Sudden change to the display of my email list in Outlook

jtenenbg 0 Reputation points
2026-10-02T14:23:07.65+00:00

Yesterday, the display of my email list in Outlook changed, probably due to my inadvertently hitting some button or key combination. My emails used to display compactly, one email per line. Suddenly yesterday each email was preceded by a line that simply lists the sender. I do not want to see the preceding line for each email. What can I do? I use a version of Outlook that I downloaded for my Mac in the last year. Attached is a screen snipping, where I have placed black ovals around the lines that I do not want to see displayed.

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business
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  1. Heimerdinger 715 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-10-02T15:04:11.29+00:00

    Hi @jtenenbg,

    To narrow this down and pinpoint the exact setting in Outlook for Mac, could you clarify:

    • Could you attach or share a screenshot of what your Outlook inbox looks like right now? Seeing the current layout will make it easy to identify the exact toggle that changed.
    • When you click an email, does the reading pane appear on the right, on the bottom, or is it hidden? If the reading pane is set to the bottom or turned off, Outlook often defaults to a stacked multi-line format where the sender sits above the subject line.

    In the meantime, feel free to try the steps above to adjust your Group By and Message Preview settings to see if they restore your single-line compact view.

    Method 1: Turn off "Group by Sender"

    If Outlook is displaying headers above each email grouping them by sender name:

    1. Click the View menu at the top of your Mac screen (in the macOS menu bar).
    2. Hover over Group By (or Arrange By depending on your exact version).
    3. Select Date (or None) instead of From or Sender.
    4. Make sure Show in Groups is unchecked if you do not want header divider lines.

    Method 2: Reset / Change your Message List Layout

    1. If your view layout changed to an expanded format that splits sender and subject onto separate lines:
    2. Go to the View tab in the Outlook toolbar ribbon at the top.
    3. Click Message Preview (or Layout / Density).
    4. Choose Hide Preview (or Compact). This condenses each email back to a single line.
    5. (Optional) If the layout remains stretched out, go to View > Reset View to restore your default list appearance.

    You could refer to this article for a better view : Customize views in Legacy Outlook for Mac | Microsoft Support

    Feel free to try the steps above in the meantime. Thank you again for your time and patience, looking forward to hearing how it goes.

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  2. jtenenbg 0 Reputation points
    2026-10-02T14:28:18.33+00:00

    In my View menu, there is no "Show as Co;nversation" or "Organize" menu options. The menu options in my View menu are "View Settings", "Messages", "Sync", "Layout", "Folder Pane", and "Density".

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