Office 365: Outlook views

“It can be used to assist you in focusing on specific subjects and tasks, as well as changing the look of your inbox.”

Outlook views is a feature in Office 365. 

It can be used to assist you in focusing on specific subjects and tasks, as well as changing the look of your inbox.

You can use Outlook views to suit your working style or the task at hand.  

You can change your current view by clicking on the view tab in the top menu. 

This will give you options such as: 

• Change spacing 
• Minimise folder pane 
• Move or close the reading pane 
• Add “to do” bar with calendar/tasks/people 
• Remove and add columns 

Using Outlook views can be greatly beneficial to your work day. 

Firstly, you can set up your Outlook to look the way you need it day-to-day, but then you can create custom views. 

To do this, click on the ‘Change View’ icon, under the view tab. 

From there you will click ‘Manage Views’.

Then you will be faced with this menu.  

‘New’ allows you to create a brand-new view. 

‘Copy’ is to copy a pre-existing view you’ve created, so you can use it as a template and make small changes.

‘Modify’ is used when you want to edit an existing view, without making a copy of it.  

When creating a new view, you then get to select the view type.  

There are different types of views, each will vary in usefulness for an individual, simply because we all have different needs.  

Your options are:

• Table 
• Timeline 
• Card 
• People 
• Business Card 
• Day/week/month 
• Icon

To find what’s best for you, take a look through them and see what will work. 

Here at Itek Systems Management, we have found that the ‘Day/Week/Month’ view is very helpful for us when looking at projects.  

After deciding on your type, you go to your advanced settings.

One of the settings is columns, meaning you can select which columns will be shown in this view. 

You can also remove the columns completely if you don’t use categories or need to know the size of messages. 

Another option is to choose the grouping.  

For example, you can group by categories, who sent the message as well as the majority of other columns.

You can choose how emails should be sorted, allowing you to prioritise certain tasks, subjects, people, et cetera.  

The filter is there to limit the number of emails you will see, to help with focus and concentration.  

Then there’s conditional formatting, there to let you highlight further emails.  

The Outlook views feature works well with other features, such as rules and categories. 

This means you can work efficiently using all the features available to you, making your day that little bit easier.  

Overall, Outlook is looking to make things simple and automated whenever possible. 

We would recommend making the most of these features as they can make a huge difference.  

Staying focused at work can be difficult, so using views can change the way you work with Outlook for the better.  

If you want help with your Office 365 usage, contact us for support and advice.