The Outlook folders tree shows folders in alphabetical order only. In order to display them in a different order, you can use either of the following methods:
- Promote a specific folder to the top of the list
If you want a specific folder to appear before the others, rename it with a punctuation mark at the beginning of its name. For instance, if you want the “Pending” folder to appear first, rename it “!Pending” or “_Pending”.
- Define the position of each folder in the list
If you want to define the position of each folder, just prefix each folder name with a number, for example:
If you use SpeedFiler to file your messages, you do not have to type the numbers, as SpeedFiler looks for matches anywhere in a folder name, not just the beginning. So if you want to file an item in “1 Rejected”, just open the File In Folder window and start typing the word “rejected” until you see “1 Rejected” in the list of matching folders.
Email programs have not changed much in the past decade, but the amount of email we get has grown by a tremendous amount, significantly impacting our email productivity. The average information worker gets far more mail than s/he can cope with, and an increasing number of people suffer from "email overload". In this blog, Itzy Sabo analyzes the causes of email overload, discusses strategies to cope with the constant bombardment, and provides practical tips for getting the most out of our email programs. 
13 responses so far ↓
Thinking Home Business // March 1, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Itzy Sabo’s Excellent Email Management Clues
This post is part of the LinkedIn Bloggers Boost project I wrote about yesterday.
It’s funny (as in odd, rather …
The Intuitive Life Business Blog // March 1, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Blog site under the microscope: Email Overloaded
This starts a new series that I’ll be running on my site to help bring some lesser known weblogs some additional visibility. These sites will either be splendid examples of the state of the art, or be works in progress, in which case I will also point…
DeAnna Spencer // March 1, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Hi Itzy. That was a very useful post. It may encourage me to actually start using Outlook.
Stuart Bruce, BMA PR // March 1, 2006 at 9:11 pm
The best thing about this tip is it works in email clients other than Outlook. I use a product called OfficeTalk (disclaimer I also do the PR for its developer, but used the product for years before I started doing the PR). The numbering folders idea really does work well.
Licence to Roam // March 1, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Linked In Bloggers
I belong to a newsgroup for bloggers on Linked In. Many of the members use blogging to drive and support their business, so there is a lot of great information passed around about what makes a good post, how to…
kim // March 2, 2006 at 7:43 am
I’ve done that within outlook for a while. I also have a couple folders that are top priority “category” stuff so I end up doing something like:
__ 1 Stuff (category 1 folder 1)
__ 2 Stuff (category 1 folder 1)
1 Stuff (category 2 folder 1)
2 Stuff (category 2 folder 2)
Jim Stroud 2.0 - I recruit, therefore I am // March 2, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Linked In Blogger Boost: Email Overload
Want to hear this blog instead of just read…
JC Payne // March 15, 2006 at 9:43 pm
This is a trick I have used for years to organize my email and general data file folders, giving the lower numbers to higher traffic or priority folders. I was amazed by how simple it was, and yet how effective it was. I have found that when I don’t use this method, like with shared network folders at work, I can’t properly organize and have problems finding the things that I need. Unfortunately, convincing others to reorganize has been even more frustrating.
Laura’s Ideas » Blog Archive » Overloaded email: organize folders // April 3, 2006 at 12:56 am
[...] Itzy Sabo’s EMAIL OVERLOADED has a good suggestion: You can use numerals or puncuation as a prefix to sort your folders in your preferred order. [...]
Jim McKinley // July 11, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I get quite a bit of mail daily, so what I want to do is sort all my incoming email into alphabetical order.
I used to have a program on my first old computer with Windows 95 that did this, it could order it asending, desending or in alphabetical order, that was a very handy feature. Now I have Windows XP, and a lot of these good things are gone! Not an improvement in my mind! Can you direct me to getting this done.
I will be very greatful, if you can. thanks.
Jim McKinley
Reginald Dittman // December 1, 2006 at 7:28 am
Considering you can’t rename some of the key folders such as Inbox and Sent Items, the mandatory alphabetical listing is hopeless.
Jim Stroud 2.0 » Blog Archive » Linked In Blogger Boost: Email Overload // December 21, 2006 at 1:14 am
[...] Click here for the rest of the story. [...]
Jack // November 14, 2007 at 5:38 pm
This is too bad. We are in the process of moving from Groupwise to Exchange and in the Groupwise client you have the ability to position your folders anyway you like. They both have their positives I guess but there are a few things that Microsoft should have stole from Novell. This is not going to make my users happy. The battle goes on.
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