Why doesn't the vertical scrollbar work in Outlook's message list?

Question

Moving the scrollbar handle in Outlook 2007's message list doesn't scroll the messages until I let go of the handle. Can I change this behavior? It's pretty annoying, and makes the scrollbar kinda useless.

Answer 1

Unbelievably, this appalling Outlook 2007 defect is still present in Outlook 2010. And still present in Outlook 2013. EDIT: and still there in 2016, and still there in 365 as of January 2017. EDIT: and still there in 365 as of January 2019.

And even if I drag the scrollbar to the bottom of the list and back, it doesn't make subsequent scrolling work. No scrolling in lists of messages--just a jump to the place where you release the mouse.

The only time scrolling works is when the list contains only about 30 messages so only just goes off the screen. The one time you hardly need scrolling!

However, for those of us who happen to appreciate trackpoint scrolling, and who therefore use a keyboard sporting this feature, there's a surprise answer: for some reason trackpoint scrolling makes even Outlook lists scroll! Joy.

Answer 2

Wow, I was surprised to see that I could duplicate this.

Seems like the only way the scroll bar starts working properly is to do the following:

1. Select whatever folder you want to see (ie Inbox)
2. Drag the scroll bar to the absolute bottom of the list
3. Scroll bar seems to work properly now

Very, very strange. Maybe someone should file a bug with MS and hopefully we will see a fix for this?

I agree that this can't be the intended behavior.

Edit: Scrolling with the mousewheel is probably the best workaround overall.

Answer 3

Outlook is doing more than I believe you think it is.

When you have a folder with a number of messages below a certain threshold (looks to be 99), Outlook will load the entire list of messages and as you drag the scroll bar the message list will scroll.

However, once you are above the threshold, Outlook doesn't appear to load the entire message list into memory. Once this happens, the list no longer scrolls as you drag the scroll bar.

You can see evidence of this by going into a folder with >99 messages, and use the scroll bar down arrow to scroll through the entire list so every message has become visible. Once you've done this, the message list will now scroll as you drag the scroll bar.

This looks like a performance/memory optimization to me. I'd suggest using search (the 2007 and up search is quite good) or have a better organization strategy.