Showing more months in the Calendar nav pane

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Willy K

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Outlook version
Outlook 2013 64 bit
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IMAP
A common issue with Outlook 201x is that the Navigation pane in Calendar (not the ToDo pane in Mail) usually shows only 1 month, and if you try to drag the separator beneath to see more months, you'll experience that it's impossible to move!

I've seen a lot of questions about this on the web, and just as many complicated approaches suggested (that typically don't work). Luckily, I stumbled today (almost by accident) upon a very simple 1-2-3 solution that hopefully provides "the ultimate fix" (and I couldn't find anything about it on the web, so I guess it's news).

Here's what you do:


1. In Calendar view, minimize the ribbon (all the way in Outlook 2013)
2. Now you can drag the separator (in the nav pane) to show as many months as you want! Do that.
3. Finally, expand the Ribbon again (and the separator in the nav pane gets locked again!)

That's all folks! Works in both Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013.
(I guess this is yet another of Microsoft's secret spells against the common mortal user... )
 
sounds like you have a smaller screen - the separator is only 'locked' when there isn't enough vertical space - it only pulls down so far and leaves some folders visible. In older versions the navigation buttons will also cause it to lock - slide them down to make more room.
 
sounds like you have a smaller screen - the separator is only 'locked' when there isn't enough vertical space - it only pulls down so far and leaves some folders visible. In older versions the navigation buttons will also cause it to lock - slide them down to make more room.

Actually, my screen is 4K so that's not it (besides, I have plenty of space in the Navigator pane below the single month and I still can't move the separator at all). My discovery was that the Ribbon is locking the "separator" line in the nav pane for some peculiar reason. I even tried that on my laptop with Outlook 2013 and I managed to drag the separator down showing 5 months! Then the nav pane became scrollable... So at least in my experience the Ribbon locks the nav pane. Don't know why, but probably even MS wouldn't know from what I've seen before on their "help" forums. Well, that's my $.2 anyway.
 
Actually, my screen is 4K so
Outlook doesn't always play well with HiRes screens, so that could be the problem here too. It tends to be worse if the display zoom is set high - above 150% . It also could be something else - like other software you use. It's definitely not supposed to be locked with the ribbon expanded and wasn't intended to be - Video of it working (as it's supposed to) with the open ribbon - navigation-calendars - my recording screen is small so its limited to 2 calendars and the folder list (the practical limit) or 3 and no folders visible. 2010 is limited by the navigation pane buttons (if they are separate buttons) but the calendars have less padding so you can show more calendars.

One of my monitors died and i debated where to go for a 27" 4K or 34 curved and picked the 34" because i worried the fonts would be too small on the 4K, although the 4K almost won out for cost. Maybe I shoulda went for the 4K so i could test the bugs we blame on hi-res/high zoom. :)
 
... It's definitely not supposed to be locked with the ribbon expanded and wasn't intended to be

I have several machines and I've tested both O2010 and O2013, also on my (standard) 12" laptop as I mentioned before. So it's not the particular Outlook installation, other software or the screen resolution behind - it's simply Outlook itself (at least in my experience).

Why don't you just try it yourself and see how it works? And if it doesn't in your environment, I'd be mighty surprised.

For the rest, I completely agree that it doesn't make any sense and that it probably is unintended effect (not an isolated MS issue...), but it simply is there and I'm glad that I discovered the fix. Many people have been struggling with that for years...
 
i have tried - it's in the video i linked to. The ribbon does not lock the nav pane. I used the change the # of calendars a lot - the only thing that prevented the bar from moving was the # of big buttons on the nav pane in the older versions of outlook (and the view links in really old versions).
 
i have tried - it's in the video i linked to. The ribbon does not lock the nav pane. I used the change the # of calendars a lot - the only thing that prevented the bar from moving was the # of big buttons on the nav pane in the older versions of outlook (and the view links in really old versions).

