Outlook should provide a mechanism to globally turn-off the Readi.

[Guest]

I do not like the Reading Pane view in Outlook 2003 (XP) and one should be
able to turn it off globally rather than in each folder. I have a lot of
folders both current and archived and this is a real pain to do for everyone!!

 

[Brian Tillman]

I do not like the Reading Pane view in Outlook 2003 (XP) and one
should be able to turn it off globally rather than in each folder. I
have a lot of folders both current and archived and this is a real
pain to do for everyone!!

There are two ways to turn it off globally. The first is to add the
/nopreview command line switch to Outlook when you start it. Create a
shortcut that says:

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /nopreview

(including the quotes and spaces). This will not only remove the display
for the Reading Pane, but also remove it from the View menu.

The other method, which will leave you the ability to turn it on if you
want, is similar to the method found in
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/grouping.htm . Just modify the Reading
Pane option instead of the Grouping option.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /nopreview

(including the quotes and spaces). This will not only remove the display
for the Reading Pane, but also remove it from the View menu.

it;'s removed from the view menu only with older versions - in outlook 2003
it's left on the menu and can be turned on if desired.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Brian, I did option one and it worked perfectly. Thanks again!!

 

[Brian Tillman]

it;'s removed from the view menu only with older versions - in
outlook 2003 it's left on the menu and can be turned on if desired.

Oh. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Brian,

Thank You Thank YOU THANK YOU

I organize a lot of email (personal / software registration info / business
mail with attachments) in folders/subfolders. Having to remember to manually
turn off the *@#!%$ reading pane each time was a major pain. I added the
command line switch /nopreview to my already-existing shortcut (which already
had a switch on the command line; I left a space between them)

 

[gulbrain]

With a little tweak for Outlook 2007:-

Menu: View / Current View / Define Views
Select "Messages with AutoPreview"
Click "Modify..."
Click "Other Settings..."
Under "Reading Pain", select "Off"

When I got there it was already off, so I repeated the process for
"Messages" on the "Custom View Organizer" dialogue - potentially
unnecessarily - but it did the trick.
I didn't have to restart Outlook atall - not even with the /cleanviews option.