Microsoft has been adding features, functionalities, and customizations to its Outlook email management platform. The Windows 10 OS maker has confirmed that the improvements have exited beta and available to general users.
Outlook for Microsoft Office and Outlook.com are two platforms that manage email. The company has issued a ‘Make Outlook Yours’ news alert, which confirms visual customization options for the Outlook web browser accounts.
Outlook for MS Office features graduate from ‘Preview’, and enter general availability:
Microsoft had announced that it is updating Outlook for Windows with a number of enhancements way back in 2019. However, the features were only available in preview. General Outlook for MS Office users had to manually opt-in to gain access.
Upgrades to the outlook platform primarily included shared calendars, smoother and more reliable synchronization, faster editing of an event, and other changes to the default behavior. Microsoft has confirmed that these improvements have graduated from preview and are available generally.
Microsoft’s ‘biggest change’ to Outlook for Windows improves shared calendars https://t.co/qPrvbYzJtB #MSFT #Microsoft #Outlook #Windows
— The Data Pros (@TheDataPros) May 27, 2021
The company added the enhancements to “dramatically” improve the sync latency and reliability of shared and delegated calendars in Outlook for Windows. Incidentally, Outlook clients on the web, Mac, and mobile had access to the majority of these features. Now Windows 10 OS users will gradually gain access to the same.
Microsoft Outlook’s new Organization Explorer will make it easier to find people inside an organization – https://t.co/pnsFmUoCBf pic.twitter.com/fcUbJT020h
— MSPoweruser (@mspoweruser) May 26, 2021
Microsoft claims it collected feedback, and fixed bugs reported by tens of thousands of users in the past couple of years. Incidentally, Outlook for MS Office users will not experience any visual or aesthetic changes but should gain performance enhancements.
The Windows 10 OS maker has enabled performance enhancements for about 10 percent of customers utilizing Outlook for Windows. These are available in the Current Channel version 2103 (March 2021 update).
Microsoft Outlook for the Web gets Toolbar customization:
While Outlook for MS Office received performance enhancements, the Outlook.com platform has gained visual customization features. Essentially, Microsoft is allowing Outlook.com users to customize the toolbar.
Adding or removing any quick action buttons from the toolbar is now possible in Outlook.com. Microsoft describes the new ability: “Now, you can make your most-used actions (Mark as read, Delete, Flag, etc.) appear front and center in Outlook.”
Everything new in Microsoft Outlook announced at Build 2021 https://t.co/4zt99NQxZK
— Wilson Jacob (@wilsonjnzuchi) May 26, 2021
To customize the toolbar, users need to follow a few simple steps. First, open an email and click on the ellipse (three dots) menu located on the toolbar. This will bring all the quick actions which are accompanied by an option called Customize toolbar.
Microsoft has enabled customization of Outlook.com for every user across the world. However, some users might not gain immediate access and should wait for a few days.