Collapse/expand Feature In Outlook

To collapse (or minimize) the Ribbon, do one of the following: Double-click the label of the tab you are currently using. In the Ribbon displays options list, choose Show Tabs: Outlook for Microsoft 365 offers an unique view of the Ribbon: partially collapsed that expands by clicking the Minimize the Ribbon button: The partially. Outlook 2016 When you need as much space as possible on the screen to view messages, events, or contacts in your Outlook, you can collapse (or minimize) the Ribbon and then restore it quickly. To collapse (or minimize) the Ribbon, do one of the following: Double-click the label of the tab you're currently using. You can expand and collapse folders in this view by selecting the triangle icons next to the folder names. Type what it is you want to search for here, such as the name of a person you want to find messages from, or text that you want to search for to find a particular message. Double-click the folder or item. Click (expand) or (collapse) next to the folder or item name. Click to select the folder or item, then press a key: To perform this task. Expand the folder or item. + (plus sign on your numeric keypad) Expand the folder and all subfolders or the item and all subitems.

I organize my Contacts folder by Category. Each time when I access that folder, every Category group is expanded, no matter how carefully I compress the Category groups or arrange them.

I prefer to have some Category groups always expanded and others always collapsed.

Is there any way to keep these Category groups collapsed?

Outlook has a View setting how it should handle the expand/collapse state for the Group By function. Most likely this setting is set to “Always expanded” instead of “As last viewed”. If that doesn’t work, resetting the view and rechecking the option might solve it as well.


Outlook can save the expand/collapse state of your groups
but doesn’t do this for all views by default.

Collapse/expand Feature In Outlook Web

Always Expand/Collapse all Groups or use As Last Viewed

In Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, the By Category view in the Contacts folder (and several other pre-defined views) had the expand/collapse option set to “As Last Viewed”. This basically was a modified Phone List view which had the default set to “All expanded”.

Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 no longer have this pre-defined view (unless you upgraded) as it has the Arrangement Gallery on the View tab to quickly select a Group By field. Instead there is the Phone and the List view. However, these pre-defined views have their default expand/collapse option set to “All expanded”.

Collapse/expand

So long history lesson short; modify your view’s “Expand/collapse defaults” option:

  • Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007
    View-> Arrange By-> Custom…-> button Group By…
  • Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
    tab View-> button: View Settings-> button Group By…

In the bottom right corner of this dialog, you can set the Expand/collapse defaults. By default this is set to “As last viewed” but you also have the option to set it to “All expanded” and “All collapsed”.


Changing the Expand/collapse defaults for the Group By function.

Resetting the view

Outlook

If the last group state is then still not being reminded correctly upon reentering the folder, then you can most likely fix it by resetting the view for the folder and additionally rechecking the Group By view option as indicated above.

Collapsible Sections In Outlook

  • Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007
    View-> Arrange By-> Custom… -> button: Reset Current View
  • Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
    tab View-> button: Reset View