Outlook Low Vision: Email Reply

Hi, I'm Vikki Vaughan. And today we'll learn how to reply to an email in Microsoft Outlook. We'll also explore how to reply to multiple people at once. This workshop is intended for users for low vision. If you use a screen reading program, be sure to check out our screen reading version of this workshop.

You know, emails are kind of like a conversation where you say something, and then I respond, and you have a snappy come back or a funny joke to share. Part of the fun is the back and forth, just like a real life conversation. It's nice to know there's an easy method we can use to send those clever responses. When there are multiple people on the receiving end of the exchange, there is also a method we can use to send one response to many people at once. In today's workshop, we'll have a look at both tasks.

Let's jump right into our inbox to get this conversation going. We see an email at the top of the item list from my friend, Ricky. We move our focus to the message by single-clicking on it with our mouse pointer. We can see from the subject line that she's asking for a pie recipe. Now that's no surprise because, anyone who knows Ricky knows, she loves desserts. It just so happens I have a fantastic recipe for French Silk Chocolate Pie. I'll let Ricky know that I have a great recipe in mind.

Now we have a couple of ways to reply to this email. Our first method is to use our mouse pointer to select the Reply button in our ribbon. When we hover over the Reply button, Outlook provides us with a hint about the other technique we can use to reply to an email. We see a rectangle, below our Reply button, that provides us with a keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + R, for reply. Let's use our Reply button, in the ribbon, to send Ricky a quick response.

We've landed in a fresh new email. And Outlook has, thoughtfully, provided us with Ricky's name in the address field. We also see that the subject line is complete with some additional information. At the beginning of the line, we see the letters RE. Back when all letters were created on paper, RE meant in reference to or regarding. And we still see it used in that context. With the advent of email, it's been repurposed, and now stands for reply or response. This lets us know that the email is part of an ongoing conversation. In this email, we can quickly see that we're replying to Ricky's request for a recipe.

Now comes the fun part, writing a snappy response to her request. I'll leave that part to your imagination. Once we've written our email, it's ready to send by selecting our Send button. Off it goes and we've landed back in our inbox. Now let's have a look at one more task that's very similar to replying to an email. It's replying to more than one person in the same email. If we take a second look at Ricky's email, we'll notice in the reading pane, under the subject line, there are other friends in this conversation. She's also sent this request to our friends, Jane and Eugene. Let's say I want to let everyone, who received Ricky's request, know that I've got this covered. Instead of just sending multiple emails, one to Ricky, another to Jane, and yet another to Eugene, there's an easy method to send one email to all three at once.

If we look back at our ribbon, at the top of our window, just below the Reply button, we find Reply All. As with our reply task, there are a couple of ways to reply to all. We can use our mouse pointer to select the Reply All button. Or, we can use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + Shift + R. Let's hover over our Reply All button. And, once again, we see our handy shortcut tip displays. Let's use our keyboard shortcut today. I'll hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys with my right hand, and tap the letter R with my left hand.

Great, a new email has appeared. And in the address field I see, not only, Ricky's name but also Jane and Eugene's names. Now if you're wondering why we see their names instead of email addresses, it just so happens that when we send an email to someone Outlook keeps a record of their address in our contacts.

From that point on, it only displays their names but remembers their email addresses. When there are others in the conversation with whom we haven't corresponded before, we'll see their email address in the address line. So don't be surprised if we see a mix of names and email addresses. Just as we did when responding to one person, we see the phrase RE: Recipe for French Silk Pie, in the subject line. Let's type in our response. One more step and we're done. We'll use our mouse pointer to select the Send button. And away it goes.

Today we discussed techniques for replying to an email in Microsoft Outlook. We also learned about replying to more than one person at once with the Reply All command. I'm Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me. This is one, in a series of workshops, called Microsoft Outlook.