11th
August
2007
For some reason I decided that today was a good day to install my Office 2007, which I have had since February. My primary reason for doing so were some of the good things I’ve seen and heard about Excel 2007.
Immediately upon opening Outlook, the first thing I noticed was that my Flag Status column had moved from the left side, where they were highly visible, all the way to the end of the toolbar on the right.
In any given day, I get over 200 emails into my Outlook In Box. I have been meticulous about using the “Flag status” to colorize and prioritize things I need to do, so I went in to try to rearrange the order.
Despite my choosing to display the flag status column first with the field chooser, the flag status icon remains unmovable and locked in place way over on the far right hand side.
Attempting to drag the icon from one area of the toolbar to another is unsuccessful, you can drag every other column around, and organize them however you like, but any attempt to place columns behind this one, don’t work either.
If you’re going to offer organization in the field chooser, then why wouldn’t it work? Well it looked like a bug to me, so I immediately went to Google, an attempted to find a solution.
I did find plenty of people complaining about this, and finally I found the Microsoft page, with specific instructions how to move the flag status column. This is what it says, but it does not work:
Move the Flag Status column
1. In the main Outlook window, on the View menu, point to Current View, and then click Customize Current View.
2. In the Show these fields in this order list, select Flag Status, and then click Move Up or Move Down until Flag Status is in the position that you want.
So now 30 seconds of using Office 2007, I absolutely hate it because of a stupid bug that nobody seemed to notice before they released it.
Maybe what happened Was that one developer noticed the problem and said another developer the e-mail, who immediately flagged it because it was so important he wanted to be sure he didn’t forget.
However, since the flag appears way over on the right side of his screen he didn’t notice it before release day, so the rest of us are played until Microsoft releases an Office 2007 service pack. Thanks Microsoft.
Other stuff I've written:
|
| |
AK says:
“Solution” is listed here, although it limits some functionality. If you’re like me you probably don’t need the context menu, so no big deal.
http://www.alibutt.com/?p=232
Scott says:
Thanks, but that’s a solution for Office 2003, not 2007. I just tried, and it doesn’t work…
Mark says:
I tried all my 2003 tricks but nothing worked. As you pointed out the Help file is in error.
I’ll keep searching the web for someone who cracked it. It may be one of those REGEDIT things.
Mike says:
Agreed it’s awful. A workaround (if you use reminders) is to add the Reminder field to your views (available under the Appointment Fields drop-down). This one is movable and somewhat meets the need but requires a few additional clicks to set for each msg.
Tom says:
Ping on this – anyone find a solution for Outlook 2007 or are we still hosed?
Best regards!
Scott says:
As far as I know, we’re still hosed ;(
Bob says:
I had the same problem with 2003 and fixed it by removing it from the list and then going in and adding it back; moved it to the top of the list and it work.
Hope it works for you!
Semper Fi
Bob says:
Sorry guys; just noticed that this fix was all ready posted. Hope you get it fixed.
Semper Fi
riix says:
Tossing in my 2c’s worth – me too was using flags a lot in 2003 so for me Outlook 2007 is just as good as the rest of Orifice 2007 and that is that it sucks. I’m moving over to Thunderbird, or heck for POP/SMTP even Microsoft Mail (i.e., Outlook Express for Vista) is better.
Does anyone at Microsoft even use their crap or do they just play with them until they are suitably bloated, slow, and unusable .. beats me.
Anne says:
I’ve just spent ages trying to find a fix for this, and have eventually found what I think to be the best solution. It’s not a fix, just an alternative.
As I only use the flags as a visual cue that something needs my attention at a later date, it doesn’t really matter whether I use a flag or something else, as long as it’s in the left hand column and is very clear (i.e. not the silly “follow up flag” text!). Therefore instead of using Flags, I’m now using categories and have assigned a “categories” column on the left hand side where my flags used to be in Outlook 2003. I’ve chosen a nice deep red and renamed the category “TO DO”. I’ve also resized the column so that only the little red cube shows and not the name text – just to keep it neat.
In case you’re not sure how to do this it is:
1. Right click any column at the top of your inbox
2. Customise current view
3. Fields
4. Add “categories” and move it to the top of the list.
5. Ok, Ok.
Then just drag the column to the desired width.
You can customise your categories by clicking on the categories icon in your tool bar and selecting “all categories”.
I know it’s not the ideal solution, but it’ll do for me!
Adam says:
This appears to remain a problem. Even with the SP1 and other updates. Does MS not know about it, or is it not a big deal to them to have happy users?
Jeramie says:
This webside has the solution:
https://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/wiki/LIS/Follow-up_Flags_in_Outlook
Scott says:
thanks @jeramie – but that didn’t work for me – Did it for anyone?
Matt says:
That is not a solution. I’ll keep searching. This is absolutely stupid. Unbelievably unnecessary torture they are putting us through. But its for our own good right Microsoft? Right.
DK says:
Bit the bullet, downgraded to 2007 from 2003 2 nights ago. A few steps forward, a few back. Can’t believe how many issues like not moving the flag column are in this new version (challenge: without using help or google find out how to do Help>About in the new version!). Hangups like not being able to move the flag column makes me wonder how feasible their beta testing is. They should look for power users who heavily customize the Office apps and take their feedback very seriously to reflect in their product, so new versions are upgrades without feature losses like this one, which clearly so many depend on for working effectively and efficiently.
DK says:
After a little more sniffing around (and sniffling!) it appears this issue may be more of design than oversight. See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA100137781033.aspx?pid=CH101032811033, and also http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3376909.php. I will try to change the way I work to accomodate this change in Outlook behavior. At least they haven’t taken away keyboard shortcuts (yet).