Okay, this how-to is incredibly simple, but I felt compelled to post it after spending 15 minutes pulling out my hair trying to figure out how to show the navigation pane in Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 after accidentally hiding it. There’s no option to display/hide the Windows Live Photo Gallery navigation pane in the View ribbon, nor is Google particularly forthcoming about helping you bring your navigation pane back if you’ve clumsily hidden it without knowing how.
So, here it is:
To Hide the Navigation Pane in Windows Live Photo Gallery ,as I accidentally discovered, you have to click this nearly invisible blue arrow that only appears when you hover near the edge of the Navigation Pane.
To Show the Navigation Pane in Windows Live Photo Gallery (and other applications that have Navigation Panes like this), you have to again find this little blue arrow that you probably didn’t know existed in the first place and click it.
While I was at this, I also discovered that you could resize the navigation pane by clicking and dragging the bar that appears next to the arrow. It highlights in blue when you mouse over it.
So, I hope if anyone else is ever befuddled by the same issue as I was, this will help you fix it quick. I guess resizing or hiding the Navigation Pane could be genuinely helpful, if you have a small screen, but I only wish someone would’ve given me a bit more direction regarding how to bring it back!
73 Comments
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Bob B.
Thanks – I was ready to pull what hair I had left on out!
Denise
I would have never figured this out. Your a life safter
Ty Buchanan
You had luck? Well, deleting the file to fix the Chrome profile error never works for me!
SusanZ
THANK YOU. It is so simple, but I spent so much time trying to figure this out!
MrGroove
Don’t you hate it when that happens! It’s the simple ones that makes you spend the most time trying to fix em…
And thank you Susan, glad your all fixed up!
Jennifer
Thanks a million – I was going SPARE wondering how I had lost it!
MrGroove
No worries! Glad we could help!
Mike
Many thanks – I spent ages on this too. An excellent useful explanation. Mike
Chris
Wow! Thanks a lot. I’d opened up PhotoGallery on my non-privileged User and only one folder appeared. When I went to my privileged User, all folders were showing like normal. I was ready to uninstall and reinstall after spending half an hour trying to figure out why PhotoGallery lost all but one of my folders. This was a really great save.
Caci
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I was about to throw my laptop across the room. I accidentally hid the stupid thing and couldn’t figure out how to get it back. Awesome! Thank you!
Blindman
Further proof, if any was needed, that Microsoft could not design the interface for a brown paper bag if their lunch was inside it.
Do you suppose they even use their own software?
Sarah
Why, in God’s name, would they “hide” the navigation pane like this. Thanks to genius’s among us who figure this stuff out!
MrGroove
@Sarah – Indeed…. don’t get me started!
Sarah
My library wants to “digitize” their old photos. A workshop says they should be in two different formats, TIFF and JPEG. They would need an identifier, such as :”Library photo 1, Library Photo 2,” etc., with a title and place for added description. There are photo management programs such as “Past Perfect” for $870. Is this job anything I could do with Windows Live Photo? If so, could you tell me how to set it up? Thanks, Sarah
groovinJackman
Great question Sarah. I think there is defintely something free for you out there. I’ve turned this over to our Answers community to get multiple recommendations, since I’m betting that the folks over there will have some good advice:
Check it out:
http://answers.groovypost.com/questions/222/is-there-a-photo-library-software-that-can-keep-high-res-and-low-res-photos-organized
groovinJackman
But to answer your question more directly, I think Picasa would be the best tool for that. I’m working on a tutorial that features Picasa’s batch renaming feature which is quite handy.
Sarah
I’ve been using Picasa and it got mixed in with Picasa 3; then I keep losing pictures, trying to put them from folders into albums. So I’ve gone back to Windows Photo where everything has collected. Now I have like 3 sets of each file, all in different places on the navigation pane. I’m growing old(er), working on all these pictures! You would wonder why I’d take on a library project~~~~~~. Thanks for all your help. Sarah
Sarah
Now that all my pictures are in Windows Photo Gallery, I realize that I can’t “send” them because, with Windows Gallery, you have to use Windows Live Mail. I have Gmail and have never set up Windows Live Mail. How can I send my Windows pictures, using G-Mail? Thanks alot. Sarah
Sarah
To answer my own question above: I did figure out that if I open a picture in the Window Photo Gallery, with Picasa, I can then attach it a Gmail message. Thanks for providing this great resource. Sarah
Aergan
Thanks for this, Microsoft have been no help for documenting/resolving this issue.
john
Unbelievable. Thank you soooo much.
alex
When I edit pictures on Windows Live Photo Gallery, they disappear – when I save them I cannot find them – Helpppppppppppppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
Blindman
alex,
This is actually a problem with McAfee anti-virus running under Window’s 7.
The virus detection software sets the file attribute to “hidden” after photo gallery modifies it.
Your pictures are still there, but you will need to bring up the folder in file manager and make sure file manager’s options are set to show hidden files. The affected files will then appear slightly grayed out. Right click them individually, or as a group, and uncheck the “hidden” property. Then write a nasty email to McAfee asking why they still have not fixed this glitch.
Blindman
More info on the glitch here:
http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS101228
Inga Aksamit
Thank you!! I was using a friend’s computer and he had the navigation pane. I’ve spent quite a bit more than 15″ trying to figure out how to get it on my computer. So simple!
Darrell
Thank you. !!! Very simple yet frustrating when one does not know how the navigation pane disappeared. Excellent post
Joshua
Thank you so much. I don’t get beat by software very often, but I was pretty frustrated when I couldn’t figure this out. This post helped me get the navigation back. Thanks!
CHERYL DI PIETRO
In my frustration, I went to Google for a response on this subject and was lucky enough to find this post. I have been going crazy trying to find out what happened to the navigation pane and folders list…..I could find nothing on the Windows Live Website….a million thanks!!!
