How to Select Multiple Emails in Outlook

By / May 26, 2024

Microsoft Outlook remains committed to offering a dependable and robust platform for managing emails, appointments, contacts, and more in personal and professional communication. The user-friendly interface and abundant valuable tools make it a preferred choice for individuals and organizations. Selecting and managing multiple emails is a necessary task to enhance work productivity. If you want to know how to select multiple emails in Outlook, you’re in the right place.

It’s Time to Clean Out Your Inbox

If you’re like most people, then you receive upwards of 100 messages per day in your inbox. However, if you aren’t Outlook savvy, then you may think you have to manually go in and click each message you want to delete or move one at a time. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some Outlook tips that could help make cleaning out your inbox easier?

Luckily, you can easily clean Outlook inbox by selecting multiple messages or selecting all messages that meet specific criteria. Let’s dive into how to do this effectively.

Selecting Multiple Emails in Outlook

You receive over 100 messages daily in your email inbox. This calls for efficient email management, which Microsoft Outlook can easily do. Fortunately, the platform offers effortless inbox cleaning by selecting multiple messages or choosing all messages that match certain criteria. Here’s how to select multiple emails in Outlook:

How to Select Multiple Emails in Outlook

In Outlook, you can use the Ctrl and Shift keys on your keyboard, choose multiple emails individually, select a group of emails, or select all emails simultaneously. The methods apply to the Outlook Windows client, Outlook for the Web (OWA), and the mobile app. Some commonly used approaches to select multiple emails in Outlook are:

To Select Various Emails Individually:

  1. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard.
  2. Click each email you wish to select.
  3. Release the Ctrl key.

To Choose a Batch of Emails:

  1. Click on the initial email you want to select.
  2. Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard.
  3. Click on the last email you want to include in the selection.
  4. Release the Shift key.

To Choose All Emails in Your Inbox or a Folder:

Utilize the select-all keyboard shortcut:

  • For Windows: Ctrl + A
  • For Mac: Command + A

This shortcut efficiently selects every email currently visible in your view. In Outlook for the Web, you can also click the Checkmark icon above your emails to select all emails in the current view.

Bonus: Selecting Multiple Emails in the Outlook Mobile App

To choose multiple emails in the Outlook mobile app, perform a long-press (tap and hold) on any email until you see a checkmark appear to the left. Subsequently, tap each email you intend to select. Alternatively, you can tap the profile picture or icon to the left of each email you wish to choose.

  1. Open the Outlook mobile app and sign in to your account.
  2. While in your inbox, initiate a long press (tap and hold) on any email until a checkmark appears to the left of it.
  3. Tap each email you want to choose. You can also efficiently select multiple emails by swiftly swiping down right after the checkmark appears during a long press.

Select Multiple Emails in the Outlook Desktop App

  1. Open the Outlook desktop app on your computer.
  2. From the inbox (or folder in which you want to choose messages from), press and hold Ctrl (Command on Mac), and click on any emails you’d like to select.
  3. If you want to select a set of messages in a row, you can also use Shift and click the first message, then scroll down and click the last message you want to be selected. Outlook will select all the emails between those two.

How to Select All Emails in Outlook

Highlighting multiple messages can be handy. However, if you’re trying to achieve Outlook Inbox Zero, there may be times when you want to know how to select all emails in Outlook, whether that’s all messages in a folder or every message in your inbox.

This process varies based on the type of Outlook app you’re using, so we will cover each one below.

How to Select All Outlook Emails on Web

  1. Open https://outlook.live.com/.
  2. From the inbox, click on the check box at the top of your listed messages (below Mark All As Read).
  3. If you don’t see the check, you can also click on any message in your inbox, then press Ctrl + A (or Command + A on Mac). This will select all messages for you.

Select All Emails in Outlook App on Mobile

  1. Open your mail account.
  2. Long press to choose any message in your inbox.
  3. Tap on More (three dots) in the upper right corner.
  4. At the bottom of the menu, tap Select All. This will select all messages in your inbox (or any folder you are in).

How to Select All Emails in Microsoft Outlook Client

Within Microsoft Outlook client (desktop app), you have two options to select all messages.

With Method #1, you can:

  1. Select a single message in your inbox (or any folder).
  2. Press Ctrl + A (Command + A for Mac). This will select all messages.

With Method #2, you can actually use the Quick Access Toolbar to highlight all messages. However, this setting isn’t available by default. We’ll outline the steps to add it to your Quick Access Toolbar, then use the tool.

