The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on October 6, 2022.
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Today's Highlights »
Contacts Display Bug
Categories in Conversations
Disappearing IMAP folders
Macros are blocked by default in Office files
Outlook's Left Navigation Bar
Contacts Display Bug
After updating to Office version 2209 Build 15629.20156, Outlook users discovered a problem in contacts – a contact card displayed in the upper left of the screen and they could not close or move the contact.
My original solution was turning off Office updates then rolling back to an earlier version it fix it.
After running into the problem on a client's computer, it was clear it the reading pane was the problem, meaning the easiest solution would be turning off the reading pane, assuming the contact was not blocking you from reaching the View tab > Reading pane button > select Off.
If you are affected and want to roll back to a previous build, follow these instructions:
Start typing cmd on the Start screen or in the task bar search field to find the Command Prompt then click Run as Administrator
Copy and paste this line then press enter to drop back to the Sept 13 2022 build. Wait for Office to download and install.
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.15601.20148
If you don't turn off updates, Office will update again on your next reboot. Leave updates off for at least a month - or turn off the reading pane in the Contacts (or change to Business card or Card view) before letting Office install updates. At this time, Microsoft is working on a fix but have not said when it will be fixed.
Categories in Conversations
A user asked if it is possible categorize a message and have all new messages in the thread categorized when they arrive.
Yes, you can. It's feature of the Conversation view.
You need to turn on Show as conversation and arrange the message list using "By Date (Conversations)". Add the category to the conversation header (in a single message thread, the message and conversation header are one an the same).
All messages currently in the thread will be categorized as will any new messages in the thread.
Not everyone likes having all messages categorized and that is easy enough to solve without turning off conversation view. Wait until there is a second message in the thread, expand the thread and select the message before assigning a category. Or open the message is a new window and apply the category to the opened message.
What about flagging messages? Flagging a message group will only flag the most recent message in the conversation. If you want more messages flagged, you need to flag the individual messages.
Disappearing IMAP folders
I'm not sure where to place the blame for this: on Outlook or on the IMAP server, but in the last couple of weeks, three clients complained that folders they created in Outlook disappeared. When they tried to add the folder again, they either received an error that the folder already existed or it had a 1 added to the folder name.
When I looked at one client's computer, I right clicked on the a folder in the IMAP account, chose IMAP folders… then clicked on Query.
The missing folders were in the folder list, showing as unsubscribed. I subscribed the folders and so far, they are staying subscribed.
When you create a folder in an IMAP account, it syncs up to the server and should be marked as subscribed by default. However, it seems like the subscribe flag is not synced to the server and on the next reboot, the folders resync and the new folders disappear.
The solution is easy enough: right click on any folder in the IMAP account, choose IMAP folders, click Query. Select the missing folders and click the Subscribe button.
Macros are blocked by default in Office files
Following a recent Office update, Microsoft blocked all macros in files downloaded from the internet, including email attachments, and may see it on files stored within the local intranet, if the location is not set as a trusted location in the Office applications.
The default behavior of Office applications is to block macros in files from the internet. Now when users open a file that came from the internet (including email attachments) that contains macros, a security warning will be displayed.
To run macros in files from the internet, you need to save the file to the hard drive and remove the "Mark of the web". Right-click on the file, choose Properties then click Unblock (on the General tab).
Files in trusted locations will not be affected.
For more information, see this Microsoft article: Macros from the internet are blocked by default in Office - Deploy Office
Outlook's Left Navigation Bar
I've mentioned this several times already, but now that Microsoft is readying the new left navigation bar for general release, it's worth mentioning again.
As many of you already know, Microsoft is moving the navigation buttons at the bottom of the folder list to a vertical bar on the left of the folder list (just like in Outlook on the web). If you have a current version of Office, you will either have a "Coming soon" button on the top right that will switch between the bar on the left (Coming soon on) or on the bottom (Coming soon is off). When the coming soon button is missing or replaced by the "Try the New Outlook" switch, the vertical navigation bar is permanent. Sort of.
A temporary solution – one that will work until feature is no longer experimental – is to edit the registry.
Open the registry editor and locate an entry named Microsoft.Office.Outlook.Hub.HubBar and change it to False.
That value should be in one of these two locations, depending on your Office version.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\ExternalFeatureOverrides\outlook
or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentEcs\Overrides
The registry edit should work until after the general release (when all builds have the vertical bar), but exactly how long is not known.
If you don't like the bar on the left, you need to vote for and comment on this suggestion – it is the only chance we have of getting an option to switch back to buttons on the bottom.
Navigation bar chnge · Feedback Community (microsoft.com)
My thoughts on the placement: now that I'm used to it (and no longer hit Mail icon when I meant to open the File tab), I don't mind it, except for the fact that it breaks well known shortcuts (like Ctrl+6 for folder list).
The bar supports the Ctrl+n keyboard shortcuts but they are assigned by button order. If you order the buttons by Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks and a coworker arranges them by Calendar, Tasks, Mail, and Contacts, you can both use Ctrl+1 to switch modules but you'll open Mail and your coworker will open Calendar. In older versions, Ctrl+1 opens Mail regardless of the button order.
Modules not shown on the bar (like the Folder list) can be accessed by clicking the last button in the list and selecting it from the overflow.
My only other complaint applies only on my small laptop. The vertical bar "wastes" about 40 pixels I could use for the reading pane.
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