Use a screen reader to navigate Mail in Outlook for Mac

This article is for people who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Microsoft 365 screen reader support content set where you can find more accessibility information on our apps. For general help, visit Microsoft Support.

Use Mail in Outlook for Mac with your keyboard and VoiceOver, the built-in macOS 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 macOS screen reader, VoiceOver. To learn more about using VoiceOver, go to VoiceOver Getting Started Guide.
The instructions have been documented with the Reading Pane off.

In this topic

Navigate the main view and screen elements

When you open the Mail view in Outlook for Mac, the main view shows the message list with the most recent emails in the Inbox folder. To navigate the main views and screen elements:

Press the Tab key to move the focus through the screen elements.
To cycle through the main regions of the screen only, press F6. The focus moves through the regions in the following order:
- The folder pane on the left
- The toolbar above the messages list
- The messages list
- The quick access toolbar below the folder pane
- The top banner at the top of the screen

The folder pane

The folder pane contains a list of your email folders. At the bottom of the pane, you can find the quick access toolbar with buttons for switching between Mail, Calendar, People, To-Do, and Notes.

To move the focus to the folder pane, press F6 until you hear “Table, Inbox,” followed by the number of any unread messages.
To navigate the list of folders, press Control+Option+Shift+Down arrow key, and then press the Down or Up arrow key. VoiceOver reads the name of each folder and, in the case of Inbox, the number of unread messages. The contents of the message list view change to display the messages in the selected folder as you move between folders.
To exit the folder pane, press Control+Option+Shift+Up arrow key.

The toolbar

The toolbar above the messages list contains buttons for frequently used actions. It includes, for example, the Hide sidebar button for collapsing and expanding the folder pane, the New Message button for creating a new email, and buttons for deleting, moving, and flagging messages, and showing or hiding the task pane.

To move the focus to the toolbar, press F6 until you hear "Hide sidebar button" or "Delete" button.
To navigate inside the toolbar, press the Tab key or Shift+Tab.

Message list view

The message list view contains a list of the emails in the currently selected folder, with the most recent one at the top. You can open messages from the message list view.

The message list view also contains a header just above the messages list. From the header, you can switch between Focused and Other inboxes and filter or sort your messages.

To move the focus to the messages list, press F6 until you hear "Messages list, table," and the details of the first message in the list.
To browse the messages, press Control+Option+Shift+Down arrow key and then press the Down or Up arrow key. VoiceOver reads the details of each email. Press Return to open the email currently in focus. The email opens in a separate window.
To move the focus to the header, press the Tab key until you hear the selected inbox, for example, "Focused inbox selected."
To navigate the header, press Control+Option+Right or Left arrow key.

To learn how to read, reply, and create emails, refer to Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook. For the instructions on how to switch between Focused and Other inboxes, refer to Switch between Focused and Other inboxes.

The quick access toolbar

The quick access toolbar contains buttons for switching between the Outlook Mail, Calendar, and People views and To-Do and Notes apps.

To move the focus to the quick access toolbar, press F6 until you hear: "Mail, button."
To move inside the toolbar, press Control+Option+Right or Left arrow key. To select, press Control+Option+Spacebar.

To learn how to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between the views, refer to Switch between views.

The top banner

The banner at the top of the screen contains the Search field, the What's new button, and the switch to change between the new and legacy Outlook.

To move the focus to the top banner, press F6 until you hear: "Search text field."
To navigate inside the top banner, press Control+Option+Right or Left arrow key, the Tab key, or Shift+Tab.

Navigate the app menu

The app menu is the main menu in Outlook for Mac. It is divided into several tabs, such as File, Home, Edit, Format, and Tools.

To move the focus to the app menu, press Control+Option+M. You hear: "Menu bar, Apple."
To navigate between the tabs in the menu, press Command+Option+Right or Left arrow key. To expand the tab currently in focus, press Command+Option+Spacebar.
After expanding a tab, use the Down or Up arrow key to browse its options, and press Command+Option+Spacebar to select an option.

Switch between views

To quickly move from Mail to Calendar, People, To-Do, or Notes and back to Mail, use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Press Command+1 to go to the Mail view.
Press Command+2 to go to the Calendar view.
Press Command+3 to go to the People view.
Press Command+4 to go to the To-Do app.
Press Command+1 to go to the Notes app.

Switch between Focused and Other inboxes

Focus on the emails that matter the most to you. By default, Outlook creates a Focused inbox and an Other inbox. Your most important emails are sorted into the Focused inbox while the rest remain easily accessible, but out of the way, in the Other inbox.

Press F6 until you hear: "Messages list, table."
Press the Tab key until you hear the currently selected inbox, for example, "Focused inbox selected."
To switch between the inboxes, press Control+Option+Spacebar.

Navigate the Outlook preferences

Press Command+Comma (,). The Outlook Preferences dialog box opens.
To navigate the preference categories in the dialog box, press the Tab key to move forwards or Shift+Tab to move backwards, and press Control+Option+Spacebar to select and open a preference category.
To navigate inside a preference category, press the Tab key or Shift+Tab. To return to the main Outlook Preferences dialog box, press the Tab key until you hear "Show all," and press Control+Option+Spacebar.
To close the Outlook Preferences dialog box, press Command+W.

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