Outlook should highlight all mail folders with unread mail below

[Guest]

When email filters direct incoming mail into mail folders, Outlook will
highlight that folder. However, if the folder is a child of another folder,
the highlighting is not brought to the parent folder so you have no idea
which folder has new mail. Yes, you can go and look in the 'unread' folder
but this step is cumbersome. I believe this is actually a bug or an oversight
in the highlighting feature. And sorting mail into hierarchical folders is a
very useful feature.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...7b7472e78&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.general

 

[Guest]

Use Folder View (Folder List) with the folders expanded and the sub folder
will be in Bold if it's set to show Unread Mail.

 

[Vanguard]

When email filters direct incoming mail into mail folders, Outlook will
highlight that folder. However, if the folder is a child of another
folder,
the highlighting is not brought to the parent folder so you have no idea
which folder has new mail. Yes, you can go and look in the 'unread' folder
but this step is cumbersome. I believe this is actually a bug or an
oversight
in the highlighting feature. And sorting mail into hierarchical folders is
a
very useful feature.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...7b7472e78&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.general

That doesn't make sense after just a little thought about it. Say I am
someone that actually prefers to organize my incoming e-mails and have a
tree hierarchy something like:

:
|-- Inbox
: |-- Family & Friends
: |-- Work
: |-- Company A
: |-- Company B
: |-- Job Search
: |-- Local (USA)
: |-- Remote
: |-- Mexico
: |-- Canada
: |-- Other

Then I get an e-mail which is for a job opening in Canada. Remember that
every folder itself can contain mail items, not just the end-point folders.
With your scheme, my tree would change to (where all-caps means the folder
is bolded):

:
|-- INBOX
: |-- Family & Friends
: |-- WORK
: |-- Company A
: |-- Company B
: |-- JOB SEARCH
: |-- Local (USA)
: |-- REMOTE
: |-- Mexico
: |-- CANADA
: |-- Other

So the Inbox is bolded to let me know that I have new mail. But just where
is this new mail? You think I would be immediately draw to the CANADA
folder? I get another e-mail, at the same time or before I check my
e-mails, for a local job opening. Now the tree looks like:

:
|-- INBOX
: |-- Family & Friends
: |-- WORK
: |-- Company A
: |-- Company B
: |-- JOB SEARCH
: |-- LOCAL (USA)
: |-- REMOTE
: |-- Mexico
: |-- CANADA
: |-- Other

In one mail poll, I could get e-mails from friends, family, from my current
employers, and local and remote job offers. Now EVERY tree node would be
bolded. I wouldn't have a clue as to which folders really had a particular
new mail. Even with just one new e-mail at a bottom node, I would have to
wade through each bolded parent node check if the new e-mail was in there
and, if not, wade to the next bolded sub-parent folder, and so on.

By having ONE bolded folder for where the e-mail got delivered into I can
see where my new mails went to. The bolded mail count already tells you at
or under which node to look for new mails, but if where is the bolded count
is not itself a bolded folder then I don't have to waste time looking in
that folder because I know the bolded count applies to a child folder
somewhere below the unbolded folder.

A bunch of bolded folders in a tree branch into which no new mails were
delivered would be confusing. I like just the bolded mail count to let me
know that somewhere within that tree branch there is a new mail along with
ONLY bolding the folder where is that new mail so I can quickly snap over to
it. The bolded mail count clues you to new mail, the bolded folder says
where it is. A bunch of bolded folders would obfuscate the location of the
new mail(s).

 

[Guest]

The problem is that you have to leave your folder views expanded to see where
the new mail is.

I use a simple two-level scheme (below inbox) to organize my email.

|-- Inbox
: |-- Topic A
: |-- Subtopic 1
: |-- Subtopic 2
...
: |-- Topic B
: |-- Topic C
....
: |-- Topic Z

Here's how I normally have the "All Mail Folders" view

|-- Inbox
: |-- Topic A
: |-- Topic B
: |-- Topic C
....
: |-- Topic Z

Now when a new mail comes in for Topic B, subtopic 2. What do I see?

|-- INBOX (1)
: |-- Topic A
: |-- Topic B
: |-- Topic C
....
: |-- Topic Z

Where's the new mail???

