Tip of the week # 592
1 January 2020


Remove redundant messages from your inbox using a shortcut (Microsoft Outlook) *

Hello and welcome to the first tip of the decade. Hope you all had a relaxing break. That said, some of your colleagues or clients might have sent you messages during your absence. And others might have responded or forwarded messages. You obviously don't want to read and keep all those redundant emails or risk knee-jerking into answering an old question. Back in June last year I told you to right-click the inbox to only keep the most recent message from every conversation in your inbox or those that changed or contain attachments. But why not use KeyTips to quickly clean up messages?

Here's how:

  1. In the Inbox, press ALT, H, C, F. (Press and release the ALT key, press and release the letter H, press and release C and press and release F.)
  2. Press ENTER.

I know the keyboard shortcut is very unintuitive (to say the least), but if you keep an eye on the ribbon you see that when you press the ALT key, letters appear over every tab and button in the tab. You can then press the corresponding letter to trigger a command. So this can be a great general tip to speed up your way of working, especially if you are a touch-typist!

To hide the KeyTips, simply press the ALT key once more. Or press the Esc key in the top left of your keyboard.

Oh, and for those of you who are using Outlook 2016 . you might notice that the Clean Up Folder shortcut when using KeyTips is L, not F. No idea why Microsoft changed that, but please note that you have to press ALT, H, C, L if you want to trigger that option.

Related tips

  1. Reduce the number of messages in your inbox upon your return from holiday - tip_576.php
  2. Selecting commands without using your mouse - tip_220.php
  3. Five tips to prevent email overload upon your return from holiday - tip_546.php

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* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.