There's possibly now too much empty space in the email window
It'd be great to reduce the new size of the "from", "to" and "CC/BCC" columns in both the Popped Out New Email window and the inset 'reply' window. There's a lot of "dead-air" above the line where one writes the email

47 comments
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ER commented
My problem exactly. I'm considering going back to my previous Office version, 365 has not been well thought out.
Also, what's with the faint tiny fonts? I had no trouble reading the screen in earlier office versions, this one give my high resolution laptop gives me eyestrain. Following the online suggestions results in dark grey fonts on a light grey screen. Useless for anyone doing a lot of computer work. The ergonomics are just bad.
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Badoet Kinclong commented
Cluttered with so many whitespace garbage, reading pane becomes very narrow in my laptop when working from home, very unproductive.
If only my company uses corporate gmail, now stuck with this useless email client.
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rb commented
yes, it's very annoying to have the mechanical stuff taking half the email window and only being able to see a few lines of your work at a time.
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Marino Anderson commented
When screen sharing a meeting invite to review the contents (such as the agenda and other key information), my stakeholders nearly revolted as only the lower half of the screen was usable. Not having a meeting header collapse feature is bad enough, but having to scramble to find the new "tighter spacing" option was a Microsoft UX blunder. It is quite obvious that the manager that approved this "****** spacing" never conducted a meeting using the meeting invite as the meeting script nor did they conduct a proper UX to understand how the meeting invite has been used in the last decade. The correct approach is to make "tighter spacing" a default and "****** spacing" an option.
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Mark Dompier commented
I do have to wonder if ANYONE on the Microsoft "fluid" design team uses a desktop and spends a significant portion of their day in Outlook? As commented, the vast majority of users are still tied to desktop versions of the software and the excessive space is ludicrous. My Subject/To/From takes up 2 to 2.5" of white space on my laptop screen. No power Outlook user that's tied to a desktop finds this valuable. And, yes, MS, I have the "tighter spacing" turned on. If you want to support tablet users, create a tablet versus pc mode and allow your users to choose. The design changes made in the latest update are simply ridiculous. Please, have someone - anyone - on your design team use your product on a PC.
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Anonymous commented
DESKTOP DESKTOP DESKTOP.
Let the finger users use the APP on their tablets.
Those of us tied to desks are tied there because we must be way more productive all day long. It's more efficient to see MORE ACTUAL CONTENT perfectly functional with a mouse - that we have because we are sitting at a DESK, remember (or even a mousepad on a laptop)???? rather than space wasted to accommodate occasional use of fingers. -
Anonymous commented
This is such an incredibly bad UI design! Who on earth thought linking these two would be a good idea? How didn't this come out of testing?
Oh, right, forgot we as end-users are now QA :(
/sSeriously though: the idea of having a less tighter view in the mailbox itself is OK and I like to use it from time to time.
HOWEVER: even with this setting enable, as others have pointed out, the email header has way to much dead space.
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caeser p commented
I agree - this is taking way too much space and is forcing people to scroll to read the agenda or dail-in information.
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Ross K commented
I just received the update to version 1908 (Build 11929.20562) The excessive use of space in the composing email message window for the TO/CC/BCC/Subject header is a pure waste. This severely reduces the capacity for body text in the email. You can't shorten it, there is no horizontal adjuster.
There is no way to reduce the waste except to un-check From and BCC in the Show Fields under Options.In a normal message windows this now takes up 1/3 of the space with all From/To/CC/BCC/Subject Where it used to be 1/4 or less.
Once I have set my email to/CC and Subject, it would be VERY useful to minimize the sending to information (like GMAIL does) so it doesn't interfere with the core content.
At the very least put in a Triangle type option to shrink it up if needed.AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE GLUTTONOUS WASTE OF SPACE IN THE WINDOW FOR SCHEDULING A MEETING....WHERE IT TAKES UP 1/2 (HALF!) of the window that opens.
THEME changes have ZERO effect on these window space wasting.
Come on Microsoft!! Who asked for this wasted space? Did you do ANY end user UI Feedback/acceptance testing?
In my opinion this ranks as #2 dumbest thing since the lack of Zoom in Excel in the browser...(still waiting for that one).
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Anonymous commented
Why do you have to "fix" things.... wasted space...…
Please put option to tighten header area -
Ian McDaniel commented
Who the heck thought that amount of space was ever necessary for the to and CC lines. Really?!?!? As if scrolling through long email chains wasn't challenging enough. I guess the message just isn't as important as who its going to . . . what a strange world.
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Scott commented
Please reduced the new waste space used for the headers in the updated version of Outlook 2016. I just received the update this week.
On my laptop especially, When I open a new email to compose, so much space is wasted by the newly formatted To/ Cc/ Bcc/ Subject area that I can only see a few lines of the email I am composing.
Please correct this poor design. The prior version was much more space efficient.
Thanks.
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Rudolf Meyer commented
The waste of space lets headers occupy the major part of the screen, so notes entries are scrolling within a ridiculous small number of lines. Very user-unfriendly.
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Anonymous commented
It'd be great to increase font size of the "from" "to" and so on ( see above) . Current size (8) is absolutely inappropriate!
Please, return the former 11 size everywhere where you've change it for 8! -
nickwilcock commented
Build 1909 has introduced even more wasted space in the headers and above the message composition window. Word is just as bad, with all that wasted space.
Who on earth thought that this was a good idea? It's pointless.
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Anonymous commented
THIS. The new reply window change is total garbage.
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Anonymous commented
The font size in the "To" "From" "Subject" tabs of a new e-mail as well as in the address book is disgustingly small. And it is unchangeable!
Could you please allow to change it if desired. -
Ethan Rabinowitz commented
the new look/UI in office is awful...less functional, straining on eyes, fugly
why? because microsoft no longer cares about making the product work best on the device you are using. they are being lazy and making 1 outlook that works pathetically on all deviceswho is microsoft becoming?, apple!
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Susan Spiegel commented
Please just stop with these inane "changes". I have been an Office/Outllook user since the beginning (I think I still have the beta test floppy disks). The user interface is awful! Way too much space and the layout is horrendous (and I can't adjust it) Can't find anything any more since all the icons look exactly the same (flat, light outlines, colorless). There are some of use the work on a desktop 15+ hours a day (not a touch screen or a tablet) and you have taken up all the real estate with large fonts, too much space, etc, etc, etc. Why rearrange the subject line above the sender (not a bad idea but does the font have to be HUGE???? Let us adjust that), moved the date to the right under an absolutely redundant "response" bar? You took away the line between the header and the message so that it's very difficult to read (everything runs together). Give us back the option to reduce the size of the header ... (pre 11629.20196 build ... which I just reverted). Bring back colorful icons in the navigation pane ... stop forcing me to reinvent the way I've been working for 20+ years.
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Jay Knecht commented
Allow me to remove the All / Undread filters, or at least put them on the same line as the Search bar so there isn't so much white space at the top of the screen. There's a picture of the wasted space here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/remove-outlook-search-bar/d137ff63-ef5e-4fe4-b9b2-37168581bc36