For yearsGmail has ruledthe land of web - found email service , but slowly and surely Microsoft has been get Outlook.com a military group to be reckoned with . We ’re not yet at the stagecoach where we can confidently declare Outlook.com is superior to Gmail for your online email checking — but what we can say is here are nine nerveless caper for Microsoft ’s webmail service that Gmail ca n’t quite match .
We ’re going to focus on the free , Outlook.com web interface that ’s available to everyone with a Microsoft account , rather than the desktop version of Outlook that come as part of an Office purchase . And yes , we are cognizant there ’s stuff Gmail can do that Outlook.com ca n’t , but that ’ll have to wait for another time .
1) Pin emails to the top
Outlook.com have you immobilize the most important emails to the top of the inbox — you just hover over the subject matter , then click the pin icon . The same trick works in any subfolder , so you could have trap e-mail for Work , Travel , Finance , or whatever booklet you ’ve made .
Gmail has stars of course , and multi - colored hotshot at that , work it elementary to find important emails . However , while asterisk emails do remain on the Primary tab , they ’re not continue at the top of the inbox or at the top of the label they ’re assigned to for easy showing .
2) Easily drop GIFs straight into messages
Who needs words anyway ? Outlook.com makes it super - soft to sink GIFs right into the eubstance of your messages : From the compose window , click the emoji button , then switch to the GIFs tab and run a hunting . When you ’ve find something worthy , click to insert it .
Gmail let you add GIFs into your outgoing subject matter too , but the process is n’t quite as simple — you have to get the animated image save up ready to upload , or drag it in from a browser app tab or file windowpane . There ’s no integrated lookup and no single click to sneak in .
3) Change the conversation order
Gmail helped to pioneer that conversation view that we all take for grant now ( remember when electronic mail threads appear as private messages ) , but having copied the feature Outlook.com gives you an extra option : examine the newest messages at the top .
Sure , Gmail break up conversation thread so the newest message is always relatively easy to find , but it can still mean a lot of scrolling . In Outlook.com , click the cog icon ( top right wing ) then choose Newest messages on top under the Conversation persuasion manoeuvre .
4) Sweep away your emails
tap an email on Outlook.com and at the top you could choose Sweep to set up a prompt ruler free-base on this sender . e-mail can be set to get around the inbox , or to short-circuit the inbox after 10 day have pass on — it works like a super - elementary way of configure an email filter .
filter are one of the best parts of Gmail too , and can also be make from individual emails , but they do n’t pop the question all the feature of speech of Sweep : For good example , Gmail is n’t able to automatically archive all but the most recent email from a picky sender for you .
5) Quickly filter emails
need to see the magnanimous email in your Outlook.com inbox , or in a special pamphlet ? Click the Filter button on the right hand , then choose Sort by , then Size . you’re able to also get your electronic mail aggroup by sender in the leaflet you ’re view — snap Filter , then Sort by , then From .
Gmail can help you find emails above or below a certain sizing , but it ca n’t sort messages by size of it , either in the inbox or across a particular recording label . It ca n’t group e-mail by sender either like Outlook.com is able to , though it can sure enough reelect a search based on that criteria .
6) Go dark
Outlook.com has a rather exquisitely - looking Dark Mode that you may enable by clicking on the cog icon ( top right ) then toggle the Dark Mode tack to On . you’re able to “ turn on the light ” on individual subject matter in your inbox by clicking on the sunshine ikon above the coping .
you could get Gmail to go dour , but you need to head into the Themes division rather than flicking a switch , and the dark themes do n’t affect the consistency of your emails , or the pop - up menus , or the compose window . For now , Outlook.com works best for morose modality fan .
7) Edit Office documents
As you would expect , Outlook.com handle spot attachments ( Word , Excel , PowerPoint ) very well indeed — data file can be previewed and even delete inside the web web browser , with the linked email thread seeable at the side , thanks to a little supporter from the Office Online suite .
Maybe it ’s not fairish to note this as Gmail integrates terrifically well with its own Google Docs , Sheets , and Slides puppet , but previews and edits ca n’t be carried out with the email thread still on cover for easy reference . For Office loyalists , Outlook.com wins out here .
8) Read your emails, distraction-free
Outlook.com brings with it a rather groovy distraction - gratis purview , like you might be used to from Instapaper or Pocket . correctly - select an email , pluck Show in immersive reader , and everything but the school text is strip away—Outlook.com can even take the email outloud to you .
You do n’t really get anything quite like this in Gmail , though you could transport emails full - screen door if you do n’t desire your eye to roll over your other label or incoming message . It only really works for really long missives , but it ’s a clever puppet to have .
9) Install more add-ons
Both Gmail and Outlook.com livelihood hyperkinetic syndrome - ons from third party , but Microsoft ’s email platform has a batch more of them , maybe due to Outlook ’s longevity . tick the down arrow symbolic representation in the compose windowpane then Get Add - ins to see what ’s usable to install .
We counted more than 200 before we got eye strain , include plug - ins from Trello , Dropbox , Boomerang and Yelp , and the list lead way further . Gmail ( flick the cog icon then Get MBD - ons ) , by comparison , only has 68 official plug - IN at the clock time of penning .
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