Microsoft Outlook + Business Central Plug-In: issues with resizing BC window.

Hi @A. K, 

I hope you’re having a great day. Thank you very much for taking the time to share the screenshots and details. I really appreciate it.

Based on my research, with Outlook Classic (Windows desktop), the add-in runs in a traditional desktop task pane. Hovering over the divider between the email content and the Business Central pane changes the cursor to a horizontal resize icon, allowing you to drag and adjust the pane width easily. 

However, Outlook on the web and the New Outlook run the Business Central add-in in a web-based task pane, and pane sizing is handled by the Outlook host experience. As a result, pane width may be constrained and resizing may not behave as consistently as it does in Outlook Classic, which can make the pane feel too narrow to read line details comfortably. This appears to be a current behavior of the web-based add-in framework in New Outlook and Outlook on the web. 

In the meantime, if being able to resize the Business Central pane is important for your daily work, you may want to consider using Outlook Classic for those scenarios if that fits your workflow and is convenient for you.

As a forum moderator, I hope you can understand that I don’t have the ability to directly modify the product or escalate issues within the product or engineering teams. However, I strongly encourage you to submit your feedback through the Outlook (new) · Community. This is the primary place where Microsoft gathers input and suggestions from the community, and it remains the most effective way to ensure your voice reaches the product team and can be considered for future improvements. 

Once you've submitted your feedback, feel free to share the link here in the comments. I’ll be happy to upvote it to help bring more visibility.     

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Thank you again for your time and for raising this important usability concern.   

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Resizing the Business Central add-in pane itself in Outlook on the web or in the new Outlook client is not documented as supported. The available resizing capabilities are within Business Central’s own UI once the page is already loaded in the add-in.

Business Central provides two relevant UI resizing features:

1. FactBox pane width
   • The FactBox pane on Business Central pages can be resized within certain proportions so the main page stays visible.
   • The browser remembers the FactBox size per user and page, and double-clicking the divider resets it to default.
   • This applies to pages and page types that support FactBoxes, including when Business Central is opened in a browser window.
2. Column resizing
   • Column widths in lists (including lookup dropdowns and Copilot prompt dialogs) can be resized by dragging or double-clicking the column header borders.
   • These adjustments are stored per browser/device and are cleared if history is removed or private browsing is used.

In Outlook on the web or new Outlook, if the add-in pane itself cannot be widened enough to make the Business Central content readable, the documented workaround is to open the Business Central page in a separate browser window where these resizing features are fully available. For example, when viewing a document from an email via the Document View add-in, documents open in a new browser window starting in 2022 release wave 1, where the full Business Central layout (including FactBox and column resizing) can be used.

There is no documented way in the provided references to force Outlook on the web or new Outlook to allow wider resizing of the add-in pane itself beyond what the Outlook host UI currently allows.

References:

• Business Central Add-in for Outlook FAQ
• Use Business Central as your Business Inbox in Outlook
• Adjust the FactBox pane width
• Resize columns even when personalization isn't enabled