Steve Krause
@Cheryl – Awesome! I’m glad we could help! Thanks for the comment Cheryl!
Mych
Thank-you sooo much! I was so frustrated, didn’t know where all my pictures went!
Cam Grossman
As with everyone else, how lucky I was to find your post. Thanks Cam
Janet Joiner
Thank you so much, I was beyond frustrated. I can’t understand why there isn’t an option in the tool bar. What was the designer thinking? Not, I guess.
Leigh McCarty
Thank you very much I was going insane trying to find how to do this.
Henry
You made my day, thanks
DannyD
I’m with you, I would have never seen that. I don’t even think I hid it I believe it is gone by default in Photo Gallery 2011. I only wasted 5 mins then I found this. Thanks for the help.
Kristen
Thank you!!! Put me in the slow group. Took me more time than I care to admit trying to find out to do this. So glad I found your post. :-) Love the internet
BloodyRue Andrue
That was blasted annoying. I have done that before and found it again, but this time I couldn’t I spent 3 hours now trying to hunt this info down! I despise MS.
Evelyn
thanks…yikes….why was this so darn hard?
Steve Krause
Yeah exactly…. it’s called — design for the user, not the engineer!
Judy
This was driving me nuts! Thanks so much!!
Janelle
Oh my gosh thank you so much!!! This saved me
Busterdog202
Thanks from me, too. Your post is still saving people from smashing their laptops, 2 yrs later!
( If Microsoft is going to build 500 hidden features into software such as Photo gallery, they should at least document them somewhere. Putting invisible buttons that allow me to hide the navigation pane accidentally, and having no documentation of this is just torturing users.)
Rae
Agree with this!
Steve
Thanks and thanks again, 2 days wasted trying to work this out. Perhaps they can find a even more obscure way of doing this in future versions of Windows. Grrrrrrrrrr :-)
Totally invisible button might be the answer, maybe white on white
Angel Carroll
thank you, you were right. I searched and searched to figure out how to get this back. Thank you. You deserve a metal!
John Popp
Thanks so much for sharing. I was really struggling with it–ready to tear out my hair too as I inadvertently hid the folder list.
SarniaLad
Many thanks
(So THAT’S what it is called – the Navigation Pane!)
KevCardiff
Jack Busch, you’re a star!!
I’m already bald after trying to find this.
Graham
Thanks for publishing, I was also baffled at this. :)
Leo
Tnx a lot!!!
jim p
Thank you…I also have spent about 45 min. trying to figure out how I lost and how to restore the navigation pane. I may not have gotten here till I found out it was called a navigation pane…
Char M
Thank you!!! I couldn’t figure this out and probably wouldn’t have if I hadn’t come across your post.
Rae
I just wanted to thank you for this very helpful tip. I accidentally click that little triangle on the left, the tree disappeared! I could not figure this out easily as I explored all the menus on the top . It is this post that helped me!
lotte yang
Thanks a lot! It confused me a few days. I checked every items in the menu and found nothing. Without this post I guess I’ll never see the navigation pane again…..
Kim
Thanks! Just spent 5 minutes looking for the folder pane in VIEW and elsewhere, then googled, and your answer popped right up. MUCH appreciated!
Rene
Thank you so much! It was getting so frustrating. No one, but no one at Microsoft even talked about this situation, or what the info screen does! It is such a stupid little thing, but found by a brainy person! Thanks!
Julie
THANK YOU! I know I’m late in seeing this but mine was hidden by mistake, and after 2 days of losing my mind, I turned to the internet and found this post. Sadly, I would consider myself to be fairly advanced in my knowledge of software and computers in general, and this was maddening.
James
Thanks…much appreciated!
Seems that this has helped quite a lot of people over years :)
Jane
Thank you !
lisa
bless you! I have been agonizing over this off and on and given up at least 6 times in the past month!!!
Jane
Thanks for the tip. I’m only commenting here so I can untick the “email me when someone comments” box. :)
Allen Hausman
Add me to the long list of the grateful who inadvertently disappeared the navigation pane from Windows Photo Gallery and then were frustrated trying to restore it before finding your posting.
Emily
Thank you so much! You’re right, it’s such a small,easy fix but I was loosing it trying to figure out what I did wrong to make it disappear. Thanks again!
Susan Bradd
Many, many, many thanks!
US
YOU ARE A HERO !!!
Alicia
I. Can’t. Thank. You. Enough!!! I was out of my mind trying to remedy my apparent mistake. And Googling wasn’t helping at first because I didn’t know what to search for (ended up being “hidden navigation pane”). Once I landed on this page all my problems were solved. Well, not all … but at least this annoying one! THANK YOU for sharing!
Tanya
MY HERO!
Christina
Thank you sooooo much! This was driving me crazy and I am thrilled you shared.
Robin Adams
Bless you for writing this and for doing it in a way that didn’t make me feel quite as stupid, since you admitted to having made the same mistake yourself. A thousand blessings on you head.
Dakota Pasture
I, too, lost my navigation pane in Windows Photo Gallery. I had no clue where it went, if it went strolling on its own or if I gave it it’s walking papers without knowing it. Thank goodness I discovered your helpful suggestion right off the bat and you saved me what normally takes a considerable amount of time searching for that one person with the solution to my problem. You, sir, are my hero today because what I thought was going to be a real pain, ended up being a real pane and for that I thank you!
Ian Anderson
You’re a gentleman.
Saved me hunting down the solution. That’ll teach me to meddle (probably not!)
Ta muchly!
NTHelen
Wow! So easy when you know what to do! I never would have figured it out on my own. Thank You!
Elizabeth Hudson-Heath
Excellent posting
maybe someone could help me on how to keep the menu bar at the top of my windows photo gallery with windows 7