Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook

Open and read an email

1. In Inbox, press the Tab key or Shift+Tab until you hear the first mail in the message list. Your screen reader indicates if the email is unread, then announces the sender, subject, and received date and time.

   • To browse the message list, press the Up or Down arrow key.

   • To open an email, press Enter.

   • To read the email from top to bottom, press the SR key+Ctrl+R.

   • To stop reading, press Ctrl.

   • To move to the next email, press Alt+5.

   • To move to the previous email, press Alt+4.

2. When you are finished reading the email, to return to Inbox, press Esc.

Reply to an email

1. In an email or on an email in Inbox, do one of the following:

   • To reply to just the original sender, press Ctrl+R. You hear "Re," followed by the message subject.

   • If the message has multiple recipients and you want to reply to all, press Ctrl+Shift+R.

2. A new email opens with the same subject and set to reply to either just the sender or everyone included in the original email. The focus is on the body of the message. Type your message.

3. When you are finished composing the message, press Alt+S to send the email.

Forward an email

1. In an email or on an email in Inbox, press Ctrl+F. You hear "Forward," followed by the message subject.

2. The focus is on the To field. Type the names of the recipients.

3. If you want to include a message, press the Tab key until you hear "Forward," followed by the message subject, and "Message editing," and then type your message.

4. When you are finished composing the message, press Alt+S to send the email.

Switch between the Focused and Other inboxes

By default, Outlook opens the Focused inbox.

1. In Inbox, press Shift+Tab until you hear "Other button," and then press Enter.

2. To move back to the Focused inbox, press Shift+Tab until you hear: "Focused button." To select, press Enter.

Move an email from the Other inbox to the Focused inbox

1. In your Other inbox, navigate to the email you want to move to the Focused inbox.

2. To move the email, press Shift+F10, V.

Hide the Focused inbox

You can hide the Focused inbox and work with a single list of messages.

1. To check if the Focused inbox is shown or already hidden, press F6 until you reach the contents of your inbox.

2. Press Shift+Tab until you hear "Sort, arrange, or filter messages, button," then press Shift+Tab once. If you hear "Other," the Focused inbox is already hidden. If not, press Alt+V, W to hide it.

Search for an email

1. In Inbox, press Ctrl+E. The focus moves to the Search text field. You hear: "Search, edit box."

2. To change the folder which you want to search, press Shift+Tab until you hear "Current mailbox," and then press Spacebar. Press the Down arrow key until you hear the option you want, and then press Spacebar.

3. Type your search words.

4. To browse through the suggestions, press the Down arrow key. To select a suggestion, press Enter. The search results are displayed in the message list.

5. Press the Tab key until you hear the first message. To browse through the list, press the Down arrow key. To open an email, press Enter.

6. To clear the search results list, press Esc.

   To return to Inbox from an open email and clear the search results list, press Esc twice.

Use a filter to find an email

1. In the Inbox, press Alt+H, L. The focus moves to the first item in the filter options list.

2. Press the Down arrow key until you hear the option you want, and then press Enter. You hear either "No results found," or "Found," followed by the number of emails matching the filter.

3. To move to the list of emails matching the filter, press the Tab key until you hear the  first message. To browse through the list, press the Down arrow key. To open an email, press Enter.

4. To clear the results list and the filter, press Esc.

   To return to Inbox from an open email and clear the search results list, press Esc twice.

Open attachments

When you receive an email, your screen reader announces if the email has attachments and the number of attached files.

1. Open an email with an attachment. The focus is on the message body.

2. Press Shift+Tab until you hear the attachment details, including the file name and type.

3. To open the attachment, press Enter. The file opens in a compatible application.

Add attachments

You can send files like resumes, newsletters, or pictures as copies or as OneDrive files.

1. In an email, press Alt+N, A, F. A context menu opens.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To attach a recent file, press the Down arrow key until you hear the file, and then press Enter.

   • To attach a file from a web location, press W. You hear the first online location, for example, "OneDrive." To select, press Enter. The Insert File dialog box opens. Press the Tab key and the arrow keys until you hear the file you want, and then press Alt+S.

   • To attach a file from local storage, for example, your hard drive, press B. The Insert File dialog box opens. Press the Tab key and the arrow keys until you hear the file you want, and then press Alt+S.

Read an email

By default, the Outlook app lists the newest email first.

1. To hear VoiceOver read the emails in your Inbox, in the message list, swipe right or slide your finger down through the list. You hear, for example, the following:

   • The name of the sender

   • The subject of the email

   • The sending date

   • Attachments (if any)

   • The first few lines of the email message

   • The number of messages in a conversation

2. To open a single email or an email conversation containing several messages, double-tap the screen.

3. To read an email or messages in a conversation, swipe right or slide your finger from the top of the screen down the list of emails. You hear the subject, sender name, the message, and how many messages there are in a conversation.

