Email evolution: navigating Outlook’s new interface

Danielle DavisRoe, Affinity Consulting

Last year, Microsoft rolled out a new Outlook interface that closely mirrors its web interface. For now, the new interface is optional for those on a business or enterprise Microsoft 365 plan, but there will come a time when everyone is pushed over to the new interface.

As a legal professional, time can feel scarce. Learn how to use the new Outlook effectively and be prepared for the changes so you don’t waste time looking for features that were moved or done away with.

New features

The interface comes with some exciting features that weren’t previously available in the desktop application, including tools for handling an onslaught of email.

Snoozing emails

Snoozing emails temporarily moves them out of your inbox. They will reappear in your inbox at the time you set. If you need a snoozed email earlier, you’ll find them in your “snoozed” folder.

Pinning emails

You will be able to pin emails you want to be able to quickly reference to the top of your inbox.

Message reminders

Want to be reminded of emails you need to reply to or emails you haven’t received a response to? You can turn on message reminders to bring those emails to the top of your inbox. You’ll find this option under “mail settings” on the layout page.

Undo send

You no longer need a rule to delay sending emails. The new Outlook has a setting to delay every email from being sent for up to 10 seconds. If you turn this setting on, you will get an undo button at the bottom of the screen after you send a message.

You’ll find this option under the mail settings on the compose and reply page.

Customize actions

The new Outlook comes with more options for the actions and add-ins you’ll see when you select a message to read. You’ll find these actions in the upper right corner of an email. Customize these to include the actions you take most often and save yourself time when processing emails.

These options are under the mail settings on the customize actions page.

Differences

Some things won’t work the same way in the new Outlook.

Read/unread quick filters

The read/unread quick filters will be gone from the top of the inbox. To quickly filter for unread email, you will need to click on the funnel icon at the top right of your emails list.

Dragging and dropping email

You can’t drag and drop emails to the calendar or task icons to quickly create a new appointment or task. You can, however, drag and drop emails to the “My Day” panel to create new appointments and tasks.

Tasks replaced by To Do

With the new Outlook interface, tasks will no longer be available. They will be replaced with To Do. To Do offers task management with a more modern interface, including a mobile app for easy task list management on your phone.

With To Do, you can easily create shared task lists, delegate tasks to others, and add tasks to your “My Day” list.

Your Outlook tasks will also automatically be brought into To Do, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything with the transition.

Shared inboxes

If you use shared inboxes, you’ll discover you can no longer add those to your favorites lists. You can’t move them to the top of your folders list either. You’ll find your shared inboxes under a “shared with me” folder.

Consider assigning yourself a daily task or calendar appointment to remind yourself to check the shared inbox. Alternatively, you could set up a rule to forward all of those emails to your regular inbox, but neither of these options are ideal.

Focused inbox

The focused inbox works the same as before, but the on/off switch for it has been moved to the settings dialog under Mail.

Add-ins

Many traditional Outlook add-ins are “COM add-ins.” Things like your PDF editing software, document management system, and practice management system likely use COM add-ins to help you deal with emails faster.

COM add-ins are not supported in the new Outlook. Some software vendors have already made the switch to the newer, modern add-ins supported by the new Outlook. Others are actively working on a new add-in. A few are discontinuing support for their Outlook add-in.

Check with your preferred vendor to see when support will be available for the new Outlook.

Get ready

Whether you’re excited for a more modern interface or dread having to make the change, the new Outlook interface is eventually coming to you. Microsoft will continue to develop the interface, making improvements and adding in new features. Keep an eye on it, because we’ll all be forced over to it eventually.