Newsletters in Outlook helps you create and send structured, professional newsletters quickly and easily from within Outlook. This feature allows you to build momentum and keep your team informed and engaged.
Note: The Newsletter feature is only available to individuals using a work or school account with a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription.
Create a newsletter or template
You can create a newsletter from scratch, from a preset, or from your own custom templates.
Create a newsletter
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On the Outlook navigation bar, select
Tip: 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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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 window, add a title for your newsletter, select Newsletter or Template from the dropdown, and from the Select group page dropdown, select your name to save to a group page. Select Save.
Create a template
Templates are similar to newsletters, 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.
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 newsletter.
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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 newsletter by providing a clear outline of the sections.
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Sections: Use sections to create different parts of your newsletter and can have multiple contributors.
Use sections to organize the content
Newsletters 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 newsletter. Deleted sections are available in the Deleted sections area of the newsletter editing view. Select Restore section to re-add a section.
Add a Table of Contents
You can add a table of content to help organize your newsletter by providing a clear outline of the sections.
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From your newsletter, select Table of Contents located at the top right corner of any section of your newsletter.
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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 newsletter. Readers can easily navigate to the content they are most interested in by select 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 newsletter.
Tip: 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.
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Explore design ideas and create graphics with AI using the Designer tab. Under the Designer tab, you can generate image layouts with or without text. You can also upload your own image and edit or embellish it.
You can also upload images directly to a 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:
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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 newsletters, making it easier to add images and maintain a cohesive aesthetic.
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Under the Newsletter tab, select Components. Or, if you 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:
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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 newsletter. 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 newsletter.
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 newsletters by selecting Drafts from the newsletter navigation.
Known issues: Outlook newsletters don'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: 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 a newsletter
Preview
At the top of the newsletter editor, we provide a Preview button to let you see what the newsletter will look like in its current form. You can also email a preview to yourself to verify how the newsletter looks on different email clients.
Publish a newsletter
Once you are ready to publish your newsletter, you can click Next on the top right of the editor and review your settings on the next page.
Sender
Outlook newsletters supports having an alternate sender only from Group pages. You can select a different author to send out the newsletter, but this doesn't change the primary author of the newsletter.
The alternate sender will be notified by email and can send out the newsletter.
Note: Sending newsletters from Groups or distribution lists isn't yet supported. If you're able to create a mailbox enabled user and login with that user you may send from that, otherwise send from an individual, and set the reply-to to a group as desired.
Recipients
Outlooks newsletters support multiple types of recipients.
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To Recipients: All the recipients you provided in the recipient field of the publish form
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CC Recipients: All the owners of the group page and the current publisher will appear by default
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BCC Recipients: All the subscribers of the group page will appear by default
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: Addressing newsletters to recipients outside your organization is not yet supported.
Visibility settings
Newsletters can be sent as Public or Unlisted. Unlisted newsletters can only be accessed by recipients and anyone with a direct link. They will not show up on the Explore page.
Post-publish actions
Newsletters can be re-published by going to the Newsletter > Edit. Newsletters can also be moved to a different page without re-publishing by going to the Newsletter > Move found in the overflow button.
Group pages
Group pages are the recommended way to create a distinct newsletter with multiple authors. To create a group page from Newsletters, on the Home tab select, Create group page.
Each group page must have at least 2 owners and can have up to 100 co-owners. Co-owners have the same permissions as the owner. Group pages also have a cover page and optional logo.
The page visibility options:
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My organization: anyone in the same organization or tenant can access the page by discovery or with direct link. This is the default visibility level
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Unlisted: the page will not show up on the Explore page, but anyone with a direct link can access
Owners can also see analytics, subscribers, and export the group page’s data.
Disable subscriptions
If you want to disable the subscription capabilities within newsletters and manage recipients yourself, you can change the default setting in the Group Page > Edit > Toggle use custom distribution to on. If you set a DL here it will be added to the bcc list automatically.
Explore other newsletters
Outlook newsletters includes an Explore experience where you can browse other newsletters 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 Newsletters – Recently published newsletters 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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Group Pages – The group pages in your organization that have the most subscribers.
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New Pages – Recently created group pages in your organization.
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Subscribed Pages – Those pages to which you are personally subscribed.
In each of these sections, summary cards will be displayed where you can easily subscribe to pages or authors that you find interesting. Each section can be expanded using the chevron button to show additional cards.
Please note that newsletters or group pages with their visibility set to unlisted will not be displayed in the Explore page, and must be accessed with a direct-access link provided by the authors/owners of the newsletter.
Newsletter analytics
For a Group page or individual newsletter, you can view the number of times it was opened via email, the newsletters app, or both. You can also view the number of comments and reactions.
Leave us feedback
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.
