuts and some use none at all. I'm obviously in the former group or I probably wouldn't be writing this post for you. I can't imagine not using some of the following favorite shortcuts of mine and my cohorts; I feel like quite a bit of my time is freed up to do other things like, well...like other things I want to spend my time doing.

If  you're interested in freeing up some more of your time, keep reading and warm up your printer. If you're not, well, you're the horse and I'm the water: just a resource to use if you need it.

10 favorite Outlook keyboard shortcuts from some people who use the program all day, every day

  • Switch between Mail, Calendar, and Contacts
    • Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3: (Mail is Ctrl+1, Calendar is Ctrl+2, and Contacts is Ctrl+3)
  • Create a meeting request
    • Ctrl+Shift+ Q
  • Move a message from one folder to another
    • Ctrl+Shift+V
  • Go to the Inbox folder
    • Ctrl+Shift+I
  • Toggle between ALL CAPS, all lowercase, and Sentence Caps
    • Shift+F3 (This works in Word and when Word is your email editor.)
  • Create a bulleted list
    • Ctrl+Shift+L (This works in Word and when Word is your email editor.)
  • In Calendar, go to the same day the previous/following week
    • Alt+Arrow Up (previous) Alt+Arrow Down (following)
  • Open the Address Book
    • Ctrl+Shift+B
  • Responding to messages
    • Ctrl+R (Reply);  Ctrl+Shift+R (Reply All); Forward (Ctrl+F)
  • Send a message
    • Alt+S (Note: Be careful with this one; your fingers learn it VERY quickly and if you have any hot-headedness inside you, you may find that you're blasting out messages faster than you're really thinking about them...)

And finally, a bonus and a funny: My coworker, David, created a comic about keyboard shortcuts, and he also told me that his favorite shortcut is F4, which allows you to search for text within the body of an open message. (As David said, don't try to use Ctrl+F like you would in other Office programs; that will forward the message instead.)

Want more? How about some free training courses to get you started:

Finally, a little show-and-tell: I'm guessing you have some up your sleeve that perhaps aren't so widely documented. That's what the comments section is for...

— Annik

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Comments: (12) Collapse

  • don't forget CTRL+M to check for new messages

  • Laurie -- Funny you should mention that: I had a conversation with some of the in-the-know program amangers around here about that (it was on mylist). Apparently that particular shortcut only works in certain instances (when you're in Exchange and using Word as your editor). Thanks for mentioning it (when I couldn't!).

  • CTRL+N open new message

  • Nice! Thanks for the tips, Annik.

  • Annik,

    Good tips for those of us that like to keep our fingers on the keyboard!

    A shortcut key I use a lot is the "Menu key" (SHIFT+F10), found on Microsoft Windows-oriented computer keyboards. In Mail, it launches a context menu with a bunch of options, which can then be selected by using arrows (up, down, left, right). It saves the use of the right-mouse button. :)

    To find this key: Its symbol is a small icon depicting a cursor hovering above a menu. It is typically found on the right side of the keyboard between the right Windows logo key and the right Control key (or between the right Alt key and the right Control key).

    Cheers,

    Gil

  • Thanks, Gil, that's awesome!

  • I would like to take away the ability to use stationary in outlook 2010. I have been able to with policy keep them from actually being able to apply a stationary template, but i cant find a way to grey out the theme button that appears under signatures and stationary. It says no theme currently selected and the font is greyed out but the theme button is still accessible and will let them pick. So now they just think outlook is broken. If i could grey out the theme button it would help alot. any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • Great stuff, Annik! My new BF: Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3

  • Great shortcut post, Thanks

  • I like the right click and open in a new window feature so that I an have my inbox and my calendar open at the same time. - mad

  • I also like the feature of dragging a file to my email to attach it -- that way I don't forget to put it there from the attach a file feature.  If I drag it to my inbox first, then I get a new message and I know the attachment is there! - mad

  • Is there a better printable sheet for every Outlook 2010 shortcut?

    I found this one, which is terrible for printing:

    office.microsoft.com/.../keyboard-shortcuts-for-microsoft-outlook-2010-HP010354403.aspx

    and this one, which is pretty good, but is branded and I want to hand this out to my team.

    training-nyc.com/.../Outlook-2010-All-Shortcuts.pdf

    Thanks in advanced

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