Outlook – merge Inbox and Sent Items into one view in Outlook 2007

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Does anyone know if there is a way to merge my Inbox and Sent Items into one view in Outlook 2007? I want a way to manage my email threads in a similar way to how they are managed in Gmail.

Best Answer

One of Outlook 2010 (and Gmail)’s better features is that conversations are grouped together – that is: if you send me a message, and I reply, and you reply again, all three messages are grouped together – not just the two you sent me.

The latter is what Outlook 2007 considers a “conversation” – I’d call it a monologue, or at best half a conversation.

To get the full duplex conversation thread in Outlook 2007 do the following:

  • Right-click Search Folders, select new Search Folder.
  • In the New Search Folder dialog, scroll all the way to the bottom, and select Create a custom Search Folder, then click the Choose.. button.
  • In the Custom Search Folder dialog, enter a name that makes sense to you – I’ll call it Inbox2.0 - SKIP THE CRITERIA, then click Browse… to select which folders to include.
  • In the Select Folder(s) dialog, select the Inbox and Sent Items folders (and any subfolders/other folders that may make sense for your setup), then click OK.
  • Back in the Custom Search Folder dialog, click OK
  • Outlook will present a warning that all items in the folders will be included – this is precisely what you want, so click Yes
  • Your new (Inbox2.0) folder will appear listing all received and sent messages.
  • From the View menu,select Arrange By, Conversation – now your messages are threaded by conversation – the full duplex kind.
  • From here, you may chose to remove/insert colums (I like to show the 'To' recipient and remove the 'In Folder', and also the 'Subject' column – it is (mostly) a duplicate of the conversation title.

I hope you'd enjoy your new duplex view.

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