Column width in mail for OSX Catalina

I started this thread and so will save you some time paging through the hundreds of replies: there is no workaround, Apple has said nothing, and the two most common mail apps that folks are migrating to get columns is Thunderbird and Outlook, both of which have improved and are more Apple friendly.

I have a different take on why. Columns still exist in every other OS function in Finder and elsewhere. Code like this are 'objects' that can be dropped into most other apps, so I do not believe it is lack of willingness to 'support the code'.

I do think they are trying to move the Mac OS to as close as possible to the iPhone/ipad OS to make the user experience nearly the same. But this makes for a big dumbing down of the Mac OS.

The mystery to me is that you can't change column width in iPhones-- so are they now going to remove the ability to do that in ALL Mac OS apps, finder etc.? I highly doubt that, so why selectively remove it from Mail?

I think they don't believe it is that popular so why not get rid of it. Hence the importance of letting our voices be heard.

Excellent graphic, braintoniq!

And I totally agree: The column dividers/width adjusters are pretty important to an app like Mail.

Your suspicion that they simply forgot them is accurate.

I called Apple Support today and the first tech who shared my screen could not understand why I can no longer adjust the column width and change the Message List font style in Mail Preferences but can only change the font size (the only one that comes with Mail v. 13.0.

So he handed me over to a Senior Advisor who also shared my screen.

He told me other Mac users have complained about the same issue but no solution was found yet.

Then, after the Senior Advisor directed me thru doing a live Quick Time Screen Recording and having me show the problem on my iMac (it's the same width/font issue for Apple Mail v. 13.0 on my MacBook Pro, so he knew it was a Catalina issue) and having a log file created to send to "Apple's Engineering Dept.," I decided to deselect Column View Layout on the Mail toolbar and found that I could successfully change both the font style and font size in Message List to what I liked.

The Senior Advisor then told me that he researched the issue while I was doing that and he read me an internal report that confirmed Mail in Catalina no longer supports Column View Layout or changing the font style in that mode.

Like most of you, I prefer to use Column View and am not pleased with not having the option to continue to use Column View the way I had it set up in every other version of Mac OS I have used previously, which for me goes back eight years.

Finally, the Senior Advisor provided me with this same website others in this forum referenced to give feedback to Apple to let them know I want to be able to use Column View the way I could before.

He told me if he hears of a way to adjust the column widths and change the font in Column View, he will contact me; however, he did say that because it is not technically a malfunction in Apple Mail but rather a change in the program, he doubts he will have a solution and apologized. He told me he agrees that this was not a positive change in Catalina and Apple should offer the option to use Mail the way I (and now I can say, "We" after reading all the posts in this thread) prefer.

So....I will send my feedback thru this link, below, and "hope" it makes a difference.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

I can confirm that it's not possibile (Joseph Kmoch is talking about width of columns in "column layout", not the width between the lateral folder view and the message view). I really would like to hide "folder name" in the column view when viewing smart folders, subject column width is now half the size it used to be in mojave.

I could just - just - about live without the lack of column resizing if they allowed us to choose which columns we want - ie. I don't want to see the account source!

They've removed both. So you get their columns, in an order they want and they aren't resizable nor can you move the around!

brobb1972 wrote:

Steve Jobs said "you don't want to organize your documents into folders...you want to search and find what you want."

Unfortunately, it is a shame that searching only works exceptionally if you are badly organised (no matter how brilliant!) and have no idea where anything is . . .

Once you have more that a small number of emails (or files), unless you mark-up the message/file to allow selective filtering then it will get harder and harder to manage (i.e. a casual search on some terms can return 10,000+ results!) . . . there are people who send/receive many thousands of email (per year) and need to organise them.

Re MacOS Catalina Mail - you can turn on more column (using the View pull down menu) BUT not the one I want ("To" and "From") nor the ability to adjust widths of columns and relative column placement.

It is a shame that Apple has decided to make Mail 'better' by cutting out important productivity elements that non-casual users find critical on a daily basis.

Hopefully, they will be back soon . . .

This functionality is gone from Catalina. There are not even labels on the few fields shown in the columnar view. You have no way to know what column you're seeing (in the case of date and time for example) without viewing the message headers. It could be date sent, date received, etc... This is some of the worst usability Apple has foisted on us in a long time.

I would have never upgraded if I had known about this.

I did this in Catalina a few hours ago. Don’t try to do it in the header area. Do it in the area where the messages are displayed.

RICKRACK305 wrote:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

Have sent in my feedback - asking Apple to return the Column View features/capability from the previous mail . . .

I encourage others to do the same - we need to make this a 'squeaky wheel' for Apple to take seriously!

Please, PLEASE, tell Apple what a mess they have made of email. Not only column width but you can't sort the order anymore! Good grief. WRITE https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

I had to talk to Apple support about other problems with Catalina (this software is a disaster--I heard yesterday that the Medical University of South Carolina sent out an emergency advisory to employees saying "DO NOT UPGRADE TO CATALINA AS SOME PROGRAMS IN USE (at a research hospital no less!) WILL NOT RUN WITH CATALINA. Who tests this stuff, Apple?!!

Well that is far more functionality than most people use, and for their own reasons Apple has been deciding to decontent macOS Mail for several OS releases now.

Unfortunately the answer is that it's likely time for you to start researching alternatives.

You may want to see if either Thunderbird or Airmail can do what you want; as I stated, he lack of VIP functionality pretty much dooms both of those email clients for me, and Airmail interoperates very poorly with Gmail.

Postbox is another promising client, but they also lack VIP functionality and charge $30 annually.

@Sheepdog7 - "On a big monitor, less of an issue. On a laptop, a big issue, almost unusable." I find it is an issue on a big monitor. Am using the 27" iMac 5k and the subject column presents you with acres of unused white space!! Looks really, really amateur and not what we'd expect from Apple.

I have managed to get around this by going to View/Show Side Preview - that "column" can be sized which means it can be dragged to the left to eat up that massive white space.

Joseph- it is not possible to change these things in Catalina so don't waste your time looking for a workaround. Most everyone on this thread has tried already. There has been no reply from Apple per usual so no idea what if anything might be better in the future. If you want to switch to another email program, the consensus of this very long thread for the best alternatives seem to be Outlook or Thunderbird. Some have suggested you also complain on the Apple feedback site.

Nope, cursor does not change. Cannot resize the columns ... Catalina 10.15.4. Also cannot change the font size in the mailbox list on the left side of the Mail window. Side bar in General System Preferences only has ICON size control.

Apple: We need to be able to change the Mail List column positions and sizes; and we need to be able to change the mailbox list font size. AND those extra mailbox features are intrusive, need to be able to turn them OFF. [It may be smart for some users, but not for smart users].

For the big number of people who have been bitterly complaining about this:

Full column layout customizability is BACK in macOS Big Sur.

Of course, don't upgrade without a backup, and without checking that any applications you depend on will work or can be updated.

But hey... people have been clamoring for this, and Apple has delivered... in spades!

In the new version 13.0, there are no 'parallel lines' appearing so looks like you can't adjust the width. All the column headers and dividers are gone so looks as if you can't adjust or move them....which is a bit of a downgrade. Time to change....