Turning off: "group by" feature & Favorites Folder

[Chien Lau]

Hi,

I recently made the transition from Outlook Express to Outlook. Words
cannot express how much I despise the "group by" feature. I'm referring to
the behavior of email folders in which emails are folded into a tree-like
hierarchy based upon the column used for sorting. Using View|Arrange
By|Current View|Customize, I'm able to turn off this feature on a
folder-by-folder basis. Because I have literally dozens of folders, with
many more to come, I'd prefer not to have to manually configure each folder.

Searching google yields recommendations to use the Define View menu item
to turn off grouping. I've done this, and it seems to work for a session or
two. After a while, however, Outlook reverts back to that abhorrent group
mode and I'm forced to configure the folders once again. Is there something
that I'm missing?

Also, is there a way to turn off the "Favorite Folders" pane that
appears above the "All Mail Folders" pain when in Mail mode? I find it of
very little value, yet it takes up space.

I do so miss the elegant simplicity of Outlook Express, but research
shows that in order to sync mail with a handheld device, Outlook is
required. Could someone confirm that this is the case? Thanks.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

How long have you used Outlook? I recommend trying it for at least two weeks
before making changes - many of the features take some getting used to and
are real time savers once you do.

Before disabling the group by feature, start outlook using the /cleanviews
switch. Close Outlook and at start menu, run, type
outlook.exe /cleanviews

Now go to define views and edit the Messages view to remove grouping.

No on favorite folders. If you use outlook a lot and have a lot of mail
folders, you'll quickly learn to appreciate the favorite folders list as you
add your favorites to it. It's a good place for search folders too.

Activesync requires outlook and to the best of my knowledge, palm software
does as well.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



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[Chien Lau]

Thanks, Diane, for the helpful information. I'll keep an eye out for your
book!