Well, the ribbon does lock the month separator line on all 3 machines I've tested this (two W7 O2010 and one W10 O2013). Plenty of space in the nav pane, different screen sizes, etc. don't make any difference. Closing the ribbon down to the "bone" releases the separator line, reopening the ribbon locks it again. As simple as that. I can't explain why it works (and I really don't care).

Anyway, I was just trying to help anyone stuck with a single month in the calendar nav pane. If this solves the issue for somebody, then a good thing has happened. That's all.
 
Outlook doesn't always play well with HiRes screens, so that could be the problem here too. It tends to be worse if the display zoom is set high - above 150% . It also could be something else - like other software you use. It's definitely not supposed to be locked with the ribbon expanded and wasn't intended to be - Video of it working (as it's supposed to) with the open ribbon - navigation-calendars - my recording screen is small so its limited to 2 calendars and the folder list (the practical limit) or 3 and no folders visible. 2010 is limited by the navigation pane buttons (if they are separate buttons) but the calendars have less padding so you can show more calendars.

One of my monitors died and i debated where to go for a 27" 4K or 34 curved and picked the 34" because i worried the fonts would be too small on the 4K, although the 4K almost won out for cost. Maybe I shoulda went for the 4K so i could test the bugs we blame on hi-res/high zoom. :)

Thanks for the video Diane. Frankly I don't use the calendar, but.. I regularly do need to set tasks -say- 8 to 10 weeks ahead, or months ahead ('reminders', so to say). I was puzzled as to how to get more months to display. So far I merely 'hovered' over the calendar button in Outlook, or when double clicking, only 1 month would show up. Feel a bit silly to confess that I wasn't aware that the separator line could be shifted so as to display more months. Thanks for the video!

BTW, personally..!, in a non-gaming environment, I would prefer a larger monitor over a high-resolution one. In the day to day work it may may be more convenient to have more space available, enabling to display multiple windows side-by-side, rather than running the risk of running into the tiny fonts-issue, straining the eyes. Although, maybe newer 4K drivers could solve that, I don't know.
One quickly gets used to a large screen though... I guess 27" is going to be common the years ahead.
 
One quickly gets used to a large screen though...
Yeah... and it doesn't take long. :) I had 4 monitors on my desk - a mix of 21 and 24, with one 21 in portrait mode for reading docs. It was great... then one 24" died. i looked at 27's but the resolution was the same as the 24 - just taking up more desk space. So I replaced it with a 34" to get more vertical screen real estate. It's 3440 x 1920 or thereabouts - some text is too small, but i'm pretty fast at zooming these days, so it's not a big problem.

I was thinking i would use 3 - with smaller ones hanging off each side like before (one for outlook, one portrait), but quickly realized 2 worked better with this config - the big one and a 24 for Outlook. The software with the 34 allows me to use sections - i have it split in 3rds (1 is split vertically) and can snap documents into the sections to read side by side and the split sections are perfect for onenote, file explorer etc. Excel & Camtasia are great full screen - pretty much everything else is awful on the wide screen.
 
Though it actually is off-topic

but quickly realized 2 worked better with this config - the big one and a 24 for Outlook

Eh ...
I never used two monitors, a friend of mine used 2x 19" but all for the same task, so in case of Photoshop, the image wud be over 2 monitors with the monitor edges as a horrible split. He was used to it though.
However, using a 34"and 24" as in your case, I assume you are using 2 pc's then(?).
 
Yeah, its great with apps like photoshop because you can split tools from the image. Financial advisors like them too - so they can see all of the indexes and whatever. My 34 has a layout with the screen split into 5 and 6 sections (2 or 3 in the top half, 3 bottom) - i figured that would be popular with advisors and analysts. Actually, most of the layouts seemed aimed at people like them who need to watch a lot of windows.

I have just 1 pc (nothing special - Dell XPS). My video card supports up to 4 - they will have multiple inputs (3 HDMI, 1 DVI) - many video cards over the last 5 yrs or so support at least 4 - many supported 2 prior to that. Generally, if the card offers 2 types of video inputs, you can put something on each. If it has both an internal and external card, you might be able to use both, i did with a previous computer, this one said i couldn't.
 
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