MicrosoftI prepared/sent feedback directly in Outlook, and this was the closest thing to 'help' it suggested. I was asking why, and, can you fix, why suddenly today, I can no longer keep my inbox folder list visible. I have to widen my screen into another monitor to have the pane stay visible. My screen is just under 12" wide because I work on several portrait monitors. This change negatively affects my productivity! Please advise the team to fix this! Thank you!
Hello, EtherealAccounting. I experienced something similar recently and tried to get some help from Copilot. The LLM was not helpful, but working the problem led me to notice that a recent Office update had change the Navigation pane default to collapsed. If you look in the upper right corner of your navigation pane and you see a horizontal push-pin icon, you can click that to make the pane remain open.
My experience was just another in a long, sprawling chain of UI changes that inhibit my productivity. I think that the root cause of all of them is a very poor decision at Microsoft (and many other software producers) that we need to have 'a seamless experience across devices.' This silly notion could only come from people who only work with a few files/messages on a given day and don't do much more than look at them.
That is not the solution. I appreciate the effort to help. The problem is that they did an update that requires outlook to be wider than the width of my portrait positioned monitor. I have to widen my screen to be able to keep the pane open. Or rather, I have to widen my screen to see the "push-pin" you speak of to keep the pane open.
You can still fix this. Make sure you are using Outlook (classic) and NOT Outlook (new). In fact uninstall Outlook (new) The one pictured below.
Outlook ClassicNOT
NewYou'll still see your apps on the left, so click on 'File' and then 'Options' and then 'Advanced' Uncheck 'Show Apps in Outlook.
You'll need to restart Outlook and you will have your familiar options at the bottom again.
Still not a solution. I already installed Outlook classic back on Oct 3rd, when I posted the complaint. Which has been a disappointing experience for me because I have already been using the new outlook since Jan this year and have gotten used to it and love it. So, the new update to the "new" Outlook they made on Oct 2 or 3 is what caused the issue.
