Why no drop down list in Outlook 2003?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike

I understand some of the interface changes in Outlook 2003, though I am
still disturbed by the almost complete lack of customization. One small
change that defies explanation is that you can no longer click on the folder
name in the banner to display a drop down list of all your available
folders. This means that selecting any folder is at least 3 to 4 times as
many steps as in previous versions of Outlook. Your choices are either to
spend a lot more time navigating to subfolders or spend a lot more time
scrolling because you have to lose 10 to 20% of your screen real estate to
display all your subfolders.

I have submitted a request ([email protected]) to have this functionality
put back, but I really would appreciate some explanation either from an MVP
or someone from Microsoft as to why this feature was broken in the first
place. I have been asking about this since the initial beta release of
Outlook 2003 and still have no idea why this was broken. It is not like it
effects any other area of Outlook (other than to make it much more difficult
to use) and seems more like a bug than an interface change.

Thanks for any insight into this problem.

Mike
 
It wasn't broken, it was removed. I don't recall if it was because their
data showed only a few people used it or because removing the address bar
removed it. It was replaced by the navigation bar which offers views by
folder type and a Favorites folder for mail.


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



Search for answers: http://groups.google.com
Most recent posts to the Outlook newsgroups:
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Mike said:
I understand some of the interface changes in Outlook 2003, though I
am still disturbed by the almost complete lack of customization. One
small change that defies explanation is that you can no longer click
on the folder name in the banner to display a drop down list of all
your available folders. This means that selecting any folder is at
least 3 to 4 times as many steps as in previous versions of Outlook.
Your choices are either to spend a lot more time navigating to
subfolders or spend a lot more time scrolling because you have to
lose 10 to 20% of your screen real estate to display all your
subfolders.

I have submitted a request ([email protected]) to have this
functionality put back, but I really would appreciate some
explanation either from an MVP or someone from Microsoft as to why
this feature was broken in the first place. I have been asking about
this since the initial beta release of Outlook 2003 and still have no
idea why this was broken. It is not like it effects any other area
of Outlook (other than to make it much more difficult to use) and
seems more like a bug than an interface change.

Thanks for any insight into this problem.

Mike
Click to expand...

Well, apparently it was removed as of Outlook 2002. What version were
you using before getting Outlook 2003?

When I click on the folder shown in the banner, nothing happens. It has
Back and Forward buttons and the Address bar. I use the Folders list
pane to see my folders at a glance and to provide easy selection. Did
Outlook 2003 remove the Folders list pane, too?
 
*Vanguard* said:
Well, apparently it was removed as of Outlook 2002. What version were
you using before getting Outlook 2003?
When I click on the folder shown in the banner, nothing happens. It has
Back and Forward buttons and the Address bar. I use the Folders list
pane to see my folders at a glance and to provide easy selection. Did
Outlook 2003 remove the Folders list pane, too?
Click to expand...


It's still there in Outlook 2002. The banner I'm speaking of is the gray
bar with the folder name in it - this is usually right below the toolbars.
In Outlook 2002 & prior the folder name (e.g., Inbox) has a little arrow
beside it. It sounds like you have the Address toolbar displayed which will
hide this feature; if you resize the address toolbar you'll see it (click &
drag when you see a double-headed arrow at the front of it).

Mike
 
I hadn't noticed the removal of the Address bar, but that might explain
things. However, there are several reasons the navigation pane doesn't
replace this banner. The navigation pane replaces the shortcut bar not the
banner. The navigation pane is either on or off - there is no inbetween.
The banner provides a list of folders only when necessary - like any other
drop down list it disappears once you have selected an item.

I have upwards of 50 inbox subfolders. I do NOT want to see them all the
time, and the navigation pane gives me very few options for determining what
is and is not displayed. Like Word 2002 and the Insert Merge Field option
(removed from the standard merge toolbar), I would be happy with a toolbar
option to add this feature back, but it's not there. If I turn the
navigation pane off, then I have to go through several steps to display
another folder. I found CTRL+Y - that displays the folder list as a dialog
box. It's more steps and more complicated than prior versions, but it is
closer to what I need. The bottom line with the navigation pane is it takes
up too much space and offers too few customization options (IMHO, fixing
this problem would benefit a lot of people).

