Outlook Grouping and Sorting
by Paul Wagner, The Software Magician

Since the emergence of Outlook 2003, Grouping and Sorting Views has come to the forefront of how Outlook handles items. For example when you first open up your email, you will find it grouped by dates—Today, Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month, and so on. This was not how Outlook 2002 was configured and this new feature functionality has a different feel for most users.

So if you are asking what is the difference between these two, you've come to the right place.

Sorting and Grouping, although different, work as a team when viewing data.

Sorting

When you click on a column heading in any view, that column will be sorted in an ascending pattern. For exampel if you were viewig an Email Inbox folder and you clicked on the From heading, the sort will appear alphabetical or “ascending”. Click again and the sorting will be reversed, or descending--the Z’s on top and the A’s on the bottom. To bookmark the existing sort for you, any sorted column will have a small triangle, either upright or inverted, next to the heading title denoting the direction of the sort.

Now, Ascending and Descending Sorts can apply to any field heading: alphabetic, dates, sizes, patterns, and yes, even icons. Sorts are also not restricted to the Email Folder but all Views in Outlook.

You can also sort by using the menu View | Arrange by feature, which is no different than sorting by clicking on a column heading.

Grouping

What makes sorting feel a little odd in 2003 is that Outlook 2003 automatically Groups items regardless of their sort order. So even when the standard Inbox email view is sorted (or Arranged by) say, the From heading, it nonetheless groups your email by Sender. If you have many senders this view is quite unwieldy.

To get a handle on how Sorting and Grouping work together lets first turn off the Grouping feature. Highlight the Inbox in the folders list.

Then click on View | Arrange by | Show in Groups in the menu and uncheck it. This turns off Grouping for the current view only (just click it again to toggle it back on).

Notice that sorting becomes easier to readily apparent when you click any column headings.

So what if I want to sort a field within another field? For example, what if I want to see all my email sorted by Sender (the From heading) but only AFTER I have sorted by Received date, that is, Senders sorted within Received date.

First click on Received date. Then hold down the Shift key and then click on From. Simple.

Now, rather than double-sorting like this and having to check for date “breaks”, wouldn’t it be quite convenient to segregate the dates but still leave the email sorted alphabetically by Sender? That’s what Grouping is all about. So, go back to the menu and click on View | Arrange by | Show in Groups in the menu and check it. Now simply click on the From to sort that column and you will have your email items GROUPED BY DATE but SORTED ALPHABETICALLY BY SENDER.

To remind you again, when you use the Show in Groups, it applies ONLY to the folder to which you are currently in. There is no "global" Show in Groups...you must set each subfolder individually.

Now you can appreciate Grouping and you have a much better control of how it works. If you are still confused OR you want to see far MORE ways of setting up Sorts, Groups and even Clever Custom Views, check out the Outlook for the Entrepreneur course.

When you get enough of these fast tricks and they become second nature to you, do you think your business will grow immediately? We guarantee it. Click here to find out more.

2006 Paul Wagner

About the Author

Paul Wagner is President of The Software Magician, a Training/Consulting firm specializing in assisting Entrepreneurs and small businesses in the integration of software and marketing.

To learn more about Outlook and Outlook Classes and Teleseminars, visit The Software Magician at www.softwaremagician.com

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