Forum Discussion
Outlook 365, how to go back to OLD ribbon graphics and icons
I find outlook totally unusable since it updated to the new for-toddler icons.
Not only is it ugly, it's distracting and unusable. As if outlook is broken and running in safe-let's-go-back-to-1995-mode.
How can I revert to the old layout and look, without losing the security updates?
I'm using system restore now to always go back to the sane look, but I guess that's not really feasible in the long term. I will now also turn off office updates. But that can't be the goal either...
Shouldn't there be an option for us to pick a look?
Should we start a petition to give us that choice. Or am I the only one who doesn't like it? I think I'm even totally allergic to it...
58 Replies
I used to have all the icons I needed on my Outlook 365 email page like Sent emails, archives, junk mail, spam, and more, now I don't have them, I also use Outlook for my small business and at times the genuine emails go to spam and I can't find them.
How do I go about restoring the old icons?
Bob Robertson
- Since changing to the new Outlook I have lost all my Groups of contacts and cannot create a Group as the option is greyed out. HELP
if this is not solved soon i will not be using outlook anymore. I have used it since it first came out! Eu tentei, tentei... Até que eu desisti e mudei para o "Mozilla Thunderbird" que é parecido com o antigo Outlook e bastante editável!
I tried, tried... until I gave up and switched to "Mozilla Thunderbird" which is similar to the old Outlook and quite editable!
I woke up this morning and as usual check my emails. I know MS did an update because I have to reenter some passwords for my apps. When I open Outlook My response was: "I can hardly see anything". I have some vision loss and tweak my apps appearances to be more readily used. Offering new personalization options is not a problem for me. Taking away almost everything else is. I am presented with four, get it only four options for the background colors. The themes are not visible when I change them, so no help there. Now I have resorted to using a magnifying glass to be able to read my screen. Yes, a real magifying glass. This is not progress. This is a complete lack of thought for those of use who are visually challenged. Rjneng
- I agree the new "design" is hideous, it looks amateurish and just downright ugly. I guess it's great for mobile? I hope so, because it is almost useless for desktop. Unfortunately for me, I almost exclusively use desktop. And what did they do with the Next/Previous message buttons? How in the world could a feature so basic have been deemed no longer necessary? If this keeps up, I'm switching to Linux.
- VasilMichev and adam deltinger - we've just been forced onto Office 365 as part of a corporate roll out today. Every single person in my office *hates* the new configuration, layout, colour scheme, design, everything. It's not an adjustment issue. I can handle updates to software where things remain workable or where things are improved... In fact, I welcome those improvements. What MS has done with Office 365 is not an improvement in the slightest. You've yet again moved/changed/removed useful features that everyone was accustomised to. You've introduced things that don't actually help or accomplish anything meaningful. It's like you've pulled the rug out from underneath all your customers because someone thought the rug-size was an inch too long, and then vomitted over said rug. It is so clunky, unintuitive, ugly, uncustomisable, and looks like it is from 1995. It's undone preferences and saved options. It even auto-updated while I was in the middle of using the PC without any warning. It's like a seventh circle of hell. How does someone execute something so poorly, and have it endorsed? Whoever ultimately approved the Office 365 changes should be fired and sent to a remote, gangrenous island to spend the rest of their life in squalid exile, forced to contemplate how much harder they've just made everyone's lives.
-margeaux-
"how much harder they've just made everyone's lives'', EXACTLY THAT! But hey, it looks prettier, which is clearly all that matters today.
Wait until you see the new "Modern Comments" 'feature' of Word 😫
Crippled, and crippling for anyone who actually uses true power features of Office. I gave up trying to battle against the colour changes, not updating was causing clunkiness throughout. Now I have been forced, yet again, to revert to an earlier version of Office because of the changes to commenting.
If this is not fixed, this will be my last paid subscription. Why pay for being messed about? This is my livelihood that MS is messing with.
You made great points. I use Office at work and have an O365 subscription for home. At work, we are very Zoom/ G Suite/ Slack focused but if I want to get anything serious done, I go back to Excel, Powerpoint etc. There is a group of us resisting the move to dumbed down, over simplified, hard to use interfaces because that is Google Sheets!! After reading your post and all the others, I will give up, use Google sheets, and will wait for the renewal of O365 at home and cancel it. Hard to believe MS has worked hard to give up it's advantage and lose revenue.
- Seems to be the way of the world, dumbing down. There are some of us resisting it but we seem to be so few. Is the majority so happy with what MS are doing? Or is the majority in fact those who do not actually 'buy' Offfice but acquire it by other means or with only a few bucks so they don't actually have a vested interest anyway? I really miss my old truly moddable Office.
- Do you remember Business Contact Manager? It was an AMAZING add-on to Outlook that I used all the time in my clinic until those **bleep**ers at Microsoft created "Dynamics" a $10,000+ program that was poised to replace the $500 BCM!! I have so much anger towards them for CHOOSING to **bleep** over many of their curtomers for the benefit of the new age Sheeple. I started using Blue mail as a mobile device platform since I am unable to use Outlook. It is a fairly good system, but when I suggested the form-over-function problems, he said they purposely stayed away from "BLOATING" the software. This means new-age users can't handle using complex software. It makes them cry and need a safe space.
As others have mentioned, the MSFT folks have taken a step backwards in usability in their efforts to be hip and trendy (and more Apple like).
The situation is another benefit for using virtual machines. I have a MacBookPro (better designed, engineered and built than anything you can find in the Windows world) running Parallels. I run a Win10 VM for most of my stuff, but keep a Win7 VM running so I can have my old, more useful and more productive Outlook 2010 at hand.- 2010 is the best, however, some of my email accounts refuse to play nice with 2010. Been using workarounds for years (routing troubled email servers through a separate email server) but having more and more issues = unable to continue to patch the holes in the bucket
I totally agree with you. The simplified ribbon is not helpful at all for someone who has learned the tool and uses the majority of its features.
In Outlook the Appointment simplification now does not allow me to see the calendar for invites so I can see who's in and who's out...ridiculous.
Microsoft I do not have the time to spend customizing the ribbon on all the products every time I use it. Please do something about this.
- I like the new layout. But not being able to see meeting attendees and who accepted or declined drives me nuts. Organizers and attendees must be able to find that information as soon as they open the calendar item! I'm really baffled that this was removed or at least hidden pretty well!
Geert Verschaeve In the upper right hand corner there is an icon for "Show Ribbon Options". If you click on "Show tabs only" and then select the tab you want to use, you will see something that is closer to the old look that office used to have.
I completely agree the new look is horrible. Takes up so much space on my laptop screen.
Cyndi
When you say upper right hand corner, is that only in Outlook? I can't see anything elsewhere, e.g. in Word.
Geert Verschaeve the spacing on the toolbar is the Mouse vs Touch settings on the ribbon. The mouse setting reverts the toolbar back to the "classic" denser command buttons.
Dr__ZThat is interesting!
You know, maybe I'm just getting old and tired. It seems the modern way all boils down to how things look, everything is going that route: form over function, eye-candy over usability. I am SO fed up of it.
Being unable to find office pack renewal in my language I have to buy local, bracing myself for the unexpected joys there too.
it just takes up to much space. and it looks like if you hide it the old version pops up, until you PIN it.
dmrounsThe buttons are so big because you have Touch Mode enabled. If you disable touch mode, everything becomes small again, like in your upper screenshot.
Geert Verschaeve
I wish I had an answer, I couldn't agree more. This is UGLEEEE and childish looking. UGH! Why DO this do this to us?
