How to use different views in Windows 10 Mail app

Windows 10 Mail is a useful email client that has some good features and it offers different views of your messages so you can see those that are most important. Here’s how it works.

The email app that comes with Windows 10 can be used for Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and other services. It is not the best or most comprehensive email app available and Microsoft’s own Outlook software is better for example, but if your needs are straightforward then it is fine.

It is basic but that does not mean it does not have many features and it may have more than you realise. In this article I will look at the different views of your inbox and emails that the Mail app provides.

Filter emails with Focused Inbox

The Mail app can analyse incoming messages and assign them to one of two groups - those that are important that those that are not. It may not get it right every single time but it guesses correctly often enough for this to be a useful way to filter out the unimportant messages from your inbox so you can deal with those that need your attention.

To enable Focused Inbox:

1. Open the menu at the left side of the Mail app
2. Click the gear icon at the bottom
3. Click Focused inbox in the settings
4. Select an account to apply this to (if you have more than one)
5. Turn on the switch

When you return to your inbox there are now two headings, Focused and Other. Click Focused to see the messages the Mail app thinks are important or click Other to see what it regards as less important.

Most of the time it is right and it does quite a good job of sorting your mail but it is still best to check the Other tab just in case a messages has been classified wrongly.

Select multiple emails with checkboxes

Sometimes you need to perform an action on multiple emails, such as deleting them, moving them or archiving them. Click the icon above the inbox listing on the right to modify the inbox view. Now checkboxes appear next to all the messages to enable them to be selected or deselected ready for bulk actions to be applied.

The box at the top is used to select all messages. It is sometimes easier to select all messages then deselect the ones you want to keep, rather than manually selecting multiple messages.

Click the icon at the top right again to hide the checkboxes.

View unread emails

Emails can be organised into two categories - those you have read and those you haven’t. You obviously need to focus on unread emails and see if they need a response or some kind of action.

Click the All above the inbox listing and select Unread from the menu to see emails you have not yet read.

View flagged emails

Also on the All menu is Flagged and this lists only those emails you have flagged.

A flag is simply a marker or label that is attached to a message and to add one just right click it in the inbox and select Set flag. A little red flag icon appears next to it in the inbox to show it has been flagged.

Add a flag to any message that is important, that you want to deal with later, you don’t want to forget or one you want to be easily found. To find flagged emails, just click All and select Flagged.

Show emails with mentions

Click All just above the inbox listing to show the menu and there is a menu option to show Mentions. This is an interesting Twitter-like feature that is useful under some circumstances, although it could be better.

When you are writing an email you can type @Bob Smith to create a mention for Bob Smith. An email can have any number of mentions so you could add @Bob Smith and @Jill Jones, and so on. As you type the @name, a list of matching names and email addresses is displayed and you can click the person you want to automatically enter it.

If other users of the Mail app on Windows 10 and the Outlook.com email service send you an email containing @Your Name this is a mention. Click All above the inbox and select Mentions to see all those emails in which you are mentioned.

Use mentions in emails that contain something important and you and your contacts can then use the Mail app to view those messages with mentions.

This feature does not work so well across different email systems and messages sent from Gmail with mentions (yes, this trick works with Gmail) were not shown in the Mentions view. The mention, such as @Your Name just looked like a regular mailto link. Outlook to Outlook emails must be doing something special with them.