How to Sort Emails in Outlook

How to Sort Outlook Emails

You have a variety of filter and sort features to organize your Outlook inbox and find what you need. While Outlook provides some common sorting options, you’ll see that the Clean Email app offers more sorting features for flexibility.

For instance, you can sort using three layers in Outlook. You can choose a filter like all emails, unread, or flagged. Then, choose the arrangement and finally, the sort order.

But with Clean Email, you can use four layers for sorting. You can start with a Smart Folder which contains pre-filtered messages. Then, filter by unread, old, large, or another parameter. Next, you can group the messages, and finally, choose the sort order.

As you’ll see in the guides below, these additional layers let you more effectively locate your emails.

By Category and Folders

While you can’t automatically sort emails into Outlook folders without a rule, what you can do is use Categories which are like tags. Alternatively, you can take advantage of the Smart Folders in Clean Email which performs automatic sorting for you.

Use Categories in Outlook

By assigning a Category to an Outlook email, you can then organize by that Category to see all messages in that group.

1. Select an email and go to the Home tab or right-click to view the Categorize menu.
2. Choose a Category or use New Category to create one.
3. You’ll then see the сategory assigned to the message and can continue to assign it to others.
4. For sorting by Category, open the Filter drop-down menu on the top right, move to Sort, and pick Category.

Use Smart Folders in Clean Email

Without any additional actions, you can see your Outlook emails automatically sorted into Smart Folders in Clean Email.

Expand Smart Folders in the menu and choose a folder. You’ll then see all related messages like those for travel, social notifications, online shopping, and more.

By Sender and Number of Emails

When you want to see all messages from a particular person, you can sort Outlook emails by sender.

Sort by Sender in Outlook

With your inbox in view, click the From column header. Point the arrow up to organize from A to Z or down for the reverse.

You’ll then see your message list sorted by sender and can collapse or expand the groups of emails if needed.

Sort by Sender and Number in Clean Email

In Clean Email, you can not only group by sender but include an additional parameter for sorting by the number of messages from each sender.

In All Mail, your Inbox, or a folder, open the Group By drop-down menu and choose Sender (name and email). Here, you can also sort emails by Sender Domain.

Then, open the Sort drop-down menu (Newest on Top) and pick one of the Number of Messages options: High to Low or Low to High.

You’ll then see your list sorted by sender and number of messages at the same time.

By Recipient

If you want to find emails sent to a particular recipient, this is another helpful sorting option. For example, you may want to see messages sent only to you, or instead, to both you and your project team.

Sort by Recipient in Outlook

In Outlook, you can see emails that were sent only to you and not as a copied or blind-copied recipient.

With your inbox open, select the Filter drop-down menu and pick To me.

You’ll then see only those emails where you are on the TO line.

Sort by Recipient and Number in Clean Email

You can sort by recipient in the app as well but beyond messages only sent to you. For instance, you can group by recipient and then organize by the number of messages per recipient.

In All Mail, your Inbox, or a folder, open the Group By drop-down menu and choose Recipients.

Then, use the Sort drop-down menu (Newest on Top button) to select one of the Number of Messages options: High to Low or Low to High.

By Subject A-Z (Alphabetically)

One of the simplest sorting options you have is alphabetically. This is a convenient way to organize your inbox from A to Z in Microsoft Outlook by using the subject line of your messages.

Sort by Subject in Outlook

1. With your inbox open, select the Filter drop-down menu, move to Sort, and pick Subject.
2. Then, click the Subject column header so that the arrow points up for A to Z.

You should then see your list in alphabetical order by subject. You can point the arrow in the opposite direction to reverse the order.

Sort by Subject in Clean Email

You can also organize an Outlook inbox by subject from A to Z using this app. The advantage here is that you can then open an entire group of messages with the same subject line.

1. In All Mail, your Inbox, or a folder, open the Group By drop-down menu and choose Subject.
2. Then, open the Sort drop-down menu (Newest on Top) and pick Subject (A – z).

