How to Sort Outlook Folders in Arbitrary, Non-Alphabetic Order

Place your most important folders at the top of Outlook

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Updated on December 5, 2021

What to Know

Right-click the folder you'd like to appear first, select Rename, and insert a 1 at the start of the folder's name.
For the folder you'd like to appear second, add a 2 to the start of its name, and so on so forth for further folders.
You can use as many numbers as you'd like to order as many folders as you wish.

Outlook is strict about alphabetically sorting folders. Fortunately, it is just as strict at sorting cardinally. Here's how to make sure your Outlook folders are in the order you want. These instructions apply to Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2010.

Sort Outlook Folders in Arbitrary, Non-Alphabetic Order

To apply custom order to your folders in Outlook:

Click on the folder you wish to appear first with the right mouse button.
Select Rename from the menu.
Precede the current folder name with "1" (not including the quotation marks). If the folder is called "Today", for example, change the name to "1 Today".
Select Enter.
Repeat for the folder you wish to appear next; precede its name with "2".
Continue renaming folders with the desired order number.

If you have many folders and wish to retain flexibility, rename folders "1 Today", "10 This Week", "20 This Month" etc. You can also group folders as sub-folders and sort the parent folders using the same technique. As a gentler alternative to numbers, you can use lower case letters: "a Today", "c This Week", "e This Month" etc.

To bring a single folder to the top in the Outlook folder list, Rename the folder preceding its name with "!". "Today" would become "!Today", for example.

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