It also determines how Outlook marks messages as read and lets you move through your messages using a single key. RELATED: How to Create and Customize a Folder View in Outlookīut the Reading pane does more than show you the contents of your message.
You’ll have to experiment with it to see what you think. Some people love this setting some find it too cluttered. But if you set Message Preview to 1 Line, 2 Lines, or 3 Lines, you’ll also see 1, 2 or 3 lines of the content of each message, without needing the Reading pane. This means that you just see the information shown in the columns in the folder-To, From, Subject, Received, and so on. In the standard folder view, Message Preview is turned off. This is a useful option if you’re clearing out mail, especially if you use it in conjunction with the View > Message Preview function.
Setting the pane to “Off” maximizes the number of items you can see in the folder, but you don’t see any of the mail content. This was the traditional view before the advent of wide-screen monitors, and many people still favor it. Setting the pane to “Bottom” means you see fewer messages in the folder, but you see more details about that message and more of its content in the Reading pane.
