We’ve all been there–on both sides: we’ve missed our name in an email, or we’ve mentioned someone else’s name, and they never responded to the question. Did you know that Outlook has a built-in way to highlight a name in the body of an email? You don’t even need Exchange for this to work!
Outlook actually allows you to use “@” mentions to do this, and it’s really easy. In the body of your email message, just type @, then the person’s name (no spaces), and a list of possible names will pop up:
Just select the name, and the formatting will automatically change so it stands out more. Another bonus: this person’s email is automatically added to the “To:” recipients line.
You can also backspace once to remove the last name, if you prefer to just use the person’s first name:
Is there any way to configure the font color or background for @ mentions?
Hi Joe,
Yes, there is–you would just select/highlight the @ mention and use the regular font settings to adjust it (just like you would with any other text). Great question.
Thanks a lot Megan. With regards to formatting is there any way to change the formatting permanently ?
Many thanks.
Not that I can find, unfortunately!
it does not work, do I need to configure MS outlook 2016?
Hi Raja,
According to the Microsoft page on @mentions, “The Mentioned mail feature and the @ (at symbol) indicator are only available for recipients using Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Online, or Outlook.com.” I have also found some older forum posts from 2017 stating that this does not work for Office 2016 MSI licenses, but I can’t tell if that has since changed.
Is there a way when you do @Mention, by default it will only mention the first name.
Hi Pradeep,
I don’t know of a way to make that the default behavior unfortunately!
You can use an Outlook client rule to check if the header of the mail contains “X-Mentions”
How can I change the default font size and color of the MENTION
Hi Danit,
Unfortunately there’s no way to set the default font size/color for mentions at this time (at least, that I’m aware of!)
Can you set it so you can mention someone without adding them to the To box?
Hi Cathy,
No–that feature cannot be disabled