In the new Mac osX CataIina I cannot find a way to change the columns viewed in Mail. You used to be able to change the field widths and add columns from the View/Columns menu. How can I accomplish this now?
Also, what does the black background TO next to the email title mean?
Such a pointless and detracting modification - it's as though the Mail dev team had nothing better to do. Thanks - I submitted a restoration of message list column customization features request to Apple.
I'm wondering what's the goal of Apple. It looks like they are pushing away customers from using the 'build in' apps.
They've done a great job with Safari. In the last year every update made Safari less useful. So, finally they succeeded and I have switched to Firefox.
Now Apple is trying to do the same with Mail: removing functionality with every update so customers will finally switch to an alternative.
URGENT MESSAGE TO APPLE
Ok guys - Catalina hasn't gone so well as you expected we know that, but the one BIG issue you could fix and fix quickly is Columns in Mail. Why would you remove them? We your customers are baffled! No one was expecting it, we have all spent hours thinking we messed up, trying to fix it, until we discover that you have removed the ability to sort and size columns in Mail. This was such a basic aspect of functionality; that it was highly regarded and valued. It didn't enter our heads to think getting rid of it would be seen as an improvement. Look at your feedback!!! There is no obvious reason for getting rid of them, particularly because the replacement 'Sort-by' is nowhere near as good. Like most of us I loved the ability to size the columns to customise the look of my mail and the ability to sort each column was useful.
Please bring this back and bring it back quick as Like a lot of us I'm now forced to look for a better Mail app!
I'll start looking around too if they aren't going to fix this. (I agree, they shouldn't've messed with it to begin with.) The Outlook that I use at work seems to work adequately for me there...; maybe I'll have to dumb down and take Outlook home to my home/personal iMac too?
Wow. I really hate that they've done this. I use the columns all the time to sort my emails for work, to respond to clients, everything... What a disaster. I'm going to copy Kernow13's response, basically (I hope you don't mind) and lodge the same complaint!
A seriously lame move. On top of the column selection/resizing issue they've also now locked down the message list font to Helvetica.
I'm appalled that some arrogant Apple product manager thought this was a good idea. Clearly, they've never actually spoken to a customer.
Yes. Consider the broken concept of "threading" Apple Mail uses. "Gee, the subject matched, it must be a thread!" when there are two RFQ-defined headers (which Apple dutifully sends) for threading, which are ignored. Heck, even Outlook gets this one right.
Yep, I only got upgraded this week because I was one of the lucky ones who somehow had installed Mojave on a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) HD and had to erase, reformat, and recover from time capsule. So, I'm just now discovering this issue with MacMail and came across this discussion. It's definitely annoying. If someone figures it out or they fix it, definitely post an update.
I imagine that many of us have Microsoft Office 365? I do and was looking at Outlook. I don't really see a screen that replicates what we liked about Mail. I used Outlook for years and just tried Apple Mail on a whim. I recall that I just wanted to see if I liked it better and I stuck to it. I have about 5 email accounts so no small deal moving to another mail app.
I was able to use RICKRACK's notes to switch to not using column layout so I could change my fonts but still I really don't like this interface:
It's almost like someone used the upgrade to Catalina to eliminate something they personally didn't use. There was really no reason to touch anything on Mail for Catalina - why would you do that with something that works? What would be the logic of changing something that had already been refined?
It just doesn't make any sense except it being a suggestion for simplification of code from someone who had never met or talked to a user. I can hear the conversation in my head, "The users are going to make a lot of noise when they hear about this. Yeah, but they'll get used to it. Just give them some time while the "crazies" vent their complaints and then they'll forget about it."
I notice it's doesn't show up as a new feature or improvement on the guided tour.
How would you convince a product manager to change something that working? It's like a cat peeing on their borders - "I'm going to change this and make it mine."
Thank you, Kernow13, I just did:
What was the reason any changes at all were made to the Mail program in the 10.15 / Catalina version? The former very-malleable list-columns (sortability, widths, order of columns, choice of which columns are visible, fonts and font-sizes) were, for no conceivable reason, THROWN OUT! In favor of a one-size-fits-all look that NO ONE likes!
If you're wise, you'll change back to the old, user-friendly code for MOS 10.15.1 or at least 10.15.2. There was no reason to change it (at least for desktop users).
Sorcerer2006 I totally agree with you! I sent in my feedback as a "bug"... hope they read it. I feel like Apple is making it harder and harder to justify spending the extra $$ for their computers. And I've been a fervent Mac user and Apple supporter for almost 30 years!!! Despite using PCs for work, I (and the whole family) have bought most of their products over the years, Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads. But this fettering of Mail is such a disappointment to me! Don't they have user groups to check these types of changes out beforehand? OR maybe the Product Managers have been replaced by an AI program and it's learned that it can make random changes and customers will keep buying... sigh...
Why would they TAKE AWAY these features?? SO annoying. I have 5 email accounts coming in, so I HAVE to see the to: and from: fields, in all mailboxes. And I had all my columns rearranged and readjusted - now it's garbage.
Steve would have had this fixed in a jiffy...he was all about making it intuitive and your own....these are the little things that make a great company not so great anymore...it's the little things that count......so disappointed in Apple at the moment and will be until this is fixed..pathetic really
So after a ton of negative feedback about the purposeless changes in Mail with Catalina, Apple release 10.15.1 update and ignore what must surely have been a very easy quick-fix which would have restored Mail to a degree of basic functionality and satisfied thousands of its users. The ability to size and personalise the columns in your mail box seems a relatively minimal expectation for a Mail application user. Even Apple know they have a problem today as they were apologetically telling people to restore Mojave today and appeared exasperated that this problem has not been corrected by their own tech department. The mark of a good company is not that it never makes mistakes, but it is how they respond to the feedback from its customers and at the moments Apple - your not looking good!
I despair of Apple, as previously no other OS release have been so awful and its response to its loyal customer base been so poor. I certainly won't be instantly updating in future. Come on Apple get 10.15.2 ready and restore Mail to pre-Catalina functionality!!
Apple - if you ever read these discussion forums please restore columns in Mail in 10.15.2 and then I'll update.
My guess is that this (very bad) change is related to project Catalyst, with the intention of harmonising code bases and UI experiences between iOS devices and Macs. So if you can't do X (for some X) on an iOS device but can do X on a Mac, the anomaly is "remedied" by removing feature X from the Mac.
catalina mail column view
