Forum Discussion
Microsoft Retires the Board View from the OWA Calendar
The Outlook board view originated as Project Moca, an app to organize items from Outlook and other sources, then became the board view in the OWA calendar. That status lasted two years and now Microsoft will retire the board view from Outlook on June 26, 2023. It’s probably because Microsoft 365 boasts a surplus of ways to record notes in some shape or form. That, and the fact that hardly anyone uses Outlook boards.
https://office365itpros.com/2023/05/19/outlook-board-retirement/
42 Replies
- I also relied on that every morning and through the day. Was extremely disappointed they yanked the rug out from under me on that. Was a real jerk move on their part.
I'm almost willing to bet it was going to eat into some revenue somewhere as they probably stumbled onto the fact that it was extremely useful. I bet they'll release an add-on or something to charge for it.. watch!
I mean you can't tell me it WASN'T useful. You were able to put everything in one spot PLUS save different board views. Saving Calendar views now to me is useless. If microsoft isn't doing this board view I think it's ripe for the taking as far as another company adding in an add-on. - email address removed for privacy reasons
- 0372081931
Dreadful decision.
Similarly, I've been using the board view of OWA for well over a year as an alternative to the traditional calendar view (didn't you have to keep re-enabling the tasks list on the latter cos it would close?), and the abilty to see calendar, tasks, and pin the most important or works-in-progress documents in one place on a fixed tab has been invaluable. I routinely switch between one fixed tab with mail and one tab with the board as part of my day to day process.
It is deeply disappointing that this view is now being removed; I agree with comments elsewhere that there is only low usage of this because it is not well-promoted; most people (like me) find it by accident, but having done so it was absolute revelation and a leap forward over the traditional calendar view. Please reconsider.Added my comment to the Feedback post https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/87264487-5bff-ed11-a81c-000d3a7a48db
To all on this post:
I gave MS feedback when I first learned about this news weeks ago. I am glad to see others were using this feature and disappointed to see it go.I added my feedback to the MS Feedback Hub. PLEASE VOTE and share how you use the feature, hoping that MS will reconsider.
If you find this information helpful, please mark it as best response or like it, which will assist others.
/Teresa
traccreations4e
how can it be that this feature just gets turned off because microsoft decide to???
I have been using this feature for ages and have developed my whole day to day running of my job around it. It is the first thing i look at when I open my laptop and remains open on my second screen throughout the day. This is absolutely incredible that it is simply retired with no explanation AND REPLACEMENT - this is TERRIBLE TonyRedmond
- My experience exactly.
I am very sad that MS is getting rid of this feature. I use it to keep track of everything I need on a daily basis. Once I found out Board will be retired, I started to use the Sticky Notes feature on my computer, but it is definitely not the same. I hope MS will reconsider their decision because this feature helps so many people.
- Samantha_Householder13
TonyRedmond it would almost make sense to just incorporate some of the calendar features from Board View (the different calendar and integrated components) into Microsoft Whiteboard - and have that be the place for these things.
TonyRedmond Unfortunate decision on Microsoft's part. I found Board about a year ago and it's very useful. Most people I've shown it to love it.
Low adoption seems a marketing/promotion issue. The tool really makes Office on the Web better.This seems pretty shortsighted on Microsoft's part, and they seem to be removing a feature before the vast majority of Microsoft Exchange users can use it.
Currently, the board view is only available in OWA and not in the current release of the Outlook client on Windows desktops. Until a few days ago (and now gone), it is only available in the new Outlook client, which is only available to Office Insiders. Most Insiders are NOT using the new Outlook client as their go-to email application because it still misses critical features like opening a calendar invite, availability of .pst files, Shared Mailboxes and adding external email accounts other than Gmail.
Board view needs an Inbox widget with at least the primary inbox, but preferably with an aggregate inbox of all (or user-selectable) inboxes since we already have that view on Outlook mobile clients.
Want to increase adoption:
- force the board view as the default start page for all OWA and desktop clients
- populate the default board with inbox, agenda, My Day task list, notes, tips and weather
- make this page available in Teams
