About

About

Reading Pane   The Preview Pane found in earlier versions of Outlook has been redesigned and optimized for reading e-mail messages. Like a piece of paper, the Reading Pane is laid out vertically and, when used with the new multi-line layout, displays nearly twice as much information on the screen as the Preview Pane did. Other enhancements include the ability to respond to meeting requests and to use voting buttons without having to open the messages first.

Multi-line layout   Messages can be displayed by using either single-line layout or multi-line layout. In the new multi-line layout, four fields (From, Subject, Date, and Icon) normally are displayed in a vertical column. If the message list in multi-line layout is not displaying all the column headings about an item, you can pause on the item to display a ScreenTip containing all the information, or you can specify that additional fields appear on additional lines when you pause on an item.

Arrangements   An arrangement is a pre-defined pairing of a grouping and a sort. There are 13 pre-defined standard arrangements, and they help you see your messages in different ways. To quickly change from one predefined standard arrangement to another, click the Arranged By column heading, and then select the arrangement you want.

Arrange By Conversation   If you receive a lot of e-mail messages, you can now group messages in an e-mail conversation together in an arrangement that makes it easier to find and respond to conversations or "threads." To help you read your messages quickly, this arrangement initially displays only unread and Quick Flagged messages. With one click, you can expand the group to see the entire conversation, including messages you have already read. Because all messages in one conversation are presented together, you can avoid responding to an e-mail message only to discover later that someone else had already responded.