I have a MacBook Air and run Office 2011, using Outlook as my primary mail program.

I've used this setup for almost 5 years and never had a days trouble until recently where I now continuously get a the dreaded "spinning ball".

Nothing has materially changed on my machine and thought it might be something to do with the size of the "identity" or database which was 26Gb. I deleted a number of emails etc. and the database is now 13Gb, but the problem persists.

I then thought to do a rebuild of the identity but this too made no difference.

I can flick through my desktops (using four fingers) and the other screens all work fine i.e. no ball, but as soon as I stop on the desktop with Outlook open, the ball starts spinning.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.