Microsoft Outlook – Manage Favorites

I have re-installed Microsoft Outlook 2013 on my Windows 7 System and I have configured the mailbox to receive the mails. Once done, I have opened Outlook and observed that Favorites folder was not appearing. In my previous installation of Outlook 2013, it was there and it makes easy to access the folders from Favorites.

Later, I realized that we need to add Favorites again after the installation and add the frequently used folders into it. I would like to share how I did through this Article.

Favorites section will appear on top of the folder pane in Outlook 2013 and which contains the favorite folders you have added into the Favorites group. This will enable to quick access to the folders frequently we use; instead of accessing the folders which are in deep level in folders pane.

In this article, I am going to explain managing the Favorites in Microsoft Outlook 2013. These steps may work in other versions of Outlook but I haven’t tested them.

Add folders to Favorites in Outlook

Step 1. Open Outlook 2013. On top of the folders pane, you will see a section for Favorites.

If no Favorites have already been added, you will see the “Drag Your Favorite Folders Here” entry in the Favorites section.

Step 2. To add a folder to the Favorites section; select the folder, drag it and drop it into the Favorites section. For example, to add Inbox, Archive, etc, folders; just select the folder, drag it and drop it in the Favorites section. Outlook will add the favorite folder into the Favorites section.

OR
Select the folder you want to add into Favorites; right-click on it. Outlook will show the pop-up menu. From the pop-up menu, select the “Show in Favorites” menu item. This way also we can add favorite folders into the Favorites section.

All these are standard folders we can easily add them to the Favorites section. In my previous installation of Outlook; I had an Unread mail folder appear in the Favorites section. How to add this? These are the Search Folders (or Virtual Folders); when we select them, Outlook will search for the relevant entries and display them under this Search Folders. Then, how to add Search Folders to the Favorites section? See the next steps.

Step 3. Search Folders usually will appear under the Search Folders entry. For example, “Unread Mail”, “Large Mail” etc, are the search folders.

Select the search folder you want to add to the Favorites section; drag it and drop it into the Favorites section.

OR

Right-click on it, and select “Show in Favorites” from the pop-up menu. It will add the selected search folder into the Favorites section.

Sometimes, by default, these search folders will not appear under Search Folders. Then, we need to add them. See the next steps.

Add a Search Folder

Step 4. If you do not see an entry under “Search Folders”, you can add it by right-clicking on it and selecting “New Search Folder…“. Outlook will open the “New Search Folder” dialog.

Step 4.1. Select a search folder you want to add from the “Select a Search Folder:” field. Then click on the OK button to add the selected search folder under “Search Folders”.

Step 5. Observe that, the entries were added to the Favorites section; which is displayed on the top of the folders pane.

Remove folders from Favorites

Step 6. It is simple to remove the folder from the Favorites section. Select the folder you want to remove from the Favorites section; then right-click on it. And then select the “Remove from Favorites” menu item from the pop-up menu.

Step 7. Observe that, the selected folder was removed from the Favorites section.

Change the Order in the Favorites section

Step 8. You can also, change the position of the folders which are added in the Favorites section. Select the folder you want to change the position of it’s from other folders in the Favorites section; right-click on it, and then select:

• Move Up menu item, to move up in the list.
• Move Down menu item, to move down in the list.

We will discuss more topics on Outlook in my upcoming Articles.

🙂 Sahida