Windows 7: Outlook - sort order - FROM - odd behavior

In Outlook, I can have an email highlighted to see it in the preview pane. Sorting on most fields keeps the message selected. However, sorting on the FROM field always switches me off my selected message and automatically selects the first message at the top of the list.

This is VERY annoying, especially as I am trying to refer back to all messages from that sender. Is there a way to correct the Outlook behavior? I think it is pernicious to force me to look at some other message when I sort on the FROM field, especially when this bad behavior only occurs on sorting that one field.

Tried to find this info before posting, but could not locate it using my search line-of-thinking. Sorry if this duplicates any previous posts.

if you were to remove the 'From' column . . . would you get the same result with next field? if not, re-add 'From' and see if the problem persist.

Tried that already. You thought similarly. However, the FROM field seems to have this odd behavior no matter the position, nor upon removing and re-adding.

Nor am I interested to write an Outlook search query for each, every and the many times that I sort all day long.

Again, I was hoping that someone knows of a bit that can be flipped (checkbox, registry, etc.) to change the behavior.

yeah, i agree. I was looking some sort of (checkbox, etc). However, I couldn't find one either. You might want to consider doing a 'Detect/repair' in outlook 2003 or a 'Microsoft Office Diagnostics' in outlook 2007. Maybe try recreating your mailbox.

Which version of Outlook are you using? I cannot replicate this problem in Outlook 2007 (the highlighted email stays selected after sorting by FROM); if you are using 2007 then maybe you need to repair your Office installation as StuberB suggests.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. (Job hunting takes so much darn time out of the day.)

I am running Microsoft Outlook (R) 2007 (12.06535.505) SP2 MSO (12.0.6535.5002)
Part of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007

This is the behaviour out-of-the-box. I have reinstalled to verify.

Sorry, in that case I'm stumped. I can't replicate the problem you describe however I view my email inbox in Outlook 2007 - it behaves itself!

You could try the good old "outlook.exe /resetnavpane" trick, which you type into the run box under the Start orb. Failing that, a repair (rather than a reinstallation).

Sorry not to be much help

yeah, i would second clunkfish

Thanks to biocio2 at Experts Exchange:

Click on View->Current View->Customize Current View
Click on Group By
In the lower right hand corner of the Group by window, you may note that "Expand/collapse defaults:" is set to "As last viewed." If this is the case, change it to "All Expanded"
Click OK and OK
You're finished.

I wasted a loooong time trawling websites looking for answer to this, as the same issue was driving me nuts! The solution was so simple that I'm still slapping my head at how obvious it was!

Anyway, for anyone still struggling with it, here is the solution: just UPDATE OUTLOOK!

Apparently this was a known issue and they fixed it in an update, but nobody on any of these pc advice websites knew about it. On Outlook, click 'help' at the top and then follow whatever steps it tells you to take to get it updated. You're welcome