  1. Open the desktop application.
  2. Click on the down arrow in the top left corner of the app. This is the menu to Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
  3. Scroll down and click More Commands.
  4. When the menu appears, change the Choose Commands From drop-down to say All Commands.
  5. Now, in the box with the commands, scroll down to the one that says Select All. Click that.
  6. Now, scroll over and click Add in the middle of the menu.
  7. Click OK to commit this change. Once you’ve added this, you can simply click on Select All from the menu.

How to Select All Unread Emails in Outlook Web App

  1. Open your mail account on web.
  2. From the inbox, click on Filter directly above the emails.
  3. Choose the option that says Unread.
  4. Your focused inbox view will now only show unread messages. You can press the check at the top to select all or use Ctrl + A to do so.

How to Select All Emails from One Sender in Outlook Web App

Sometimes, you may want to select a group of messages from the same sender so you can move them to a dedicated folder or perform another task. Luckily, this isn’t hard either.

  1. Open your mail account on web.
  2. At the top, use the Search feature to search the sender you want to select messages from. Click on that person’s name as it appears.
  3. Your view will now show all the results from that sender. From here, you can press the check at the top to select all or use Ctrl + A to select all of these messages.

Using Clean Email to Select Multiple Emails

Learning how to use Outlook can be tricky at times. However, you don’t have to perform every action in your mailbox if you don’t want to. In fact, you can use Clean Email to manage your inbox without ever opening Outlook at all.

Clean Up Your Inbox with Clean Email

It is easy to choose all emails in Outlook with Clean Email and apply actions like delete, move, star, archive, etc. You just need to choose a folder like All Mail, Inbox, or Unread from the left-side panel. Then, click the Select all button above the messages to select the whole group.

If you just want to select multiple emails, you can do that too. It works much the same way as it does in your Outlook inbox — you just mark the checkboxes next to the messages you want to choose. It’s easy to then perform any action you want.

Select All Emails with Clean Email

However, that’s not all Clean Email has to offer. In fact, the app offers a number of additional features that you don’t have within your Outlook inbox, and you can take advantage of them all.

For example, Smart Folders lets you filter messages based on specific criteria. This makes it easier to locate and filter emails so you can go through and select the messages you want and move them to the appropriate folder.

Use Smart Folders to Select Similar Emails

Then, Auto Clean can help you automate tasks so you don’t have to keep doing them over and over again. So, if you want to automatically have all emails from some senders go into the Archive folder, you can perform a task moving those messages one time within Clean Email, then simply choose “Selected and future similar emails.” This turns it into an automated rule that runs each time a new message that meets the criteria comes into your inbox.

Archive Emails Automatically with Clean Email

If you want to simply get rid of promotional mailings or unnecessary newsletters, the app makes that easy with the Unsubscriber feature. This tool lets you unsubscribe, pause, or move all messages from a specific domain into a Read Later folder.

Unsubscribe from Emails with Clean Email

Of course, those are just some of the top features, but Clean Email can do much more than that. If you’re ready to reclaim your inbox, it’s worth giving this app a try.

Note: If you use the Outlook web service provider (meaning you have an @outlook.com email address or similar), Clean Email can work with that. If you simply use the Outlook desktop client with your Gmail, Yahoo, or other accounts, the actions you perform within Clean Email may not appear in the Outlook desktop app.

Advanced Techniques for Email Selection

In Microsoft Outlook, mastering advanced techniques for email selection can significantly increase your efficiency and help streamline your email management. Outlook automatically places newly received emails at the top of your inbox, but you can adjust the order. You also have the option to sort emails based on the sender or subject. Here’s how to do it:

Sorting and Filtering a Mailbox in Outlook

  1. Open your Inbox and locate the “”Filter”” option. It is present at the top of the window.
  2. Click on “”Filter”” and select “”Sort.””
  3. Choose a sorting preference. You can sort your emails by date, sender, size, importance, or subject. Additionally, you can arrange emails so that either the oldest or the newest appears on top.

Sorting the Folder List in Outlook

  1. Navigate to the left of the Outlook window, where your folders list is located. Right-click on a folder and select “”Add to Favorites.”” The folder selected is now included in your favorites list.
  2. In your favorites list, you need to right-click a folder and select either Move Up the list or Move Down the list. This feature lets you list your favorite folders in your preferred order.
  3. To remove folders from your favorites, right-click the folder and select “Remove from Favorites.”

Using Rules and Filters to Group Emails

If you need more time, you can create rules to organize emails on Outlook. A rule created will run on every new email in your inbox. Additionally, you can apply the rules to the existing emails in your inbox. Outlook rules only apply to emails in your inbox and not other folders. Here are the steps to create rules to organize Outlook emails:

  1. Click the three dots on the right-hand side of the screen in Outlook email. This opens a More options bar.
  2. Select Rules and click on Manage Rules.
  3. Click + Add new rule.
  4. A new dialog window opens up. Add the rule name, conditions, and actions, and then click Save. Whenever you receive an email meeting those conditions, Outlook will automatically run the rule.

