Any way to indicate if an outlook 2013 account has unread messages?

Question

I have about 5-6 mail accounts within outlook 2013 and although the taskbar icon will show me there are new messages it is not apparent where the new messages are without systematically expanding all the accounts and inbox folders etc.

So is there a way for it to somehow indicate on the mail account/folder lists that you have mail within THAT account?

Answer 1

it is not apparent where the new messages are without systematically expanding all the accounts and inbox folders etc.

So is there a way for it to somehow indicate on the mail account/folder lists that you have mail within THAT account?

Below are a couple methods that you can use with Outlook 2013 to to show the unread messages per mailbox.

Method 1

Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013

Thanks to the fact that the Search options are on the Ribbon in Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013, creating the initial “Unified Inbox folder” query goes a bit quicker than with Outlook 2007;

1. Start an “All Mail Items” search via the keyboard shortcut; CTRL+ALT+A. In Outlook 2013, you’ll have to follow this with CTRL+E to activate the Instant Search field.
2. Click on; This Week
3. Click on; Unread

Note 1: Optionally you can change the arrangement from “By Outlook Data File” to “Date” or any another field by right clicking on the Arranged By column.

Note 2: There is a bug in Outlook 2013 which sometimes causes the Home folder from being selected again rather than keeping the focus on the Search tab when you search “All Mailboxes” and make search criteria selection on the Ribbon. When that happens, press CTRL+E again.

In the search field, you can type in read:no to show unread messages.

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Method 2

Simply use the Unread Option.

View only unread messages

To see only the messages you haven’t read yet, do the following:

In any folder in your email box, at the top of the list of messages, click Unread (as shown below).

Applies To: Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, Office 365