Lost reading pane ability after safe start

[George, the neophyte]

Outlook has always crashed regularly for me, at least 4 times per week, and
when it crashed the other day it asked to start in safe mode, so I agreed.
Wrong move! Ever since I have been unable to open forwarded attachments and
today I can't open the reading pane. It is greyed out in Tools/Reading Pane.
I have got rid of all add-ins that might be causing trouble. I don't run
Norton AV that I read causes problems, I run McAfee. My PST is about 2 GB. I
run BCM in my Outlook installation.
How can I get my reading pane back? I see a switch for turning it off, but
not one for turning it back on again.
Thanks for your advice all you gurus out there!
George

 

[George, the neophyte]

One other thing I forgot to mention is that I don't use Exchage Server or
anything like that. And I meant View/Rading Pane, not Tools/Rading pane!

 

[Lee]

I am little more than neophite, Believe this was the same problem I was
having. If you can't open outlook Have to find Inbox repair tool to diagnose
and repair errors. Go to your start menu and Search: "Scanpst" then open
outlook and let scanpst and reconfigure file. Been through this several
times. Still locked up every couple days and wouldn't let me in. There is
more to solution, if you have too much in outlook folders, and it sounds like
you do, will lock up and not let you in, in my case archives was full. (Don'y
know what constitutes full, but it was.) Emptied several of the files of
obsolete garbage, now seems to run fine. just kind of found this on my own.

 

[George, the neophyte]

Thanks for the response. I actually can run Outlook, it is 2007 version, I
just can't read my emails in the Reading Pane, so I have to open every one
rather than just scan through them using the reading Pane.
I'll keep hoping someone here can help.
George

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm

This may help you.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant

There are various articles about using Outlook here: www.judygleeson.com
Canberra, Australia

 

[Brian Tillman]

Outlook has always crashed regularly for me, at least 4 times per
week, and when it crashed the other day it asked to start in safe
mode, so I agreed. Wrong move! Ever since I have been unable to open
forwarded attachments and today I can't open the reading pane. It is
greyed out in Tools/Reading Pane. I have got rid of all add-ins that
might be causing trouble. I don't run Norton AV that I read causes
problems, I run McAfee. My PST is about 2 GB. I run BCM in my Outlook
installation.

Is this a legacy ANSI-format PST or a new Unicode-format PST?

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

and uninstall Google Desktop and see if that fixes it - another poster found
that worked for them.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant

There are various articles about using Outlook here: www.judygleeson.com
Canberra, Australia

 

[George, the neophyte]

Brian -
Thanks for helping out. How do I know which it is? I have been using Outlook
since Outlook 2003, if that makes a difference.

If there is a way to tell I can check and let you know.
George.

 

[George, the neophyte]

Hi Judy -

Thank you for responding. I had seen this command line list before in my
initial searches before I ended up here, and I never saw a command line that
let's me turn on Reading Panes. I see /nopreview to turn reading panes off,
but can't see one to turn them on.

Thanks for your help. Any other suggestions greatly appreciated.
George

 

[George, the neophyte]

Hi Judy -

I uninstalled Google Desktop and shutdown, restarted and the Reading Pane
option is still greyed out.

Short of reinstalling the app, I'm not sure what to do.

Thanks,
George

 

[George, the neophyte]

I found a solution quite by accident!

I turned on the Advanced Toolbar, and the Reading Pane was one of my options
so I clicked it and it came back on. What is interesting is that it is
stilled greyed out under View/Reading Pane.

Anyway thanks for your help. It seems to be running faster now that I got
rid of Google Desktop.
George

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

Good to hear you've got it going!

Maybe your menus are messed up? Is there a command line switch to reset
them?


Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant

There are various articles about using Outlook here: www.judygleeson.com
Canberra, Australia

 

[George, the neophyte]

I just wanted to follow-up on this question you asked me and learn why this
makes a difference, how I can tell and is one better than the other? If so
how do I convert to the better one?

Thanks. If I don't ask I never learn!
George

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for helping out. How do I know which it is? I have been using
Outlook since Outlook 2003, if that makes a difference.

If there is a way to tell I can check and let you know.

Right-click the root of the PST, select Properties, click Advanced and
examine the Format field. If it contains the phrase "97-2002", it's the old
format. If it doesn't, it's the new format.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I just wanted to follow-up on this question you asked me and learn
why this makes a difference, how I can tell and is one better than
the other? If so how do I convert to the better one?

To convert, you use the Mail applet in Control Panel to create a new PST,
make it your mail profile's delivery location, then start Outlook. This
will give you two folder sets - the old and the new (which will be your
default folders). For each old folder that is NOT named the same as one of
the default folders (i.e., they're folders you created), you can select it
and click Edit>Copy, specifying the root of your new PST as the destination,
which copies the entire folder. For each of the default folders, open it in
the old PST, select all the items with CTRL-A, and click Edit>Copy,
specifying the corresponding new default folder as the destination. For the
calendar, you'll have to display the old folder in a table view like By
Category before CTRL-A will work. When you're done, right-click the old
folder root and choose Close.

 

[George, the neophyte]

Thanks for the response Brian.

I followed your instruction and when I get to the Advanced Attributes
screen, all it offers me is Archive and Index attributes on the top half and
Compress or Encrytpt on the bottom half. I see nothing about Format.

Does that mean I have the new format?

Thanks for your help,
George

 

[Brian Tillman]

I followed your instruction and when I get to the Advanced Attributes
screen, all it offers me is Archive and Index attributes on the top
half and Compress or Encrytpt on the bottom half. I see nothing about
Format.

I don't think you have followed my instructions. Did you right-click the
root of the folder set within Outlook in the Navigation Pane?

 

[George, the neophyte]

You are right, I misinterpreted your instruction and looked at the file in
explorer. Now I looked in the right place it just says "Personal Folders
File."

So I guess I have the newest format.

Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated.
George