Mail - Classic view in Catalina

Yeah preview pane still exists.

Under the 'view' header, uncheck "Show side preview" and make sure you have "Use column layout" checked and you get the old classic view of having the preview pane under your messages.

Still a pile of manure regards the other changes though.

They won'y GAS. This feedback is right on the money if you can't see preview where it is and how to "re-enable" https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9624

I had this. You have to drag the separation bar up from the bottom slowly for more than a certain quite long (3 or 4 sec) time. T O T A L L Y unintuitive, unpredictable, and completely unreasonably different from the previous Mail.

no you can't. You can have something that looks like classic view, but it's missing the features that i just listed above. And the TOP hits in the search which is just terrible and can no longer be disabled. That is what classic view does. Catalina does not have these features.

Despite what some on here are saying, you CANNOT get classic view. You can get something similar-looking but less functional. Less functional because (i) you cannot sort by column headers and (ii) emails now take more than a single line in the inbox, even without message preview -- one line is for who the email is from, the other is the subject line, whereas in classic view you could have who it was from on the left and the subject line on the right.

Apple is missing a very important trick. We like choice. Not too much, but some. And we don't like losing choices we had.

They will view any complaints as merely a case of customers needing time to get used to something new. So they'll ignore the complaints. Some complaints are indeed just that, but not all, and if you ignore ALL your customers complaints, their resentment will grow and grow.

In short, irritating. Very irritating.

D

Actually that is available: on the Menu bar under View are some Show/Hide choices.

The core problem is that of those choices "Use Column Layout" is actually not a column layout; it is a line-by-line (list) layout with each line arranged as the folks at Apple want them, not as we users prefer them. They give us the 4 choices you see there and seem to believe this will suit everyone. They took away our control over what of each message to view in the this view.

A "column layout" is only such if there are headers. The functionality to click on headers to sort, and drag to suit the user's needs, is almost universally part of that. Here that feature has been removed.

"(ii) emails now take more than a single line in the inbox, even without message preview -- one line is for who the email is from, the other is the subject line, whereas in classic view you could have who it was from on the left and the subject line on the right."

This is still possible. Its not classic view and I hate the changes, but you can get them both on the same line. Click "use column layout" under the view header on the menu.

The fact is, Apple did remove the "classic" features from Mail for Catalina.

The removal effectively downgrades Mail significantly for many users, such as myself.

Mail no longer allows users to organize and order columns, and sort, in the manner users choose.

Yes, one can look at messages in columnar format ... but only in the manner that Apple has now chosen.

It seems Apple is getting out of the email client business. Why else dumb down an essential feature for many users?

Or, too many key software design decisions are increasingly being made by inexperienced theoreticians at Apple.

For heavy duty email users such as myself - a professional Mac user since 1985 - the change is a deal breaker.

I am now looking for a different email program. Presently I have >100,000 messages in Apple Mail.

Fact is, the "Classic View" is dead.

Apple, in it's infinite wisdom, failed to understand how users use and benefit from the Classic View.

The ability to show, reorganize and sort columns on the fly is incredibly useful .... Especially for those of us who must management lot's of email.

Like much of what Apple seems to do these days with its software, there was probably not too much thought about the change. Too often changes are made to the interface and functions for changes sake to convey the appearance of progress.

The challenge for me is now to find an Apple Mail replacement that plays well with the likes of SpamSieve, ProtonMail, Daylite and the other plugins I currently use. That won't be easy.

But rest assured, the Mail "Classic View" is dead, at least for now.

No, no alternative, and nothing from apple either (eg, to say we're sorry, it was a mistake, or, we're sorry, this feature has been removed, or, we're looking at this one, or, Xxxxxmail has this feature . . . nothing). We pay extra for a decent service but are still disappointed.

Usually when Apple release a new OS there is a ripple of feedback, which dies-away, once people get used to the changes and things settle down. This time --- with Apple Mail --- things are different. For many, the ability to size and order columns in Mail appears to have been a really crucial aspect of its functionality. For me, it just doesn't look right, I want my dates on the left, that to me seems logical, intuitive and the way I like it.

Like many of us, I simply cannot see what the problem was? This was not a complicated aspect of the programme and its replacement with one column / one size / one order /no option feels like a retrograde step in app development. We know that the guys at Apple read these discussion forums, so its a surprise that there have been a couple of upgrades which have ignore the criticism and the honest feedback from their customers.

We want customisable columns in Apple Mail back. For many it is a deal breaker ! Give feedback directly to Apple, on their facebook / twitter sites as well as directly >

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

If we want customisable columns back let's keep asking for it!!

This has been an issue for me for a looong time. It is easier to resolve these days. Go to the bottom of the window, in the preview area, and look for a tiny dark grey dot. It is fairly obsure. Put the cursor on that dot and click/hold as you very slowly move the cursor up. IT LOOKS LIKE NOTHING IS HAPPENING! Keep at it, and suddenly the list of mail will separate itself from the Preview and all will be well.

I just tried this a couple of times to help me remember for future use.

You are correct. It is horrible. Send feedback to Apple.

I agree. I don't do iPads (the rest of the family does), I do big spanking desktops, but for years now the software that drew to me the Mac ecosystem is getting dumber and dumber.

The changes to how we sort and view our mail make no sense to me. It's a deliberate dumbing down on the options we have.

Classic view is the only way I use mail, never ever liked the replacement viewing mode.

I struggle with having icons for attachments on the far right and not be able to adjust column width. This must a be an error. I just can't believe Apple made this move. I fear the worst, its will stay ;-(