As for removing the folder banner's drop down list - why? I bet very few
people are using the Telex phone number, but that's still there (and still
no useful field customization - but that's another post). It does not get
in anyone's way, so I can't imagine people were complaining about it. Its
removal makes absolutely no sense. The banner itself is still there -
though it might as well not be since it no longer does anything (your
current folder name is displayed in the title bar). Usually when a feature
is removed it is replaced by something else - not so here. Even the folder
list dialog (CTRL+Y) is not new, it was there before. I use the drop down
list constantly - not having it in OL2003 is going to make using it a lot
less efficient.

I hope someone passes this on to Microsoft....

Mike

Diane Poremsky said:
It wasn't broken, it was removed. I don't recall if it was because their
data showed only a few people used it or because removing the address bar
removed it. It was replaced by the navigation bar which offers views by
folder type and a Favorites folder for mail.


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


Mike said:
I understand some of the interface changes in Outlook 2003, though I am
still disturbed by the almost complete lack of customization. One small
change that defies explanation is that you can no longer click on the folder
name in the banner to display a drop down list of all your available
folders. This means that selecting any folder is at least 3 to 4 times as
many steps as in previous versions of Outlook. Your choices are either to
spend a lot more time navigating to subfolders or spend a lot more time
scrolling because you have to lose 10 to 20% of your screen real estate to
display all your subfolders.

Mike
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Mike said:
The banner I'm speaking of is the
gray bar with the folder name in it - this is usually right below the
toolbars.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I figured you were talking about. It also has the
Address drop-down listbox in it.
In Outlook 2002 & prior the folder name (e.g., Inbox) has a
little arrow beside it.
Click to expand...

Nope, no little arrow in mine.
It sounds like you have the Address toolbar
displayed which will hide this feature; if you resize the address
toolbar you'll see it (click & drag when you see a double-headed
arrow at the front of it).
Click to expand...

I resized the Address bar (which is on the rightside of the banner bar).
Eventually the input box started enlarging which meant there were no
more icons to the right of it that had previously been hidden. After
that point, dragging the handle for the Address bar just made the input
box longer. Those icons on the right are: Go (with a upward curved
hollow arrow) which activates the selection in the Address bar), Stop
(circle with "X"), and Refresh (square box with 2 arrows pointing left
and right).

Back in the banner bar which shows the currently selected folder (on its
leftside), there are: Back (fat leftward arrow), Forward (fat rightward
arrow), the icon for the folder (not clickable), and the folder's title
(also not clickable).

After a LOT of playing around with the options, I eventually found out
what you are talking about. The little down arrow (after the folder's
title in the banner bar) do NOT appear if the List pane is displayed.
That's because they duplicate the same functionality. If the List pane
is displayed, you already see the tree view so you don't need yet
another duplicate view of the tree. If the List pane is hidden, then
you will see the little drop-down arrow to show that tree view.

I gave up using the Outlook Bar a long time ago. It presents the
folders in a flat view, its links can get out of sync (so you'll have to
delete them and drag over folders from the tree view to recreate them),
and it doesn't show where a particular folder is located, especially if
the user does not use a unique name for every folder and instead relies
on its position to indicate its use.

So hide the List pane (tree view) to see if the little arrow reappears.
Me, I'd rather have the List pane always there and get rid of the
Outlook bar.
 
[snip]
I gave up using the Outlook Bar a long time ago. It presents the
folders in a flat view, its links can get out of sync (so you'll have to
delete them and drag over folders from the tree view to recreate them),
and it doesn't show where a particular folder is located, especially if
the user does not use a unique name for every folder and instead relies
on its position to indicate its use.
Click to expand...

I generally agree, but I still find the Outlook bar somewhat handy, and I
have it sized fairly narrow.
So hide the List pane (tree view) to see if the little arrow reappears.
Me, I'd rather have the List pane always there and get rid of the
Outlook bar.
Click to expand...

I tried that (hiding the navigation pane, which is what replaces the list
pane), but no luck. But it got me thinking about combinations of options,
so I'm going to play around with that. I'll let you know if I discover
anything!

Mike
 
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