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How to change/edit subject lines of received messages in Outlook?

For the sake of easy searching, being consistent with the message content, or other purposes, you may need to edit or change some received messages’ subjects in Outlook. Nevertheless, it seems nowhere that these subjects can be edited or changed. Actually Microsoft Outlook supports this feature, and here we will guide you to edit or change the subjects of received messages with ease.

Change/edit subject line of one email in Outlook

Change/edit subject line of multiple emails in Outlook

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arrow blue right bubbleChange/edit subject line of one email in Outlook

The following steps will guide you to change or edit one email's subject line quickly in Outlook. Please do as follows:

1. In the Mail view, double click to open the email whose subject line you will change.

2. Now the email is opening in the Message window. Please click the button at the bottom-right corner of message header to expand the message header. See screenshot:

Note: In Outlook 2010 or earlier version, the message header is expanded by default, please skip this step directly.

.

3. Now the message header is expanded. Please edit the subject line directly, and then click the Save button. See screenshot:

So far, you have changed/edited the subject line of the specified email already. Please close the Message window as you need.

arrow blue right bubbleChange/edit subject line of multiple emails in Outlook

If you need to change multiple emails' subject lines in Outlook, above method will be a little tedious. Here, this method will guide you to change the folder's view setting, and edit emails' subject lines in the Message List directly. Please do as follows:

1. In the Mail view, open the folder containing emails whose subject lines you will change, and click View > View Settings. See screenshot:

2. Now the Advanced View Settings dialog box comes out, please click the Other Settings button. See screenshot:

3. In the popping out Other Settings dialog box, please check the Allow in-cell editing option, and then click the OK buttons successively to close both dialog boxes.

4. Now you return to the folder, please click View > Reading Pane > Off to close the reading pane. See screenshot:

5. Now in the Message List, please click the subject line you want to change, and then edit it directly as below screenshot shown.

And then repeat this step to edit multiple emails' subject lines as you need.

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Comments (24)
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Dave
Dave
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I'm aware that the date, time and such columns as those cannot be edited, but I've viewed a tutorial where a "Notes" column can be inserted and edited to contain notes the user wishes to see.  Unfortunately, my Outlook 365 allows me to add the column, and to enter edit mode, but it will not take any data ... I get an error tone.  There must be many other columns that allow the user to enter or edit data, or ... ?
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Tom T
Tom T
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Is there a way to add the same text to the beginning of all the subject lines all at once rather than needing to insert the text one at a time?  If so, can this be done with using VBA or a third-party app?
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Sarah Kline
Sarah Kline
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This is a huge game-changer for me. Thank you so much!!! It's a happy day! :-)
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Panama Smaek
Panama Smaek
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could i change date or time of incomming emails?

could i change reciefed from or sent to inthe header?

thanks
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kellytte
kellytte     Panama Smaek
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Hi Panama Smaek,
I am afraid it is impossible to change some message header information of an incoming email, such as from, to, sent time etc.
Here is a roundabout trick to change them: click to open the email in the Message window, click Message > Actions > Resent This Message, and then change the from, to as you need. And finally, save the message without sending.
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Michelle
Michelle
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Having Conversation View on is the reason Subject Lines weren't editable. When I uncheck the box in View > "Show as Conversations", I'm able to edit. However, this poses a different problem - I heavily depend on viewing my emails as Conversations. Setting this view back on, now every newly changed email shows the old subject line text. Is there a way to enforce the new subject line text for Conversations?
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Michelle
Michelle
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Step 5 is missing information. I've followed every instruction exactly; my Outlook looks just like the screen shots here. "Now in the Message List, please click the subject line you want to change, and then edit it directly as below screenshot shown" - How do you get an email Subject Line into edit mode? Selecting an email in Message List does nothing but select/highlight it. Double-clicking opens it into separate window. Right-clicking shows no option for editing. F2 shortcut on a highlighted/selected line does nothing. Just start typing - nothing. ... I'm using Office 2016. Thanks
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MICADINA
MICADINA
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Hi, at work we use Outlook 2010. I have tried and tried, I do change the subject of the messages, but but in the MESSAGE LIST the subject is the original one while in the READING PANEL the subject is the one I have changed. So the change is not exactly complete. I have visited other help options sites and no way, the result is always the same: subject changed in the READING PANEL and unchanged in the MESSAGE LIST. Thanks anyway.
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JD
JD     MICADINA
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It is because it is showing as a conversation. Remove conversation and it should work
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Irene
Irene
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This was great! thanks for the clear instructions
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Tania
Tania
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Thanks for this but my colleague, Stacey, has a strange error in that the Subject Line looks to be read only - can't edit it at all when you open the email into its own window. I understand this isn't the Microsoft site, but wondering if you would know why this is (haven't found a matching error on google yet). All our other colleagues (including myself) can open the email and edit as desired.
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Tania
Tania     Tania
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Please ignore - finally found out what was going on and she's sorted now
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Mike
Mike     Tania
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Tania, can you explain what you did to fix this. I have someone who is having the same problem.
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Tania
Tania     Mike
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When it says make sure you can see all of the header information, in step 2 above, we didn't have it expanded properly. The email she was working on had the window positioned so the right hand side was off the screen and she didn't see the drop down expand symbol. So I wrote my first message here thinking it was something different when it was really the same thing. Then we tried with a different email that was centered and we could see where to fix. Hope this helps :)
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Coral
Coral
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Oh thank you so much, this has been driving me crazy and Microsoft and even outlook help was zero help. Your pics also made it a breeze. I fee like I have won a lottery!
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