How to enable or disable the preview pane of Microsoft Outlook
Preview Pane lets you preview the file's contents in the viewing pane. Users can quickly scan the contents of a selected file in the preview window without actually opening it. Additional details about the chosen files or folders in the View are displayed in the Preview Pane.
The "Preview Pane" or "Reading Pane" in Microsoft Outlook allows you to rapidly preview or see any email you choose from your Inbox without actually opening it. When you first use Microsoft Outlook, this is the "default View”. In Microsoft Outlook, a component of Microsoft 365, the Reading Pane makes it simpler to read individual messages. To better meet your demands, it is completely customizable.
All new Outlook folders have the Reading Pane turned on by default. This indicates that an email will automatically open in the right pane when you pick it. This, however, is a bad plan. For instance, Outlook can open an email that contains potentially harmful content for your computer by default in the Reading Pane. By default, you should only examine the email's sender and subject line. Each folder in your Outlook email account can be configured to hide the Reading Pane. But that can take a while if you have a lot of folders.
Let’s see the ways to enable or disable the email message preview pan, also referred to as the reading pane in Microsoft Outlook and the online email service Outlook.com:
Note: Here, we are discussing the "Preview pane," also called the “Reading pane” feature in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook.com mail. If you have Outlook Mail, Microsoft claims there is no way to revert to a previous version of Outlook.com. For assistance and more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with Microsoft support.
Microsoft Outlook
A personal information manager program called Microsoft Outlook is a Microsoft Office software package component.
The instructions below are for the computer software program Microsoft Outlook. You should know that these instructions can change slightly depending on your Outlook version.
Enable Preview pane
- Start Microsoft Outlook by clicking on it.
- Choose View from the menu or tabs at the top of the program window.
- Select either the Reading pane or the Preview pane.
- Choose either the Right option or the Bottom option based on where you want the Preview pane to appear.
Choose either the Right option or the Bottom option based on where you want the Preview pane to appear.
An illustration of the Microsoft Outlook Preview pane in use is seen above. In this illustration, the email message that is now selected is seen in the Preview window, which is displayed beneath the email listing.
Disable Preview pane
- Start Microsoft Outlook by clicking on it.
- At the very top of the program window, select View from the menu or tabs.
- Select either the Reading pane or the Preview pane.
- Choose Off from the menu.
Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail)
Webmail service Outlook.com is a member of the Microsoft 365 family of products. It provides services for mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks. In 1997, Microsoft purchased it for an estimated $400 million, rebranded it as MSN Hotmail, and then changed its name to Windows Live Hotmail as part of the Windows Live line of products. Microsoft discontinued Hotmail in October 2011 and launched Outlook.com as a replacement in 2012.
The online email service Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail), accessible via a web browser, is described in the steps that follow:
Enable Reading pane:
- Access your Outlook.com email account by logging in.
- Click the setting symbol in the menu bar to the left of your name.
- Choose Options from the menu.
- Click the Reading pane option under the Reading email section.
- Based on where you want the Reading pane to appear, choose the Right option or the Bottom option, and then click the Save button.
The Outlook.com Reading pane example image above shows what it looks like when enabled. In this case, the email message that is now selected is shown in the Reading window, which is presented to the right of the email listing.
Disable Reading pane
- Access your Outlook.com email account by logging in.
- Click the setting symbol in the menu bar to the left of your name.
- Choose Options from the menu.
- Click the Reading pane option under the Reading email section.
- Click the Save button after selecting the Off option.