Newsletters in Outlook helps you create and send structured, professional email like updates, reports and announcements quickly and easily from within Outlook. This feature allows you to build momentum and keep your team informed and engaged.
Each newsletter has a consistent identity and subscriber base. You can publish new editions over time to keep your audience informed and engaged.
Note:Â The Newsletters feature is only available to individuals using a work or school account with a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription.Â
Create a Newsletter
To create a newsletter for your editions:
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On the Outlook navigation bar, select
Tip:Â If you're using Outlook on the web, you can also access Newsletters directly at outlook.office.com/newsletters
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On the Home tab, select Create newsletter.
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Enter a title and optional description. This name will appear in the header of each edition and in any references to your newsletter, such as recommendations or search results.
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Add additional owners to your newsletter. Each newsletter must have at least 2 owners and can have up to 100 co-owners. Co-owners have the same permissions as the creating owner. Owners can also see analytics, subscribers, and export the newsletter’s data.
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Choose the visibility:
My organization: Anyone in your organization can find and subscribe.Unlisted: Only users with a direct link can access and subscribe.Private: Only invited users can access. Subscriptions are not supported.​​​​​​​
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Optionally, choose a header image and logo to make the newsletter more personalized.
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Select Save.
Once created, you can begin drafting your first edition.
Create an edition or template
You can create an edition from scratch, from a preset, or from your own custom templates.Â
Create an edition
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On the Home tab, select Create edition.
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On Select a template, select a blank template, a preset template, or a custom template if one is available.
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On the Save dialog, add a title for your edition, select Edition or Template from the dropdown, and from the Select Newsletter dropdown, select the name of the newsletter to which the edition should be saved. Select Save.
Create a templateÂ
Templates are similar to editions, but they can't be published. Authors and contributors can't be invited to templates.
You can use a pre-made template like Creator or Basic or create your own custom template by saving your draft as a template.
Templates will be associated with a newsletter so they can be reused by any owners of that newsletter.
Format options: Add sections and a Table of Contents
There are four main areas of a newsletter:
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Title:This is the main heading of your edition.
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Header image (optional): Upload or select an existing picture and customize it to match your content. The header image has a default width of 704px with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
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Table of contents (optional): Add a Table of Contents to help organize your edition by providing a clear outline of the sections.
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Sections: Use sections to create different parts of your edition and these can have multiple contributors. Contributors' names and avatars will appear on these sections.
Use sections to organize the content
Editions are organized by sections. You can have one or more sections, and each section can have a different set of contributors and content.
Reorder sections by using the arrow controls, or select  Delete section to remove that section from your edition. Deleted sections are available in the Deleted sections toggle near the top of the editor. Select Restore section to re-add a section.
Add a Table of Contents
You can add a table of content to help organize your edition by providing a clear outline of the sections.
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Select Table of Contents located at the top right corner of any section of your edition.
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Edit the labels and links for the sections in the table of contents by navigating to the Table of Contents section at the top of the edition. Readers can easily navigate to the content they are most interested in by selecting the links in the table of contents.
Add images and components
You can insert or manage the formatting of your content via the ribbon. Insert components, tables, and emojis to help create an organized and rich edition.
Tip:Â You can also use tools like Sensitivity Labels and an Accessibility Checker to ensure your content is suitable for all audiences.
When editing text, formatting commands are available under the Format Text tab.
Add an image
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Use the simplified ribbon, and under the Home tab, select Pictures.
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Select Browse this computer to upload your own photo, or select Browse images to search and select stock images.
You can also upload images directly to a layout component or paste an image in a section.
Edit an image
To edit an image, select the image to access the editing options under the Picture Format tab. You can modify the image to:Â
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Apply borders and shadows.
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Add alt text to improve accessibility.
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Crop, rotate, and resize the image by dragging its corners.
Add pre-made layout components
Components are pre-made layout elements designed to streamline the creation of editions, making it easier to add images and maintain a cohesive aesthetic.Â
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Under the Edition tab, select Components. Or, if you just added a new section, select Add component at the bottom of the section.
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Select the desired component from the Components pane to insert it into the section. There are four different types of components:Â
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Text & Image: Allows for a combination of text and an image. These have different size options from small to extra large.
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Images: Designed specifically for displaying images in various formats and size options. The full-size component image has a default width of 696px with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The image will auto-crop and can be dragged to center it within the component.
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Styled Quote: Used for highlighting quotes in a stylish manner.
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People: Focused on showcasing individuals or team members.
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Collaborate with co-authors and contributors
Co-authors can edit and publish the edition. They can be added by selecting the  icon next to your profile picture above the Title or using the Add authors button in the Ribbon bar. There is a limit of 25 co-authors per edition.
