New Outlook updates enable you to customize your experience and help you stay focused and organized
Published Sep 04 2018 10:00 AM 134K Views
Brass Contributor

We’re obsessed about making things better for the millions of people who use Outlook every day and continue to advance how we introduce updates to the experience and help customers adopt change.

 

Last fall, we launched a beta program with Outlook.com to provide a preview of the web experience updates and an easy way to switch between the new and classic web experiences at any time.  More than 10% of our users tried it out and two thirds kept it on through to the general availability launch and we received a ton of great feedback through that program that helped us understand how to deliver the right experience to you.

 

Today we’re pleased to announce “Coming Soon” in Outlook for Windows and an opt-in toggle in Outlook on the web that puts you in control of when you try major updates.  These new features allow you to explore updates, return to the classic experience at any time, and continue to provide us with feedback. 

 

In June, we announced Office 365 user experience updates . We are now ready to start rolling out these changes in Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web using the Coming Soon and opt-in toggle features. Building on the same guiding principles, our goal is to give you control, allowing you to try a new experience when it’s convenient, customize how you get things done, as well as surface options that are relevant and in context to how you work, all to help you get things done, faster.

 

 

Highlights of the changes coming to Outlook for Windows

 

Our approach is designed to help you:  

 

  • Customize your experience – As a productivity powerhouse, Outlook comes loaded with many features, but we’ve learned that most of you don’t always need them all, all the time. We are giving you options to make the Outlook experience your own with the ability to simplify the ribbon, personalize your inbox, and apply additional themes.
  • Get things done faster – The updates make reading, composing, and taking action in emails and meetings faster. A more responsive web development framework and a modern design lets you see, read and respond to emails and meeting invitations, and attach files quicker.
  • Stay organized – Intelligent technology, highlights, special icons and visual changes provide a modern calendar view to help you focus on your day and week, speeds up the process of creating and sending meeting requests, and help manage your time.

These updates are coming first to customers in the Monthly Channel (Targeted) and Targeted Release program in the next few weeks.  For more details about updates to Outlook on the web, go here.  And for additional insight into the Outlook for Windows updates, go here.

 

We are looking forward to you trying the updates and giving us feedback!

Thank you!

 

The Outlook team  

36 Comments
Silver Contributor

So, Monthly targeted gets it in a few weeks and everyone else... when? I've been waiting for the new look for weeks now, seems i will have to wait for months more then :)

Deleted
Not applicable

Hi.

Let's see if I understood right: "Outlook on the web" and "Outlook.com" are completely different things, right? Actually, I would not be surprised if "Outlook on the web" had nothing to with the Web altogether. (No offense guys, but Microsoft's gaffes in choosing names has long become one of its identifying features.)

In a way, it is somehow funny that Microsoft has not consolidated its four Outlook flavors into one unified app (with premium features in the form of in-app purchases) but is already doing so with OneNote.

Silver Contributor

Yes, Outlook on the web is different from Outlook.com (also referred as OWA - Outlook Web Access). It is for the web (works in a browser). This redesign will bring two closer.

Copper Contributor

Where is the sort by subject function? 

 

If it's gone in the new layout it's the biggest mistake so far. I use this feature in the current layout 90% of the time and is the biggest time saving option for my work! 

 

I can't believe that this feature has been (re)moved? 

 

Please tell me how to use the order by subject filter on the new outlook layout. 

 

Best Regards

Jordan

Iron Contributor

I'm on Monthly Channel 1809.  I had the updated icons show up randomly after updating, but don't see a "Coming Soon" button.  Not sure what is happening.

Silver Contributor

Same here. Received updated icons and ribbon tabs (not just in Outlook, but also in Word, Excel). No coming soon in Outlook or OWA. 

Microsoft

@wroot and @Joe McGowan The Outlook for Windows user experience has now rolled out to 100% of the Monthly Channel Targeted customers with the updates coming to the rest of the Monthly Channel customers in the coming weeks.  Some customers in our Monthly Channel Targeted program received the Office icons before the Coming Soon feature with the user experience updates. 

Microsoft

@Jordan van Bergen The sort by Subject is still an option for sorting the Message List. If you click on the down arrow hash mark next to the By Date you should see Subject under the Arrange By list. 

Silver Contributor

We are in the Monthly channel (not targeted) and many our users received updated icons and tabs in Outlook last week already. On my personal work PC it also updated icons in Word and Excel. Although in Access only tabs has new underline UI and animation, but icons are old. Our users don't have one row ribbon nor coming soon is showed. Not sure what happened on my PC. Probably a result of having a lot of installs and reinstalls testing various issues and also using older versions of Visio and also having Office 2013 on this PC at some point. Then again, all our users were migrated from 2013 to Office 365 at some point. 

