Outlook 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet

Stash messages in the Archive folder in Outlook 2019

Outlook has long offered email message archiving — that is, the option to move messages out of your Outlook mailbox and into a separate PST file as a space-saving measure. Corporate versions of Office offer their own archiving features that automatically archive users’ older messages, again to save space. These methods remove the messages from the user’s Outlook mailbox. You can still get them back, but it takes some doing.

There’s another option in Outlook 2019: You can move specific pieces of mail out of your Inbox or other folders and into the Archive folder. That way, when looking for a message, you can browse or search the Archive folder and find the message more quickly.

Using the Archive folder doesn’t reduce the size of your mailbox; it simply helps tidy up your inbox while keeping older messages instantly accessible. Microsoft recommends that you use the Archive folder to store messages that you’ve already responded to or acted on.

If you already have a system of folders and subfolders in Outlook, you might not need the Archive folder, but it can be a boon for those of us who tend to leave everything in the inbox. And even if you do have a folder system, you might find that not all of your email fits neatly into your folders and subfolders; you can move these messages to the Archive folder to keep your inbox clean.

To move messages to the Archive folder, first select one or more that you want to archive. (Select multiple messages by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each one you want to select.) With the message or messages selected, go to the Ribbon’s Home tab and click Archive in the Delete group, right-click the message or group of messages, and select Archive, or simply drag the selected message(s) to the Archive folder. You can also move an individual email to the Archive folder by pressing the Backspace key when the message is highlighted or when you’re reading it.

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Now when you need to find a message, you can browse the Archive folder or else go to the Archive folder and launch a search.

To move a message out of the Archive folder to a different folder, simply drag it to its destination.

Handy keyboard shortcuts

If you're a fan of keyboard shortcuts, you’ll be pleased to find out that Outlook 2016 and 2019 have plenty of them. The table below highlights the most useful ones, and more are listed on Microsoft's Office site.

And if you really want to go whole-hog with keyboard shortcuts, download our Outlook 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference guide, which explores the most useful commands on each Ribbon tab and provides keyboard shortcuts for each. 

Useful Outlook 2016 and 2019 keyboard shortcuts

Don’t forget to download our Outlook 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference!

This story was originally published in November 2018 and updated in May 2021.