How to permanently disable Group Sort and Reading Pane View

[L. D. James]

Can someone tell me how (or is it possible) to permanently disable the
annoying automatic configuration of group sort and reading pane view that
appears each time a new folder is created.



Both features makes it cumbersome to browse the folders. I have many
folders sorted for many purposes. Often I might make a temporary folder for
further sorting messages by date or importance. It would be nice to be able
to create folder with and drag and drop the batch of messages and be
operational. However, there are a number of additional steps where I have
to remember to go in and remove the never wanted group sort, then go in and
remove the never wanted reading plane. Since I use imap, I would prefer any
messages to never be opened unless I decide to open it. The reading pane
gives spammers the satisfaction of knowing that when a user selects their
message to delete it, he will inadvertently have downloaded and had the
option to view it, because this feature is so hard to remove.



Again, there might be a way to change the defaults so that my
preference is preserved for new folders that I create, after I have already
elected not to have my messages group sorted and viewed in a reading pane.



Thanks in advance for any comments on this matter.



Also, if it's determined that this is an oversight on the developers;
someone might get this thought to them in time for the next Outlook edition.



-- L. James



------------------------

L. D. James

(e-mail address removed)

www.apollo3.com/~ljames

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Are we talking about Outlook 2003 here (you said Reading Pane instead of
Preview Pane ? Then to start with your reason for disabling the Reading
Pane is wrong unless you have Outlook configured to always download pictures
from the Internet. This is disabled by default to ensure your privacy.

You can change your default view by going to View-> Arrange By-> Current
View-> Define Views...
Here you can edit the default Messages view. Since modifying this view
doesn't effect the folders you already have modified I recommend defining a
new view and apply that view on first use of the folder.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[L. D. James]

Roady, first thank you for address this issue and your attempt to help.

I'm trying to permanently remove two very annoying features. I'm
trying to remove the feature of arranging my mail into groups, and to remove
the feature of having my imap messages automatically downloaded by a feature
labeled "Reading Pane".

First the "Reading Pane". I don't knew about any option of configuring
"always download pictures". I have everything that I can imagine when it
comes to downloading set to not automatic download but to just show the imap
headers and I double click on what I want to read (download). If I create a
new folder, the "Reading Pane" will automatically be set to Right, and if I
were to try to delete a bunch of messages, as soon as I select the first one
(to mark a group), that message becomes downloaded and appears in the
"Reading Pane". It also becomes marked as read. Even if I were going to
select a message to move somewhere else and decide later whether I want to
read it or not. Selecting makes it marked as read, even though all I want
to do is move it to a folder where I'll read it at my convenience. Later
when I go to pick messages I haven't read, that one is confused because it
became marked as read, because I forgot to turn off the annoying "Reading
Pane" feature which keeps popping up (when I create a new folder).

I created a new defined view as you described. I've been using Outlook
for many years. I have hundreds of folders and subfolders. I would like to
have this defined view applied to all my folders. By default, as I
mentioned, all the folders that I haven't already recently visited have the
unwanted view feature. You mention editing the default Message view.
Currently I can't find the default Message View. I'd gladly change this
default message view to the one I've just created. Hopefully this will make
all my folders have the characteristic of, not grouping the messages, and
having the "Reading Pane" set to none.

Thanks again for your input. I haven't stopped trying to find the
default message view option. However, I did spend a good amount of time
looking for it after your suggestion. If I happen to find it before you
reply again, I'll post it.


-- L. James

Are we talking about Outlook 2003 here (you said Reading Pane instead of
Preview Pane ? Then to start with your reason for disabling the Reading
Pane is wrong unless you have Outlook configured to always download
pictures from the Internet. This is disabled by default to ensure your
privacy.

You can change your default view by going to View-> Arrange By-> Current
View-> Define Views...
Here you can edit the default Messages view. Since modifying this view
doesn't effect the folders you already have modified I recommend defining
a new view and apply that view on first use of the folder.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

Can someone tell me how (or is it possible) to permanently disable
the annoying automatic configuration of group sort and reading pane view
that appears each time a new folder is created.



Both features makes it cumbersome to browse the folders. I have many
folders sorted for many purposes. Often I might make a temporary folder
for further sorting messages by date or importance. It would be nice to
be able to create folder with and drag and drop the batch of messages and
be operational. However, there are a number of additional steps where I
have to remember to go in and remove the never wanted group sort, then go
in and remove the never wanted reading plane. Since I use imap, I would
prefer any messages to never be opened unless I decide to open it. The
reading pane gives spammers the satisfaction of knowing that when a user
selects their message to delete it, he will inadvertently have downloaded
and had the option to view it, because this feature is so hard to remove.



Again, there might be a way to change the defaults so that my
preference is preserved for new folders that I create, after I have
already elected not to have my messages group sorted and viewed in a
reading pane.



