a 2006 post described this exact problem, but repeated reboots have not fixed our issue. The folder navagation pane on the left comes up very briefly when Outlook is opened and then disappears, replaced by a pale blue color. Any suggestions re cause/fix? It is on our CEOs lapotop.

Have you tried View, Navigation Pane? Or perhaps the pane is too narrow. Is there a vertical line that allows you to expand to the right to see the Navigation Pane? Can you post a screenshot? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Another source got back to us and recommended that we uninstall Office 2003 and then reinstall it. That fixed the problem - still no idea why it happened in the first place. So it appears that whatever causes this can sometimes be fixed by a reboot (not in our case). We also tried a repair (did not work). So the final step was the uninstall and reinstall and that worked for us.

So neither one of my suggestions helped? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Jennifer, That was one of the things that was so puzzling. The folders would show up for 1 second or so and then disappear, replaced with a pale blue background. The window did not narrow, the contents just disappeared. We have 65 installations of Office 2003 here, and have been using Office 2003 for over 3 years now, and this is the only one that has acted in this manner.

K. Just thought I'd ask. :) "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

I just had the same thing happen. Just allowed the monthly MS updates and rebooted computer. Now, there is no content in the Navigation Pane making moving messages quite annoying rather than simply drag-n-drop, I have to cut-n-paste using the toolbar menu items. Re-installing office is not an option I would want to consider at this time... daLizard