I use MS Outlook at work. Somehow I accidentally clicked something, and now it’s different. I used to have something at the top of the page that said ‘Mark as read’ and ‘Mark as unread’. Those are gone. How do I get them back?
Something else: I used to see ‘Insert signature’. Now I see an icon instead of text, which makes it hard to find.
Which version? Mac or PC? Are you in the main Outlook window or have you opened a second window containing just the current message you’re looking at?
It’s on a PC, so it’s not obvious what version it is. I went to File => Info, but it doesn’t say. (On my Mac, I’d just click ‘About’ or whatever and it pops right up.)
At the moment, I’m in the main Outlook window. I wanted to mark a couple of messages unread, and I had to right click after I selected them instead of just choosing ‘Mark as unread’ from the ribbon.
Did you hide the ribbon? I’ve on occasion clicked the ribbon which hides it, but can be unhidden with another click.
The ribbon is there, but things are in different positions both on the main window and in when I open a message. Things that used to be text are either missing (like Mark as read/Mark as unread), or they’ve turned into icons.
If you close out the program and reopen it … ?
If you reboot your computer … ?
It’s been closed and reopened a few times. I’m remote today, so I can’t reboot; but I suspect it will not change anything.
Are you using the desktop version of Outlook or are you using Outlook on the Web (today) ?
You’ve probably already checked this, but just in case… I notice to the very far right of the ribbon on my Outlook 365, there is a little drop-down arrow. When I hover, it says, “Switch between the Simplified Ribbon and the Classic Ribbon.” Perhaps you switched from Classic to Simplified without realizing it?
I do stuff like this all the time. I hope it’s as easily solved as this for you.
I connect to the office PC via Open VPN and Microsoft Remote Desktop, so I’m using Outlook on my office computer.
Ah! Outlook 365! Now I remember we went to that a couple of years ago! I don’t have ‘Switch between’, but I do have the carrot. That gets me closer to what it was before. I have 'Unread/Read instead of separate ‘Mark as read’/‘Mark as unread’ buttons, but it does look better.
It is way too easy to do things inadvertently in MS products, and no documentation about what you did or how to fix it.
You’re singing my song. I once turned off my laptop’s mouse pad without realizing I had a Function key that did just that. I don’t use or even own a regular mouse that could plug into the lapper. That was fun. 
I’m 90% sure the issue is the size of the window. As you expand and shrink Outlook, it changes the space available for the ribbon, and the ribbon dynamically changes to fit icons in the available space. So as it shrinks, something that once had enough room for text changes to a small icon, and other things disappear completely.
This can also happen when new icons are added to the ribbon, which can happen inadvertently. Maybe you installed Teams or Zoom and enabled the Outlook plug-in, so now there’s a new icon and less room for the existing ones.
To fix it, grow the window if possible, or right-click somewhere on the ribbon, select Customize, and remove some of the icons you don’t need.
Window size has no effect.
Funny, I cannot find this on my version or Outlook 365. I’m not sure what you mean by ribbon.
The bit just below the ‘search’ bar at the very top of the page is the “ribbon.” It has the command buttons on it. Examples under the ‘Home’ tab are ‘New Email,’ ‘Delete,’ ‘Archive,’ etc. On my version, it’s colored gray.
If you look to the far right in that area, you’ll see the carrot. At least, that’s where mine is. There are so many different versions of this and so many ways to customize it. I think some people even move the ribbon to the bottom of their page, but the default is at the top.
Hope this helps!
No, he is asking if you are using the Outlook desktop application or the Web version. Do you sign into Outlook on the website or do you open up the standalone Outlook program?
I use the standalone program, by clicking the icon on the taskbar. We do have Outlook through office-dot-com, but I rarely use it. ISTM I do have to enter a dose to use Outlook on my desktop from time to time (which is annoying, because who has their mobile phone next to them all the time?).