Thanks in advance for any comments on this matter.



Also, if it's determined that this is an oversight on the developers;
someone might get this thought to them in time for the next Outlook
edition.



-- L. James



------------------------

L. D. James

(e-mail address removed)

www.apollo3.com/~ljames

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

See this for grouping: http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/grouping.htm

Downloading IMAP is more difficult - if you select a message, it's going to
download, so you'll probably want to disable the reading pane. I think it's
on the same settings dialog as grouping...

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

Roady, first thank you for address this issue and your attempt to
help.

I'm trying to permanently remove two very annoying features. I'm
trying to remove the feature of arranging my mail into groups, and to
remove the feature of having my imap messages automatically downloaded by
a feature labeled "Reading Pane".

First the "Reading Pane". I don't knew about any option of
configuring "always download pictures". I have everything that I can
imagine when it comes to downloading set to not automatic download but to
just show the imap headers and I double click on what I want to read
(download). If I create a new folder, the "Reading Pane" will
automatically be set to Right, and if I were to try to delete a bunch of
messages, as soon as I select the first one (to mark a group), that
message becomes downloaded and appears in the "Reading Pane". It also
becomes marked as read. Even if I were going to select a message to move
somewhere else and decide later whether I want to read it or not.
Selecting makes it marked as read, even though all I want to do is move it
to a folder where I'll read it at my convenience. Later when I go to pick
messages I haven't read, that one is confused because it became marked as
read, because I forgot to turn off the annoying "Reading Pane" feature
which keeps popping up (when I create a new folder).

I created a new defined view as you described. I've been using
Outlook for many years. I have hundreds of folders and subfolders. I
would like to have this defined view applied to all my folders. By
default, as I mentioned, all the folders that I haven't already recently
visited have the unwanted view feature. You mention editing the default
Message view. Currently I can't find the default Message View. I'd gladly
change this default message view to the one I've just created. Hopefully
this will make all my folders have the characteristic of, not grouping the
messages, and having the "Reading Pane" set to none.

Thanks again for your input. I haven't stopped trying to find the
default message view option. However, I did spend a good amount of time
looking for it after your suggestion. If I happen to find it before you
reply again, I'll post it.


-- L. James

Are we talking about Outlook 2003 here (you said Reading Pane instead of
Preview Pane ? Then to start with your reason for disabling the
Reading Pane is wrong unless you have Outlook configured to always
download pictures from the Internet. This is disabled by default to
ensure your privacy.

You can change your default view by going to View-> Arrange By-> Current
View-> Define Views...
Here you can edit the default Messages view. Since modifying this view
doesn't effect the folders you already have modified I recommend defining
a new view and apply that view on first use of the folder.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

Can someone tell me how (or is it possible) to permanently disable
the annoying automatic configuration of group sort and reading pane view
that appears each time a new folder is created.



Both features makes it cumbersome to browse the folders. I have
many folders sorted for many purposes. Often I might make a temporary
folder for further sorting messages by date or importance. It would be
nice to be able to create folder with and drag and drop the batch of
messages and be operational. However, there are a number of additional
steps where I have to remember to go in and remove the never wanted
group sort, then go in and remove the never wanted reading plane. Since
I use imap, I would prefer any messages to never be opened unless I
decide to open it. The reading pane gives spammers the satisfaction of
knowing that when a user selects their message to delete it, he will
inadvertently have downloaded and had the option to view it, because
this feature is so hard to remove.



Again, there might be a way to change the defaults so that my
preference is preserved for new folders that I create, after I have
already elected not to have my messages group sorted and viewed in a
reading pane.



Thanks in advance for any comments on this matter.



Also, if it's determined that this is an oversight on the
developers; someone might get this thought to them in time for the next
Outlook edition.



-- L. James



------------------------

L. D. James

(e-mail address removed)

www.apollo3.com/~ljames

 

[L. D. James]

Diane. First I would like to thank you for helping me to get this part
of my problems with Outlook fixed. It took a long time, but it's saving me
time now in the future. Unfortunately I'll have to do this twice a year (as
I refresh my system by starting over to keep it optimized).

As an IT for many novice computer users, I pity the problems they have
trying to maintain this type of environment. When I work on their computer,
I always fix their main Inbox's, and they always are excited about how much
better it looks. I was hoping to learn of a default to make it easy for
them to have this setup for all their folders. As I mentioned before, I
hope someone will persuade the developers to add some type of option to
easily define our own defaults for all folders, and the default
characteristic of all subsequent new folders.

I'm surprised at the confusion with the many MVP's on IMAP. Imap isn't
difficult. By default you get a list of headers. Selecting a message will
only change the color, showing it as highlighted. That will not invoke the
message to be downloaded. However, the blemish "Reading Pane View" will
download the message, because it's forcing the user to "Read" it or have it
marked "Read" whether he wants to and have time to or not.

