how do I add a note to an email using outlook

Thanks for the nice tip D A K, unfortunately it doesn't work in current versions, even on the desktop (Outlook for M365 MSO version 2405). If you disable message previews, you'll get something which seems to work (a cursor in the field), but you won't actually be able to type or even paste text inside.

This has been reported since 2012 for individual emails:

• Adding Comments To E-mail in Custom Column (Outlook 2010)
• Outlook 2013: Custom columns in emails not editable in Conversation View (Outlook 2013)

Unfortunately, although Microsoft recommended this solution as recently as 2022, that thread is now broken and locked, and Microsoft has since acknowledged in How do I add a note to an email using outlook? - previous thread unresolved that this feature is just missing.

I finally found something. I opened the email by double c;licking. Then clicked on the 3 dots at the far right side. Mine has an offer of

"Open TakeNote". TakeNote brings up a box to write your note and stays with the email for future viewing. I don't know if this is a Microsoft product or something I happened to download ages ago. I also have MessageFiler, Send to OneNote, Viva Insights, Mark as read and Advanced actions in this same area. Hope this helps.

This (Messageware) TakeNote app indeed does the trick to a large extent! Great that it works in Outlook Web/Online as well as in Outlook Desktop.

I did not yet figure out how to get this working on my iphone Outlook.

Pity that there is no overview of which emails contain notes - you have to open the email and the TakeNote app to see.

But even without this it is a useful app to me!

Hi folks,

I don't know if anyone is still wanting to add a note to an email but dosn't have the right OUtlook version to be able to do it. I've worked out my quick work around for this.

1. I created a quick step - by categorising any email that I've "edited" - I gave it a specific colour and called the colour "Emails with Notes". So for every email that I edit (next step) I apply the colour via the quick step (control/shift/1) and then I can see down the list that it has a note on the email.
2. Then open the email that you want to apply a note to, and go to "Move" "More move actions" button in the ribbon and when you click on 'more move actions' at the top of the list (for me) it says "edit message". So click that and then you can type a note onto the email. I change the font colour so like red or blue and then it stands out. You can also add a comment in the subject line and if you do it at the start of the subject line it shows up in the email list. Or just type. Email note. and then type a note in the body of the email.

Using the above you can see visually because the email is categorised and then when you open the email you can see your note easily because its in a different colour.

It's not tooooo much hassle but it's the only way I can achieve this without having the "note" function available to add to emails.

Hope that helps.

I found a way to do this if anyone is interested - I'm able to just type notes in the subject section (before or after subject in the original email). I normally put a star "*" before and after my note. That's just my thing to let me know I typed it and it's a note for me and I also date it. It's been working great. It asks me to save and the note is there. Can still use flags for follow-up.