Mail Bender for Outlook — Onboarding Guide

Welcome. This guide gets you from "plugin installed" to "ripping through your inbox in 10 seconds per email" in about 15 minutes of reading.

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🔑 Every key has built-in help

This is the most important thing in the manual — read it first.

Mail Bender ships 100 actions, and every key has a built-in help panel right inside the Stream Deck app. You never have to memorize anything and never have to leave the app to figure out how something works.

How to see it: 1. Open the Stream Deck app on your computer 2. Click any Mail Bender key on the right-side action picker (or any key already placed on your deck) 3. The panel that opens on the right of the Stream Deck app shows: - What the action does (one bold sentence) - When to use it (1–2 sentence guidance) - Settings explained (per field) - Common issues with workarounds — bulleted, including error codes, sync delays, and known Microsoft quirks

If you're ever unsure why something behaves a certain way, click the key in the Stream Deck app first before reaching for the docs or support. The answer is almost certainly in the panel.

Pro tip: every numeric setting in Mail Bender is a text box you type into — no sliders, no guessing at values. Click a key in the Stream Deck app, type the exact number you want (minutes, hours, milliseconds, counts), and you're set. Each box shows its allowed range and default right there in the help panel.

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What this plugin is

Mail Bender turns your Stream Deck into an Outlook command surface. Reply, archive, flag, schedule meetings, set out-of-office, create tasks — all without touching the mouse. Under the hood it uses Microsoft Graph API (the same API Outlook itself uses), so changes you make from the deck sync everywhere in seconds.

Designed for: Stream Deck XL (32-key, model 20GAT9902) — the preset profile is laid out for it. Also works on: any Stream Deck with pressable keys — you just arrange the keys yourself (see the note at the very front of this guide). OS: Windows 10 or 11. Outlook: any Microsoft account — Microsoft 365 (work / school) OR personal (Outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com). Outlook variants supported: New Outlook for Windows, Classic Outlook, Outlook on the Web (browser).

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Quick setup (3 steps)

1. Install the plugin

Double-click the Mail Bender plugin file you downloaded (it ends in .streamDeckPlugin). The Stream Deck app picks it up automatically and adds "Mail Bender" to your action picker.

2. Install the starter profile

A pre-built layout that puts the most-used actions in workflow-themed pages. Double-click Mail Bender.streamDeckProfile. Stream Deck imports it as a new profile — switch to it from the profile dropdown at the top of the Stream Deck app.

3. Sign in

Press the Sign In key, or the account / Whoami key while it's showing red. A browser tab opens to the Microsoft sign-in screen. Sign in with the Microsoft account you want to control, and click Accept on the consent screen. (Only those two keys ever start sign-in — nothing else opens a browser.)

The browser closes. The key works. Done. You only do this once per machine — tokens are cached securely with Windows DPAPI encryption, scoped to your Windows user account. When you're signed in, the Whoami key turns green and shows your address; pressing it then does nothing.

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How Mail Bender knows which email you're acting on

Most actions (Reply, Archive, Set Importance, etc.) need to know which email you mean. Microsoft Graph doesn't have a way to ask "what email is the user looking at right now" — no such concept exists on the server side.

So Mail Bender uses a clever workaround called the flick: it briefly sends the Insert key (Outlook's flag toggle) twice with a short gap. Outlook flags-then-unflags your selected email — visually no change, but each toggle bumps the email's "last modified" timestamp on the server. Mail Bender then asks Graph "which email did you just modify?" and that's how it identifies your target.

Example: John has his payroll email open in Outlook. He presses "Add to Priority" on his deck. Mail Bender flag-flicks the payroll email, identifies it via the timestamp bump, then sends the Priority command — Microsoft now knows the payroll email is the priority target.

You'll briefly see a flag icon appear and disappear on the email — that's the flick working.

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Pick Mode — Fast vs Normal

The flick fires automatically when you navigate with the Next / Previous Email keys — that's Fast mode (the default). Fast mode is snappy: tap Next → flick fires → email is identified → press any action → it lands on the right email.

But at very rapid navigation speeds (mashing Next/Prev quickly), the timing can race and flag-flicker the email you flew over instead of the one you settled on. To handle this, Mail Bender ships a second mode:

• Fast Mode (default — double red lightning icon): arrow nav auto-identifies emails. Fastest workflow.
• Normal Mode (single lightning icon): arrow nav does NOT auto-identify. You browse freely with zero flickering. When ready to act, press Pick This Email once to lock the email, then press your action.

Toggle modes via the Pick Mode key — it swaps icons each press to reflect the current mode.

