Arrange Items
Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Microsoft Exchange, Live@edu
Outlook Web App lets you sort and view messages, contacts, and tasks according to the different properties of those items. For example, messages can be arranged by subject, sender, and conversation topic.
How do I arrange messages?
You can arrange your messages in different ways by clicking Arrange by and then selecting one of the following options:
- Date: Displays all messages as they arrive in your Inbox. This is the default view.
- From: Sorts all messages by sender.
- To: Sorts all messages by recipient.
- Size: Sorts all messages by size.
- Subject: Sorts all messages by subject.
- Type: Sorts messages by type: e-mail message, meeting request, voice mail message, or fax message.
- Attachments: Sorts messages based on whether they have an attachment.
- Importance: Sorts messages based on importance.
- Flagged: Sorts messages based on whether they're flagged or unflagged.
- Conversation: Groups and displays messages sorted by the topic of the conversation. To see all messages from a particular conversation, expand the message group by clicking the arrow next to the group. For more information, see Learn About Conversations.
How do I arrange contacts?
To arrange your contacts, click Arrange by on the sorting toolbar, and then select one of the following options:
- First name: Sorts all contacts in alphabetical order by their first name.
- Last name: Sorts all contacts in alphabetical order by their last name.
- Company: Sorts all contacts in alphabetical order by their company name.
- File as: Sorts all contacts in alphabetical order by the name selected in the File as list. The default value is Last, First.
- Department: Sorts all contacts in alphabetical order by their department name.
- Flag Due Date: Sorts all contacts in order by the due date set with a flag.
- Flag Start Date: Sorts all contacts in order by the start date set with a flag.
How do I arrange tasks?
To arrange your tasks, click Arrange by on the sorting toolbar, and then select one of the following options:
- Type: Sorts all tasks by type, including tasks, messages, appointments, meeting requests, and contacts.
- Completed State: Sorts all tasks by whether they've been completed.
- Importance: Sorts all tasks by importance level (High, Normal, Low).
- Attachments: Sorts all tasks by whether they have attachments.
- Subject: Sorts all tasks in alphabetical order by the subject line.
- Due Date: Sorts all tasks by their due date.
- Flag: Sorts all tasks based on their flag.
How do I use the Reading Pane?
By default, when you click a message, it appears in the Reading Pane. You can turn the Reading Pane on or off in any folder by clicking View on the toolbar and then selecting Right, Bottom, or Off under Reading Pane. You can use these option buttons to turn on or turn off the Reading Pane in Mail, Contacts, and Tasks.
What else do I need to know?
- You can also turn Conversation view on or off by clicking View on the toolbar and then selecting Use Conversations.
- In addition to selecting the criteria for arranging your messages and contacts, you can sort them in ascending or descending order using the control next to Arrange by. For items sorted alphabetically, it will display either A on top or Z on top. For items not sorted alphabetically, it will display the sort criteria accordingly. For example, flagged items will display Flagged or Unflagged.
- To arrange your tasks, you can sort them in ascending or descending order by clicking the heading in the sorting toolbar. For example, if Subject is selected as the sort field, clicking Subject toggles the sorting ascending or descending in alphabetical order.
- You can use type-down search to look for a message, contact, or task by typing on your keyboard. To search for a particular message in a folder, arrange the folder by the search criteria that you want to use, and then start to type the word you're looking for. For example, if you want to find a message from Tony Smith, select Arrange by, select From, and then start to type Tony Smith. Outlook Web App will jump to the first match. If it can't find an exact match, it will jump to the item that contains the closest match.
- You can use type-down search only in columns that display user-related information, such as subject, sender, or recipient. You can't use type-down search for messages of a particular size or receipt date, although you can sort a group of messages according to their size or the date they were received.
What if I want to know more?