Copper Contributor

@Eugenie Burrage Thanks for the reply about sort by subject but I don't get the explanation. I just do the following:

 

no-sort-by-subject.jpg

I don't see the sort by subject. So I don't see Subject under the Sort by list. If you can show me on how to get sort by subject under the Arrange by List I would immediately change to the new layout but currently this keeps me from switching. 

Copper Contributor

Download attachment in an e-mail (jpg image) got me this error message: 

{"Body":{"ErrorCode":500,"ExceptionName":"StorageTransientException","FaultMessage":"The process failed to get the correct properties.","IsTransient":true,"ResponseCode":"ErrorInternalServerError"}}

After this error https://outlook.office.com doesn't work anymore and I can't switch back to the old layout. 

 

:(
Something went wrong
A problem occurred while you were trying to use your mailbox 

 

cId: 3CC0142749CB45138BD42F00EB2E9D3B
app: Mail
st: 500
reqid: 39438e86-5375-4403-9143-7ffe082f4b5d
wsver: null
efe: DB6PR0801CA0059
ebe: DB6PR0801MB1957
et: ServerError
esrc: SessionData
err: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.StoreObjects.StorageTransientException
estack: Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionRpcServerTooBusy
ts: 10/9/2018 6:50:06 AM

 

I can't access my e-mail any longer. Please provide a link on how to get to my online webmail again? I have no access to my e-mail any longer after the above error message. Tried a different browser with incognito mode and several things. Nothing is working. 

 

Please provide a link on how to get to the old outlook layout again. 

 

UPDATE: I am able to login again after waiting 20 minutes. I would like to know if you can use an URL to switch between current and beta outlook.com?

Copper Contributor

Why I cannot find my sent emails in outlook.com application? 

Copper Contributor

Why can't I edit the subject of a message in the Outlook client? I've double-clicked the message to open in its own window and clicked on Actions...Edit Message.  The message subject says (no subject).  I've highlighted the text and tried to type over it, but get the error click sounds from the pc.  I've even highlighted the (no subject) and tried to delete it and same thing.  These messages are scans that come from a scanner and it is much easier to modify the subject at the pc instead of trying to do it at the scanner.  It worked fine up until the "Coming Soon" version.  I can turn "Coming Soon" off and it works.

 

Thanks.

 

Jeff

Copper Contributor

I have the same issue that Jeff G is having with regards to changing the subject line. It is imperative that I have the capability to do so with the work that I do. I have several clients and in order to keep them straight, I generally put their acronym in front of the regular subject. It helps me to sort e-mails at a later time, assuming I'm in meetings and getting several e-mails during that time.

It's quite disappointing, as I love the new look. I dislike having to switch back and forth between "Coming Soon," and the traditional version of Outlook. Is the Microsoft Team aware of the issue, and working on a fix for this? Alternatively, is there a workaround that someone could teach us to help in the interim?

Dustin

Iron Contributor

I'm also in Monthly channel not targeted and received this update.

Copper Contributor

You can still edit the subject line of a message, although not directly from within the message.  Within the "Current View" menu, select, "View Setting," then, "Other Setting," choose thr "Allow in-cell editing" option and now you may edit the message subject from within the inbox folder view.  I also disable the gridlines which otherwise I find annoying since it will appear like a spreadsheet.

 

When you do this and then select the message you will find that the subject line has been saved as modified.

 

Please note that CONSERVATION VIEW must be disabled for this to work.

 

Seth

In-cell editing option second from top.In-cell editing option second from top.

 

 

Copper Contributor

On my desktop, I get the "Coming Soon" button, but on my laptop, I can not get it. Both devices are updated. Any way to turn this on?

Iron Contributor

Also not seeing the "Coming Soon" button in Outlook desktop.  I'm on version 1810 Monthly Channel.

 

Update:  Some other users in our tenant do see the Coming Soon button.  So it looks like this feature is trickling out.

 

@Eugenie Burrage @The Outlook Team

Copper Contributor

How do we send feedback? 

 

Note to self, re: Outbox

Copper Contributor
OK I got the new version and I hate it...how do I go back? When messages come in theya re way too big and putting the reply on the right is really silly. I need help to turn it back please!!! The amount of emails for 5 incoming new messages takes up the room of 20 in the new one
Copper Contributor

I think for that, @srice, you can view as conversations. That should clean it up a bit. That's what I do. 

