Microsoft Outlook on the Web - the FILE view feature is incredible!

Posted on:  03/17/2021
Microsoft Outlook on the Web - the FILE view feature is incredible!

Outlook on the Web makes it easy to search for emails with "Attachments," but what do you do when you only want to see file attachments and not the emails? Microsoft has a File view in Outlook on the Web, formerly Outlook Web Access (OWA), later Outlook Web App, making it easy to find any document and photos. This feature is only for Outlook on the Web. You can easily search for Outlook desktop attachments, but the File view is missing in the desktop version.

File view - Outlook on the Web

File view - Outlook on the Web

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Access Files View

Click the Files icon in the bottom-left corner of Outlook. It appears as a paper clip. By default, it will be between the “People” and “To-Do” icons. If you don't see the Files icon, click the three dots and select Files.

Access Files icon in Outlook on the web
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Sort Files View

After accessing Files, you can sort by four different fields. Your sort can be either A to Z or Z to A. The four fields are

  1. File name
  2. Sent by
  3. Subject
  4. Received on

 

 

File view in Outlook - four fields you can sort

Filter Files view

Not only can you sort Files view, but you can also filter by file type. Common file types are Excel, Word, and PDF.

To filter, click the drop-down arrow by Filter, and select the file type you want to view. You can filter by multiple file types. For example, click Excel and click Word to see both file types.

 

You can also filter by date ranges, as shown in the screenshot below. The four options for date ranges are This week, Last week, This month, and Select range.

File view - Filter by file type and date ranges in Outlook on the web

Filter File view by file type and date ranges

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View Photos and images with File view

The default view for File view is Files. Photos and images do not show in Files. To see images, click Photos on the left. I tested and both JPG, and PNG files show in Photos. To see files and photos, click All attachments above Photos.

View images and photos in Outlook on the web

Click Photos to view only images

Tiles view and List view

Outlook on the web Files view has two views:

  1. Tiles view
  2. List view

Tiles view shows a thumbnail of the file or image, while List view shows one file per row, with the date received or sent, the folder - Inbox or Sent - and Sent by and Subject. Tiles groups by month while List allows you to sort.

Tiles view and List view

Tiles view is #1. List view is #2.

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Chris Menard

Chris Menard is a certified Microsoft Trainer (MCT) and works as a full-time Trainer at BakerHostetler - one of the largest law firms in the US. He runs a YouTube channel with 900+ technology videos that cover various tools such as Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Outlook. To date, the channel has helped over 20 million viewers. Menard also does 2 to 3 public speaking events every year, presenting at the Administrative Professional Conference (APC), the EA Ignite Conference, the Support Staff Conference, the University of Georgia, and CPA conferences. You can connect with him on LinkedIn at chrismenardtraining.com/linked or watch his videos on YouTube at chrismenardtraining.com/youtube.

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