Well, where to start.
Let’s imagine you want to send an email to an office at your university, and they use Office 365. At first, you don’t see any problem, because most Office products are accessible. So, you open Outlook Web, and lo and behold, you’re faced with the worst email platform you’ve ever seen in your life.
I’m serious – I can’t even send an email because the cursor gets stuck on what I think is a welcome screen and won’t let me do anything. And don’t even get me started on navigating the inbox, reading an email, and so on. I had to send it via Outlook for iOS, which, incidentally, is slightly better, although it also has its own issues when editing emails.
Gmail is a thousand times better than this rubbish. I don’t know how Microsoft can have Word, which is a marvellous, accessible programme, and then pull a stunt like this on me.
That’s it – feel free to have your say.
By Merlin, 11 September, 2026
Forum
Windows
Comments
Are you able to switch to Outlook classic
If possible, I would almost recommend switching to Outlook classic if you can. You’ll have to install microsoft 365 on your computer, but outlook classic is a hell of a lot better in my opinion than using Outlook on the web.
Gmail is underrated
IMO the best mail client ever, better than even apple mail. If google were to open gmail web to other email services they would make so much money with an client as a service or something :)
Replies to comments
Hi!
Firstly, to @jay. Yes, it’s possible. I’ve tried it, and although there have been significant improvements, it still feels quite sluggish and slow to me. I’m not sure if it’s my computer or NVDA – I’m not sure. But it has improved slightly, so I think I’ll just have to put up with it.
Now, as for @TheBlindGuy07, that’s it. That’s exactly it. I’d even go so far as to say that this applies to the whole Google suite of products; I’d give anything for Gmail and Classroom to become the standard, if only for reasons of practicality and accessibility. But Word, PowerPoint and the like hold more sway, so we’ll never have the courage to sacrifice them for the Google suite, unfortunately.
Even so, I prefer Word, PowerPoint and Excel to Docs, Slides and Sheets. It’s not that they’re all that bad – quite the opposite, in fact, as I’ve tried them – but you need patience to learn them, and to understand that they’re more limited than Microsoft’s options. But they’ve saved me a few times, so…
Forwarding from Outlook to Gmail?
I know not all universities allow this, you’ll have to do some digging. But can you set it up to where you receive emails in Outlook but you can forward it to Gmail and reply to it from the Gmail application. The first thing you’ll have to try is to see if you can even log into Gmail using your university account.
Gmail is awesome
Gmail is awesome. I’ve been using that for years now. He think since maybe 2007 and 2008. I use the regular Apple mayo app on my phone for email but I have Gmail my account. There’s definitely weird limitations and crap once you get this university, computer networks and shit like that you have to see you a year university allows more for emails because yeah that’s incredibly frustrating. I hate university networks. Most of that crap is like barely even partially accessible. Although I’m mostly on my phone when I’m over there because I don’t bring a computer over to school anymore. Good luck with all this. Hope we can get your emails working for you because that’s super frustrating when it doesn’t work the right way.
I’ve finally thought of the solution!
Hello.
I don’t even know how I didn’t think of it sooner – I’ve just installed Thunderbird here. It takes me back to 2018, when I used it without really needing to, and here I am now, :d.
Once again, thank you for your help.
No problem
No problem. That’s what we’re all here for. :-) I have never used Thunderbird. I know people that have used it, but I’ve never tried it. I’m glad that’s working for you.
Outlook
Personally I just use Outlook that comes with Microsoft Office/Microsoft 365. I never really touch the web interface, and I think I prefer the Outlook desktop client more.
The Outlook web, I think, is usable, if you're willing to learn your way around it; same goes for Gmail. The classic/basic view that we used all those years back are unfortunately a thing of history.
I miss Outlook express
Does anybody hear Miss Outlook express? That was awesome. And the basic HTML view of Gmail was pretty awesome dude. Not exactly thrilled because they don’t have those things anymore. Yeah I’m really not the biggest fan of like Gmail on the regular web interface in the computer but I also I’m not using a computer quite as much anymore these days so I’m pretty much just on my phone with the regular Mail app and my Gmail account. I know that’s not exactly the most helpful bit of info but I’m glad you got your emails working.
Outlook Extended
For NVDA users out there, the Outlook extended add-on makes the classic outlook application, the one that comes with the Office 365, much more enjoyable and user-friendly.
Just my two cents. 🤔
@Singer Girl
It is my personal belief that Microsoft tried to reinvent Outlook Express with the current new Outlook web app for Windows. However, it is also my personal belief that they failed. Absolutely.
I can't make outlook classic work
For some reason it doesn't accept one of my emails. I'm seriously thinking about going back to thunderbird.
App password
Its possible you will need an app specific password for that particular email account. I know I had to do this in order to get my iCloud mail to show up in outlook. Of course, use whatever works best for you. If Thunderbird meets your needs, then have at it. 🙂
Thunderbird for me.
I'm one of those people that misses old Word, Excel, Outlook Express, and so on. Never subbed to MS365 and don't plan to. Gmail's UI on iOS is good but only works with Gmail. And iOS mail is still better than the Outlook for iOS, so I've just resignned myself to Thunderbird on Win, default client on iOS.
Someone else here posted about iCloud dropping emails into a black hole occasionally. What a sad state of affairs. Email feels like it's dying. I mean jeez. Even Thunderbird, the best client for Windows, is a tabby clutter box now. I just want my mailbox tree and the list of messages. That's it. Not a billion useless toolbars and wacking f6 a few times to get back to where I need to be.
I wonder who will agree: MacOS Mail in classic layout was awesome. Sure, it had issues. But every piece of software does these days: :)