In this article, we will discuss the annoying issue of not being able to pin the folder pane in Windows Outlook under certain conditions.
Folder pane Options
Folder pane in Windows Outlook is what you see at the left-hand side of the interface; it’s where you see the folders of your mail account, as shown in the reference image below.
You can go to the “View” tab and under “Layout” tab, click on “Folder Pane,” you can select “Normal,” Minimized, or Off, depending on your preferences for this pane.
If it is minimized, you can click on the small arrow icon at the top to view the folder pane temporarily, and also, click on the ‘Pin’ icon to permanently keep it pinned. When it is not pinned, the pane automatically hides whenever you click anywhere else.
However, users who are using multiple monitor setup might experience an issue where they cannot pin it. And the “Normal” mode under “Layout” is also grayed out/disabled. This happens especially when the Outlook window is resized.
A word on resizing the Outlook Window: whenever you resize the Outlook Windows manually by dragging its order, Outlook automatically adjusts the layout accordingly. For example, it will minimize the “Folder Pane,” even if you have pinned it. And the option under Layout to turn it back to “Normal” will be disabled.
You might also notice that the ‘To-do bar’ also gets turned off when you lower the Window size to certain limit. Outlook automatically prefers the pane where the emails are shown and the email reading pane, and finally, if you keep dragging the window, it will also turn off the list of emails and will only keep the “reading” pane.
As of now, this is by design and there is no workaround this. It is done to seamlessly adjust the space while resizing the window and to keep it balanced inside the Outlook’s user-interface.
However, users with multiple monitors might experience the automatic turn off or minimizing of Folder Pane even if they haven’t resized the Outlook Window to that extent where it is supposed to happen by design.
This is largely due to the conflict of two monitors with two separate settings of landscape and portrait. If you have one monitor set to landscape and other to portrait, it is likely that your folder pane also keeps disappearing/minimizing every time you launch Outlook. For some users, it also happens right after minimizing the window.
The simple fix for this is to make the monitor with Landscape settings as your primary display. Or if you can, switch the portrait mode back to landscape.
Here’s how to do this:
- Right click on the desktop and select “Display Settings”
- Under “Scale and Layout,” look for Display orientation
- Click on “Portrait” and select “Landscape” from the drop-down menu.
Select “Landscape” from the dropdown:
And for the alternative, you can make your “Landscape” one as main display.
Here’s how:
- Right click on the desktop and select “Display Settings”
- You will see the number of monitors you are using at the top.
- Click the select your monitor with Landscape orientation
- And then click “Make this my main display” and hit “Apply”
This will resolve the issue of folder pane automatically being switched to Minimized in Outlook Windows. Now you can easily pin it and it will remain so.