Thanks, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I can't find a "simple list"
view anywhere and no matter what I try, as soon as I click on one of the
field (column) headings, the categories go away. I think I understand the
process you're recommending but that requires me to go into a menu, select
an option 2 levels down, click on a button, select a field, click on ok
twice, and then group the contacts again and reset the expansion of the
groups. This is certainly no replacement for the functionality that I'm used
to of a simple single click on one button.

Maybe I should explain myself better. Here's an example:

I have a category for Vendors and a category for Personal. For my vendor
contacts I find the Company field useful but I sometimes forget a company
name and need to find the vendor by the sales person's name. When that
happens, I simply click on the full name column heading and search by name.
Then when I want to find another contact by company I just click on the
company heading. When I'm looking for a personal contact I rarely have a
company name listed so sorting by company doesn't help. Since I probably
sorted by company in a different category, when I expand my personal
contacts they are usually sorted by company which isn't very useful but it
doesn't matter because I just click on the full name button at the top of
the column and the sorting changes without the groups expanding or
collapsing. I find myself switching sort order on the fly very often. Now
whenever I do that, I end up looking at a list of over 1000 contacts which
is a pain to scroll through.

I don't understand why Microsoft would program this behavior into Outlook. I
probably used the shortcut of clicking on a column heading 50 times a day
before. It was on of the most useful features I can think of in Outlook. I
have over 1000 contacts which I group into 7 categories. Had I known about
this behavior I would have given serious consideration to not upgrading at
all.