Running a Rule to Existing Emails in the Inbox

  1. Click the three dots present on the right side of your Outlook email. This opens up the More options.
  2. Select Rules and click Manage Rules.
  3. Click the Run icon present next to the rule name on the screen. The rule only applies to emails in your inbox.

Organizing and Managing Selected Emails

Outlook offers a great range of features that help facilitate the organization of your email. Let’s delve into these features in-depth.

Outlook Folders

One effective email organization method in Outlook is creating folders based on diverse criteria. The emails can be categorized by moving them into specific folders, which can be established for distinct purposes, such as:

  • Contacts
  • Subject lines
  • Departments
  • Keywords

Categories

In Outlook, there is scope to organize emails within a designated folder using categories. You can further categorize the emails within a particular folder, such as distinguishing between payment and consignment notifications.

Rules

Outlook allows establishing “”rules”” for automatically sorting emails into designated folders. The conditions to configure such rules include:

  • Sender’s email address
  • Email subject line
  • Size of the email
  • Whether you are a direct recipient or in the CC field
  • Email date
  • Email content

Optimizing Productivity with Selected Emails

Microsoft Outlook offers powerful features beyond mere email management and allows users to optimize productivity by seamlessly integrating selected emails with tasks and calendar events. Additionally, collaborative tools and sharing options help enhance teamwork and communication efficiency.

Integrating Selected Emails with Tasks and Calendar

Outlook enables seamless integration between selected emails, tasks, and calendar events to create a streamlined workflow. Here’s how to use them:

  • Task creation: To convert important emails into actionable tasks, right-click on the email, select “”Create Task,”” and set due dates, priorities, and reminders. This transfers crucial information into actionable items on your task list.
  • Calendar events: You can also create calendar appointments for time-sensitive emails or events mentioned in emails. Highlight the relevant email content, go to the “”Home”” tab, and click “”New Items”” followed by “”Appointment.”” This is used to convert email details into scheduled events on your calendar.

Collaborative Tools and Sharing Options

Outlook fosters collaboration through various tools and sharing options, aiding in teamwork. These tools include:

  • Calendar sharing: Helps coordinate schedules. To share the chosen calendar, click the “”Share Calendar”” option and specify permissions.
  • Email forwarding and sharing: Lets you share selected emails with colleagues. To share, right-click on the email, select “”Forward,”” and send it to relevant team members.
  • Collaborative editing: Lets you share attachments, collaborate on documents, and make simultaneous edits without the need for back-and-forth emails.

Best Practices for Streamlining Email Workflow

You must streamline your email workflow in Microsoft Outlook for efficiency and productivity. Proper time management and maintaining a clean and organized inbox is key.

Time Management Tips for Handling Selected Emails

  • Prioritizing your inbox can save a lot of time. Flag important emails for quick identification.
  • Addressing emails instantly prevents small tasks from piling up and consuming more time later.
  • Organize emails by creating folders and assigning categories to emails based on projects, urgency, or topics.
  • Minimize distractions by unsubscribing from newsletters or promotional emails that are not relevant.
  • Setting specific email slots helps avoid constant interruptions and maintain focus on other tasks.
  • Using Outlook’s Quick Steps automates common tasks like moving emails to specific folders or forwarding them to colleagues.

Maintaining a Clean and Organized Inbox

  • Implement the Inbox Zero approach by regularly clearing out unnecessary emails.
  • Create rules to automatically sort incoming emails into designated folders based on criteria like sender, subject, or keywords.
  • Archive completed projects to an archive folder to keep your primary inbox uncluttered.
  • Schedule regular inbox reviews. Delete or archive old emails and assess existing folders and categories.
  • Use Outlook’s advanced search options to locate specific emails quickly.
  • To prevent your inbox from being flooded with irrelevant messages, refrain from unnecessary CCs and “”Reply All”” responses.

Efficient Email Management with Outlook

Selecting multiple emails in Outlook is a fundamental skill that can significantly boost your efficiency and productivity and enhance digital communication. The process is intuitive and adaptable and suits specific needs. Outlook’s built-in features, like the Shift and Ctrl keys, make selections more dynamic. Moreover, incorporating these skills into your routine saves time and contributes to a more organized and streamlined email management system. You must stay informed about updates and enhancements to refine your email selection process further. This will help you navigate your inbox more easily and effectively, leaving you more time to focus on what truly matters.

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