@Mentions: Make Collaborating via Email Fast and Easy

Focus on what matters by using the @Mentions feature, first introduction in Microsoft Outlook 2016 and available in Outlook 2019 and 365.

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How do you get someone’s attention? Today, we are being drowned with a lot more email messages competing for our attention in our inbox. Focus on what matters most using this cool tool – @Mentions. It quickly alerts you and other team members to action tasks through email.

How do you use @Mentions?

Create a new email
Type the @ symbol anywhere in the body of your email (email list appears- Wow!)
Type the person’s name
Select the who you want to address from the email list that pops up
Click send

The @symbol appears on the message list for emails in which you’ve been mentioned, like this:

@Mentions in Outlook

The person’s name you address becomes highlighted in the message in blue. This helps them know they are being asked to action tasks through email, like this:

Example email with an @mention

Benefits of using @Mentions

Helps focus on what needs your attention.
Before an email is opened you can see at a glance which email requires your action.
Outlook has added a filter to enable you sort by only messages you’ve been mentioned in.
Your highlighted name in blue allows you quickly see where exactly your attention is needed in the body of the email.
If the person isn’t part of the email conversation already, they will automatically be added so they receive a copy of your email.
The preview text is updated. You’ll no longer see a preview of the first few words of the email. Instead, Outlook shows a preview of the text immediately following your mention.

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4 Tools to Boost Productivity in Microsoft Outlook — In this blog, Billy identifies a few features that could help save time and boost productivity, such as Conditional Formatting.
321zero: How I Solved my Email Overload — Here is how you can drastically reduce the time you spend on responding and dealing with your inbox.
How to Speed Up Searching Your Emails in Outlook — A quick 2 minute video explaining some useful tools to speed up your Outlook searches.

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Sal Agoro

Sal trains most MS Office packages. Her real love is in transferring knowledge by making her training sessions fun and more impactful. She is Happy’s Outlook Champion and ensures Outlook courses and training material are updated regularly with new features. Sal has been at Happy for over three years.