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Browsing your inbox: Next / Previous (tap · hold · double-tap)

The Next Email (Down) and Previous Email (Up) keys are the heart of triage. Each key understands three gestures:

• Tap → move one email, instantly.
• Hold → keep moving in that direction, one step every Hold speed milliseconds, until you let go. Great for flying down a long inbox.
• Double-tap → jump a chunk: skips Double-tap skip emails at once in that direction.

Both numbers are plain text boxes in each key's settings: - Hold speed — milliseconds between steps while held. Default 100. Lower = faster scroll. - Double-tap skip — how many emails a double-tap jumps. Default 5. - Double-tap to skip — a checkbox on the Next / Previous key, on by default. Uncheck it to disable the double-tap jump entirely, so a second quick tap just steps once — handy if you keep triggering it by accident.

Mail Bender focuses Outlook for you on every gesture, and the moment you release it locks onto the email you landed on so your next action hits the right one. It's pure arrow-key navigation — it never deletes or sends — so feel free to mash it while you dial in the feel.

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Pick Speed (default 20ms)

"Pick Speed" is how long Mail Bender waits after your last Next/Prev press before it flicks to lock the email you landed on. The default is 20 milliseconds — effectively instant (dial it down to 1ms by hand for the most aggressive set-flag timing).

Why so low? Hold-to-browse (above) only flicks when you release the key, which eliminated the old rapid-navigation false-flagging. The flick no longer has to wait — so it doesn't.

Tune it 1–1500ms via the Pick Speed key: - Click the key in the Stream Deck app and type the exact value you want. - Press the deck key to instantly reset to 20ms.

If you ever see a flick grab the wrong message, nudge it up (try 150–300ms). Otherwise the 20ms default is right where you want it.

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Known issue: navigation across date-group dividers

Outlook groups inbox emails under date headers like Today, Yesterday, This Week. When you press Next/Previous to cross one of these dividers, Outlook's selection cursor can briefly land on the divider header itself instead of the next email. In that moment, the flick fails silently because the divider isn't a flaggable email.

Behavior you'll see: pressing an action key right after crossing a date group sometimes shows "no target" or targets the previous email instead of the one you're on.

Workaround: Hold-to-browse already helps here — it only flicks when you release the key, so it tends to settle past the divider on its own. If you still land on one, press Pick This Email once to lock the email, or tap Down/Up one more time so you're definitively past the divider before acting.

This is an Outlook UI quirk, not a Mail Bender bug — Microsoft's selection model treats divider headers as transient focus stops.

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Toggle Toasts (with per-action exceptions)

Mail Bender shows Windows toast notifications for action confirmations, error messages, and first-run explanations. To silence them all (recording a video, in a meeting, just want quiet):

Press the Toggle Toasts key. It flips between: - ON — full notifications - OFF — silent

Exceptions list (new): Sometimes you want most actions silent but a few specific ones to still confirm — "I want quiet but Add Sender to Contacts should still tell me the contact name." Click the Toggle Toasts key in the Stream Deck app, click "+ Add exception", and pick which actions bypass the OFF setting. Add as many as you want. Each row has an "×" to remove.

The state and exception list persist across plugin restarts and Stream Deck restarts.

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Important: Microsoft To Do tasks and desktop Outlook

The task actions (Add Task, Add Today Task, Email → Task) create entries in Microsoft To Do via Graph API. These appear reliably in:

• Microsoft To Do app (Windows / mobile) — within seconds
• Outlook on the Web — within seconds, in the To Do panel

They do NOT reliably appear in:

• Outlook desktop's Tasks pane — Microsoft uses a different backend for desktop Outlook tasks, and sync from Graph API can be delayed by hours or never sync at all. This is a Microsoft limitation, not Mail Bender's.

If you press an Add Task action and don't see it in Outlook desktop, check the Microsoft To Do app or outlook.com / office.com To Do tab — that's where the task lives.

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Set Importance — known behaviors

Lag: Set Importance High / Low / Normal each have a ~2-second processing delay caused by Microsoft Graph's server-side property propagation. Wait 2 seconds after pressing before pressing the next action — pressing too fast can stack writes that conflict with each other.

Visual quirk: The visible priority badge in Outlook's mail list (red ! for High, blue arrow for Low) may not update or disappear after you change importance on a received email. Looks like nothing happened.

But the underlying importance flag IS changing server-side — you can verify by: - Reading the email in Microsoft To Do or Outlook on a different device - Checking the Mail Bender success toast (which reads back from Graph after the PATCH)

Mail Bender writes BOTH Graph's REST importance field AND the underlying MAPI PR_IMPORTANCE extended property to maximize chances Outlook picks up the change. For received messages, Outlook's UI sometimes caches the sender's original importance flag and ignores receiver-side updates — that's a Microsoft client behavior we can't override.

