Outlook keyboard shortcuts

Here are some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts in Outlook, from a self-proclaimed keyboard junkie. Many of these are standard windows shortcuts, some are specific to Outlook:

  • F6: Switches between navigation pane/folder list, message list and preview pane. Also useful in other applications or elsewhere in windows (when the desktop is visible, I use F6 to switch between the desktop, quick launch bar, task bar and address bar). In OneNote, this switches between the main edit portion and the search dialog, handy for quickly finding things.
  • Ctrl+[number] : Ctrl+1 goes to your Inbox, Ctrl+2 to your calendar, etc. See these shortcuts off of the "Go" menu
  • Alt+[number] in the calendar: Select a day in your calendar and press Alt+3 or Alt+5, and the view will switch to show you the current day plus the next 3 or 5 days.
  • Spacebar in the reading pane: Make sure the reading pane is visible (view \ reading pane), and select a message that's long enough such that the entire message doesn't show up on the screen. Press the spacebar several times, and you'll page through the contents of the message. When you hit the end, pressing space moves to the next message.
  • Shift+F10: This brings up the right-click or "context menu". Useful on folders, messages, when an attachment is selected, etc.
  • Ctrl+Shift+[letter]: Look at the shortcuts on the File | New menu to see which shortcut you can use to create a new item (mail, appointment, etc). I use these frequently, as well as Ctrl+Shift+F (Advanced Find) and Ctrl+Shift+B (Address Book).
  • Alt+F1: Shows/hides the navigation pane (typically on the left side of the screen, with the folder list + links to other folders)
  • Shift+Tab: A reverse tab, so you can move from the body of a message to the subject field, etc.
  • F2: Rename a folder. If "in cell editing" is turned on (View \ arrange by \ current view \ customize current view \ other settings), can also be used to edit the selected field (and tab changes between fields)

I recently stumbled across this KB article (Q126449), which looks like a nice overview of many windows keyboard shortcuts, including those that use the windows key on Microsoft keyboards.

 

P.S. For those of you who read my previous blog, I realize some of these are dupes that I'd already mentioned. But some are not, and they're all worth mentioning anyway :-)