Call it a feature or an annoyance: You’ll certainly find mixed opinions about the "Address Bar" that appears in Outlook 2002 over the list of items in a folder. The left side includes Back and Next buttons that recall previous folders you’ve accessed. Also on the left is the name of the folder. On the right, you’ll see an Address box and other web controls. Outlook already has a Web toolbar built in, so the Address box is just duplication.

I personally find the Back and Next buttons somewhat useful, though again they’re duplicates of buttons already present on the Advanced toolbar. Since I keep the Outlook Bar visible, but not the Folder List, the folder name button provides a convenient way to select a folder that doesn’t have an Outlook Bar shortcut. You can also drag items to the folder name button and have the folder list drop-down so you can select a target folder.

But if you keep the Folder List open, the whole Address Bar is just an annoyance taking up screen real estate. Because it’s technically not a toolbar, you can’t turn it off with the View, Toolbars menu. The best you can do is drag the Address section over to the right as far as it will go, so that the screen is at least less cluttered.

A registry entry can keep the Address box minimized to the right. Make a registry backup first! In the Registry Editor, open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Options key. Set the AddressBarWidth value to 1.

Dragging the Address bar all the way to the right sets the value to 0, so the practical minimum value is 1.

The address bar is actually fairly useful if you don’t keep the folder list displayed: You can drag any item to the folder name and have the folder list appear as a drop down drag target. You can also right-click the folder name to work with its properties or other folder commands.

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Last reviewed on Aug 19, 2011