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Microsoft Office Outlook automatically groups items by date. However, you can also group items manually by using standard arrangements (arrangement: A predefined combination of grouped and sorted messages in table view.) or by creating your own custom grouping. While you may be most familiar with the default groups (group: A set of items with one common attribute; for example, priority or status. Also, to group is to combine items with a common attribute under a shared heading in a table or on a timeline.) in your Inbox, these groups are also applied to other mail folders.

The default groups that are displayed in your Inbox include Today, Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month, and Older. Some of the standard arrangements that are available include grouping according to Categories, Size, Subject, and Importance.

You can also disable this feature if you choose.

• Group or ungroup items automatically

• Group items manually or create a custom group

• Ungroup items manually

• Disable the Grouping feature

Group or ungroup items automatically

• To quickly add or remove grouping in an arrangement, on the View menu, point to Arrange By, and then click Show in Groups.

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Group items manually or create a custom group

1. On the View menu, point to Arrange By, and then click Custom.
2. Click Group By.
3. Clear the Automatically group according to arrangement check box.
4. In the Group items by box, click a field (field: An element of a table that contains a specific item of information, such as a last name. A Title field might contain Mr. or Ms. Databases such as Microsoft SQL Server refer to fields as columns.) to group by.

   If the field that you want is not in the Group items by box, click a different field set in the Select available fields from box.

5. Click Ascending or Descending for the sort order of the group headings.
6. To display the field that you are grouping items by, select the Show field in view check box.
7. To group by subgroups, click a field in the Then by box.
8. In the Expand/collapse defaults list, click the default for how you want groups to display in the view.

After closing the dialog box, display or hide items in a group by clicking Expand or Collapse .

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Ungroup items manually

1. On the View menu, point to Arrange By, and then click Custom.
2. Click Group By.
3. In the Group items by box, click none.

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Disable the Grouping feature

• On the View menu, point to Arrange By, and then click Show in Groups.

  If Show in Groups is checked, the feature is on. If Show in Groups is not checked, the feature is disabled.

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