IF Outlook did what I suggested, it would do this:

|-- INBOX (1)
: |-- Topic A
: |-- Topic B
: |-- TOPIC C (1)
....
: |-- Topic Z

Now I know where to go looking for the email. I expand Topic C, and I'll see
the highlighted subfolder.

Having to expand all the subfolders in the "All Mail Folders" view only
really works if you only have a few folders. I have more than one screen full.

This sounds like it's one of those religious issues with how people organize
their email. I just wish Outlook gave me the option of highlighting the
folders as I've described.

 

[Vanguard]

I see your point. The new-mail count after the tree node only appears for
the node where there is new mail. There is no count shown if all the mails
in that node have been read. However, the parent nodes don't show any count
although a child node may display a count. In your scenario, say:

1 new mail gets delivered (moved) to the SubTopic A under Topic B node.
2 new mails get delivered (moved) to the Topic A node.
1 new mail gets delivered and remains in the Inbox.

If the new-mail count were cumulative and shown after each node in which
there was new mail or a child node for it had new mail, you would see:

:
|-- INBOX (4)
| |-- TOPIC A (2)
| |-- Topic B (1)
| |-- Topic C
| :
| :
| |-- Topic Z
:

The Inbox folder gets bolded because it actually has new mail in it. The
Topic A folder also gets bolded because there actually is new mail in it.
However, the Topic B folder is NOT bolded but it *does* get a new-mail count
shown after it meaning that somewhere underneath is new mail (in a
subfolder). If you collapsed the tree even further:

:
|-- INBOX (4)
:

If the new mail in the Inbox got read, the tree changes to:

:
|-- Inbox (3)

:

Well, you can readily see that there are new mails because a new-mail count
is shown but you are also shown that those new mails are NOT in the Inbox
but somewhere underneath it farther down that branch in the tree.


The problem I still see with bolding the node that either has new mail in it
OR new mail in some lower branch of the tree under that node is the "OR"
condition. You don't know under which folder is the new mail. The number
of messages may be large enough to require scrolling so you won't see bolded
items in the message list pane if they are at or near the end of the message
list (i.e., you sort ascending instead of descending). You see the node is
bolded but you don't see there are any new mails until you scroll. If it
was a child node that had the new mail, you were misled into thinking the
bolded parent node had it and you waste your time scrolling around to find
the new mail was there.

So I'd still want ONLY the folder which actually contained the new mail to
get bolded but that node and every parent node to it going up the tree
should show a new-mail count after the node with a cumulative count of new
mails from that node and on down. You don't get misled into thinking a
bolded folder has new mail when it does not. The cumulative new-mail count
would let you know there were new mails somewhere underneath.

I know the first bug that would happen is that the cumulative new-mail
counts would get out of sync, especially after users moved or deleted nodes
so the parent node's new-mail counts did not get updated. The bolded folder
should mean only one thing: there is new mail in THAT folder. The bolding
says nothing about new mails in a subfolder. You know if it bolded then you
look in THAT folder for some, or all, of the new mails. A cumulative
new-mail count would be one way to indicate how many new mails were at that
folder or below it. If the folder weren't bolded but had a new-mail count,
the new mail is somewhere in a subfolder under that node. Of course,
instead of or in addition to, a down-arrow icon could be used in place of
the folder's icon to alert the user that new mails were in a subfolder.

 

[Guest]

The root node in outlook express shows all the folders at once with the
numbers of unread and read messages. I never look at 'Outlook Today', so
couldn't the outlook team learn a bit from the OE team?

 

[Guest]

I've noticed this discussion is old - however I've got a question . . .
What settings should I change in order to have this affect on my mail coming
into my inbox?

At home - I've got my inbox organized with sub folders etc, and when I get
an email I know exactly where it is because the 'tree' unfolds.

At work, I can't seem to find the correct settings to mimic this feature in
outlook.

Anybody have an answer it be appreciated!