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Hello,
I went out of my way to come here and share this after having spent a couple of precious hours navigating the "New" Outlook.
This is the version it says under settings that I have:
You have Microsoft Outlook Version1.2023.927.100*(Production). Client Version is*20230929003.10
Despite the neat and clean look and feel, I cannot wrap my head around something very basic that I (and I'm sure countless others) have become so accustomed to on the legacy Outlook, but let's call that the 'normal' Outlook, except that it simply vanished from the new edition.
I used to be able to sort emails by "From" and then start typing the name of the sender WITHOUT using the Search bar. This was a massive convenience as the way the results appear is different than how they appear when using the Search bar. Let's say I am searching for emails from 'Michael Lee' in this way. I will click Filter > Arrange By > From and immediately type the sender's name. Outlook would simply re-sort (not search) all the emails and the results will show emails from Michael Lee grouped under Michael Lee and sorted date-wise. If you got the spelling wrong, no biggie, simply collapse all the name groups so scrolling down is super quick. This was fantastic and something I thought would carry on to the New Outlook except that there is no such function there and this is bothering me to no end.
If this is the case, my question here is, why still have the Filter by Name function when a user can neither pull up the name they want nor collapse the name groups. Same for sorting by Subject. Once it is sorted by Subject, there is nothing one can do except to scroll down randomly.
As I manage the company's email accounts as an admin, I was on the phone with the MS365 representative and inquired whether the New Outlook I switched to is a fully launched product or still in beta, he confirmed it is fully operational and I am not using a sneak peek version of something under development. He also flatly suggested I can revert back to the normal Outlook. I know Microsoft is getting ready to remove Mail soon and one day down the line we all will be forced to use this New Outlook.
The annoying thing about the legacy Outlook is that the Red Flag button and the Delete Email icon are super close to each other. (see screenshot below)
Sorry to say this but apparently this is how it got approved by the Microsoft product leadership levels. That the distance between the email you want to trash and a super important one should be less than a cursor space. So that important email can be accidentally deleted! The New Outlook made a modest improvement in placement of the Flag and Trash bin icons (and increased distance between them to about two cursors lol) but then the sort feature is a major dealbreaker. My question is also, if ever there was any forum/platform Microsoft used to consult with users on how they use Outlook before deciding to do away with certain features that many consider to be in the DNA of Outlook?
Using New Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I agree with ALL- this is really simple and should not have been lost in the new look outlook. I hope they address this soon before old outlook goes away.
Not a perfect or as simple solution as the older version but you can right click on the email > Find related > Messages in this conversation (or from Sender).
I would like to be surprised by the lack of Microsoft rethinking on this. However, is this not what we have come to expect, sadly? It is an amazingly basic function. If this many people have bothered to waste their time on this forum (including me now), there are likely tens of thousands who do not bother wasting their time with a complaint.
THANK YOU MICROHARD!
The inability to quickly sort alphabetically by the "FROM" column, and type in a single letter (or multiple to drill deeper) to simply find all the emails "FROM" a sender that starts with that letter was so incredibly nice. The same thing applies with the "Subject" column. There are often times where being ablet to simply type in "P" "A" "Y" "R"...will automatically pull up all emails that start with those letters so I can easily and quickly find all the emails regarding "payroll".
The absence of this feature results in much more time, as now I need to go through pages and pages of emails to get to the emails that I am looking for. This is VERY VERY inefficient, and unfortunately, without this functionality (and I'm sure others that I haven't discovered yet) it takes Outlook one step closer to being more like GMAIL...which is NOT a good thing!!!!
I have the same problem. Used to be able to click on "from" at the top of the inbox and start typing a name and it would go directly to the block of emails from that person (or same applies with subject). New Outlook removes this basic functionality which is a terrible move. I would use this 20-30 times PER DAY. It's unbelievable that Microsoft would not only release a far inferior product as a supposed "upgrade" but then also force people to move over to that inferior product. Sort it out Microsoft.