Skip to main content

Cornell University

IT@Cornell

Conversation View

This article applies to: Microsoft Outlook , Outlook for Mac , Outlook for Windows , Outlook on the Web

By default, Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac displays your messages in order of Date Received. You can change the sort order by clicking the heading in any column, or by selecting an option under the View menu, Arrange By in Outlook for Windows or Sort By in Outlook for Mac).

By default, Outlook on the Web displays your messages with Conversation View turned on.

Arranging your messages in Conversation View clusters your messages based on Subject. The original message, your replies, and other people's replies are all displayed together.

Conversation view can help by giving you a compact record of an entire thread, but it can be confusing if you have more than one conversation with identical Subjects, or if you prefer to see your messages in strict chronological order.

Conversation View in Outlook for Windows or Mac

View Email Messages by Conversation in Outlook for Mac

View Email Messages by Conversation in Outlook for Windows

If you delete a message while in the Conversation view, you actually delete all messages in that thread.

Conversation View in Outlook on the Web

To turn Conversation View on or off,

  1. In Outlook on the Web, click View from the menu bar below the top-most toolbar.
  2. From the Messages section, select Conversations.
  3. Select your preferred option: Group into conversations or Show each message separately.
If you delete a message while in the Conversation view, you actually delete all messages in that thread

Comments?

To share feedback about this page or request support, log in with your NetID

At Cornell we value your privacy. To view
our university's privacy practices, including
information use and third parties, visit University Privacy.