New Outlook Version - Actions/Edit Ability

Question

In the new Outlook version, why on earth would you remove the Actions option to Edit an email? That is a critical part of my daily tasks where I manage in the ballpark of 100 emails a day for our company. PLEASE put that option back into the queue!! I beg you!!

Answer 1

Just to gently clarify, this forum is a community support space. As a moderator, I don’t have the ability to directly bring features back or influence product changes myself. My role here is to help explain what’s happening, share what we know about product behavior, and point you toward the best available options or channels to raise feedback.

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Dear @Eric King,

I hope you’re having a good day.

First of all, thank you for sharing this so openly, I can truly understand why this feels frustrating, especially when it’s part of a workflow you rely on every single day. Managing that volume of emails and losing a familiar tool can really disrupt things.

Just to gently clarify, this forum is a community support space. As a moderator, I don’t have the ability to directly bring features back or influence product changes myself. My role here is to help explain what’s happening, share what we know about product behavior, and point you toward the best available options or channels to raise feedback.

From what you described, it sounds like you were using the "Edit Message” option (previously found under Actions) in Outlook classic. That feature allowed you to open a received email, make edits directly to its content, and save it back into your mailbox.

In the new Outlook, things work a bit differently. It’s not just a redesigned version of the old app, it’s actually built on a newer, web-based platform (similar to Outlook on the web). Because of that, not all legacy desktop features have been carried over yet.

I completely agree with you, for users who depended on this feature to manage and annotate emails efficiently, this is a meaningful gap. You’re definitely not the only one who feels this way, and this kind of feedback is important.

In the meantime, a few options you might consider

• While the new experience is still evolving, you could consider: Continuing to use Outlook (classic) if this feature is critical to your daily workflow
• Using workarounds such as forwarding the email and editing it before sending or copying content into a new draft and adding your notes there

I know these aren’t perfect replacements, but they can help bridge things temporarily.

About the new Outlook: It’s worth noting that the new Outlook is still actively being improved. Microsoft is gradually working toward feature parity, and feedback from users like you plays a big role in shaping what gets prioritized.

Personally, I agree with you, there are still many areas where the new Outlook could better support real-world workflows, especially for high-volume, professional use cases like yours.

If you have a moment, I would genuinely encourage you to submit this as feedback directly within Outlook using the Feedback option. Those submissions go straight to the product team, and the more people highlight this specific need, the more likely it is to be considered in future updates.

If my response has helped you better understand the situation and guided you toward a possible next step, please consider marking it as the “Accepted answer.” Doing so will pin the thread to the top, making it easier for others to discover your question and see the pioneering effort you have made in raising this issue. It also helps users searching with related keywords find the discussion more quickly and benefit from the insights shared. 

 

Thank you again for taking the time to raise this, it really is valuable.

Warm regards, 

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Answer 2

New Outlook does not support all classic Outlook features, including some client-side actions like editing received messages. That functionality has not been reintroduced. For workflows that depended on client-side rules or message editing, only the supported server-side rules and automation options (such as Quick Steps) are available in new Outlook today.

To partially compensate, Quick Steps in new Outlook can automate multi-step actions on messages (move, flag, categorize, etc.) and may help streamline high‑volume mail handling, but they cannot edit message content.

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References:

• Edit or fix a broken rule in Outlook
• Manage email messages by using rules in Outlook
• Automate common or repetitive tasks with Quick steps in Outlook