Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

Use the Windows 11 Mail App to view and manage emails.

Quick reference

Use the Mail App

Use the Mail App to compose and reply to messages. 

When to use

If we have chosen to use the Mail app in Windows 11 to manage our email, we need to know how to compose new messages, format them, attach items, send, and set up our mailbox so it works for us. 

Instructions

Windows 11 comes with its own Mail App. The Mail App has a modern look and feel, and an easy-to-use interface with compact controls making email management simple. Some people prefer to set up their email accounts in the Windows Mail app and manage emails and calendar appointments there instead of using Gmail, Outlook, and other native applications. 

Another advantage of using the Mail App is that we can consolidate all of our mail accounts into one. If we have one Hotmail account, two Gmail accounts, and a Live account, instead of switching between each, we can link them all to the Mail app and see all our mail in one place. 

Mail App Interface

The Mail App Interface is split into three sections:  Folder List, Email List, and Reading Pane.

On the left-hand side, we can see our accounts, our mailbox, and any sub-folders.

In the middle, we have the email list. This shows a list of the emails contained within the folder we are currently clicked on.

On the right-hand side, we have the Reading Pane. When we click on an email we can see the contents in the Reading Pane. 

Much like Outlook, we can switch between our mail, calendar, to-do list, and contacts by clicking the icons at the bottom of the folder list. 

We can modify our mail settings by clicking on the cog icon. 

Work with Mail

Messages with a blue line next to them are unread messages. When we click once to view the message in the reading pane, the blue line goes away.

If we hover our mouse over a message in the email list, we can see three icons. We can archive the message, delete the message, or flag the message for follow-up.  

We can use the search bar at the top to search for specific messages, calendar items, and people. 

When we have a message open in the reading pane, we can respond using the Reply, Reply All, and Forward buttons in the menu bar above. 

If we click the three dots at the top of a message open in the reading pane, we have additional options. From here we can, mark as unread, move the message, mark as junk, save the message and print the message. 

Create a New Message

If we have multiple accounts in the Mail app, we need to make sure we are clicked on the correct one. Whichever account we are clicked on when we compose a new message, that will be the account the mail comes from. 

  • Click the New Mail button in the top corner. 

A new blank message will open in the reading pane. 

  • Type a recipient name into the To field. 
  • Click Cc & Bcc to add those fields. 
  • Type a Subject. 
  • Type a Message. 
Format a Message

We can use the Format ribbon to apply formatting to the message. Simply select the text and choose one of the options on the ribbon. We can format the font color, font size, font style, change the alignment, or apply a style. 

Insert Items

Use the Insert ribbon to insert different items into the message. We can attach files, insert a table, insert a picture, add a link or inject some fun using emojis. 

Draw

We use the Draw ribbon if we want to make annotations in the email. We can insert a drawing canvas and then use one of the pen options to write and draw in the email. This works best for people using a touch screen device with a stylus. 

Options

The Options ribbon is where we go to set the importance level on an email. If we set an email to High Importance, a red exclamation point will appear next to the email. We can also spell-check our email from here. 

Discard

If we get part way through a mail and decide we no longer want to keep it, we can click the Discard button. 

Send

Click the Send button to send the email. 

Settings

The Windows 11 Mail App has lots of Settings. 

  • Click the Cog icon at the bottom of the folder list. 

A pane will open on the right-hand side. From here, we can personalize our copy of Mail. We can change the theme and colors, set up signatures, change how our mail is displayed, customize the reading pane, choose the font for our emails, modify security settings and turn on automatic replies. 

We recommend taking a good look through the Settings and customizing where required.

