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Finding your way around

If you have used Outlook, most of this will look familiar. This chapter names the parts of the window, so the rest of the guide can refer to them.

The rail: Mail, Calendar, People and To Do

The narrow column on the far left switches between the four parts of the app:

The ribbon

The ribbon across the top has the commands, grouped on tabs. In Mail the tabs are:

• File: account information, Open & Export, Print, Options and more. It covers the whole window; click the back arrow or press Esc to return.
• Home: new mail, delete, archive, reply, move, rules, Quick Steps, categories, flags, snooze and search tools.
• Send / Receive: check for mail now, the Outbox, and pausing the spam filter.
• Folder: new, rename and delete folders; mark a folder read; empty Junk, Deleted Items or Quarantine; Favorites.
• View: conversations, sorting, the reading pane, list density, themes, and the Privacy Report and other insights.
• Help: the keyboard shortcuts, Check for Updates, and the folder with the app's log files.

Calendar, People and To Do have their own Home tab.

Ways to work with the ribbon:

• Press Ctrl+F1 to fold the ribbon down to its tabs, and again to bring it back. The app remembers your choice.
• Press Alt to show key tips: a letter on every tab and command. Type the letters to run a command without the mouse.
• In a narrow window, groups that don't fit fold into drop-down buttons.

The folder pane

On the left in Mail:

• Favorites at the top: the folders you use most, from every account. Right-click a folder and choose Add to Favorites, or use Folder > Show in Favorites. With more than one account, Folder > All Inboxes adds one list with every account's Inbox.
• Your accounts, each with its folders. Click an account's name to fold its folders away.
• Search Folders: Unread Mail, Flagged, With Attachments, Categorized Mail, Waiting for Reply, and the searches you saved. See Searching your mail.

Right-click a folder for more: mark it all read, refresh it, export it, empty it (Junk, Deleted Items, Quarantine), make subfolders, rename or delete it.

At the bottom of the pane, a status line says what the app is doing (checking mail, moving messages, what just happened). The button beside it checks for mail now, like F9.

The message list

The middle column lists the messages in the open folder.

• The buttons above the list show All, Unread, Flagged or Has attachments, and sort by Newest first, Oldest first, From or Subject.
• Conversations groups replies together (Ctrl+T). A conversation shows how many messages it has; press Right to open it and Left to close it.
• Point at a message to see quick buttons: flag and delete.
• Right-click a message for reply, archive, delete, spam, Sweep, rules and more.
• Select several messages with Ctrl or Shift and act on all of them at once.
• Drag messages onto a folder in the folder pane to move them.

View > Density sets how much space each row gets: Roomy, Cozy or Compact (Compact leaves out the preview line).

The reading pane

The message you select opens in the reading pane. View > Reading Pane puts it on the Right, at the Bottom, or turns it Off. With the pane off, a message opens in its own window when you open it.

Press Enter, or use Home > Open in Window, to open a message in its own window. Reading mail explains what the reading pane shows.

The title bar

Beside the app's name, the title bar says how the app is working: managing your mail when it moves spam, runs your rules and learns from you. If it says observe mode, see Troubleshooting.

Themes

View > Theme picks a color theme. The dark themes are Obsidian, Midnight, Forest, Ember, Crimson and Graphite; the light ones are Ocean, Lavender, Rose, Sand and Sage. You can also follow your Windows setting, or use plain Light or Dark. Some colors change only after a restart; the app offers to restart when you switch.

In a dark theme, messages are shown on a dark background too, with their colors adjusted to fit. To see one message in its own colors on white, use View > Switch Background. To always show messages on white, clear In dark mode, show messages on a dark background too in File > Options > Appearance.