 

converse.jpg

 

Easiest way is going to the "Tell me what you want to do" search box. I use that for everything... 

 

Steel Contributor

Wow, the "Coming Soon" option turned into 48 hour pain-in-the butt for me. First, while I like the option for a compact Ribbon for small screens, I found two huge problems for the way I use Outlook with it:

 

  1. The Header area (To/From/Start/Finsh times for meetings, etc.) was HUGE. It filled much of the window. Ironically, this more than cancels out any benefit to the scaled back Ribbon.
  2. It was no longer possible to minimize the Ribbon in one window without minimizing the Ribbon in ALL windows. I keep two Outlook windows open at all times -- one with my mail and one with my calendar. I keep the calendar full screen on weekly view on a small 1920x1080 display. That's a really small screen and I don't do anything except look at my calendar, so I want the Ribbon off on that window so I can see the full view from start to finish of every day. But on all other windows I want the Ribbon to remain visible for quick access to functions.

These were both major steps backward for me. I hope these are fixed before these features are forced to all users. If the header area were back to the current size and we could turn Ribbon on or off for each Outlook window (like we can now), I'd like the added option for the narrower Ribbon.

 

But that's not all. Once I turned on "Coming Soon", I couldn't turn it back off -- the "Coming Soon" option no longer appeared to the upper right. I spent hours on this, including several with multiple support people at MS, where they had me run a Quick Repair, Online Repair, creating a whole new Profile, completely uninstalling Office 365 and doing a full redownload and reinstall, deleting the Outlook folder in AppData, none of which worked. Fortunately, I finally figured out the fairly simple solution on my own. In case anyone else got stuck in a similar situation:

 

  1. Make sure Outlook is closed
  2. Start the existing installed version of Outlook in Safe Mode, via Run (Windows + R), then type: outlook.exe /safe
  3. The option to turn "Coming Soon" back off is available again in the upper right
  4. Toggle "Coming Soon" back to off
  5. Close and restart Outlook normally (not in Safe Mode)

I can't believe they had me recreate profiles and reinstall all of office, destroy many of my settings when Safe Mode would have been plenty.

Copper Contributor

this is what my subject line become when I switched to coming soon

註解 2019-03-27 124720.png

Copper Contributor

NO NO NO!!! This is an absolutely terrible look for me!

 

I use Outlook on a portrait screen, not landscape. I have customized the look to make me the most productive I can be. The new look robs me of these functions I have worked so hard to carefully set up. Plus, the preview pane is spaced exactly the way I need it. The new look runs off the page and is completely unusable in its current form, and it results in fewer emails I can scan.

 

I don't want Microsoft to force a dumbing down of Outlook on me for "simplicity". I NEED Outlook as it is, in its current form, for functionality.

 

Current:

 

Outlook Current Look Pixelated (good).jpg

 

New look:

 

Outlook New Look Pixelated (bad).jpg

 

See how much better the current look is for me?

 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't take the current look away from me!

 

 

Silver Contributor

In the latest blog post they tell that there will be a setting to enable tighter spacing. It won't be a default setting though. And i guess it will only be available once the new look officially ships (no way to test it now) https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Blog/Changes-to-Coming-Soon-in-Outlook-for-Windows/ba...

 

Bronze Contributor

@wroot  The tighter spacing option (View > Current View > Use Tighter Spacing) should be there if you have Coming Soon, which not all of us do.

 

@Colin  That /safe trick looked promising, but alas, it doesn't work for those who have been banished from the Coming Soon kingdom. My situation wasn't wanting to disable it, like you, but just getting the chance to enable it again. That trick didn't work to make the toggle show up here.

Copper Contributor
Well, they finally took the old look away from me and forced the new look on me. How do I change it back?
Steel Contributor

@Chuck Hildebrandt, I also have issues with the new look, but confused by your last two comments:

 

  1. It looks like slightly MORE fits on your screen in the second screen shot you posted compared to the first, but you complained that less fit.
  2. You said, "they finally took the old look away..." This is not live yet, unless you opt in to view the preview. Presumably that's so MS can get feedback like yours and mine and make changes before they do finalize.

Note that even in the preview, you can flip between the the full Ribbon bar, the retracted Ribbon, or the new Compact Ribbon bar. Because that's just an added option (the Compact one is new, the other two we've had for years), I don't see any downside to that particular part of the update.

