Shortcut Key to Flag Mail in Outlook
Another shortcut key discovered by accident. I was moving around my inbox with the keyboard, deleting messages, when I mis-keyed and hit Insert instead of Delete. Much to my pleasant surprise I found that Insert flagged the highlighted message with the default red flag. If you hit Insert on a message that is already flagged, it marks it as complete. This works with one, or many, messages highlighted.
To clear the flag completely, or to set a flag with a color other than the default color, you still need to go through the standard process. I’ve never risen to the level of using the various colors for flags, so I’m not hampered by the default action of this shortcut.
I’ve only tested this on Outlook 2003. Can anyone verify this with other versions of Outlook? How about Entourage?
May 31st 2007
Thanks for the tip. I will save it for after an upgrade. I see it doesn’t work in Outlook 2000. Darn!
Jul 23rd 2007
Digg it… I found out about it myself. When I opened my Outlook one day, the message’s flag column keeps blinking between red flag and complete.
I thought I was getting a virus. I even re-installed Office. It turned out the Insert key was in between pressed and released state.
I fixed the Insert key, and now, the message’s flag colum does not make blinking red flag and complete.
I am wondering if there’s application out there for me to see which key is in pressed and released status. My daughter often plays with my laptop, and I dont have a clue which buttons she keeps pressing. If anyone knows, I would appreciate your sharing.
Thanks,
Miles
Apr 16th 2008
Ahhh, awesome. Just what I was googling for. And it works neatly.
For those who love working effectivly with Outlook I can also sincerely recommend looking into Getting Things Done from David Allan
http://www.davidco.com/
Aug 21st 2008
Awesome tip, thanks!