Today, I’m focusing on Outlook shortcuts, a seriously underrated way to speed up your email and calendar workflow. If you’ve ever attended one of my training sessions, or even just read a few of my other posts, you’ll know I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. Anything that helps improve efficiency and workflow is a win in my book. Since I’m often juggling multiple tasks on the computer, I tend to rely on shortcut keys across all the Microsoft 365 programs.
While most people associate keyboard shortcuts with Word or Excel, Outlook actually has just as many helpful options. There are some fantastic Outlook shortcuts that can speed up how you manage your email, calendar, and more, making your day just that little bit easier.
Below, I’ve listed some of my favourite Outlook shortcuts that I use all the time. And don’t worry about trying to remember them all, you can download the full list in a handy PDF at the bottom of this post.
| Shortcut Keys | Description |
| Ctrl + 1 | Open the Mail section |
| Ctrl + 2 | Open the Calendar section |
| Ctrl + 3 | Open the Contacts section |
| Ctrl + 4 | Open the Tasks section |
| Ctrl + 5 | Open the Notes section |
| F9 | Force Outlook to perform a Send/Receive |
| Ctrl + N | Create a new email message, appointment, contact, task or note. |
| Ctrl + R | Reply to an email message. |
| Ctrl + Shift + R | Reply to all recipients of an email message. |
| Ctrl + F | Forward an email message, meeting/appointment, contact, task or note. |
| Ctrl + Shift + E | Create a new folder |
| Ctrl + S | Save an item (such as a contact) or Send (when used within an email message) |
| Ctrl + B | Apply the Bold formatting when composing an email message. |
| Ctrl + I | Apply the Italics formatting when composing an email message. |
| Ctrl + U | Apply the Underline formatting when composing an email message. |
| Ctrl + C | Performs the Copy function. |
| Ctrl + X | Performs the Cut function. |
| Ctrl + V | Performs the Paste function. |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo. Undo. Undo. Need I say more? |
| Ctrl + L | Make the selected paragraph Left aligned within an email message |
| Ctrl + R | Make the selected paragraph Right aligned within an email message. |
| Ctrl + E | Make the selected paragraph Centre aligned within an email message. |
| Ctrl + J | Make the selected paragraph Justify aligned within an email message. |
| Ctrl + P | Print the current email, appointment, contact etc. This shortcut combination will open the Print Preview window. |
| Ctrl + ] | Increase the font size within an email message. Keep pressing this combination to keep increasing font size. |
| Ctrl + [ | Increase the font size within an email message. Again keep pressing this combination to keep decreasing the size. |
| Ctrl + G | Go to a specific date in your calendar. |
| Ctrl + Shift + A | Create an appointment. |
| Ctrl + Shift + C | Create a contact. |
| Ctrl + Shift + E | Create a new folder. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Q | Create a meeting request. |
| Ctrl + Shift + M | Create a email message. |
| Ctrl + Shift + N | Create a note. |
| Ctrl + Shift + K | Create a task. |
| Ctrl + Alt + J | Mark an item as NOT junk. |
That’s the list of my most favourite Outlook shortcuts. To see a full list of all shortcuts available in Outlook, use the F1 key to access the built-in Microsoft Outlook Help feature and search for keyboard shortcuts.
Be sure to check out my other posts for keyboard shortcuts to use in Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Word.
Because there are a few Outlook versions available at the moment, including Outlook classic and the new Outlook, you can also check out the official Microsoft documentation to give you all the shortcut options across these different versions.
I love hearing about shortcut combinations that other people use so feel free to comment below if you have a favourite Outlook shortcuts not listed here.
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