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Known limitation: Outlook running as Administrator

If you launch Outlook with administrator permissions while Stream Deck runs at normal user integrity, Windows blocks Mail Bender from: - Sending keystrokes (Reply, Forward, Flag, Arrow keys, Archive, etc.) - Pulling Outlook to the foreground (Focus Outlook)

Symptom: every keystroke-based action silently fails. Every Graph-only action (Add to Priority, Set Importance, Move, Archive, etc.) still works.

Why: Windows User Interface Privilege Isolation (UIPI) prevents lower-integrity processes from sending input to higher-integrity windows — a security feature to prevent UAC bypass.

Fix: don't run Outlook elevated. There's no good reason to. If you must, run Stream Deck as administrator too (right-click the Stream Deck shortcut → Run as administrator) so both processes match integrity levels.

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Troubleshooting

Everything was working fine, then it stopped? Try this first.

Do these in order:

1. Press the Log Out key on your Stream Deck.
2. Close Outlook and the Stream Deck app from the system tray (the icons by the clock).
3. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del → Task Manager and End task on Stream Deck and Outlook if they're still listed — both apps like to linger in the background even after you close them from the tray.
4. Relaunch Outlook first, then Stream Deck, then sign back in with the Login key(s) on the deck. Should be back to normal.

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"Press a key and nothing happens" — Outlook desktop needs to be focused for keystroke-based actions. Press the Focus Outlook key first, or have an Outlook window in the foreground when you press the action.

Yellow "!" triangle on a key — Mail Bender encountered an error. A Windows toast appears with an "MB-XXXX" error code: - MB-6601 — no email could be identified to act on. Press Pick This Email to lock the current email, then retry. - MB-6602 — no upcoming meeting found (calendar action with empty calendar). - MB-3301 — Microsoft rejected the send (usually "send-as denied" — you tried to send on behalf of an address you don't own). - MB-9999 — generic Graph error. Check the Mail Bender log folder for details: open %APPDATA%\Elgato\StreamDeck\Plugins\, go into the Mail Bender plugin folder, then logs\.

Mail Bender shows the wrong email — press Pick This Email to lock the intended email, then run your action. If you're navigating with arrows fast and crossing date dividers, see the date-divider quirk section.

Set Importance succeeded but Outlook still shows old icon — Outlook caches importance display for received messages. Press F5 in OWA, or check Microsoft To Do, or just trust the success toast (Graph readback confirms the change landed server-side).

Duplicate / copy-pasted emails confuse Flag, Un-flag, and Set Importance — Mail Bender identifies the email you're acting on by the most recently modified message. If you have two copies of the same email stacked in a folder (for example after accidentally copy-pasting an email within Outlook), that detection can latch onto the wrong copy and those actions get inconsistent. Rare and self-inflicted, with no impact in normal use — just don't keep duplicate-pasted copies in the folder you're triaging.

Task you just created doesn't appear in Outlook — Microsoft To Do sync delay. Check the Microsoft To Do app or outlook.com instead of Outlook desktop Tasks pane.

Sign-in fails with "AADSTS50011" — your Azure app's redirect URI is misconfigured. This only happens with custom-deployed plugins; the marketplace plugin doesn't hit this.

"AADSTS65001: needs admin consent" — your work/school tenant blocks user consent. Ask your IT admin to grant admin consent for "Mail Bender" in your tenant. Not fixable from our side.

Keystroke actions silently failing — see the UIPI / elevated Outlook section above.

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Support

Contact details are on the Elgato Marketplace listing for this plugin.

When you reach out, include: - Which action you pressed - What you expected - What happened instead - The MB-XXXX error code if one appeared (and what the toast text said) - The Mail Bender log file — under %APPDATA%\Elgato\StreamDeck\Plugins\, open the Mail Bender plugin folder, then logs\

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Glossary

Terminology used throughout this guide. Alphabetical.

Display widget — A passive Stream Deck key that shows live information (unread count, next meeting, pending tasks, Free/Busy state, etc.) rather than performing an action on press. Refreshes on a short interval.

DPAPI — Windows Data Protection API. The OS-native encryption Mail Bender uses to store your Microsoft authentication tokens on disk. Tokens are scoped to your Windows user account, unreadable by other users or on other machines.

Double-tap skip — A Next/Previous Email setting: how many emails a quick double-tap jumps in that direction. Default 5, set as a text box.

