Folder pane width change

[Sim]

Sharing two links from the MS forum on the folder pane width issue; seems an increasing number of users is complaining:

Folder pane width can't be change

Hello, I was able to slide the folder pane to the left, making it smaller but it doesn't work anymore in the new version of outlook, and the space between the folder pane and the message list suddenly

answers.microsoft.com

Outlook - Folder Pane Width

I want to make the width of my folder pane in Outlook smaller. The folder pane seems to have a minimum width which cannot be changed. I tried dragging the folder pane using the two parallel lines to

answers.microsoft.com

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I see Gabe is in the one thread - he is with the product team.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

porentially good news - they will be enabling the ability to make it smaller - no word on how much smaller. Time will tell if its satisfactory. (Experience tells me not to get my hopes up.)

 

[Sim]

Same laptop, same build as posted in my latest screenshot, upon starting up outlook this morning:

This was the only combination I haven't had so far I'll just wait for updates. It seems out of our control

 

[Diane Poremsky]

It seems out of our control

You thought you had some control?

 

[luvnik]

Many many thanks rseiler and Diane - really appreciate your help here for making this easy and simple to understand. I was able to run the batch file and it has made the task very simple and easy.
Thank you indeed!

 

[manojshuklasuniverse]

You can follow these steps to Resize the Navigation Pane:

1. Hover your mouse pointer over the right border of the Navigation Pane.
2. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow ,
3. Click and drag the border to the left or right to resize width.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You can follow these steps to Resize the Navigation Pane:

1. Hover your mouse pointer over the right border of the Navigation Pane.
2. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow ,
3. Click and drag the border to the left or right to resize width.

Please read the entire thread and test it in Outlook 2016 - they know how to resize the pane, but it only goes so far left.

 

[DL777]

After running the bat file, I am still struggling to be able reduce the size of the left pane. I only want to see two letters of each folder but it is still requiring a very wide pane. Did the script not work for me? I ran as both admin and regular user. I would like to eliminate what is in red. Thanks for your help.
Running Office 365...

 

[rseiler]

@DL777, to my knowledge you can't go that far. All we're talking about here is being able to get it to the point it seems that you've already gotten it.

Just a general comment on this thread: Deleting the Registry keys has always introduced some fun variability, like sometimes seeing search on top and sometimes seeing it in the old place (where it is mostly, but not always, when your folder pane is as desired). Or sometimes having Feedback in Help and sometimes not.

But today, after 16.0.13006.20002, and finding that I still needed to delete the keys, I found the font(!) used in the folder pane to be, shall we say, a tad on the bold side. It's really clear and really bold. As with most things these days, I don't know if this is something they're intending to do or not. On the same build, if I get into the mode where the folder pane is not as wanted, the fonts are normal. It's all so experimental.

 

[LaneHoy]

Hello All

Thanks for the .bat file and the .reg file with the following registry deletions:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\Ecs\outlook\ConfigContextData
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\FirstSession\outlook

I have three email accounts in Outlook, two of them allow free changing of the Folder Pane width, for the third email account the width is "frozen" and cannot be adjusted. Obviously I tried restarting Outlook (and the PC), removing and adding the account, removing and adding back to Favorites, etc. Running Outlook is Safe Mode allows free adjustment of Folder Pane width for all accounts, but the loss of functionality means that I cannot work in Safe Mode.

Deleting the two registry keys only partially solves the situation, as it allows REDUCING the width of the Folder Pane, but it does not allow INCREASING the width. Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

 

[rseiler]

The problem has been dragging the border left. If you can't then drag it right (which is increasing the width), something is wrong. Or maybe you mean WAY WAY right? I can drag it right quite a ways, far further than anyone would want to, so I can't imagine you meant that, especially since you cared enough to go left in the first place. In short, I can drag it left and right at will.

 

[NeilN]

Regarding the auto-resizing of the "Favorites" pane. After the latest auto-update, I found the "Favorites" navigation pane would automatically narrow itself (some of my folder names are long for project purposes) to where only a few characters would be visible (much like others have indicated with their attachments).
I poked around a bit, and deselected the "Compact Navigation" box.
With Outlook open, go to File -> Options -> Advanced -> Outlook Panes -> Navigation Options
The check box is located at the top of the Navigation Options pop-up box:

So far, the "Favorites" pane has not narrowed itself. I'll delete this post if it does.
Hope it helps.

 

[rseiler]

I've been fooled before, so no guarantees, but I think 16.0.13127.20002 finally fixed the issue.

 

[rseiler]

I was wrong.

 

[fd343ny]

This discussion gets close to my issue - apologies if this is too much of a digression. Talking about wasted space on the other side of the view - the Reading Pane.

Recently went from Outlook 2013 to Outlook 2016 (okay, my firm is slow to adopt) and have a problem with the width of the reading pane - in Outlook 2013 I could shrink it as small as one inch wide. In Outlook 2016 cant make it smaller than apx two inches wide. No problem when using big monitor, but when just on my laptop thats a lot of real estate for the reading pane.

I know I can change the view and get rid of the Reading Pane or move it to the bottom.

I know I can drag the left edge of the Reading Pane to narrow it - but no less than two inches (in Outlook 2013 the same drag could take it to apx one inch - I miss that)

I tried playing around with fonts, with the compact view setting, etc - no joy.

Is this wider minimum size for the reading pane a "feature"?

 

[rseiler]

It does seem to only go so far, though I never experimented with it before to know the history of it.

But this brings up a logical question. Let's say you could get it down to one inch. What good would it be? It would be like making your web browser one inch wide--not that practical.

 

[fd343ny]

May just be me, but I use the reading pane to get a quick sense of what a message is about - one inch with a small font is plenty to decide whether it needs attention soon, can wait or merits a quick delete. You are 100 percent right, I dont use it to read fully.

Maybe I am odd and they decided that few users set it less than two inches wide......dont know why they would lock it in a less flexible way.

I guess being an odd user is a tenuous spot.

Thanks for considering my post and question.

 

[Player 07]

Why is it running as admin? The batch worked for me without running it as admin.




You can use a reg file - you double click to run then open outlook using it's shortcut.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\Ecs\outlook\ConfigContextData]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\FirstSession\outlook]

Hi Diane,
I followed your suggestions and it worked very well. I updated my outlook to 2008(Build 13127.20408 Click-to-Run), the search box was moved to top again . The folder pane width was OK. thanks!

Rgds,

User Player 07

 

[rseiler]

Yes, you're going to see the search box move around (although it's been a while since I've not seen it at the top) and even the notifications style vary (between compact and huge) when deleting Experiments.

Here's a thread on managing the location, and it's quite similar to what we've done:

Disable new search bar in Office 365 - Windows 10 Help Forums

Is there any way to disable/roll back the new search bar in Office 365?

www.tenforums.com

However, later builds apparently stopped recognizing the mod (see late in the thread), so YMMV.