Login to download
  • 00:03 So now, we've seen how to link our mail accounts to the Mail app.
  • 00:07 Let's have a quick tour around the Mail app interface.
  • 00:11 So the main interface or the main screen that you'll see when you
  • 00:14 open up the Mail app is divided down into three sections.
  • 00:18 We have on the left hand side, our accounts and all of our folders.
  • 00:21 So this is really the Folder list in the middle.
  • 00:24 We have our email list, which is going to show us
  • 00:27 the emails contained within whichever folder we're currently clicked on.
  • 00:31 And then when we click on an email it's going to display in the reading pane on
  • 00:35 the right hand side.
  • 00:36 And of course all of these options can be customized.
  • 00:40 Remember, you can adjust the width of each of these columns simply by hovering
  • 00:44 your mouse over the divider until you get that double headed arrow.
  • 00:48 And I can drag this out to get that more space in the middle, or
  • 00:51 drag it in a little bit.
  • 00:53 Another thing to remember is that when you're working within the Mail app we can
  • 00:57 easily switch to other parts of the system.
  • 01:00 For example, if we want to access our calendars,
  • 01:03 then all the way at the bottom underneath the Accounts list, we have some icons.
  • 01:07 So currently we're clicked on Mail, but we can very easily switch
  • 01:13 across to our calendar, our contacts, or our to-do items.
  • 01:19 Now, as I clicked on each of those, notice that a new window opened because these
  • 01:23 are effectively individual apps in their own right.
  • 01:27 So the calendar is an app.
  • 01:29 So is People, so is To-do.
  • 01:32 We looked at that in previous lessons.
  • 01:34 So it's sort of similar to Outlook in its structure, but
  • 01:37 within Outlook it's all part of the Outlook system,
  • 01:40 whereas these are all thinking through to individual apps.
  • 01:44 But of course, everything synchronizes across, so
  • 01:47 if I add a task into the to-do list in the To-do app,
  • 01:50 it's going to synchronize when I click on to-do from within Mail.
  • 01:53 Now, if we want to modify any of our settings, we have a little cog icon
  • 01:57 just here, which is going to open up that Settings pane on the right hand side.
  • 02:01 So there's so much that we can do in here.
  • 02:04 We can manage our accounts.
  • 02:06 Remember, this is where we come if we want to add or link a new account.
  • 02:10 We can personalise our copy of Mail.
  • 02:13 So this is where I set this pink background color and this image.
  • 02:17 So I could change this to a teal color.
  • 02:20 I can specify if I want to use light or dark mode.
  • 02:22 Let's go for dark mode.
  • 02:23 And then right at the bottom I can choose a different background.
  • 02:29 Now, this will only display if I don't have this reading pane showing.
  • 02:33 But just remember that you can do that.
  • 02:36 We can also customize the amount of spacing in between our folders and
  • 02:40 messages.
  • 02:41 So I can choose Spacious to give it a bit more room or
  • 02:44 Compact to make it a bit smaller.
  • 02:46 Now, I'm going to stick with medium.
  • 02:48 Now I'm not going to go through all of these items.
  • 02:51 I'm going to leave that for you to do in your own time.
  • 02:53 But you can expect to find in here all of the usual things that you'd find in Mail.
  • 02:58 So if you've used another application like Outlook or Gmail,
  • 03:02 you're probably going to be used to doing things like setting up
  • 03:05 Automatic replies when you are out of the office, or customizing that reading pane.
  • 03:09 Or maybe even setting up a signature for all of your new messages.
  • 03:13 And if you remember, we mentioned previously that we currently have our
  • 03:17 mailbox divided down into focused and other.
  • 03:20 Now, if you're somebody who doesn't like that, we can jump into Focused Inbox and
  • 03:25 we can choose to turn this off.
  • 03:27 So now when we go back to our Mail, notice we're just seeing everything in one inbox,
  • 03:31 it's not divided down into focused and other.
  • 03:34 So definitely have a good old look through those settings to make yourself familiar
  • 03:38 with them.
  • 03:39 Now a couple of points about using Mail, I think most of us have been using email for
  • 03:43 so many years now things are fairly standard across the board.
  • 03:47 But when we're using the Mail app in Windows 11,
  • 03:50 and we look at our email list, anything that has a little line next to it, so