Fast Mode — One of two Pick Mode states. Arrow navigation auto-identifies the email you land on. Default. Snappy workflow.

Flick — Mail Bender's mechanism for identifying which email you're acting on. Sends Insert key twice (flag, then un-flag) to bump the email's last-modified timestamp on Graph, then identifies it server-side. Net visual change: none.

Focus Outlook — A Mail Bender action that brings whichever Outlook window is open (Classic, New, or OWA tab) to the foreground. Required as a prerequisite for keystroke actions if Outlook isn't already focused.

Graph API / Microsoft Graph — Microsoft's HTTP API for accessing mail, calendar, contacts, tasks. Mail Bender uses Graph for everything that doesn't need Outlook to be focused.

Hold speed — A Next/Previous Email setting: the milliseconds between steps while you hold the key to browse. Default 100. Lower = faster scroll. Set as a text box.

Keystroke action — A Mail Bender action that sends a keyboard shortcut to the focused Outlook window. Native shortcuts are instant (no API round-trip). Requires Outlook to be focused.

MAPI — Messaging Application Programming Interface. Microsoft's lower-level mail-property model. Some Graph properties map to MAPI extended properties (tag IDs like 0x0017 for PR_IMPORTANCE). Mail Bender writes both Graph REST fields and MAPI extended properties when one alone isn't reliable.

MB-XXXX error code — Mail Bender's internal error codes shown in toasts. The number identifies the failure mode. See Troubleshooting for common ones.

Normal Mode — One of two Pick Mode states. Arrow navigation does NOT auto-identify; user must press Pick This Email manually. Use this if Fast Mode mis-flags emails for you.

Outlook Classic — The traditional desktop Outlook (the long-standing one). Mail Bender keystroke actions all work here.

Outlook on the Web (OWA) — Outlook running in a browser tab at outlook.office.com (work) or outlook.live.com (personal). Mail Bender's keystroke actions work in OWA when the browser tab has focus.

OAuth 2.0 PKCE — The standard authentication flow Mail Bender uses to sign you in to Microsoft. PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) is secure even though the plugin code is openly distributed.

PI (Property Inspector) — The settings panel that opens in the Stream Deck app when you click a key. Mail Bender's PIs are all self-documenting — they include not just the input fields but also a What / When / Common-issues explainer. Always check the PI before searching docs.

Pick This Email — A Mail Bender action that explicitly identifies the email currently selected in Outlook and locks it as the target for subsequent actions. Use in Normal Mode, or whenever you want certainty about which email Mail Bender will act on.

Pick Mode — A toggle action between Fast Mode and Normal Mode (see those entries).

Pick Speed — The flick debounce in milliseconds. Default 20. Range 1–1500. Lower = snappier. Press the Pick Speed deck key to reset to default.

Review Later — Was called "Snooze" in earlier versions. Flags the current email with a follow-up due time. The email stays in your inbox but shows up in To Do's Flagged Email list and Outlook's My Day pane with a deadline.

Stream Deck XL — The 32-key Elgato Stream Deck (model 20GAT9902). Mail Bender's preset profile is laid out for it, but the plugin's keys work on any Stream Deck with pressable keys.

Toast — Windows pop-up notification (corner of screen). Mail Bender uses toasts for action confirmations, error messages, and first-run explanations. Toggle all of them off with the Toggle Toasts key. Use the Toggle Toasts exceptions builder to keep specific actions noisy while everything else is silent.

Toast exceptions — A list of actions whose toasts BYPASS the global Toggle Toasts OFF setting. Configured via the "+ Add exception" panel in Toggle Toasts' Stream Deck settings.

Token cache — A small encrypted file holding your Microsoft authentication tokens so you don't have to sign in every time. Encrypted via Windows DPAPI, scoped to your Windows user.

UIPI — User Interface Privilege Isolation. Windows security feature that prevents lower-integrity processes from sending input to higher-integrity windows. Causes keystroke actions to fail if Outlook runs as administrator and Stream Deck does not. Fix: don't run Outlook elevated.

Action Reference

Every Mail Bender action, alphabetical within each category. Each category numbers its actions starting at 1, so the Index can reference any action cleanly (e.g., Calendar > 4. Decline). The colored tag under each name shows how it works:

• — runs against the Microsoft Graph API. Works regardless of whether Outlook is open.
• — sends a keyboard shortcut to the focused Outlook window. Pair with the Focus Outlook action if Outlook isn't in front.
• — uses Graph plus opens a browser tab or sends a keystroke.
• — passive widget that polls Graph and renders a live count or title on the key.

Flags: = keep off your default profile until you know the side effects.   = known limitations in this version.