 

I also keep an Outlook window always up in a separate monitor in Portrait mode, just like yours. My complaints are around the lost ability to have one window show the full ribbon and another have the ribbon hidden (a feature of the current production Outlook) and that in new messages or meeting invites, the header space is HUGE leaving much less room for the content of the message, even with the more compact ribbon. For those reasons, after reporting my problems to MS, I have reverted back to the production version and am not using the preview. I chronicled the steps to do this above (it was admittedly painful).

Copper Contributor

@Colin:

 

1) I am talking about message preview. There are fewer messages I can preview in the preview pane. That's what I mean. Previewing more messages than fewer messages is important for me. YMMV.

2) The new look is live for me. They may not have rolled it out to you yet, but they've rolled it out to me. I cannot change back. The old look is gone, forever.

 

Please tell me how I can get the full ribbon bar back, because I've looked around and I can't figure that out.

Copper Contributor

Oh, and lest you burn a post telling me all I have to do is flip the Coming Soon switch to "Off", it's already off, and the new look has been rolled out to me:

 

2019-04-20_9-13-43.jpg

 

I'm bright enough to know when an update has been rolled out to me.

 

I appreciate your help on this. Thank you.

Silver Contributor

Try View > Current View > Use Tighter Spacing

Copper Contributor

Thanks, Oleg, but that's not what Colin and I are discussing.

 

@Colin? You know what I'm looking for, can you help?

Silver Contributor

I know that you ask for a way to get back to old view. Although MS said in another newer blog post they plan to release new design to users starting in May, maybe you somehow received it now (if you are in an organization, maybe your admin made you a part of Targeted release group, which gets updates sooner), but MS also not suggesting there will be a way to get back to old design. They are not going to maintain two designs. So my advice is the only thing you can do about spacing issues now. Unless MS releases some other options in the future.

 

Btw, to be sure we are talking about same things. You call it preview pane. But preview pane is the pane showing the letter itself (either at the bottom or on the right). It seems you are talking about the message list. And in your screenshot i can see less messages in the list with the new design. The setting i mentioned should make it closer to old design. I can't check that myself. I don't even have Outlook here. Just based on a newer blog post https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Blog/Changes-to-Coming-Soon-in-Outlook-for-Windows/ba...

Steel Contributor

@Chuck Hildebrandt, sorry for the long delay. I had not seen your comment before. You may have long since figured this out, but to get the full Ribbon Bar back, just click the little drop down caret  in the lower right corner of the ribbon. That toggles between full and compact Ribbon. Changing in any one window will now change all windows (it used to only change it for that one window and instead toggle between showing and hiding the Ribbon). 

 

Unfortunately, Microsoft has now pushed this fully live for me too. My original problems are still there:

 

1. No longer possible to have full Ribbon on some windows and collapsed Ribbon on others. 

2. The Header (From, To, CC, BCC) section is still enormous compared to the prior UI (may not be so bad for people who don't use From or BCC -- I can disable BCC, but I can't get rid of the From, because I have multiple accounts, which I need to use regularly). For meetings, where it adds start and end times, it takes up almost the whole window. I can't find any way to make this more compact. 

3. No longer any way to hide the Ribbon altogether. Ironically, this more "compact" Ribbon actually takes up MORE screen space, because I can't hide it like I could hide the old Ribbon bar.

 

For me, all 3 of those are significant UI downgrades, but I'd also admit none of them really affect functionality. The worst part is that on my smallest monitor, I keep the calendar at full screen all the time on Week view (each day gets its own column). Because I can't shrink that Ribbon without also going to the "Compact" Ribbon on all Outlook windows (and even if I do that, because it's no longer possible to fully hide it, it still takes up more screen real estate in the Calendar window), I can no longer see my whole workday vertically in Outlook Calendar. That genuinely hurts my ability to use Outlook and be productive through the day. 

 

Frustrating that I reported all of these things during the trial period and Microsoft proceeded to force this destructive UI change on us with no apparent option to revert or otherwise address the very real problems it causes. 

Silver Contributor

You can save space in From, To, Cc field via View - Use compact view i think it is called. It also compresses spaces between emails in the list of emails.

Steel Contributor

@wroot,  yes, I already have that on (View -> Layout section -> Use Tighter Spacing). It definitely helps, but still doesn't compress the header down to the size from before the changes to the UI. 

 

Is there any way to have the Ribbon completely hidden like before the update?

 

Is there any way to have one Window with the Ribbon completely hidden or at least in Compact mode and other Windows still showing the full Ribbon?

Version history
Last update:
‎Sep 04 2018 10:20 AM
Updated by: