Keyboard shortcuts

Outlook has many keyboard shortcuts which allows you to execute commands
without using your mouse or touchpad. By using keyboard shortcuts, you can achieve repetitive tasks more quickly.

As there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts available in Outlook, they have been divided into the following sections.

• Outlook program icon shortcuts
• Navigating the main Outlook interface
  • Switch Navigation Pane selection
  • Browsing folders
  • Cycling through the panes, sections and fields
  • Toggling Panes
• Navigating the Ribbon, Menus and Toolbars
• Navigating through text and item lists
• Making selections and moving items
• Creating new items
• General item actions
• Messages
  • Reading
  • Send/Receive
  • Composing and Item Formatting
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Tasks
• Notes
• Journal
• Search
• Miscellaneous
• Keyboard shortcuts to create international characters
• Disabling keyboard shortcuts via Group Policy

Outlook program icon shortcuts

These keys need to be pressed and held down when clicking on the Outlook shortcut in for instance the Start Menu or Taskbar.

Navigating the main Outlook interface

The shortcuts below will allow you to browse through the main Outlook window.

Switch Navigation Pane selection

Browsing folders

Cycling through the panes, sections and fields

Tip!
Arrow keys can be used to “walk” within a pane. Use ENTER to execute the selected action.

Toggling Panes

By repeatedly pressing the keyboard shortcuts below, you can show or hide the corresponding pane. The Navigation Pane and the To-Do Bar also have a “minimized” state.

Navigating the Ribbon, Menus and Toolbars

The below ALT combinations aren’t actual keyboard shortcuts but a great help when you do not want to use a mouse and do not know the keyboard shortcut or when there simply isn’t a keyboard shortcut for the command. They basically allow you to browse the Ribbon, Menus and Toolbars like you would normally do with a mouse but then via your keyboard.

ALT commands in menu’s, toolbars and forms will show an underlined character which you need to press together with the ALT button. You can also press and release the ALT button and then use the ARROW keys to “walk” through the menus instead.

Hold the ALT button and type any of the underlined characters to execute the command.

ALT commands in the Ribbon and in Backstage (when pressing File in Outlook 2010 or later) will show a letter in a tooltip. You can press and let go of the ALT key and then simply type the letter in the tooltip to activate it or to navigate the Ribbon or in Backstage.

After typing the letter to activate the correct tab, new letters will show up to execute commands.

Tip!
While the classic File menu has changed to the Office Menu or Office Orb in Office 2007 and the File screen or Backstage in Outlook 2010 and later, its shortcut luckily never changed; use ALT+F to activate it.

Note:
Unlike most of the other keyboard shortcuts listed in this guide, the above ALT+letter keyboard shortcuts are highly depended on the language of Office that you have installed and thus not the same for all localized versions of Office programs.

Navigating through text and item lists

Tip!
Most of the above key and combinations can also be used to navigate through the message list and views in other folders. For instance, the arrow keys are great for making selections in the Calendar folder.

Making selections and moving items

Tip!
As an alternative to using navigation commands to make your selection, you can also hold SHIFT and click on the first and last item of your selection or hold CTRL and click on all the items that you wish to select.

Creating new items

General item actions

Note:
Several of the commands listed above may not work for Note items.

Messages – Reading

Messages – Send/Receive

Message Composing and Item Formatting

Calendar

Tip!
In addition to the above shortcuts you can also use text based shortcuts to fill out time and date fields. For exact workings see; Quickly set dates with formulas and text

Contacts

Note:
Additional commands related to contacts can also be found in the Creating new items, Message Composing and item formatting and Navigating sections.

Tasks

Notes

There are no specific Notes keyboard shortcuts but commands related to Note items can be founded in the Creating new items and Navigating sections.

Journal

There are no specific Journal keyboard shortcuts but commands related to Journal items can be founded in the Creating new items, Message Composing and item formatting and Navigating sections. If your Journal view is set to a Calendar view, then you can also use several of the keyboard shortcuts mentioned in the Calendar section.

Search

Miscellaneous

Keyboard shortcuts to create international characters

In addition to the formatting keyboard shortcuts, there are also Keyboard shortcuts for international characters.

These are characters which you don’t find on every keyboard and are language specific. For instance; à, é, î, õ, ü, å, æ, œ, ç and ß.

Disabling keyboard shortcuts via Group Policy

Most of the keyboard shortcuts in this guide can be disabled via Group Policy or the Office Customization Tool.

For detailed instruction on how to disable keyboard shortcuts see;

• Outlook 2007
• Outlook 2010
• Outlook 2013 (also applies to Outlook 2016 / Outlook 2019 and Microsoft 365)