catalina mail column view

Totally agree! I would have been LOST this past year if I had upgraded to Catalina but I got super lucky while searching for answers here to something else that was wigging out in my mail and saw that columns were gone. My son had updated already so I looked at his computer and tried to figure out how I would survive without this functionality and concluded I would NOT. I've been waiting a year, hoping something would change and fortunately I get alerts from this chat stream and recently learned Big Sur had the columns back. I too am not updating until I hear it's really good though so please don't close this chat! Would love more updates as people test it. I am worried that Mojave will corrupt my computer or something if I don't update soon but I'm holding out. Could not agree more that Apple's lack of response to everyone's concerns - no acknowledgment that DUMBING DOWN something so crucial to our functionality was a mistake. It has definitely hurt my confidence in the company.

The problem is that the Apple app designers are obviously not experienced app USERS. No one who is a routine Apple Mail user would think that getting rid of column customization, etc. was in any way a good idea.

We've seen this same attitude from Microsoft for ages. For example, MS Teams doesn't look like it was designed by someone who knows how collaboration software should work. So maybe Apple is now hiring Microsoft developers?

As many have commented about the Catalina Mail debacle, it makes no sense to remove key features. To what end?

Your first 2 paragraphs summarize the issue perfectly. Other users have said the mail functionality will return with new OS. We can hope for that. As to Apple returning to the helpful, good communicating company it may have been 10-15 years ago, there is no hope. Even Apple techs are dismayed at poor communication from engineers and higher-ups. All we are really left with is this forum to complain to one another...to very little effect. Arrogance has taken over and the willingness to acknowledge errors is a thing of the past.

Well, technically they have plenty of competition so that's not the issue. Generally, what happens is that companies like Apple get complacent, especially with products that don't have a major profit margin. The watches, phones, earphones, etc. all have huge margin and so Apple concentrates on those to the detriment of the MacOS (which has not really seriously improved in years).

To breeblebrox......yes, I suppose I agree on the competition part. But, then, the question should be asked: why update your own OS? What Apple offers in the form of new OS versions has no significant benefit to me as a businessperson using Apple machines, but rather they offer a bunch of changes using the (false) justification as being for "security".

It's always a double edged sword with Apple when advancing to a new version of the OS. Catalina, like all previous versions, has advantages over the previous OS but it came (as usual) with some problems and, in the case of Mail, just idiocy.

I update to get the new features and, but in the case of Mail, had to move over to Outlook to allow me to do my work and still benefit from other features of Catalina. That's the first time I've ever had to do that, which is why I consider the Mail debacle to be such a blunder. Apple pushing its users over to Microsoft products is monumentally dumb.

Makes me want to load the beta version of Big Sur just to get this back - what the heck is up with Apple ? As I sit here with a Firewire to Thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter and my mouse upside down while it's charging...I spend most of my time trying to get things to work as before as I tryiy to get work done.

Glad it is back.

But but but not all of us will want or be able to upgrade to Big Sur.

I just "upgraded" from High Sierra (2017 iMac). Took hours to sort out installation, Apple ID, iCloud and other problems, and gained nothing.

Apple: Can we please have a Catalina revision (10.15.8?) that brings back mail column controls?? Why go backwards with basic user functionalities??

I am seriously considering switching to Outlook for mail client. Used it for years at work and it was far superior to macOS mail.

I have switched to Outlook, thinking MS would never be so foolish as to outrage their huge corporate base with a change like this.

Well guess what. There is a now a "New Outlook for Mac" coming out. It's available to try, but it's not complete yet.

It's not clear whether it still supports the customizable column view. Some online comments I've seen suggest unwelcome changes to column view -- but I'm not sure. There are many other major omissions at present (including no IMAP support!) but that are promised.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/outlook-blog/enhanced-performance-designed-for-simplicity-the-new-outlook-for/ba-p/1675505

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=Outlook%2CMac

Question to yoramguy: So WHY did you 'upgrade'????? Seems like if you were satisfied with High Sierra, there was no need to 'upgrade'!!! OR, ON THE OTHER HAND, did you believe all that marketing nonsense from Apple about improved 'security', having a more colorful screen, or being able to talk to your second cousin in Kyrgyzstan?

Great question!! I hesitated for a very long time and I normally don't fix it if it ain't broke. I had an issue with the old OS of the computer trying to shut itself down when going to sleep and from searching for an answer online many suggested, right or wrong, first get all software and add ins, including the OS, upgraded to the most current version. That problem is now solved but I am not sure whether that success has anything to do with the OS upgrade. This is what happens when I don't obey my own rules. By the way, my second cousin in Kyrgyzstan and I are no longer on speaking terms after she posted all our private pics.

I definitely had to move over to the dreaded Outlook, just to get column view and sent mail configs back. The downside is that Outlook for the Mac doesn't have markup capabilities, which I use all the time. So I literally have to mark up images and PDFs in Pages and then copy them over to Outlook.

Looking forward to the day that Apple gets rid of the amateurs on its MacOS developer team and replaces them with some seasoned pros.

Beeblebrox, excuse this lay person's ignorance - what do you mean by markups? Can you still edit text down in the chain of previous messages in the reply you are about to send in Outlook for Mac?

Thanks!

Bidge wrote: "Big Sur OS has given us back a mail more like we were used to.

We now have column view again, those columns can be adjusted in width and sorted via column."

Does that in include local mailboxes "on My Mac"?

Can you select what columns to display?

When copying sent mail to a mailbox 'on My Mac' can I again see who the mail was sent to not just who sent it?

These are some of the features I was hoping would return with Mail with Big Sur.

Thanks in advance for any answers,

Just a few weeks ago got through the hassle of upgrading my iMac to Catalina (with 3-4 unsuccessful attempts) and switching to Outlook mail app. So now I will take my time, sit back and read all the reports about Big Sur "quirks" (and bugs?) and await a Version 11.1.0 or such before I do anything. Also just got a new MacBook Air with Catalina for travel and will be keeping both Macs consistent in OS.