4. If the conversation is long, you may need to open the full message to hear it. After the first message is read, swipe right. If you hear "Open full message button," there is more text to the conversation. To open, double-tap the screen.

   To return to the collapsed message view, swipe left until you hear "Close button," and then double-tap the screen.

5. To quickly move to the next email, swipe left until you hear "Next message, button," and then double-tap the screen. To move to the previous email, swipe left until you hear "Previous message, button," and then double-tap the screen.

6. When you are finished reading the message, to return to the Inbox, swipe left until you hear "Back button," and then double-tap the screen.

Reply to an email

1. In an email, swipe left or right until you hear "Reply options, button," and then double-tap the screen. You hear: "Reply." Double-tap the screen.

2. You hear "Reply box expanded," and the focus moves to the body of the reply message. To edit the message recipients, swipe left until you hear "Reply options," and double-tap the screen, then swipe right until you hear "Edit or view recipient," and double-tap the screen. The focus moves to the To field of the reply message. Edit the list of recipients using the on-screen keyboard, then swipe right until you hear: "Message body."

3. Type your message using the on-screen keyboard.

4. When you are finished composing the message, swipe left until you hear "Send button," and then double-tap the screen.

Forward an email

1. In an email, swipe right until you hear "Reply options, button," and then double-tap the screen. Swipe right until you hear "Forward," and double-tap the screen.

2. You hear: "To, text field, is editing." The focus is in the To field, and the on-screen keyboard is in the bottom half of the screen. Type the name of each recipient.

3. If you want to include a message, swipe right until you hear "Multiline text field," and then double-tap. Type your message.

4. When you are finished composing the message, swipe right until you hear "Send button," and then double-tap the screen.

Search for an email

1. In the message list, swipe left or right until you hear "Search button," and then double-tap the screen.

2. The focus moves to the Search Mail field. Start typing your search words. The search results list updates as you type.

3. To browse through the search results, swipe right. VoiceOver reads the details and the message as you move through the list.

4. When you hear an email you want to open, double-tap the screen.

5. To exit Search, swipe left until you hear "Cancel button," and then double-tap the screen.

Use a filter to find an email

1. In the message list, swipe left or right until you hear "Filter button," and then double-tap the screen.

2. Swipe right until you hear the filtering option you want, and then double-tap the screen.

3. To browse through the emails matching the filter, swipe right. VoiceOver reads the details and the message as you move through the list.

4. When you hear an email you want to open, double-tap the screen.

5. To remove the filtering option, in the inbox, swipe left or right until you hear "Filter button," and then double-tap the screen.

Open an attachment

VoiceOver announces if a received email has attachments.

1. Open the email with one or more attachments.

2. Swipe right until you hear the attachment file type, followed by "Attachment," and the file name and size, and then double-tap the screen. The attachment opens in a supported app.

Add an attachment

You can send files like resumes, photos, or meeting invitations as attachments.

Read an email

By default, the newest emails are listed first.

1. Swipe left or right or slide your finger down to listen to TalkBack read the emails. You hear information about each email, including:

   • Sender name

   • Date or time the message was received

   • Subject

   • First few lines of the email contents

2. To open an email, double-tap the screen. TalkBack automatically starts to read the message from the beginning.

   Alternatively, to listen TalkBack read an email message from top to bottom, swipe down-and-right. The Global Context Menu opens. Swipe right until you hear "Read from top," and then double-tap the screen.

   To quickly skim through the message, slide your finger down from the top of the screen.

   To scroll down the message, swipe up with two fingers. To scroll up, swipe down with two fingers.

3. When you've finished reading the message, to return to the inbox, swipe left or right until you hear "Close button," and then double-tap the screen.

Reply to an email

1. With the email open, swipe right until you hear "Reply options," double-tap the screen and do one of the following:

   • To reply to just the original sender, swipe left or right until you hear "Reply button," and then double-tap the screen.

   • If the message has multiple recipients and you want to reply to all, swipe left or right until you hear "Reply all button," and then double-tap the screen.

2. A new email opens with the same subject and is set to reply to the sender or everyone included in the original email. The focus is on the body of the message. Double-tap the screen to activate the on-screen keyboard and type your message.

3. When you've finished composing the message, swipe left until you hear "Send," and then double-tap the screen. You hear: "Sent, Outlook, keyboard hidden."

Forward an email

You can easily forward an email using TalkBack.

1. With the email message open, swipe right until you hear "Reply options," and then double-tap the screen.

2. Swipe right until you hear "Forward," and double-tap the screen. A new email opens with the same subject.

3. Swipe right until you hear "Edit box, To field," and double-tap the screen. Type the name of each recipient. The recipients are added automatically as you complete typing the email address or select it from the matching options available. You can add multiple recipients in the To field.

