This article is for people who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Windows tools or features and Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Accessibility help & learning content set where you can find more accessibility information on our apps. For general help, visit Microsoft Support.
Use new Outlook with your keyboard and a screen reader to explore and navigate the different views in Mail and move between them. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Notes:
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To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
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For the best user experience, we recommend turning the Reading Pane off and showing emails as Messages and not as Conversations.
In this topic
Switch between views
You can switch from the Mail view to the Calendar, Copilot, People, or To Doview, or even to another Microsoft 365 app.
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Press F6 or Shift+F6 until with Narrator and NVDA you hear "Left rail appbar navigation," followed by your current view or app, for example, "Mail, toggle button." With JAWS, you hear "Left, dash, rail, dash, app," followed by your current view or app, for example, "Mail toggle button."
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Press the Down arrow key until you hear the name of the view or app you want, and then press Enter.
Note: With NVDA, you might need to switch to focus mode first.
Navigate to the app settings
You can customize your email, calendar, notifications, appearance, and privacy to improve your Outlook experience.
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Press the Tab key or Shift+Tab until you hear "Settings, button," and then press Enter to open the Settings pane.
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Press the Tab key to select Accounts tab and then use the Downarrow key to browse the options available in the Settings pane.
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To navigate settings in a subtab, press the Tab key once to move the focus to the list of settings, then move between the settings by pressing the Tab key or Shift+Tab. To select settings, press Enter.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to insert a picture or image in an email in Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with the calendar in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Make your Outlook email accessible to people with disabilities
Use Outlook Mail with your keyboard and screen reader to explore and navigate the different views and move between them. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Notes:
-
New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
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For the best user experience, we recommend turning the Reading Pane off and showing emails as Messages and not as Conversations.
In this topic
Move between views
Navigate the File menu
In the File menu, you can set up new email accounts or automatic replies, print messages, or access your Microsoft 365 account information. To learn how to use the keyboard shortcuts in the File menu, refer to Keyboard shortcuts for the File menu in Microsoft 365 for Windows.
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Press Alt+F to open the File menu.
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To move between the menu tabs, press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear the one you want and then press the Tab key to cycle through the items in the tab.
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To close the File menu and return to the main view, press Esc.
Navigate Outlook options
In the Outlook options window, you can change, for example, message format, arrival alerts, auto-saving, and tracking options.
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Press Alt+F, T to open the Options window. The focus is on the options category pane on the left.
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Press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear the category you want. The contents of the focused category are displayed in the content pane on the right.
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Press the Tab key to move between the different options in a category. Press Spacebar to clear or fill check boxes of the currently highlighted option. Press the Down arrow key to expand menus, press the Up or Down arrow key to browse the menus, and press Enter to select and option.
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To close the Options window and return to the main view, do one of the following:
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If you made changes and want to apply them, press the Tab key until you hear "OK button," and press Enter.
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If you didn't make changes or don't want to apply the changes you made, press Esc.
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Switch between Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar
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To navigate to Outlook Calendar, press Ctrl+2.
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To navigate to Outlook Mail, press Ctrl+1.
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To navigate to Outlook Copilot, press Ctrl+3.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with the calendar in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Make your Outlook email accessible to people with disabilities
Use Mail in Outlook for iOS with VoiceOver, the built-in iOS screen reader, to explore and navigate the different views and move between them.
Notes:
-
New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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This topic assumes that you are using the built-in iOS screen reader, VoiceOver. To learn more about using VoiceOver, visit Apple accessibility.
In this topic
Move between views
Navigate to email folders
The navigation pane contains a list of all the email accounts added to Outlook. In the navigation pane, you can also add a new email account and access the settings.
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To open the navigation pane, tap near the top of the screen with four fingers. You hear your "Menu," followed by your username, and "Show navigation pane." Double-tap the screen.
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If you have added more than one account, swipe right until you hear the correct one and double-tap the screen to select it.
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Swipe right until you hear the folder you want, and then double-tap the screen to close the navigation pane and open the selected folder in the main view.
Navigate to and inside the Outlook settings
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To open the navigation pane, tap near the top of the screen with four fingers. You hear your "Menu," followed by your username, and "Show navigation pane." Double-tap the screen.
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Swipe right until you hear "Settings button," and double-tap the screen to open the Settings window.