  • 03:54 you can see these little teal colored lines.
  • 03:57 This means the message is unread.
  • 03:59 As soon as we click on that mail and then click on something else,
  • 04:02 that line disappears because we've read that message.
  • 04:05 We have a search bar at the top, so we can come in here and we can search for
  • 04:09 specific emails.
  • 04:11 So maybe I want to search for all emails from Jen, I can select her name and
  • 04:15 it's going to filter that list.
  • 04:16 I can also type in different keywords, so maybe if I type in OneDrive and
  • 04:21 press Enter,
  • 04:21 It's going to pull back all of the mails that contain that specific search term.
  • 04:26 So really useful when it comes to finding your email.
  • 04:29 Now, notice that now that we have that reading pane closed down,
  • 04:33 I can see that theme that I applied in the background.
  • 04:36 Now let's click on another message again.
  • 04:38 Notice that in this message window in the reading pane,
  • 04:41 we can choose to reply to this message.
  • 04:43 Reply to everyone in copied in this message or forward it.
  • 04:47 We can even choose to view this message with a light background.
  • 04:51 So this is really customizable.
  • 04:53 Whilst all of my mailbox is still using dark mode,
  • 04:56 the email is now using light mode.
  • 04:58 And I actually really like this because I find text a lot easier to read in light
  • 05:03 mode, but I actually quite like dark mode as well.
  • 05:06 So this is kind of a best of both worlds scenario.
  • 05:09 So we can use this as a little toggle.
  • 05:12 We can archive the mail from here, and
  • 05:14 then if we click the three dots we have some other options.
  • 05:17 So we can delete the mail, we can set a flag.
  • 05:20 So if this is an important mail that we want to remember, we can set the flag and
  • 05:25 notice now in the email list I have that little flag icon.
  • 05:28 And of course when we have flagged items,
  • 05:30 we can then filter this list to show just our flagged items.
  • 05:35 So at the top here where it has all I could click the drop down and
  • 05:38 choose Flagged and I'm only going to see those flagged emails.
  • 05:42 So a really nice quick way of sorting and filtering your email.
  • 05:47 Let's go back to those three dots.
  • 05:48 I can choose to mark it as unread.
  • 05:50 I can mark it as a junk message.
  • 05:52 I can go to the next mail or the previous.
  • 05:55 I can save it, print it, or zoom in.
  • 05:58 So lots of different options there.
  • 06:00 Now, what about creating a new email?
  • 06:02 Well, if we want to do that we ned to go all the way back over to the left hand
  • 06:06 side where we have a new mail button.
  • 06:09 So let's click on this and it's going to open up a new mail.
  • 06:12 And you can now see the signature that I have applied, it's a rather large one.
  • 06:17 And what I'm going to do here is switch to light mode to make that a little bit
  • 06:21 easier to see.
  • 06:21 So from here I can address the message, so I'm going to address it to Jen Green.
  • 06:26 And if I want to CC or
  • 06:27 BCC anybody I can turn on those fields by clicking this button.
  • 06:32 I can then add a subject and a message.
  • 06:34 And I can then apply formatting to this message.
  • 06:37 So if you take a look above we have a few different ribbons available
  • 06:41 inside the messages.
  • 06:42 I can change the font colour, the font style and the font size.
  • 06:46 I can change the paragraph formatting, I can apply some basic styles to my text.
  • 06:52 I can toggle between dark and light mode and of course I have the undo button.
  • 06:57 I can also insert things like files, tables, pictures, links, and emojis.
  • 07:03 And if I have a touchscreen device with a stylus,
  • 07:06 I can use my drawing tools as well.
  • 07:08 And then finally we have an Options button which allows us to mark
  • 07:12 an email as high importance which means it's going to appear in the recipients
  • 07:16 list with this exclamation point next to it.
  • 07:19 We can also do things like check our spelling and grammar.
  • 07:22 Now if at this stage I decide that I no longer want to send this mail,
  • 07:26 I also have a Discard button up here.
  • 07:28 Or I can click Send to send that through.
  • 07:31 Now I don't actually want to send this to Jen.
  • 07:33 So I'm going to say discard and we're going to click Discard draft.
  • 07:38 But that is pretty much it.
  • 07:39 That is a whistlestop tour of how to use the Mail app in Windows 11.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course