Using Win 10 I use Office Outlook 2016. Just recently the appearance (Interface?) of the message pages has changed. I now see a vertical blue line to the left of messages in the Inbox indicating that the email has not been opened. Is this the result of an update or have I clicked something in error. Any advice please?

Post a picture of a message with something to show which part of the interface has changed.

The most noticeable difference is the appearance of a vertical blue line to the left of the inbox that would indicate an unopened email.

Attached Images

Office Outlook change in appearance (2).JPG (11.0 KB, 8 views)

I believe that blue line is a consequence of a setting related to whether you choose to display messages in groups. Most people seem to like groups. I find that organizing messages into groups complicates navigation when I interact with messages using only the keyboard (e.g., Up and Down arrow keys; Shift + Up, Shift + Down; etc.) But to each their own. Here's how to change the setting:


View > View Settings > Group By...


Uncheck "Automatically group according to arrangement"

Thank you Alan Cantor, much appreciated. I haven't adjusted my Group Settings so I am not sure that is the cause. I agree that removing the Group Settings removes the vertical lines though but I rather like my Group Settings.

I am now convinced that this is down to an update as I see that red flagged items appear in the inbox highlighted in yellow and that is quite useful.