Outlook 2003: cannot remove Favorite Folder from displaying in Nav Pane

[Richard Silverstein]

In all previous versions of OTL, you could make the Favorite Folders
disappear from the navigation pane. Then you could easily make them
appear when you need them by clicking on a drop down arrow. Why on
earth would you need to have these folders display ALWAYS?? Here's
what the OTL 2003 Navigation Pane Help info says:

"You cannot rearrange the panes. For example, Favorite Folders is
available only in the Mail pane and cannot be removed, hidden, or
resized."

WHY, WHY, WHY??? Is there any way around this or am I stuck with this
unwanted display?

Richard

 

[Roady]

Just change to the Folder List view to get a more "classic" look.

--
Roady
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[Richard Silverstein]

Just change to the Folder List view to get a more "classic" look.

Roady: I'm new to OTL 2003. can you spell out how I should 'change to
the folder list view.' I've been through all views I could think of
or find & none gives me a 'classic look' though I'd love to find it if
I could.

Richard

 

[Richard Silverstein]

Just change to the Folder List view to get a more "classic" look.

Just wanted to be sure that you understand how I'd like my display to
look. Right now, OTL 2003 displays a Navigation Pane with Folder List
on top and the graphic icons for various folders (Calendar, Contacts,
etc.) below. You can remove the Navigation Pane so that it doesn't
display. But I want to display the graphic icons (as one can in
previous versions) and eliminate the Folder List.

Richard

 

[Roady]

That is not possible. The old Outlook Bar has been dropped since this
version. You can create however your own shortcuts to files and folder when
you click Shortcuts in the Navigation Pane

--
Roady
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-----

 

[Richard Silverstein]

That is not possible. The old Outlook Bar has been dropped since this
version. You can create however your own shortcuts to files and folder when
you click Shortcuts in the Navigation Pane

That what I was afraid of, but thanks for the info.

What a drag! What were those programmers thinking when they removed
that feature??

The Shortcuts option is an alternative, but not an optimal one because
you first have to click Shortcuts & then click on the right folder.
With previous OTL versions, I could go right to the folder & click. I
know it sounds picayune. But I liked that ease & simplicity before.

Richard

 

[Roady]

You mean that Outlook can't be booted up in the Shorcut view? I see that can
be a pain when you were really used to it

--
Roady
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-----

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Yes, you can force Outlook to start in the Shortcuts list -- see http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2003/interface.htm#bootmodule
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Roady]

Thanks, already wondered what that key was doing there

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net
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-----
Yes, you can force Outlook to start in the Shortcuts list -- see
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2003/interface.htm#bootmodule
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Richard Silverstein]

Yes, you can force Outlook to start in the Shortcuts list -- see
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2003/interface.htm#bootmodule

Sue: I went to your hyperlink & saw a note about forcing SHortcuts to
display, but I'm not clear what the ultimate URL is that I should look
at for directions on how to do this. Can you give me the right URL?
Here's the Slipstick text & it's not clear (at least to me) what I
need to do in order to activate this:

"Technical Details: The navigation pane settings are profile-specific
and are stored in an .xml file with the profile name, in the
Application Data\Outlook folder.
To clear all navigation pane customizations, start Outlook once with
the /resetnavpane switch.

Notes: There is no programmatic mechanism for manipulating the new
features navigation pane, short of editing the .xml file when Outlook
is not running. However, the OutlookBarPane, OutlookBarGroup, and
OutlookBarShortcuts objects still control what is now the Shortcuts
list (formerly the Outlook Bar)."

BTW, just so I can understand the mind of a programmer (not you, but
those who devised this change in the Outlook Bar), what's the
rationale behind this new configuration? It sure does bad things for
me. Does it help anyone?

Richard

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

The instructions for forcing the Shortcuts list are right there on the page, higher than the section you cited:

This option requires editing the Windows registry; make a backup of the registry beforehand. Go to the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\WunderBar and change the value of the BootModule DWORD entry. These are the known valid entries:
0 Start with Mail folders displayed
5 Start with Folder List displayed
6 Start with Shortcuts list displayed

My guess is that Microsoft found that many people either weren't using or were confused by the Outlook Bar and their research (extensive pre-OL2003) showed better ways to help average users organize their information.

 

[Roady]

And from a supporting point of view; shortcuts can be broken and still be
visible and thus confusing, the folderlist simply displays what you can
reach. I've seen it happening many times that the mailbox wasn't added to
the profile anymore and that the user were left clueless why the shortcut
didn't work anymore.

Although I was never a fan of the Outlook Bar I can see why people would
miss the Outlook Bar as it was eassier to group everything (especially
different type of folders in one group).
--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Pictures of the latest Longhorn Build 4051
www.sparnaaij.net

-----
The instructions for forcing the Shortcuts list are right there on the page,
higher than the section you cited:

This option requires editing the Windows registry; make a backup of the
registry beforehand. Go to the key
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\WunderBar and change the
value of the BootModule DWORD entry. These are the known valid entries:
0 Start with Mail folders displayed
5 Start with Folder List displayed
6 Start with Shortcuts list displayed

My guess is that Microsoft found that many people either weren't using or
were confused by the Outlook Bar and their research (extensive pre-OL2003)
showed better ways to help average users organize their information.

 

[Richard Silverstein]

The instructions for forcing the Shortcuts list are right there on the
page, higher than the section you cited:

This option requires editing the Windows registry; make a backup of the
registry beforehand. Go to the key
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\WunderBar and change
the value of the BootModule DWORD entry. These are the known valid
entries:
0 Start with Mail folders displayed
5 Start with Folder List displayed
6 Start with Shortcuts list displayed

My guess is that Microsoft found that many people either weren't using
or were confused by the Outlook Bar and their research (extensive
pre-OL2003) showed better ways to help average users organize their
information.

Thanks, Sue for pointing out the correct instructions on the pg. I've
edited my registry & it now displays the Shortcuts list.

I have to say though that I just plain like the old Outlook Bar. All
I saw (pre 2003) was the graphic icon & folder name (Calendar,
Contacts, Tasks, etc.); unless of course I needed to see the drop down
folder list in which case I merely clicked on the box that opened the
entire folder list & then reclicked when I wanted the drop down list
to go away. Pre-OTL 2003 (as you know of course), drop down menus &
folder trees were not default displays. Unfortunately, this is the
case in OTL 2003 (as I now see in the Shortcuts list which displays in
my OTL screen). Call me a fuddy duddy, call me old fashioned. I
thought the old look was simpler, cleaner & graphically more pleasing.

MS could really fix this problem easily if they'd merely allow you to
'draw up' the bottom portion of the Shortcuts bar/Nav Pane (the one
containing the graphic icons) so that it could cover the Shortcuts
drop down folder list (the top half of the Shortcuts bar/Nav Pane).
Well, there'd still be another small problem in that the Mail folder
graphic icon should be split out into Inbox & Sent Items like the old
Outlook Bar so that you could actually go right to the proper folder
with a single click. The old ways sometimes are best.

I appreciate that you've put this info out there about changing the
registry and that this is about as close as I can get to pre-2003, but
alas...

As for broken folder links, I'm a home user & only worry about my own
usage (& my wife's) & I never noticed this problem.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

YOu can send that as a suggestion to (e-mail address removed).
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Guest]

This is the dumbest feature ever. You can't right click on any of those toolbars to change, move or remove them. That has been a standard feature of windows for years and years and now they remove it?

STUPI
STUPI
STUPID