Most actions just work. When there's a Microsoft constraint, an account-type restriction, or something users typically expect that doesn't happen, it's called out under Heads up. Silence means no notable gotchas. The line "Works best with Outlook Classic" appears on actions whose reliability is materially better on Classic Outlook (because Microsoft's COM interface — required for clean "what email is in front of me" detection — only exists in Classic).

Mail

Inbox actions — read/unread, archive, delete, snooze, reply, forward, search, and the destructive [ADV] family.

1. [365] Add to Priority List What: Marks the current message's sender as 'priority' — classifies them to Focused and tags the message high-importance with a Priority category. Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only (Focused-Inbox classification doesn't exist on personal Outlook).

2. [365] Classify Focused What: Trains Outlook's Focused Inbox to route future mail from this sender to 'Focused'. Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only. Personal Outlook doesn't have Focused Inbox.

3. [365] Classify Other What: Trains Outlook's Focused Inbox to route this sender's mail to 'Other' (away from Focused). Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only.

4. [365] Toggle Rule What: Flips an inbox rule's enabled state on / off. Configure the rule's exact display name in the PI. Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only. Looks up the rule by exact display name.

5. [ADV] Add Sender to Contacts   What: Saves the sender of the current email to your Outlook Contacts. Splits 'Jane Doe' into first / last name automatically.

6. [ADV] Cancel Meeting   What: Cancels the next meeting on your calendar that YOU organized and sends a cancellation notice to all attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only. Microsoft doesn't let attendees cancel meetings they didn't create. If the next meeting isn't yours, nothing happens.

7. [ADV] Mark All as Read   What: Marks every email in your current inbox folder as read in one shot. Heads up: Acts on the WHOLE folder, not your current filtered view. If you're filtered to a search or category, this still marks everything else in the folder read too.

8. [ADV] Mark All Unread   What: Flips every read message in the inbox back to unread (up to 200 per press). Heads up: No undo. Useful for triage drills; surprising if pressed accidentally.

9. [ADV] Mark as Junk   What: Moves the current email to Junk AND trains the spam filter to recognize that sender as junk going forward. Heads up: More aggressive than Delete — Microsoft uses this to learn your spam preferences across your whole account.

10. [ADV] Quick Reply — Custom   What: Sends a fully user-configured canned reply to the current email. Bind multiple keys with different texts for unlimited canned-reply slots. Heads up: AUTO-SENDS with no editor pop-up. Configure the reply text in the PI.

11. [ADV] Quick Send   What: Sends a pre-configured email instantly — no compose window, no review. Heads up: AUTO-SENDS with zero confirmation. Configure To / Subject / Body in the PI. Don't bind this to anything you might press accidentally.

12. Archive What: Archives the current email by sending {BACKSPACE} to the focused Outlook window. Heads up: Outlook must be the focused window. Pair with Focus Outlook if you're switching from another app.

13. Archive Today (Bulk) What: Bulk-archives every read message in the inbox received in the last 24 hours (up to 200 per press). Heads up: Skips unread mail and anything older than 24 h. Re-press to drain in chunks.

14. Categorize What: Applies one of YOUR Outlook categories to the current message. The PI shows a LIVE dropdown of your actual master categories (fetched from Graph) — pick one, and each press tags the current email with it. Graph endpoints: GET /me/outlook/masterCategories (PI dropdown) PATCH…

15. Clear Categories What: Removes all categories from the current message.

16. Create Folder What: Creates a new mail folder at the mailbox root. Folder name comes from the PI setting; defaults to a timestamped name if blank. Heads up: Folder appears at root, not nested. Move it in Outlook after creation if you want it elsewhere.

17. Decline Meeting What: Declines the next meeting invite in your inbox and sends a polite decline note to the organizer.

18. Delegate Inbox (Setup) What: Configures meeting-message routing for a delegate via the mailbox settings API. Heads up: M365 only. Full delegation (send-as / on-behalf-of) still requires Outlook's Account Settings → Delegate Access dialog.

19. Delete What: Deletes the current email by sending {DEL} to the focused Outlook window. Heads up: Goes to Deleted Items, kept ~30 days before purging. For permanent deletion, use Empty Deleted Items.

20. Find Related Emails What: Opens an OWA search showing all emails from the sender of the current message. Heads up: Opens in your default browser — Microsoft doesn't expose a 'find related' deep link for the desktop Outlook client.

21. Flag What: Toggles a follow-up flag on the current email by sending {INSERT} to the focused Outlook window. Heads up: Flag color is whatever Outlook's default is — Mail Bender can't pick. Change it in Outlook itself if you care.

22. Flag for Next Week What: Flags the current message with follow-up due 17:00 next Friday.

23. Flag for Today What: Flags the current message with follow-up due 17:00 today.

24. Flag for Tomorrow What: Flags the current message with follow-up due 17:00 tomorrow.

25. Forward What: Opens a forward window for the current email by sending Ctrl+F to the focused Outlook window. Heads up: Needs Outlook focused.

26. Forward to Default What: Forwards the current message to one or more configured email addresses. Heads up: Configure comma-separated recipients in the PI.

27. Forward to Self What: Forwards the current message to your own email — handy for pinning to a personal archive.

28. Mark as Not Junk What: Pulls the current email out of Junk back into your Inbox and tells the spam filter to stop treating that sender as junk.

29. Mark Read What: Marks the current email as read by sending Ctrl+Q to the focused Outlook window.

30. Mark Unread What: Marks the current email as unread by sending Ctrl+U to the focused Outlook window.

31. Move What: Opens Outlook's Move-to-folder dialog by sending Ctrl+Shift+V to the focused window. You pick the destination from there. Heads up: Needs Outlook focused.

32. Reply What: Opens a reply window for the current email by sending Ctrl+R to the focused Outlook window.

33. Reply All What: Opens a reply-all window for the current email by sending Ctrl+Shift+R to the focused Outlook window.

34. Review Later What: Flags the current email with a follow-up due in N minutes (default 30). The email stays in your inbox but appears in To Do's Flagged Email list and Outlook's My Day pane.

35. Set Importance High What: Marks the current email as high importance — the red exclamation point in Outlook. Heads up: Graph confirms the change, but Outlook's UI cache may not visually refresh the importance flag right away. Press F5 in Outlook, or check OWA, to see the update.

36. Set Importance Low What: Marks the current email as low importance — the blue down-arrow in Outlook. Heads up: Graph confirms the change, but Outlook's UI cache may not visually refresh. Press F5 in Outlook, or check OWA, to verify.

37. Set Importance Normal What: Clears importance back to normal — removes the High or Low indicator from the current email. Heads up: Graph confirms the change, but Outlook's UI cache may not visually refresh. Press F5 in Outlook, or check OWA, to verify.

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Calendar

Meeting actions — accept/decline/tentative, scheduling, reschedules, find time, and Teams join.

1. [365] Block Focus Time What: Drops a 60-minute 'Busy' block on your calendar starting now — a one-press 'leave me alone' for unannounced focus time. Heads up: Blocks your calendar so meeting-finders see you as busy. Does NOT silence Teams or Outlook notifications.

2. [365] Block Focus Time (Custom) What: Block focus time on calendar for a USER-SPECIFIED number of minutes — creates a Busy event (category=Focus) starting now, lasting N minutes. Sister to QuickBlockFocus (fixed length). Here N comes from a TEXT BOX in the PI. Default 420; clamped to 5..500. Graph endpoint: POST /me/events Settings:…

3. [365] Join Teams Meeting What: Finds your next upcoming meeting with a Teams join link and opens it directly. Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only (Teams isn't bundled with personal Outlook). If the next meeting has no Teams link, nothing happens.

4. [365] New Meeting What: Creates a 30-minute meeting starting at the configured time (default: next hour) with your listed attendees. Includes a Teams join link. Heads up: Teams join link only works on M365 work or school accounts. Personal accounts can still create the meeting but the Teams link will be empty.

5. [365] Quick Meeting (with sender) What: Schedules a 30-minute Teams meeting with the sender of the current email. Pre-fills the meeting subject from the email's subject. Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only (Teams).

6. Accept Meeting What: Accepts the next meeting invite in your inbox and removes it from the unread list. Adds the meeting to your calendar.

7. Add Event with Note What: Creates a calendar event at a configured offset with a configured title and body note. Heads up: Default: starts 60 min from now, 30 min long. Configure offset, duration, subject, and note in the PI.

8. Auto Reply OFF What: Turns off your Out-of-Office auto-reply. Heads up: Takes 5–10 minutes to propagate (Microsoft's setting is server-side with caching). Your auto-reply may briefly fire one or two more times before going silent.

9. Auto Reply ON What: Turns ON your Out-of-Office auto-reply with the message configured in the PI. Heads up: Takes 5–10 minutes to propagate (Microsoft's setting is server-side with caching). Senders start seeing the auto-reply once it propagates, not instantly.

10. Auto Reply Toggle What: ONE key that both SHOWS and FLIPS your Outlook auto-reply (Out-of-Office). - State 0 (icon clear_oof): auto-reply is currently OFF - State 1 (icon set_oof): auto-reply is currently ON Press -> read the real server state, switch to the OPPOSITE, fire a toast. Replaces the separate "Auto…

11. Book Meeting With Sender What: Takes the current email's content and opens a new meeting invite with the sender already added — turning the email thread into a scheduled discussion.

12. Decline with Message What: Declines the next upcoming meeting invite with a custom comment to the organizer. Heads up: Configure the comment text in the PI. Sister action Decline sends an empty comment.

13. Forward Meeting What: Forwards the next upcoming meeting to one or more configured email addresses. Heads up: Configure comma-separated recipients in the PI.

14. Propose New Time What: Proposes a counter-time for the next meeting invite in your inbox, defaulting to one hour later. Sends a proposal back to the organizer. Heads up: Adjust the offset in the PI. Both times sit in your calendar until the organizer accepts.

15. Reply as Meeting What: Drafts a reply to the current email AND attaches a 30-minute meeting invite for the sender — for when 'let's hop on a call' is the right reply.

16. Reschedule +1 hour What: Pushes the next meeting on your calendar 60 minutes LATER and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only (see Reschedule +15).

17. Reschedule +15 min What: Pushes the next meeting on your calendar 15 minutes LATER and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only. Attendees can't reschedule meetings they didn't create — Microsoft's rule, not ours.

18. Reschedule +30 min What: Pushes the next meeting on your calendar 30 minutes LATER and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only (see Reschedule +15).

19. Reschedule +45 min What: Pushes the next meeting on your calendar 45 minutes LATER and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only (see Reschedule +15).

20. Reschedule -1 hour What: Pulls the next upcoming meeting EARLIER by 1 hour and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only (see Reschedule -15).

21. Reschedule -15 min What: Pulls the next upcoming meeting EARLIER by 15 minutes and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only. Mirror of the positive Reschedule actions, but pulls the meeting forward instead of pushing it back.

22. Reschedule -30 min What: Pulls the next upcoming meeting EARLIER by 30 minutes and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only (see Reschedule -15).

23. Reschedule -45 min What: Pulls the next upcoming meeting EARLIER by 45 minutes and sends an update to attendees. Heads up: Organizer-only (see Reschedule -15).

24. Reschedule Next Meeting What: Pushes the next meeting on your calendar to the next available slot (skips back-to-backs) and sends updates. Heads up: Organizer-only. If your day is fully booked, it'll land somewhere tomorrow.

25. Tentative Meeting What: Tentatively accepts the next meeting invite in your inbox. Adds it to your calendar marked 'maybe', so others see you as tentatively available.

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Compose

Drafting actions — start new mail, send, save, discard, and quick-reply templates.

1. [ADV] Quick Reply — Follow Up   What: Auto-sends a 'just following up on this' reply to the current email's sender. Heads up: AUTO-SENDS — no editor pops up. Text is hard-coded. Use Quick Reply Custom if you want to tweak the wording.

2. [ADV] Quick Reply — Need Info   What: Auto-sends a 'can you send more details' reply to the current email's sender. Heads up: AUTO-SENDS — no editor. Text is hard-coded; use Quick Reply Custom for editable canned replies.

3. [ADV] Quick Reply — Thanks   What: Auto-sends a 'thanks!' reply to the current email's sender. Heads up: AUTO-SENDS — no editor. Text is hard-coded; use Quick Reply Custom for editable canned replies.

4. New Email What: Opens a blank compose window in Outlook.

5. New Email from Template What: Opens a compose window pre-filled with a template you configured (To, Subject, Body) on the key. Drop multiple copies in a folder for a template library.

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Tasks

Microsoft To-Do — create tasks from emails or standalone, mark complete, add to My Day.

1. Add Task What: Creates a Microsoft To Do task in your default list, using either the title configured on the key or a timestamp. Heads up: Microsoft To Do tasks created via Graph appear in the To Do app and OWA within seconds, but Outlook desktop's Tasks pane may not sync them. Check the To Do app or outlook.com if you don't see the task in desktop Outlook.

2. Add Today Task What: Same as Add Task but flags the task high-importance with an end-of-day reminder — that's how Microsoft's 'My Day' filter picks things up. Heads up: Same To Do desktop-sync caveat as Add Task — check the To Do app or outlook.com if it doesn't appear in Outlook's Tasks pane.

3. Email → Task What: Turns the current email into a Microsoft To Do task — title from subject, body includes sender and a link back to the original. Heads up: Microsoft To Do tasks created via Graph appear in the To Do app and OWA within seconds, but Outlook desktop's Tasks pane may not sync them. Check the To Do app or outlook.com if you don't see the task in desktop Outlook.

