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About this lesson
Learn how to store your emails in topical folders and use a search folder to gather a category of emails that may be in various folders.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Folders and Search Folders
Folders are used to store emails by topic, and Search Folders will gather emails by a criterion you determine (but won’t move them out of their original folders.)
When to use
If your inbox is getting out of control, start storing your emails into topical folders. And if you use Flags and Categories, a Search Folder will gather a category of emails that may be in various folders.
Instructions
Create a folder in your inbox
- Right-click the Inbox and choose New Folder, or click the Folder Ribbon and choose New Folder.
Control how your folders sort
- By default, folders will alphabetize A to Z.
- Click the Folder ribbon, and click-to-turn-off Show All Folders A to Z.
- Then click and drag the folders to place them in order as you prefer.
Create a Search Folder
- Search Folders gather up the Flagged emails so you won’t have to scan your Inbox for them.
- At the bottom of the Folder Pane (aka Navigation Pane) is an option called Search Folders.
- Right-click and choose New Search Folder.
- Then choose Mail Flagged for Follow Up or Categorized Mail.
- You will see the New folders on the Folder Pane.
Favourites
- It is a good idea to move this folder to your Favorites at the top of the Folder Pane, this is so it doesn’t move further down and out of your view.
- Click and drag the folder into the Favorites at the top of the Folder Pane,
- or you can select the button Show in Favorites, located on the Folder ribbon (also on the Right Mouse list of a Folder.)
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- 00:04 The Folder ribbon.
- 00:06 The Folder ribbon is possibly one of the places you will be at the most often.
- 00:12 When you're staying organized it just makes sense to create folders.
- 00:15 Most of these buttons, not all of them, but
- 00:18 most of these buttons can also be found when you right-click on the Inbox.
- 00:21 This entire list is all about folders and kind of resembles the one up above.
- 00:27 There is one button on the ribbon that isn't on this right click.
- 00:31 And that happens to be, let me open up my inbox,
- 00:34 that happens to be this button: "Show all folders A to Z.
- 00:38 Well that makes perfect sense to do.
- 00:40 To have them alphabetize themselves.
- 00:42 Well, it gets a little tricky, though.
- 00:44 What if I want this OCP folder to be at the top because I'm currently working
- 00:48 on it?
- 00:48 When I click and drag and let go, it's not moving.
- 00:53 It sticks itself down to the bottom until I turn off this button,
- 00:57 Show All Folders A to Z.
- 00:59 I'm going to unclick that.
- 01:00 Turn it off, now watch what happens.
- 01:02 Now when I click and drag, see that black bar following my mouse?
- 01:06 Now I control where that folder lands.
- 01:09 Now watch again.
- 01:10 The moment I turn this button back on,
- 01:11 they will automatically alphabetize, click.
- 01:14 And there it went, back to the bottom.
- 01:17 You will forget that this button is even there.
- 01:19 You'll absolutely forget.
- 01:20 So my recommendation is to trick it.
- 01:23 And if you want that OCP to be at the top, we're going to simply rename that folder.
- 01:28 And we're going to maybe put an underscore in front of it
- 01:31 because symbols come before numbers, numbers come before letters.
- 01:34 So I could put the number one or a symbol.
- 01:37 So when I hit that, now I've tricked it, I've got that OCP at the top.
- 01:41 There's also another way to do that, and
- 01:43 this is putting this OCP into my Favorites folder right up here.
- 01:48 So in order to do that, it's already there.
- 01:51 Okay, I'll put another one.
- 01:52 I'll put the Class Folder there.
- 01:53 Okay, I can click and drag and move the Class folder up here,
- 01:56 but notice it's not going to leave from the bottom.
- 01:59 When I let go, the class folder still resides underneath my inbox, but
- 02:03 I've temporarily added it as a ghost folder to my favorites.
- 02:08 Now the reason I do that is because I like my favorites to be my current projects and
- 02:13 this is what I'm working on right now when I'm done working on, I get it out of my
- 02:17 favorites folder in my real world under my inbox or about 100 different folders.
- 02:22 So I just pop my most current ones right up here on top.
- 02:25 All right, I'm going to go ahead and right click.
- 02:27 And remove that from favorites and, so basically,
- 02:31 to create a new folder you simply right click, choose New Folder, type a name for
- 02:36 the folder and hit Enter, and it alphabetizes itself.
- 02:41 You do whatever you need from there.
- 02:43 I can click and drag and move emails down into that folder and in
- 02:48 our video on rules you will learn how to get your emails to auto file themselves.
- 02:54 All right, one more big lesson here is the search folders.
- 02:57 Now at the bottom of your inbox list you see a little search folder and
- 03:01 we have a couple follow up folders and a unread mail folder.
- 03:05 Well I need to make a folder for my flags.
- 03:07 I want my flags to show up, up on top into my favorites.
- 03:11 So, I'm going to right click on the search folder.
- 03:13 Choose New search folder", and if you read the list.
- 03:17 We have one right here, Mail flag for follow up.
- 03:20 When I click that There we go.
- 03:22 There are all my emails, right there, with follow up flags.
- 03:26 Well notice, if I'm looking at my inbox that's out of my line of sight.
- 03:30 So I absolutely have added my follow up folder.
- 03:34 to the very top, so I can right click, add to favorites or I could click and
- 03:38 drag it and put it in the Favorites.
- 03:40 There we go.
- 03:41 Now I've got my follow up right up here.
- 03:43 Now at this point, I can click and
- 03:45 drag and resort my favorites area any way I want.
- 03:49 Okay, notice all my unread email.
- 03:51 Has a follow up folder or a search folder.
- 03:54 Well remember those orange categories wee made in the previous lesson.
- 03:58 I wonder if I could make a follow up folder or a search folder just for
- 04:02 my orange category.
- 04:03 Well, let's try it.
- 04:04 I'm going to right click on my search folder, going to go to New Search folder,
- 04:08 and I'm going to read this list and
- 04:10 one place on the list says categorized mail, which category?
- 04:14 I'm going to choose my orange category.
- 04:17 Hit OK.
- 04:19 And hit OK again.
- 04:20 There we have my orange category, follow up folder.
- 04:23 Look at that bright orange across it's beautiful.
- 04:25 Now I'm going to right click.
- 04:27 My favorites.
- 04:28 And now I'm going to move it to the top of my favorites,
- 04:31 because that's where I like it.
- 04:33 So that's the whole reality is you have complete control
- 04:36 over this entire folder list to create new new list to create new folders,
- 04:39 create new search folders, tuck them into your favorites.
- 04:42 Collapse your favorites whenever you don't want to see them,
- 04:45 open them when you need to see them.
- 04:47 It's wonderful to actually get organized.
- 04:49 Thank you.
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