Maintaining a Custom Folder View for Outlook Folders

How to customize views for multiple folders in Outlook

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Updated on February 19, 2020

Outlook's Views automatically sort, quickly find, and rapidly rearrange messages in any folder according to your needs. Set up a custom view and apply it to multiple folders that share certain characteristics. And, when you want a different view, modify your custom view and apply it to these folders automatically.

Instructions in this article apply to Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; and Outlook for Microsoft 365.

Create a Custom Folder View for a Number of Outlook Folders

To set up a custom folder view that can be applied to multiple Outlook folders:

Select a folder and change the view. For example, set the sort order of messages, group mail by conversation threads, or change the font size in the message list.
Go to the View tab and select Change View > Manage Views.
In the Manage All Views dialog box, choose Current view settings, then select Copy.
In the Copy View dialog box, enter a name for the new view, select All Mail and Post folders, then select OK.
In the Advanced View Settings dialog box, make any changes to the view. When you're finished, select OK to close the Advanced View Settings dialog box.
In the Manage All Views dialog box, select OK.

Apply a Custom View to Folders

To apply a custom view to a folder:

Select the folder to which you want to apply the custom view.
Go to the View tab.
Select Change View and choose the custom view.
The custom view settings are applied to the selected folder.

Modify Custom View Settings

If you want to change the look of the custom view you created, go to the View tab, select Change View > Manage Views. Then, highlight the custom view and select Modify. You can then change how conversations are grouped, columns that appear in the message list, conditional formatting, and more.