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To move between the different settings, swipe left and right until you hear the one you want and double-tap the screen to select it. Some settings open in a separate window. If so, to return to the Settings window, swipe left until you hear "Back button," and double-tap the screen.
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To close the Settings window and return to the main view, swipe left until you hear "Close button," and double-tap the screen.
Switch between Outlook Mail, Calendar, Copilot, and Search
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To switch to your Email, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers, flick left or right until you hear “Email tab,” and double-tap the screen.
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To switch to your Calendar, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers, flick left or right until you hear “Tab bar, Calendar, tab.” Double-tap the screen.
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To switch to your Copilot, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers, flick left or right until you hear “Tab bar, Copilot, tab.” Double-tap the screen.
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To switch to your Apps, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers, flick left or right until you hear “Tab bar, Apps, tab.” Double-tap the screen.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with the calendar in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Make your Outlook email accessible to people with disabilities
Use Mail in Outlook for Android with TalkBack, the built-in Android screen reader, to explore and navigate the different views and move between them.
Notes:
-
New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
-
This topic assumes that you are using the built-in Android screen reader, TalkBack. To learn more about using TalkBack, go to Android accessibility.
In this topic
Switch between Outlook Mail, Calendar, and Search
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To switch to your calendar, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers. You hear: "Tab bar, Calendar, tab." Double-tap the screen.
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To switch to your email, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers, swipe left until you hear "Email tab," and double-tap the screen.
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To access Search, tap near the bottom of the screen with four fingers, swipe left until you hear "Search tab," and double-tap the screen.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with the calendar in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Make your Outlook email accessible to people with disabilities
Use Mail in Outlook on the web with your keyboard and a screen reader to explore and navigate the different views and move between them. We have tested it with Narrator in Microsoft Edge and JAWS and NVDA in Chrome, but it might work with other screen readers and web browsers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Notes:
-
New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
-
To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
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When you use Outlook on the web, we recommend that you use Microsoft Edge as your web browser. Because Outlook on the web runs in your web browser, the keyboard shortcuts are different from those in the desktop program. For example, you'll use Ctrl+F6 instead of F6 for jumping in and out of the commands. Also, common shortcuts like F1 (Help) and Ctrl+O (Open) apply to the web browser – not Outlook on the web.
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The layout of Outlook on the web conforms to the most recent international guidelines about accessible keyboard navigation. If you're using certain keyboard shortcuts specific to your screen reader, you can take advantage of the ARIA markup on the page.
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For the best user experience, we recommend turning the Reading Pane off and showing emails as Messages and not as Conversations.
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We're currently updating Outlook.office.com (Outlook on the Web). Some people are already using the new Outlook, and for others the classic version will be the default experience until we complete the update. For more information, go to Get help with the new Outlook on the web. Since the instructions in this topic apply to the new experience, we recommend that you switch from the classic experience to the new Outlook. To switch to the new Outlook, press Ctrl+F6 until you hear "Command, Try the new Outlook," and then press Enter. If you hear "Command toolbar" instead of "Command, Try the new Outlook," you're already using the new Outlook.
In this topic
Switch between views
You can switch from the Mail view to the Calendar, Copilot, People, or Groups view or to the To-Do app, or even to another Microsoft 365 app.
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Press the Tab key or Shift+Tab until you hear: "Navigation pane, region landmark," and then press Shift+Tab once. You hear: "Mail, button."
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Press the Down arrow key until you hear the name of the view or app you want, and press Enter.
Navigate to the app settings
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To open the Settings pane, press Ctrl+F6 or Shift+Ctrl+F6 until you hear "Banner, Search, landmark," press the Tab key until you hear "Settings button," and then press Enter.
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Press the Tab key until you hear "Complimentary, Search Outlook settings, and then use the Down arrow key to browse the options available in the Settings pane.
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To review all Outlook settings, press the Down arrow key until you hear "View all Outlook settings button," and press Enter. The Settings window opens. Use the Tab key, Shift+Tab, and the Up or Down arrow keys to navigate the window.
See also
Use a screen reader to navigate Mail in Outlook for Mac
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to insert a picture or image in an email in Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with the calendar in Outlook
Make your Outlook email accessible to people with disabilities
Technical support for customers with disabilities
Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.
If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
