Revolutionize Outlook Experience: All-in-One Tab for Emails, Calendars, Tasks and more

Author: Xiaoyang Last Modified: 2024-10-31

Kutools for Outlook

Tabbed interfaces have become a staple in modern application design, facilitating seamless navigation between multiple tasks or projects. In the context of Microsoft Outlook, efficient task management and swift switching are important. To address this need, Kutools for Outlook provides a Tab Bar feature. Mirroring the ease of use found in browsers like Google Chrome, this feature consolidates emails, calendars, tasks, and more into a single tabbed window, avoiding the need to juggle multiple open windows. See the demo below:

Display all open windows in one tab and easily toggle between them
Create new items (E-mail, Appointment, Task, etc) from the tab
Close the specific or all windows
Disable the Tab Bar
Other operations

After downloading and installing Kutools for Outlook, when you launch Outlook application next time, a new tab is displayed below the ribbon, see screenshot:

shot of a new tab displayed below the ribbon

Display all open windows in one tab and easily toggle between them

When opening or creating items (such as emails, tasks, meetings, appointments...) in Outlook, all the opened windows will be displayed in a single tab, and the main window is fixed at the left side, you can switch between the items freely and quickly. See the demo below:

Tips: You can also toggle between the opened items by clicking the

button on the right side of the bar, and then click the item to open it, see screenshot:
shot showing another way to toggle between the opened items

Create new items (E-mail, Appointment, Task, etc) from the tab

You can create new email, appointment, task and more directly from the tab bar. Simply click the button on hte left side of the tab bar, and then choose the item you want to create, see screenshot:
shot showing how to create new email

Tips:

To create a new Outlook item, you can also right click the blank space on the bar and select the item you need from the context menu. See screenshot:
You can swiftly create a new email by double-clicking the blank space on the bar.

Close the specific or all windows

Close one window:

If you want to close a specific window, click to activate the tab, and then click × icon, see screenshot:

shot showing how to close a specific window

Close specific or all windows:

Right click any one tab in the tab bar, in the popped-out menu, choose the option you need:

Close The Window: Close the current window;
Close The Right Window: Close all the right windows of the current tab;
Close The Left Window (Except The Main Window): Close all the left windows of the current tab excluding the main window;
Close All Windows (Except The Main Window): Close all opened windows excluding the main window.

Disable the Tab Bar

If you want to disable this Tab Bar, under the main window tab, please click Kutools > Tab Bar to disable this feature. See screenshot:

shot showing how to disable the Tab Bar

After disabling this feature, all open windows will be displayed as separate windows, as is customary.

Tips: When you reopen Outlook, it remembers the previous status of the Tab Bar, whether it was enabled or disabled. For example, if you close Outlook with the Tab Bar enabled, then the next time you start Outlook the Tab Bar will still be enabled.

Other operations

To enhance the user experience with the Tab Bar in Kutools for Outlook, there are additional operations available. These are designed to ensure you can utilize the Tab Bar both conveniently and effectively.

shot showing additional operations available

Prompt When Closing The Main Window
Multi-Window Mode
Show All Windows On The Taskbar
Quit Outlook

Prompt When Closing The Main Window:

If you don’t check this option, when you click to close the main window, Outlook will close and quit at once;
If you check this option, when you click to close the main window, a prompt box will appear. If you wish to quit Outlook, select Yes. If not, choose No. See screenshot:

Multi-Window Mode:

If this option isn't selected, all open windows will consolidate into a single window;
If this option is selected, each open window is displayed as a separate individual window.

Show All Windows On The Taskbar:

When this option is not selected, all open windows in the taskbar are merged into one consolidated window;
When this option is selected, each open window in the taskbar is displayed as its own individual window.