Moving your hands back and forth from the mouse to the keyboard is a productivity killer. What if you could do 99% of what you need to do in Outlook without taking your fingers off the keyboard? Speed up your Outlook usage with keyboard shortcuts!

Here are some handy and frequently-used keyboard shortcuts for Outlook. You’ll see that many functions have multiple shortcuts – use whichever works easiest for how your fingers site on a keyboard (Ctrl-key-based shortcuts work better for me, personally, but to each their own). Some shortcuts also have different functions based on where you’re working in Outlook (email, tasks, calendar, etc…).

• Ctrl+N: Create new e-mail/item (depends on current view).
• Ctrl+R: Reply to an email
• Alt+R: Reply or switch to work-week calendar view
• Ctrl+Shift+R or Alt+L: Reply to all
• Ctrl+F: Forward an item
• Alt+W: Forward an item or switch to weekly calendar view
• Alt+S or Ctrl+Enter: Send an email.
• Alt+G: Open the “Go-To-Date” dialog to jump to any date on the calendar.
• Ctrl+P: Print an email
• Ctrl+K: Check names against address book (as mentioned last month).
• F3 or Ctrl+E: Activate the Find drop-down menu (typically used to search for emails).
• F9: Send and receive all accounts.
• You can also switch between mail, calendar, contacts and other items using keyboard shortcuts:
  • Ctrl+1: Switch to mail
  • Ctrl+2: Switch to calendar
  • Ctrl+3: Switch to contacts
  • Ctrl+4: Switch to Tasks
  • Ctrl+5: Switch to Notes
  • Ctrl+6: Switch to folder list
  • Ctrl+7: Switch to shortcuts.

You can find more shortcuts from on Microsoft’s very extensive list (you truly could use the entire program without touching your mouse) as well as from MakeUseOf.com’s handy printable cheat-sheet.

Are we missing an obvious shortcut or something you use a lot? Let us know in the comments below!