What’s new in the Outlook Navigation Pane

Melissa: Two of my MAPI accounts continue to rack up additional "news feed" folders. I delete them and they continue to return. What steps can I take to stop this?

bradh21@msn.com

@bradh21 are these OLC accounts? if so, there is a known bug in the Beta that causes multiple news feed folders to be created because of an interaction between the OLC (Outlook Live Connector) and OSC (Outlook Social Connector).

I've been using Outlook for years and I now know Outlook 2007 is where I stop. I have many accounts -- I use them to help organize my email. I use a standard search "Today's Mail" in email account order for when I want to see my new mail in account order. But I want all my mail to flow to one Inbox, not several! Since it is easy enough to view the inbox in mail account order, why in the world are you stopping people from seeing in any other way? Too often, an "upgrade" in a Microsoft product means the loss of some functionality users have become dependent upon. Although I did upgrade to Office 2007, Office 2003 was much easier to use. It is no wonder many people have not made the change. I agree with the person's whose comment was "Who do you talk to?" Certainly not to the user. Do you remember New Coke? How they checked to see if Coke users preferred it to Pepsi, but neglected to see whether Coke users preferred it to Coke? Or whether Pepsi users preferred it to Pepsi. Are you using the same company to test your changes?

I've been using the 2010 Beta for a month or so now and every time I load it I can't help but feel the visual appeal of Word and Excel is nowhere near as nice as 2007. You're way over thinking things by trying to flatten and simplify the look. You just made it ugly...(sorry). The File menus throughout the suite makes the whole thing look "cheap". Put back the gem (or whatever it's called) and the 3D elements and the shading and then quite messing with the look and feel. It’s just not working guys! On the plus side, the ribbon in Outlook is a nice addition (but it would a lot nicer if it resembled 2007!).

Please, please, Microsoft, make the Ribbon optional! I have been using Office 2007 at work for a year now, the only program I don't hate from the package is Outlook 2007, which I actually love. I was actually going to switch my home computer to Outlook, until I heard they are adding the Ribbon in 2010! I've tried the ribbon, it is terrible - you can't develop "muscle memory", it makes using the keyboard to navigate menus impossible (alt-f used to open the File menu, what now? Memorize the keystroke for every individual function?), and it takes up SO much space! What were you thinking? Quit trying to copy Apple, we don't like Apple or we'd be using Apple!

@Eddy, if you don't like the ribbon taking up space you can collapse it by double-clicking the tab you are on. A single-click will open it for you to select a command. Additionally, many of your favorite keyboard shortcuts are preserved. For example, alt+f will open the Backstage which is the 2010 equivalent of a file menu with commands such as print, save, and open. Each of these commands has a designated shortcut too. Thus alt+f+p will still get you to print. You can see all of the ribbon shortcuts simply by pressing the alt key once. I hope this helps ease your frustration! Josh Meisels, Outlook Program Manager

Melissa MacBeth said "We hope these changes make your Outlook experience faster and more enjoyable.".

The choice to reduce the contrast in the navigation pane yields the opposite effect on everyone.

Please restore the white background.

Many nice features with 2010, but you COMPLETELY MISSED THE MARK on the dark gray navigation pane and the apparent inability to change back to black font on white background.  I'm a Microsoft partner - gave Office 2010 demo today to 3 clients upon loading my action pack version on my laptop, and I was actually embarrassed that I couldn't change the navigation pane color from the immutable gray to white or another higher contrast (lighter) color after repeated requests by those in attendance to "get rid of the gray".  After scouring the net, I found 100's of other users who agree.  So, when will we have the nice new features of 2010 without losing the simple flexibility to decide on our own colors?  Please, please, please - a better job needs to be done with actual user testing and focus groups...

"First, the folders are in a new order."

And every time you open Outlook 2010, there's a 50/50 chance they'll be in a different order, and you'll have to close and re-open Outlook to get them back in the right order.

Seriously, how difficult can it be to keep the folders in the same damn order?! >:(

in regard to the folder order changes - agree with all the negative comments.  The alphabetical listing was much better.  Or let us define our own orders.  I create a lot of sub-folders under my inbox, so I can't even get to my calendar without scrolling down the screen.  If you were only doing email, then it might make sense to group things as you have.  But who does that??  Most users are moving back & forth between the Inbox & the Calendar as they work, so having them in a non-alphabetical order with the Calendar so far down the list is awkward and annoying.

I hate the changes.  The navigation pane take more vertical space than before, so it limits the number of items you can see at any one time (and less because of the ribbon).  But what I HATE THE MOST is that the Favorites window loses my  favorites constantly!!!  It's interesting that the last graphic above shows two inboxes.  They won't stay that way!!  I have several accounts and 3 or 4 times a week I have to add my other inboxes back in!  AAARRRGGGGHHHH!   I guess the only resolution is to "Upgrade" back to 2007!

sheesh it took me 10 minutes and more googling just to find out how to disable the damn date group view. I hate that.

I got here because I am forced to use Office 2010 at work and I want to change the look and feel back to about 2003.

In particular, I hate ribbons, bring back menus and also I want to change the background colour of the navigation pane to white. I know this may sound boring and old fashioned, but maybe I am just being boring in that i find black on white easier to read.

Recently I powered up an old Windows 2000 machine with Office 2000 on it and found the whole user experience infinitely better than the latest offerings. The text was clearer, no fuzzy type (cleartype), menus which stay put to find what you want, etc...

BTW, I know why you do this, to make huge amounts of money from training unfortunate users in corporations too stupid to use Open Office and forced to use the latest Microsoft offerings.

Outlook 2010 is just horrible!  Micosoft, please allow the options we had with prior versions.  You went backwards with this one.

Is there a patch out to let us have a white background in the navigation pane?  I can't read this.