Outlook on the Web - Inbox

Microsoft Outlook Inbox - Productivity tips

Outlook on the Web is a browser-based email client, that includes a personal calendar to schedule and accept meetings or events. You can add shared calendars, create and manage contacts, access Microsoft 365 Groups, handle files (quickly access email attachments), quickly share and access OneDrive files, and set permissions for collaboration on a project when attaching a file in an email or meeting invite. 

Note: Supported browsers for Outlook on the web and other Office 365 apps are Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Firefox.

Accessing Outlook on the web

There are few different ways to access your email Inbox in a supported web browser. If you are not logged in you will be prompted with Multi-factor Authentication.

• svsu.edu > Quicklinks
• my.svsu.edu > Quick Access > Email
• email.svsu.edu 
• portal.office.com (Microsoft home portal page, use if our redirects are down)

Phishing - Report a Phish

You can report a phish by clicking the Phish alert button. If you find the Phish alert icon is missing or not visible, bear in mind there are a few things to check.

• You can click the Apps button then Phish alert to report a phishing attempt. 
• You can click the three dots, select Customize actions. Phish alert is selected by default. On the reading pane actions, you can select more options that you want to see in the Message surface toolbar, however, if you select more than 2 then your Phish alert button will be hidden as the toolbar will only show 8 icons.

Explore our knowledge article Report a Phishing Email Message to learn how to report a Phishing email and how to enable the Phish alert button (when its not visible) in multiple different versions of Outlook.

Menu Bar and Ribbon

The Menu Bar has Home, View, and Message tab. Each of these has their own options. There are two choices for the Ribbon: Classic and Simplified. To change between the ribbons, click on the small carat icon in the right of the inbox, see the sample image below:

Classic ribbon

The classic ribbon will show you the most used commands with their icons and names.

Simplified ribbon

The simplified ribbon is condensed version showing icons instead of the label. You can hover an icon in the ribbon and a tool tip box will tell you what the icon does.

Note: You can also change between the two ribbon versions from the View tab > Ribbon.        

Gather Feedback in Outlook 

In Outlook, you can quickly create an embedded poll within a email message allowing you to gather feedback from your recipients. You can add one or more polls. Look for the Polls icon within the Add-ins section of the Outlook toolbar.

 Create a poll(s): After clicking the Polls button, you can type in your question and choose the type of question you want to ask. You can select from Multiple Choice, Quiz, Word Cloud, Rating, or Ranking. Note: if you choose "Multiple Choice" can allow multiple answers.

Send the email: When your done adding your poll(s), send your email as normal.

View Results in Outlook: Everyone can see the results after submission, but not the names, it is anonymous. Once votes are submitted the question window turns into a View Results window. The creator can export the results or close the poll.
 


View results outside of Outlook: Your polls are saved in the Forms app and can be accessed at forms.office.com

Use a Template for Repetitive Emails 

Create an email as normal. Click My Templates button (document with a lightning symbol) located in the Add-ins section of the menu bar. Type the title in the text box, add text, images, and a website address as appropriate then click Save. Then the next time you need the same message, you can add it in one click to the body of your email. 

Home tab - Access tools for your Inbox

Organize and Clean Up your Inbox

• Set up quick steps and and automate an action reducing repetitive clicks. Some popular options are moving emails to specific folders, handling emails with certain categories or keywords, and forwarding/ marking certain emails as read.
• The Sweep button on the Home tab allows users to create Sweep rules for automatic sorting and filtering of your email, ​choose from various options for next time you receive an email from a specific sender.
• The Categorize button on the Home tab allows users to create Categories so you can tag, label, and group emails.
• The Pin button on the Home tab allows you to Pin an email(s) at the top of your inbox, it will stay pinned on top of all incoming emails.
• The Flag button allows you to Flag an email to follow up on later. This method creates a automatic task inside of Microsoft To-Do app, allowing you to manage daily or planned to-dos.

Attaching OneDrive files

Compose a email as normal and attach a OneDrive file. The default is set to anyone can edit and has 30 day expiration. We recommend to change to recipients of the email and change the permissions as appropriate to Can edit, Can view, or Can't download.  

Essential Tips - Miscellaneous 

• Use the Send later button when working early or late. This lets you set up a delayed delivery after composing an email.
• Use the top Search bar to Filter your email by clicking the funnel icon (located to the right of search bar).
• Use Viva Insights in Outlook to track the open rate of an email or an attachment, you must have the minimum of 5 recipients for this to work. Analytics are gathered for 14 days only. 
• Access your Groups from the people icon (three persons) within your Outlook toolbar to manage groups you are a owner in or view as a member. 
• Set a retention and archive policy for a subfolder and choose when you want emails to be deleted outside of the default parent policy. The options are, 1 week, 1 month, 6-month, 1 year, 5 year, and never delete. Start by right clicking the folder you want to set the policy for then select Assign policy.
• Access your Notes In your inbox, expand the Folders tab then click on Notes. From here you can view all your Notes synced from Sticky Notes or if you used the OneNote Feed tool. 

Using the Focused Inbox

The Focused inbox for Outlook sorts emails into Focused and Other tabs, learning from your interactions to prioritize important messages and reduce notifications. You can adjust this in Outlook settings by searching for “Focused Inbox” and choose “Don’t sort my messages.” You can also drag and drop or right-click to move emails between tabs.