How to Change Your View in Outlook By default, your Outlook Inbox displays messages in threaded conversations by date, with the newest message at the top of the screen and the oldest at the bottom. If you’d rather view your email messages in chronological order instead, or if you’d like to move a message to another folder so that it’s no longer part of the conversation, change your view in Outlook 2016. Here’s how to do it: Click the View tab on the Ribbon and then click Change View from the Show group.
Why you want to be able to quickly change your view
There are a few reasons why you might want to be able to quickly change your view in Outlook. Maybe you need to see more of your inbox at once, or maybe you want to focus on a specific email thread. Whatever the reason, it’s easy to do and only takes a few seconds.
The steps you need
- Open Microsoft Outlook.
- Click View. A drop-down menu will appear.
- Hover your mouse over Change View. Another drop-down menu will appear with different view options.
- Select the view you want. For example, choose Compact to see more messages in your inbox at once, or choose Reading Pane to preview messages without opening them.
- Your view will change immediately.
Shortcuts to change your current view
- How to change view in outlook, use the following shortcuts:
- To change your view to the Compact view, press CTRL+ALT+V.
- To change your view to the Single view, press CTRL+ALT+S.
- To change your view to the Preview view, press CTRL+ALT+P.
- You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to cycle through the different views.
- Pressing the arrow key left will take you from Compact to single and so on until you reach the last option which is Compose Mail.
- Pressing the arrow key right will take you from Compose Mail back to any of the previous options again including Preview and so on until you reach back up at Single.
- Clicking on any of these options with your mouse or using a touchpad will also work for changing your view as well.
Changing views with shortcuts
To change your view quickly in Outlook, you can use one of the following shortcuts:
* To go from the Inbox view to the Calendar view, press Ctrl+2.
* To go from the Inbox view to the Contacts view, press Ctrl+3.
* To go from the Inbox view to the Tasks view, press Ctrl+4.
* To go from the Inbox view to the Notes view, press Ctrl+5.
Finally, if you want to move back through all of your open views at once, press Ctrl+Shift+1-6 on your keyboard. This will open each view in turn and then close it when you move forward again through them. If you want to return to a previous view, such as going from the Notes view back to the Inbox view, hold down Ctrl while clicking on that window (while pressing Alt on a Mac). You may also be able to return to a particular folder by pressing Shift + 1-6 respectively. For example, if you’re currently viewing the inbox and wish to switch over to the calendar, type shift+1 followed by enter. Keep pressing this sequence until you reach the desired view or select an option in dropdown menu under ‘show these folders’.