It could be a nice feature for some, but for many who are very animate
against downloading unwanted mail, it should be easily configured off.

Thanks again for the help and the link. I'm going to read those tips
in detail and learn more about some of the features of Outlook I might have
been missing.


-- L. James

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Diane. First I would like to thank you for helping me to get this

part of my problems with Outlook fixed. It took a long time, but it's
saving me time now in the future. Unfortunately I'll have to do this
twice a year (as I refresh my system by starting over to keep it
optimized).

Why do you need to "refresh" it? That is so Windows 98. If you feel you
need to, why not use imaging? You can set up the system using the most used
programs and configurations and it'll save a lot of time in the future.
Secondly, views are stored in the pst -so if you can save the pst, you won't
lose it.

I'm surprised at the confusion with the many MVP's on IMAP. Imap
isn't difficult. By default you get a list of headers. Selecting a
message will only change the color, showing it as highlighted. That will
not invoke the message to be downloaded. However, the blemish "Reading
Pane View" will download the message, because it's forcing the user to
"Read" it or have it marked "Read" whether he wants to and have time to or
not.

Who said it's difficult? When you use the preview pane and select an item,
Outlook thinks you want to read it (that's why it's called a reading pane or
preview pane). You can select messages without previewing them in Ol2003 -
messages will have a dotted line around them. Right click on a message to
select it without reading or opening it.

The mark as read settings can be changed - right click on the gray border
around the preview pane or look for the option to change it in tools,
options.

 

[L. D. James]

I have to refresh the system because my video editing and Flight
Simulator becomes sluggish. On a fresh system it's super fast. I do a lot
of studying to figure out what goes wrong. I use every option I can find to
optimize the system. There not better optimizing the system rather than
starting over.

I run all the utilities I can find to find all the parasites that might
be in the system. I make sure I know each and every item that loads on
startup and remove anything I'm not sure of (that wasn't present when I
first started over). The only thing that will get it back to it's most
efficient state is to start over.

I know you don't have to start over as much as you did with Windows 98.
I also know many of my clients that never started over using any OS. Those
people are satifstified not having the most optimized system.

You mentioned a lot of work (lots of clicks) to preserve a message in
it's unread state. Since I have the "Reading Pane View" set to none, It
doesn't take any work on my part to preserve the unread state, until I'm
ready to actually read the message. The only thing I have to work at is
keeping the "Reading Pane View" mode turned off and all is well.

I tried your right click to select a message. I couldn't figure out
how to finish the range. Normally I'll select the first message in a range.
Then shift click another message a page or so down to handle all the
messages in the range, to move, copy, or delete. If the "Reading Pane View"
was set to anything other than none, I don't see a way possible to select a
range without inadvertently downloading the message, and changing the read
state. Again, I wouldn't want to give spammers the satisfaction of feeling
their message ever reached my computer. I find it extremely important to
select by intention, which messages will be downloaded.

One of my clients sent me 10 emails this weekend for changes he wanted
on his web site. I used "Advance Find" to filter out only his messages.
Selected them and moved them to a todo folder. If a message is marked
unread, that means I double clicked it (not selected it to move to a
different folder), and read it, when I had time. That means that change has
been addressed. I don't need a second glance doing my busy day to wonder
which messages has come across my attention. Doing all the clicks you
mention would take too much away from my busy schedule to try to remember
which of the messages the system marked read without me having had time to
view it, or which ones I had taken the time to do all those clicks my
mentioned to try to preserve or return back to the unread state. Also, all
the messages that are being handled my method are actually headers. The
headers all have flags showing they are not on my computer they are on the
server. They are not physically on my computer until I intentionally double
click on the message, when I have time to address it. I never have to
change the read flag. With my method, it clearly shows whether I have read
had my attention on the content by the read flag.

I applaud Microsoft for a great product. They got more right than they
got wrong. Over the years when I make these type of descriptions, I've
noticed that almost all of my suggestions have eventually been recognized
and fixed in subsequent versions. I'm sure this one will eventually be
fixed also. Not necessarily because the suggestion is coming from me, but
because it would be better to leave the message in it's undisturbed state
until you're ready for it. Or give the use an easy way to configure this
setting.

By the way, I appreciate you taking the time to show me work around.
By your input I have my system currently setup exactly the way I wanted it.
My current messages is just explaining to you the logic in why. If you can
see the problem, then you might be instrumental in helping the developers to
also see the problem.


-- I. James

 

[Brian Tillman]

As I mentioned before, I hope someone will persuade the
developers to add some type of option to easily define our own
defaults for all folders, and the default characteristic of all
subsequent new folders.

That "someone" would be you. Write to outwish at microsoft dot com.