Your fingers may have to learn some new habits. A number of common keyboard shortcuts changed between Entourage 2008 and Outlook 2011, and some even took on the opposite meaning!
First, the good news: most shortcuts remained the same, including such universal combinations as Command-N for New, Command-Z for Undo, and Command-C for Copy. Although Outlook 2011 adds many new shortcuts that don’t exist at all in Entourage 2008, at least those won’t trip you up as you’re learning the application.
However, if you’ve taught yourself to press Command plus a number key for switching views, you’re in for some adjustments: Outlook uses the same system, but assigns the numbers differently (for example, in Entourage, Command-2 switches to Address Book view and Command-3 switches to Calendar view, but those are reversed in Outlook 2011). And, whereas in Entourage Command-Shift-G meant “Find the next instance of the selected text,” in Outlook it means “Find the previous instance.” In other cases, a keyboard shortcut has a new meaning, there’s a different way to perform the same command, or both.
Here’s a list of some of the most common shortcuts you’ll want to relearn. We’ve also created a downloadable version of this table if you prefer to print it out.
| Command | Entourage 2008 | Outlook 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| Windows and dialog boxes | ||
| Go to Calendar view | Command-3 | Command-2 |
| Go to the Address Book view | Command-2 | Command-3 |
| Go to Tasks view | Command-5 | Command-4 |
| Go to Notes view | Command-4 | Command-5 |
| Search | ||
| Perform a basic search using the Search field | Command-F | Command-Option-F |
| Find the next instance of the selected text | Command-G or Command-Shift-G | Command-G |
| Find the previous instance of the text you searched for in an item | — | Command-Shift-G |
| Perform an Advanced Search | Command-Option-F | Command-Shift-F |
| Check recipient names in the open messages | Command-Option-C | Command-Control-C |
| Contacts | ||
| Delete the selected contact, note, or event | Command-Delete | Delete |
| Close the current open contact or note and open the previous one in the list | Command-[ (left bracket) | Control-[ (left bracket) |
| Close the current open contact or note and open the next one in the list | Command-] (right bracket) | Control-] (right bracket) |
| Calendar | ||
| In day view, move to the previous day. In week and work week views, move to the previous week. In month view, move to the previous month. | Command-[ (left bracket) | Command-Left Arrow |
| In day view, move to the next day. In week and work week views, move to the next week. In month view, move to the next month. | Command-] (left bracket) | Command-Right arrow |