Mail - Classic view in Catalina

Done!

Lol. We passed the mid-coast and sailed to Catalina! Next stop: Baja by way of Zuma!

Sorry: I thought Big Sur was a funny. I had not heard about the next OS landmark.

Shouldn’t the last two comments be a different topic? It seems different than the original poster’s issue.

Agree with your comment 10000% Catalina version of mail is total garbage!

also - is there no way to add a TO column to the top of a saved email? I've got stuff filed in folders and it would be helpful if I could add the TO column to help identify the email....UGH

We know. But the forums are a great place to vent and to know that we are not alone in our frustrations with these changes and to learn or share possible acceptable hacks if any are discovered.

I agree this is a huge step backwards! The info I want to view and sort on isn't present in the main screen. I can't rearrange columns I want to see let alone rearrange them in the order I'd like to see (or not see) them.

This may drive me to a third party mail application :( Please bring htis level of flexibility back!

This is exactly why I do not ever want to upgrade my OS. Why do you continue to remove functionality whenever you “upgrade” the OS and associated apple programs?

For instance:

In Mail under OS Catalina, I can no longer re-order my columns, resize them, or sort by simply clicking on a column heading. That’s removing a lot of the ease, control and customization that I am used to having. That is a step backward in my opinion.

Another example of a useless change in this upgrade is: after so many years of the keyboard command for creating an alias (command L), you arbitrarily changed it the the much less easy Option Command A. Not an improvement, just someone’s hair-brained idea. When you change long-standing features or functionality, you dumb-down the product and really annoy your long-time users, which is your most solid base of supporters.

Please bring back the customization options in Mail.

Apple doesn't look in the discussion board for feature requests. You need to request it elsewhere - e.g. hhttps://www.apple.com/feedback/.

That's what I'll be doing! Everyone posting here should do so as well, and maybe it will have an impact.

Just so disappointed about all the things they removed in Catalina. Dumbing down is the proper term for what Apple did to their once-great product.

Cheap keys, no more 32-bit app support, no more sd card slots and regular usb. Keyboard sounding and feeling cheap. Just becoming a toy instead of a professional tool.

So sad…

Yes, and how do I completely turn off the message preview pane in Catalina Mail? The classic view toggled preference is no longer available. This is bad email security practice... auto-opening of messages.

1. Turn off "Show Side Preview" from the View menu.
2. Drag the horizontal divider separating the preview area that is now below the email listed down to the bottom of the window.
3. Previews will not show anymore.

Hope that helps, let me know if you need any clarifications.

At the top, right above the list, it says sort by. You can pick your column. The only thing actually missing is the column headers themselves. Which is odd because there is space for them.

OMG ... I feel ridiculously dumb even having to search the internet for a solution for functionality that should have never been removed from Mail.app ... oh boy oh boy ... Joke show :(