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Triage

Inbox navigation — step through messages, jump around, open/close date groups, focus Outlook, search, and lock the email you're acting on.

1. Clipboard History What: Opens Windows Clipboard History (Win+V). If Clipboard History is off, Windows prompts you to turn it on.

2. Escape What: Sends Esc in Outlook (focuses Outlook first). In New Outlook this also closes an open message back to the list — handy for quick keyboard-style nav.

3. Focus Outlook What: Brings whichever Outlook window is open — Classic, New Outlook, or the OWA browser tab — to the front. Silent if no Outlook window exists. Heads up: Pair this as the FIRST key in any chain that uses keystroke actions (Archive, Reply, Search, etc.) — those need Outlook focused or they do nothing.

4. Next Email What: Sends the Down Arrow keystroke in Outlook to move to the next email in the focused list, then auto-identifies it. Heads up: Outlook must be the focused window. Pair with Focus Outlook at the start of a triage chain.

5. Nudge What: Sends Spacebar in Outlook (focuses Outlook first): opens the highlighted email, or enters the highlighted folder. Auto-identifies what you land on.

6. Open in Own Window What: Pops the selected message into its own window in New Outlook (Shift+Enter). Focuses Outlook first.

7. Open/Close List What: Open/Close List: collapses and expands the message-list date groups (This Week, Last Week, Yesterday, Older) as you scroll.

8. Pick This Email What: Explicitly identifies the email currently selected in Outlook and locks it as the target for subsequent actions. Use in Normal mode or whenever you want to be sure which email Mail Bender is acting on.

9. Previous Email What: Sends the Up Arrow keystroke in Outlook to move to the previous email in the focused list, then auto-identifies it. Heads up: Outlook must be the focused window.

10. Right Arrow What: Sends the Right Arrow keystroke in Outlook, then auto-identifies the email you land on — same flick pattern as Next / Previous.

11. Search What: Opens Outlook's search box and puts your cursor in it by sending Ctrl+E to the focused window. Heads up: Needs Outlook focused.

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Display

Live-state widgets — show counts on the deck (unread, snoozed, pending tasks, next meeting).

1. [365] Free/Busy Now (display) What: Live key showing whether you're free right now and how long until your next meeting. Polls every 60 s. Heads up: M365 work or school accounts only — the schedule API doesn't exist for personal Outlook.

2. Deleted Items Count (display) What: Live key showing total Deleted Items folder count.

3. Drafts Count (display) What: Live key showing total Drafts folder count.

4. Inbox Total (display) What: Live key showing total Inbox item count. Polls every 120 s. Heads up: Counts include read messages — for unread-only, use Unread Count Display.

5. Junk Count (display) What: Live key showing total Junk folder count. Polls every 120 s.

6. Next Meeting (display) What: Live key showing the title and time of your next scheduled meeting. Press to open that meeting's join link or details. Heads up: Refreshes every minute, not real-time.

7. Pending Tasks (display) What: Live key showing how many tasks in your default Microsoft To Do list are still open. Refreshes every minute.

8. Review Later Count (display) What: Live key showing how many emails currently have an active Review Later flag. Refreshes every minute.

9. Today Events (display) What: Live key showing count of calendar events scheduled today. Heads up: Counts all events including all-day ones. Refreshes every 5 minutes.

10. Unread Count (display) What: Live key showing how many unread emails are in your Inbox. Refreshes every minute.

11. Whoami (display) What: Live key showing the email of the signed-in account. Heads up: Useful when juggling multiple Outlook accounts so you don't fire actions against the wrong one.

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Settings

Account state toggles — out-of-office, notifications.

1. Toggle Toasts (notifications on/off) What: Turns Mail Bender's Windows toast notifications on / off globally. Two states — bell glowing = ON, bell crossed = OFF. Heads up: Only silences Mail Bender's own toasts. Outlook and Teams notifications are controlled by their own settings. Errors still log to the Stream Deck console.

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Auth

1. [ADV] Sign Out of Microsoft   What: Clears Mail Bender's cached Microsoft account. The next Graph action re-opens the sign-in browser so you can pick a different account.

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Config

1. Pick Mode What: Toggles between Speed mode (arrow nav auto-identifies emails) and Normal mode (you press Pick This Email manually). Press to flip.

2. Pick Speed What: Sets the flick debounce in milliseconds (default 20, range 1–1500). With the release-only flick the default is near-instant; raise it only if a flick ever grabs the wrong message on rapid navigation. Press the key to reset to default.

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Other

1. Sign In What: Signs in to Microsoft — opens the browser sign-in flow if you're not signed in yet.

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