I have to use Microsoft Outlook via the Web at work and use folders to keep track of the hundreds of emails I receive. I end up using weird names to move key folders to the top. Is there any way to reorder my Outlook folders without resorting to such foolishness?
It all started with Amerca Online, this idea of accessing your email through a Web browser. Nowadays everyone’s got a Web interface, from Yahoo to Google, but the most elegant and well designed of them all is unquestionably Microsoft Outlook. You need look no further than its sleek settings area (compared to the crude we’re-stuck-in-the-90s Gmail settings area) to realize the company has put a lot of effort into its user interface.
As a result, there are a lot of UI aspects that you can adjust and customize to meet your preferences, from colors to font size, composition behaviors to how long deleted email sticks around before it vanishes from your account. Until very recently, however, you couldn’t change the order of your folders on the left sidebar of your Outlook. As of late February 2025, the good news is that the Outlook team has finally enabled custom folder organization. Want to keep everything alphabetical? You can do that. But, finally, you can also opt not to do that. Sayonara goofy folder names!
BY DEFAULT, YOU CAN REORDER THINGS
If your organization has Outlook set up as we do at the University of Denver, where I teach, you’ve already gained this capability without having to do anything at all. Here’s a bit of my own Folder organization in Outlook:
It’s not obvious in the above, but certain folders are considered special and bubble to the top automatically, including Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Junk Email, and Notes. Below that are my custom folders, and with a click and a drag, I can reorder them:
You’ll notice that “GS-3250” shows up twice; the lower, greyed-out entry is its current location (alphabetically sorted), while the “GS-3250” with the box on the right is the drag version, that I’m going to drop just below “COMM 4321”. And it works!
Alphabetically, of course, “Conversation History” and “DU News” should both appear ahead of “GS-3250” but it’s updated based on my action. Hurray!
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DRAG AND DROP
Drag and drop within Outlook is a little bit tricky, however, because if you’re not exactly between two folders, it will assume you want to drop the folder you’re moving into the other folder. Look back two images and you’ll see how “Conversation History” has a darker grey background: which denotes it’s set to be the target of the drag-and-drop. No bueno.
If you’re not comfortable with the subtle movement nuance required, not to worry, you can click on the “•••” adjacent to a folder and among the many options are “Move Up” and “Move Down”:
Did you know you could create subfolders and even share folders with other Outlook users? Darn handy!
For our purposes, however, notice the “Move up” and “Move down” entries in the menu. Keep choosing that and you’ll soon have things where you want.
Turns out that there’s also an interesting context menu on the “Folders” entry itself:
Maybe not something you need today, but it’s worth making a memo to yourself about how this lets you add public folders (generally managed by your organization or company) and shared folders – or mailboxes! – to your list, as desired.
SWITCH BACK TO ALPHABETICALLY SORTED
Some folk prefer alphabetically sorted folders in their Outlook and Microsoft has them covered too. Surprisingly, it’s not something you’ll find in the “Settings” area. In fact a search for “alphabetical” or “sort” has zero results.
Instead, click on “View“, then click on the icon on the subsequent toolbar ribbon that is half grey, half white, as shown below:
This lets you hide the folder pane entirely, but it also lets you change the layout (sorting order):
Prefer alphabetical folders? Choose “Order folders A to Z”. That’s it. Rather easy once you know where to look. Now, go update your folder names to get rid of the silly symbols and drag them around to create the perfect folder order.
Pro Tip: I’ve been using and writing about Microsoft’s Office Suite for many years. Please check out my Outlook help library for plenty of useful tutorials, as well as additional Office 365 help pages! Thanks.