The Home Tab on the Ribbon
When you open Outlook, the program automatically displays the Home tab of the ribbon. This is where you send and receive e-mails and where most of the activity in Outlook occurs. The command buttons in the Home tab are arranged into groups.
Here’s what you’ll find in each group:
The New group: Select New Email to create a new message. Select New Items to display a list of options to create appointments, tasks, and more. The Delete group: Select Delete to delete a selected email message. Select Ignore, Clean Up, or Junk to control how email is handled when it’s received. The Respond group: Use these command to Reply, Reply All, or Forward messages. You can also set meetings and access more methods of responding. The Quick Steps group: Use the commands in this group to move a message to a folder, reply to a message, or delete a message. There are also other quick commands, such as Move to, Team Email, To Manager, Done, and Create New. To find additional commands, select Manage Quick Steps (the arrow in the lower-right corner of the group). The Move group: Find options to move messages, create rules, or to access OneNote. The Tags group: Use the commands in this group to mark messages as read or unread, categorize messages, or add a flag for follow-up. The Find group: Use these commands to find a contact, access your address book, or filter email.
Find Other Commands
In addition to the Home tab of the ribbon, there are several other tabs. Each of these tabs contains commands that are associated with the tab name. There are four tabs other than the Home tab:
The File tab: Contains commands to change your options for Outlook and to print e-mail messages, calendars, and task lists. The Send/Receive tab: Contains commands to send and receive e-mail. There are also commands to manage downloads and email server behavior. The Folder tab: Contains commands to manage email folders and properties. The View tab: Use these commands to change the Outlook layout for conversations, the message preview, the Reading pane, the To-do Pane, and the People Pane.
The Outlook Ribbon
The Outlook ribbon is a collection of toolbars with several tabs that contain commands to commonly accessed tasks. The ribbon adapts based on what you’re doing in Outlook. For example, if you’re working with e-mail attachments, the Attachment tab appears. Once you’ve sent or downloaded an attachment and moved on to another email, the Attachment tab disappears because it’s no longer needed.
Change the Look of the Ribbon
If the ribbon takes up too much space and you want to see more of the Outlook message area, collapse the ribbon. Select Switch Ribbons (it’s the arrow in the lower-right corner of the ribbon) to collapse or expand the ribbon.
When the ribbon is collapsed in Outlook 2019 and Outlook for Microsoft 365, the commands you use the most display for each tab. In previous versions of Outlook, only the tab names display.