You’ll then see your alphabetized list with the number of messages in the group to the right. Select any group to open it and view the emails. You can choose Subject (z – A) to reverse the order.

By Size

Another nice and easy way to find messages in Outlook is by size. This is handy for spotting emails that contain many images, for example, which increases the sizes of the messages.

Sort by Size in Outlook

Open the Filter drop-down menu, move to Sort, and choose Size.

You’ll then see your messages listed by size and like with sorting by sender, you can collapse or expand the email groups if needed.

Sort by Specific Sizes in Clean Email

What’s great about sorting by size in Clean Email is that you can pick the size you want to use so that you can find the one you want faster.

1. Go to a folder with emails you would like to organize, such as All Mail or Inbox.
2. At the top, select Large Mail and pick a size from over a dozen options.

You’ll then see all emails that are larger than the size you selected.

By Date

Sorting emails by date can help you quickly find the most recent messages or revisit older ones.

Sort by Date in Outlook

1. With your inbox open, select Filter at the top of the message pane, and move to Sort in the drop-down menu.
2. Under Sort by, choose Date to organize your emails chronologically.

You can click the column header to toggle between newest to oldest or oldest to newest.

Sort by Date in Clean Email

In Clean Email, you can sort your Outlook inbox by date to easily locate recent or older messages.

1. In any preferred folder, open Group by drop-down menu, and select Date.
2. Open the Sort drop-down menu (Newest on Top) and toggle between Newest on Top or Oldest on Top to set your preferred order.

By Unread

Keeping track of unread messages is crucial to ensure you don't miss any important emails.

Sort by Unread in Outlook

1. In your Inbox, select the folder you want to filter for unread messages.
2. Near the upper right corner of the message list, select the Filter icon.
3. Under Filter, choose Unread to display only your unread messages.

Sort by Unread in Clean Email

Clean Email helps you focus on unread messages to ensure you never miss a new email. You can select the Unread Mail filter from the left-hand panel and then sort these emails as you prefer.

Alternatively, you can find and sort unread emails in each folder:

1. Open a finder where you want to sort the unread emails and open the Filter drop-down menu.
2. Under Status, select Unread to display only unread messages.
3. Then, you can sort these messages by other parameters by opening the Group By drop-down menu.

How to Automatically Sort Emails in Outlook Using Rules

After reviewing the above guidelines, it’s clear that you’ll be spending precious time each day doing these processes manually. Knowing how to automatically sort emails in Outlook can be a huge time-saver, not to mention it takes the guesswork out of choosing where your emails appear in the inbox.

Important: Only the classic Outlook has the functionality presented below. The new Outlook for Windows does not allow users to set these rules.

In the classic Outlook, you can set up Rules for Outlook filters to follow. Outlook offers a number of Rules templates that are ready for you to use. To access them, go to File, then Manage Rules and Alerts. Select New Rule, then choose your template.

You have a lot of options here. For example, you might choose to move all messages from specific senders to a certain folder. You can also move all emails from a specific domain (e.g. all messages from your company) into a designated folder. Other options include:

Once you select a template, set the conditions for the rule. The initial setup takes time, but once your rules are in place, you'll enjoy a clean, organized inbox.

As an alternative, you can use Clean Email's Auto Clean feature to perform actions such as sorting emails automatically, adding labels, starring emails, or adding them to the Read Later folder. While this email cleaner doesn't offer all the features listed above, it provides other helpful tools for managing your Outlook inbox. Learn more about Clean Email’s additional features below.

How to Sort Emails in the Outlook Mobile App

Unfortunately, if you use the Outlook mobile app, you cannot sort your emails there.

For sorting in Outlook on your mobile device, you can use all of the above guides in the Clean Email mobile app on both Android and iPhone!

Sort Inbox in Outlook: Consider It Done!

Now you’ve got the basics you need to sort emails in Outlook in a way that works for you. Setting up your own rules and filters may take a little time, but the benefits to your productivity and peace of mind will pay off in spades.

Related posts:

1. How to Search Emails in Outlook
2. How to Delete Old Emails in Outlook
3. How to Mark an Email as Important in Outlook