Unable to add "Size" or "Importance" column in new look Outlook for macOS...

Question

Unable to add "Size" or "Importance" column in new look Outlook for macOS...

David Jones 101

So, we can filter by size but we can't select to see the size column!? This also applies to "Importance". Why bother sorting when you can't then see the thing you've sorted on!?

This is UI bad design 101.

A lesson in how to take everything we've learnt/gained in the UI, over the years, and throw it out in the relentless and reckless pursuit of Minimal Viable Product!

More to follow...

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Answer 1

ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,126 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @David Jones ,

According to your description, I have tested for "Sort By Importance" and found that emails were divided into different groups according to their importance. And I have tested for "Sort By Size" and found that emails are divided into different groups in different size ranges. These two are not displayed as columns in New Outlook. I'm afraid this is by design.

But I can successfully add size as a column in old Outlook. If you need, , it is recommended that you could switch back to the old Outlook to use this function.

For your request to add "size" or "importance" column in New Outlook, please kindly understand that many of these features are in development and upgraded based on customers’ feedback. At present, what I can do for you is to submit feedback for your request and I have post here. If you have any suggestions or ideas, It's suggested that you could post here too. Hope Microsoft will notice this in the future. Thank you for your understanding and support!

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David Jones 101 Reputation points

2022-01-25T05:46:48.52+00:00

Thanks for the reply, Christy.

You are right, I missed that. In previous versions of Outlook for macOS as well as the current versions of Outlook on Windows, there is a column we are able to show, giving the size of each email, individually. However, with the new look (Minimal Viable Product) Outlook the functionality of column view appears to be significantly reduced. This seems to have been pseudo-replaced by the introduction of email grouping with group headers, in the new look Outlook. However, this is yet another "New feature" that suffers from poor design/implementation, which is only worsened when viewed in "Dark Mode". These group headers are almost indistinguishable from emails in the list, due to very poor highlight contrast choices made by the product team. Poor choices to which I'd like to add the fact that, when compared to how email grouping and headering, in the Windows version of Outlook work, the new look Outlook for macOS is an outstanding example of how badly it compares to the exact same product from your Windows Outlook product team.

For those of us (and there will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions) who interact with Outlook on Windows and Outlook on macOS will all agree, the changes in the UI we are seeing are by no stretch of the imagination an improvement from the older version of Outlook for macOS and the new look version and both pale into unusability and laughability when compared to your Windows version of Outlook.
ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,126 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-01-26T09:41:36.987+00:00

Hi @David Jones ,

Thanks for your reply!

For the suggestions you mentioned in many aspects, you are welcome to submit them on the special feedback collection website. I can fuuly understand your mood, and please understand that many functions are constantly being developed and modified. We can publish suggestions and expected functions on this website. I hope Microsoft will pay attention to this in the future. Thanks for your understanding and support!
Sebastian Brandner 0 Reputation points

2023-05-30T17:41:56.9266667+00:00

I have recently switched to the new outlook and it is disappointing that many useful features are not supported. It is also not possible to drag out attachments, which now need to be downloaded and then sorted from the download folder
Mike Lenahan 0 Reputation points

2023-08-03T18:25:40.4033333+00:00

I finally switched (forced?) to NEW Outlook (16.75.2), and in the OLD Outlook I did have SIZE as a column. Post switch the SIZE column is still there however it's empty and I can't remove it. Sorting on it doesn't seem to work either. I may switch back to the OLD - however my email setup is rather custom using one provider for incoming emails & a different provider for outgoing. Until this release it would just abort Outlook when it was trying to auto convert me. It still wasn't that smooth but I got it to work.

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Unable to add "Size" or "Importance" column in new look Outlook for macOS...

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