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How can I get Outlook 2003 to default the reading pane off, and to stop grouping?

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Summary: Changing Microsoft Outlook 2003's default viewing behaviour is difficult. There are a couple of possibilities, but so far nothing that really works.

How can I get Outlook 2003 to default the reading pane off, and to stop grouping?

I've actually been fairly pleased with Outlook 2003 unlike some. That's not to say it doesn't bring some annoyances. One of them is that it insists on defaulting to listing messages in groups and on showing the "reading pane".

Unfortunately the annoyance grows.

Naturally, in any folder it's quite possible to turn off grouping (View, Arrange By, and then uncheck Show In Groups). And it's possible to turn off the reading pane (View, Reading Pane, Off).

The problem is that to date I've found no way to make those settings either globally or the default. The result? I must to take those steps in each and every folder I want to change. I have more folders than patience so as you might expect I now have a fairly random mixture where the most used folders have those options turned off and the rest don't.

And for what it's worth, here's a quote from the Microsoft web site:

... changes to the Reading Pane cannot be made globally and must be made to each folder individually.

It is possible to start Outlook with the reading pane turned off. Add "/safe:1" to the outlook command line will start it in a "Safe Mode" and the reading pane will be disabled. I'll admit that this makes me nervous as I'm not sure what the other side effects of this "Safe Mode" might be.

If YOU find a way to default either of these settings to off I'd love to hear it. Add your suggestion to the comments and I'll check it out. If it works I'll update this article accordingly.

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Article 124 | Posted December 1, 2003

Recent Comments

Yes, you can use the /nopreview switch (which also removes the Reading Pane option from the View menu) when you launch Outlook. Using /safe:1 works, but if you use any extensions they will be disabled.

Personally, I use the custom view that is outlined above.

Posted by: John at June 14, 2007 02:09 PM

Go to the properties of the Shortcut that is executing Outlook. Go to the end of the command line and add "/nopreview".

Example (all on one line):
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /recycle /nopreview

This works on a shortcut by shortcut basis, so you can have multiple Shortcuts where you can have one that has no reading pane and another that does.

Posted by: Phillip Windell at July 12, 2007 02:03 PM

HEre is the article my comment originated from. This gives all the Outlook commandline options:
http://www.techgalaxy.net/Docs/Exchange/OL2003_switches.htm

Posted by: Phillip Windell at July 12, 2007 02:05 PM

Tim Stites
to turn off auto preview in ALL folders at once. In Outlook's main screen,
you go to view, current view, define view, find the line that says "Messages
with autopreview," choose modify and then look for the block that says
"other settings," at the bottom of that screen uncheck the box that says
"show preview pane." Then OK and Apply View your way out of the various
boxes.

Posted by: CBB at August 30, 2007 11:23 AM

You can turn off the reading pane in word instead of outlook. Tools -> Options -> general -> uncheck "allow starting in reading layout"

Posted by: cGreg Duncan at November 9, 2007 10:50 AM

Thank you. I used your steps to also turn off the automatic grouping in other views like Sent Items and Messages with AutoPreview.

Posted by: Julie at January 10, 2008 07:30 AM

Thanks Daniel a LOT for good and detailed instructions! Also I had been very frustrated about those automatic "Show In Groups" etc automatic features when creating new folders.

Posted by: kahden maan kansalainen at January 23, 2008 11:46 PM

CBB's comment worked for me - however I had to click VIEW then ARRANGE BY to get to the CURRENT VIEW menu.

Posted by: p-faff at February 6, 2008 01:33 PM

Daniel, I loved the detailed instructions how to eliminate the preview pane and grouping. The one thing I thought was missing was after making all the changes, should we remove the "/cleanviews" extension? Thanks again.

Posted by: Bosco685 at March 7, 2008 09:13 AM

Hi folks!

The command

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /recycle /nopreview

does not work correctly on my system.
The preview pane is turned off, but the button to activate it is still available.

I want to remove this button, so that no user can re-activate the preview-pane again.

What do I have to do?

I'm using WinXP SP2 plus Outloo2003.

Kind regards

Posted by: mottokia@hotmail.com at May 16, 2008 01:23 AM

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