• Home
  • About T4L
    • Contact
    • Legal Stuff
  • Subscribe

Tech for Luddites

News, Views, and How-Tos for a Digital World

Quickly Find Unread Emails in Outlook

Last Updated: June 28, 2016

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you end up buying something from the site it goes to, I may get a commission for the referral. If you are using an ad blocker, some product information and links may not display unless you whitelist techforluddites.com.

MS-Outlook Unread MessagesMS-Outlook Unread MessagesDespite my recent angry post about Microsoft, I’m still a fan of their products. The one I use the most is Outlook and every time I try any other email client, I quickly end up discovering that they are lacking features I want and that I just take for granted should be in an email client.

Do I think Outlook is perfect? No. But it’s one of the few programs I use where I almost never say, “Why can’t you do this thing I need to do?”

Except.

I’ve long thought it was really odd that there’s no button in any of the ribbons to just view your unread messages. I’m pretty sure earlier versions of the program (pre-ribbons) had the option front and center. It’s not something that bothers me on a regular basis because I rarely leave messages unread.

However, while I was in Canada for two months, I fell behind on organizing my Inbox and so when there was an email I was going to need to act on, I set it back to Unread. This morning I finally had a chance to look at them again, but there were only half a dozen among more than 1,000 messages, so I wanted to just see those ones in my message list.

In the past, when I did need to do it, I used the View > View Settings > Filter option to just show unread messages. But for some reason today, as I was about to do that, I decided that there had to be a less convoluted way to do this. So I called on Mr. Google and sure enough, there are two methods that are so. much. simpler.

So here they are!

1. On the Home ribbon, in the Find section, click on Filter and voila! There’s Unread, right at the top.

When you select that, the filter will appear at the top of the message pane so you can just click the “x” to go back to the full list.

2. Click inside the search box at the top of the message list to bring up the Search ribbon. In the Refine section of this ribbon is a button for Unread. Click that for the same results.

D’oh!

Reader Tip

After the two great ones that reader Ian sent in for the post from yesterday and the day before, I’m back down to zero tips. 🙁

Share Your Favorite Tech Tip and Enter for a Chance to Win!

Got a good tip that other readers could benefit from? Submit it to T4L and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win an Amazon Fire tablet AND an Amazon Fire TV Stick streaming media player!

See the full contest rules and submit your tech tip. >>

You may also be interested in:

Stop the Email Threading Madness

Turn Off Email Grouping in Outlook

Manage Your Outlook Email More Easily with Quick Steps

Filed Under: Email, How To, MS-Outlook, User Interface Tagged With: 2016 blogathon

If you found this post helpful, maybe your friends will too (hint, hint)!

To receive future blog posts in your Inbox, please fill out the form below.

Individual Posts Weekly(ish) Digest Monthly Newsletter

Comments for this page are closed. You can provide comments or ask questions via email at feedback@techforluddites.com. Unfortunately I cannot guarantee that I will be able to reply to every question I receive, but I will try.

Featured Posts

Streaming Media Players: A Comparison Chart

A comparison of features between the Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Google Chromecast, including price, supported content providers, and more.

T4L TOP TEN

Stop the Email Threading Madness

Learn how to change your email inbox to list messages in the order they come in.

Windows 10: Change the Default Programs for Opening Files

Learn how to choose which programs you want to use with different kinds of files, instead of the ones Microsoft wants you to use.

Amazon Fire TV Stick vs Roku Streaming Stick+: Which One Is Right for You?

A comparison of the main differences between these two popular and affordable streaming media players.

Send Your Cable TV Signal Wirelessly to Another Room

Product review and how-to for systems that let you get cable/satellite programming on additional TV sets even if there are no outlets nearby.

Post Photos and Videos to Instagram from Your Computer

If, like me, you spend more time on your PC than on your phone or tablet, you can still share content on Instagram.

Create Different Headers in Word

Step-by-step instructions for using section breaks so you can have different headers on different pages of your Microsoft Word document.

Replacing List Bullets with Images Using CSS

Replacing standard HTML list bullets with images can be a great way to tie them into your site’s overall theme and make pages more visually appealing.

Streaming Media: Frequently Asked Questions

Still have questions about how a streaming media player like the Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or Google Chromecast works? Find answers here!

Send Messages to People You Don’t Know on LinkedIn

While there are several ways to do this, purchasing an individual InMail is often the best option—and the most difficult to find.

The Twitter Hashtag: What Is It and How Do You Use It?

Learn what this ubiquitous symbol means and how to make the most of it in your tweets.

Privacy Policy

Data collected through forms on this website is used only for the purposes stated up front, e.g. sending newsletters to subscribers who opt in, selling products or services, etc. Tech for Luddites does not share or sell data collected. Learn more from our privacy policy.

Ads and Affiliate Links

Tech for Luddites is a participant in a number of advertising and affiliate programs. This means that if you take certain actions (click through, make a purchase) from links on this website, T4L may receive a commission for the referral. Learn more.

Contact Tech for Luddites

T4L is not currently accepting guest or sponsored posts. To ask a question, share a tech tip, suggest a post topic, or provide general feedback on this site, please email info@techforluddites.com.

Copyright © 2021 Tech for Luddites. All rights reserved. Content may not be copied without written permission.

This Site Uses Cookies

Learn more about T4L's privacy policy.