How to increase font size of Outlook's Folder & Reading panes?

unfortunately this will change the font size on everything EXCEPT the folders

I turned on my laptop this morning to check email, after all it is Christmas morning, and all printing (ALL printed characters- toolbar, column headers, email subject lines, etc.) in the Outlook window were now almost microscopic - I'm talking 6 pt or below. I could barely read anything even with my glasses.

I am running Microsoft Home and Business 2021 with Outlook Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162 Click-to-run)...

I then spent the last half hour going through "View", "Current View", "View Settings", "Other Settings" and "Conditional Formatting" to try to get my fonts and sizes back to what I had just last night before I shut down for the night, and almost got it back to something usable/close to what I had before. But I still can't get the folder pane back to where it was as you can see in this picture that the folder titles are much smaller than the email subject lines... Also note that the headings in the inbox ("Yesterday", "Monday") are also much smaller and a different font.

I find that when I go to the Other Settings that I can specify the font size in points whereas when I go to Conditional Formatting the font sizes available are "Smaller, Normal, Big, Bigger" and I can't specify the point size, but yet when I select, for example, "Big",

then hit OK,

it tells me then that 'Big' is actually 14pt... (FYI - 'Smaller' is 9pt,'Normal' is 11pt, and 'Bigger' is 16pt). So, if Outlook shows the size I picked in points, why can't I pick a specific size instead of "Smaller", "Normal", etc.?

I don't know if this is relevant (doubt if it is) but the little magnifying slider in the lower right corner of the Outlook window is all grayed out and is showing "10%"... I thought this was only for the reading pane or preview pane but it also doesn't appear to work for either of those either.

I really wish that MS would stop messing with things - I didn't do anything but turn my pc off last night and turned it on this morning so who else is there???? I checked Windows Update History and found that (KB5035942) was installed 12/25/24 so this has got to be the change-agent for this latest snafu... "Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update" - maybe if you actually used the software you're messing with you may have found something...

Merry Christmas to you too...!

Dear LSXXX,

Good day!

Thank you for posting to the Microsoft Community. I am glad to assist you.

Unfortunately, Outlook no longer has the option to change the font size in the Folder List (Navigation pane); this was an option only in Outlook 2010. 

On the other hand, at this time, if you use Windows 10 and need larger text in Outlook's Folder List, you'll need to change the scaling % in Settings > Display > Scale and Layout or change
the Font size in Ease of Access Settings > Display settings, please note either of which will affect all applications. Raising either setting up to 25% will usually increase the folder fonts enough without messing other applications up. 

It has been concluded that increasing the font size in the reading pane permanently is not yet available. However, thank you so much for bringing this to our attention, your suggestion is very helpful, and I believe it could make the use of Outlook even better. We will surely raise your concerns to our Product Development Team and hopefully, this can be included in future updates. In the meantime, please provide feedback on this feature request by creating a new post in the Feedback Portal at  https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback. Microsoft is committed to enhancing the customer experience by continually examining suggestions to include in the design and development of future product upgrades based on your suggestions. Hopefully, your suggestion will help many other people in the future. Customers’ feedback is always valuable to us. Your time and understanding will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and understanding. For other questions, feel free to add your post to the Microsoft Community. Have a nice day!

Regards,

Community Moderator.

I agree, was able to change all the others fonts to a larger size but NOT the Folder Pane fonts, please fix this for us old folk or suggest how this section of Outlook can be adjusted

I agree; text is very small and not good for people who struggle to read tiny text; should be easy to do within the App/Program. Surely you have a accessibility policy/strategy.