Contributors are invited to edit only specific section(s). Select Add contributor on the top left of each section. There is a limit of 30 contributors per section.
Co-authors and contributors are invited and notified via email. They can also find their assigned editions by selecting Drafts from the newsletter navigation panel.
Known issue: Outlook Newsletters doesn't have real-time collaboration or version history at this time. If two users are working on the same section at the same time, the second user to save will see a conflict notification while trying to save the newsletter.
Tip:Â There are two ways to resolve the conflict: 1. Override will replace the section with your current content 2. Discard will replace your current work with the latest content saved by other users
Preview and publish an edition
Preview
At the top of the edition editor, we provide a Preview button to let you see what the edition will look like in its current form. You can also email a preview to yourself to verify how the edition looks on different email clients.
Tip: Send yourself an email preview and verify your edition looks good on Outlook Mobile and Outlook Classic if your organization has users on those clients.
Publish the edition
Once you are ready to publish your edition, you can click Next on the top right of the editor and review your settings on the next page.
Alternate Sender
Outlook Newsletters supports having an alternate sender when publishing an edition. If you have permission to send as this other user (e.g., as a delegate), you can select Send and publish the edition on their behalf. Otherwise, you can select "Ask to Send" and the alternate sender will be notified by email and can send out the edition.
When you select a different author to send the edition, this doesn't change the primary author displayed on the edition. The primary author will default to the newsletter owner who initially created the edition.
Note:Â Sending newsletters from Groups or mail-enabled distribution lists is only supported using the alternate sender feature if you have been granted Send-As permissions. Otherwise consider setting the reply-to field to a group or DL as desired so that responses will be directed there.
Recipients
Outlook Newsletters supports multiple types of recipients on editions.
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To Recipients: All the recipients you provided in this recipient field on the publish view.
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CC Recipients: All the owners of the newsletter and the current publisher of the edition will appear by default. You may add additional CC recipients.
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BCC Recipients: All the subscribers of the group page will be included by default. You may add additional BCC recipients and manually remove the subscribers from the edition if desired.
Recipients can be individual user emails or distribution lists (DLs), just like sending email in Outlook. The maximum number of recipients per type depends on your organization’s configured sending limits. A distribution list or group is considered a single recipient.
Note:Â Addressing editions to recipients outside your organization is not yet supported. Any recipients determined to be external to your organization will be removed on sending the edition, but the valid recipients will still receive a copy.
Visibility settings
Editions can have a more restricted visibility level than their parent newsletter. For example, your newsletter may be set to My Organization, but you can elevate the edition to use Unlisted or Private. Unlisted editions can only be accessed with a direct link; they will not show up on the Explore page. Private editions can only accessed by explicit recipients and newsletter owners.
Post-publish actions
Editions can be edited and optionally re-published (i.e., emailed again). On the newsletter page, find your specific edition. In the overflow menu displayed on the bottom right of your edition, you can select the Edit menu item.
Editions can also be moved to a different newsletter without re-publishing by selecting the Move menu item found in the overflow menu.
Deleted editions can now be restored from the Recycle bin by navigating to the Deleted tab in the newsletter view and selecting Restore on the desired edition.
Disable subscriptions
If you want to disable the subscription capabilities within newsletters, you can change the default setting in the Newsletter > Edit > Toggle off 'Allow users to subscribe to your newsletter'. Also, selecting a Private visibility level for your newsletter will automatically disable subscriptions.
Explore other newsletters
Outlook Newsletters includes an Explore experience where you can browse other newsletters and editions published with visibility to your organization. You can navigate to it using the Explore button in the navigation menu. The Explore page includes sections for:
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Featured Editions – Recently published editions ranked by the user engagement (views, reactions, and comments) they received. We do not yet support customizing which newsletters are featured in an organization.
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Top Newsletters – The newsletters in your organization that have the most subscribers.
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New Newsletters – Recently created newsletters in your organization.
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Subscribed Newsletters – Those newsletters to which you are personally subscribed.
In each of these sections, summary cards will be displayed where you can easily subscribe to newsletters that you find interesting. Each section can be expanded using the chevron button to show additional cards.
Please note that newsletters or editions with their visibility set to Unlisted or Private will not be displayed in the Explore page. Unlisted content can only be accessed with a direct-access link provided by the authors/owners of the edition. Private content is accessible only to recipients of editions and the authors/owners.
Newsletter analytics
For a newsletter or individual edition, you can view the number of times it was opened via email, the Newsletters reading experience, or both. You can also view the number of comments and reactions to gauge additional reader engagement.
Leave us feedbackÂ
We would love to know more about your Outlook Newsletters experience! Use the in-app feedback in Outlook at Help > Feedback to let us know how we're doing or report any issues you find. Select the option to Collect logs for feedback as this includes diagnostics that will help us investigate.
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