4. To type a message, swipe right until you hear "Double-tap to edit," and then double-tap the screen. Type your message.

5. When you've finished composing the message, swipe left until you hear "Send," and then double-tap the screen.

Search for an email

1. In the message list, swipe right until you hear "Search, tab" and then double-tap the screen. The Search window opens.

2. Swipe left until you hear "Search mail, events, contacts, files," and double-tap the screen. Start typing your search words. The search results list updates as you type.

3. To browse through the search results, swipe right. TalkBack reads the details and the message as you move through the list.

4. When you hear an email you want to open, double-tap the screen.

5. To leave the list of search results, swipe left until you hear "Close button," and then double-tap the screen to return to the Search window.

Use a filter to find an email

1. In the message list, swipe left or right until you hear "Filter button," and then double-tap the screen.

2. Swipe right until you hear the filtering option you want, and then double-tap the screen.

3. To browse through the emails matching the filter, swipe right. TalkBack reads the message details as you move through the list.

4. When you hear the email you want to open, double-tap the screen.

5. To remove the filtering option, and review all emails in the message list, swipe left or right until you hear "Clear messages filter button," and then double-tap the screen.

Open an attachment

TalkBack announces if a received email has attachments.

1. Open the email with one or more attachments.

2. Swipe left until you hear the file type, name, and size, and then double-tap the screen. If you hear "Open with," swipe right until you hear the option you want, and then double-tap the screen to select.

3. To open the attachment in the selected app, double-tap the screen.

Add an attachment

You can send files like resumes, photos, or meeting invitations as attachments.

Read an email

Navigate to an email in the message list in Mail, and hear your screen reader read the email and its details.

1. In the Mail main view, press Ctrl+F6 or Shift+Ctrl+F6 until you hear “Message list, region landmark,” and press the Tab key until you hear "Message list," followed by the title of an email in your inbox.

2. Press the Down or Up arrow key until you find the email you want, and then press Enter to open the message in the content pane.

3. To read through the whole email, press the SR key+R. To stop reading, press Ctrl. To close the email and return to the message list, press Esc.

Reply to an email

Use your screen reader to promptly respond to your emails in Outlook on the web.

1. In an email or when on an email on the message list, press Ctrl+R. If you want to reply to all, press Ctrl+Shift+R. You hear: "Message body, editing."

2. Type your reply.

3. To send the email, press Ctrl+Enter.

Forward an email

You can easily forward an email using keyboard shortcuts and your screen reader.

1. In an email or when on an email on the message list, press Ctrl+Shift+F. You hear: "Content pane, edit." The focus is on the To field of the email.

2. Type the name or email address of the recipient. When you start writing, Outlook on the web offers you matching suggestions. To browse the suggestions, press the Down arrow key. If you find the right persons among the suggestions, press Enter to add them to the To field.

3. Press the Tab key until you hear "Message body, editing," and then type your message.

4. To send the email, press Ctrl+Enter.

Search for an email

Use search to find specific emails in no time.

1. In the Mail main view, press Alt+Q. You hear: "Search, edit."

2. Type your search words, and then press Enter. The focus moves to a list of search results. You hear "Message list," followed by the number of found items.

   Tip: You can search by email subject, sender, or date.

3. To navigate between search results, press the Up or Down arrow key. You hear the results as you move in the list.

4. To clear the search words and return to the Mail main view, press Shift+Ctrl+F6 until you hear "Banner, Search landmark," press the Tab key once so you hear "Exit search," and press Enter.

   Tip: You can also use the Microsoft Edge search to find specific text in an open email. In any view in Mail, press F3. You hear: "Find in page," followed by the title of the open page. Type your search words and press Enter.

Filter your emails

To list your emails in a more purposeful way, you can filter or sort them, for example, by date, mentions, or sender.

1. In the message list, press Shift+Tab until you hear: "Filter button." Press Spacebar to open the filter menu.

2. To move in the menu, press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear the option you want to select. To expand menu options, press Spacebar. To select an option, press Spacebar.

3. To remove a filter, in the message list, press Shift+Tab until you hear the current filter. Press Spacebar to remove the filter.

Download an attachment

When your screen reader reads an email in the message list and in the reading pane, you hear an announcement if the email contains attachments.

1. In the reading pane, on the email, press the Tab key until you hear the attachment name.

2. Press the Tab key once. You hear: "Download, button." Press Enter.

3. When your screen reader announces a new notification, press Alt+N to move the focus there. Then press the Tab key or Shift+Tab to browse the options, and press Enter to make a selection.

Add an attachment

You can send files like resumes, newsletters, or cute kitty cat pics as copies or as OneDrive files.