displays the text of a message you’ve selected, preventing you from having to open the actual message to work with it.

Here’s how to customize the Reading pane to suit your needs.

Outlook comes with several different panes, including those you see by default—the Navigation pane,

for example—and others you might not bother with much—like the To-Do and People panes.

Each of these is designed to make it easier to find, see, and manage things in Outlook.

We’re going be taking a look at these panes throughout several articles, showing you how to access, work with,

and customize them. And we’re starting with the Reading pane.

The Reading pane is enabled by default. When you click on a message in any folder,

the pane displays the contents of that message, along with basic controls for replying and forwarding the message.

By default,

Outlook shows the Reading pane to the right of the folders and messages, but you can change this by going to View > Reading Pane.

Your options are to change the position to “Bottom” (so Outlook shows the Reading pane below messages) or “Off,” which hides the Reading pane.

These options apply to the Reading pane no matter what folder you’re in,

so you can’t set a different position setting for different folders.

Setting the pane to “Bottom” means you see fewer messages in the folder,

but you see more details about that message and more of its content in the Reading pane.

This was the traditional view before the advent of wide-screen monitors, and many people still favor it.

Setting the pane to “Off” maximizes the number of items you can see in the folder,

but you don’t see any of the mail content. This is a useful option if you’re clearing out mail,

especially if you use it in conjunction with the View > Message Preview function.

In the standard folder view,

Message Preview is turned off. This means that you just see the information shown in the columns in the folder—To, From, Subject,

Received, and so on. But if you set Message Preview to 1 Line, 2 Lines, or 3 Lines, you’ll also see 1, 2 or 3 lines of the content of each message,

without needing the Reading pane. Some people love this setting; some find it too cluttered. You’ll have to experiment with it to see what you think.

But the Reading pane does more than show you the contents of your message.

It also determines how Outlook marks messages as read and lets you move through your messages using a single key. By default,

Outlook marks a mail as “read” once you’ve spent five seconds with it selected, but you can change this by going to View > Reading Pane and selecting “Options.”

Of course, this being Outlook, there are other ways to access these options. You can also go to File > Options > Mail > Reading Pane (or Advanced > Reading pane) to open the same options.

Whichever way you choose, the Reading pane window will appear.

Out of the box, Outlook will “Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane” after five seconds.

You can change this time to anything from zero (i.e., it’s marked as read immediately when you select it) to 999 seconds.

If you want Outlook to wait more than a few seconds then you might prefer the second option,

“Mark item as read when the selection changes.”

This is an either/or situation: you can tell Outlook to mark items as read after a particular time,

or you can tell Outlook to mark items as read when you move to another item, but not both.

The next option, “Single key reading using space bar” is really useful if you like to navigate using the keyboard.

When you reach a message that’s longer than the Reading pane can show,

you can hit the space bar to move down a page in that message. When you reach the end of the message,

hitting spacebar moves to the next message. This works well in conjunction with using the Up and Down arrows to navigate through your folder—

they let you move through the folder,

and the spacebar lets you move through the selected message.

Finally,

there is the “Turn on automatic full-screen reading in portrait orientation” option. This is for tablet users, and if it’s switched on then when your tablet is in portrait orientation, clicking a message minimizes the Navigation pane, hides the reading pane, and displays the selected message using the full screen. This won’t work if you select the message using the Up and Down arrows or the spacebar—only if you select the message using the trackpad/mouse or your finger.

If you’re not working in portrait orientation and you want a little more screen real estate to view your messages, you can switch to Reading mode by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the Outlook window.

This minimizes any other pinned panes—Navigation, To-Do, and People—to let you focus on your messages. You can display the panes again by clicking the Normal mode icon.

The Reading pane can also help you read messages that are in a smaller than usual font, or if—as we’ve occasionally done—you’ve left your reading glasses at home. Use the Zoom control at the bottom of the Reading pane to increase the size of the contents (or make it smaller if it’s too large).

You can also zoom by holding Ctrl while using the scroll wheel on your mouse. This works on a per message basis, so if you increase the size of one message, the zoom level on the next message you select will still be 100%.

None of these options work if View > Reading Pane is set to “Off,” though. They only work if the Reading pane is set to “Right” or “Bottom.”

the standard (non-Outlook) mail client that’s bundled with Windows 10.

The chime is turned on by default in Outlook,

but you can turn it off or change it to play something else. Here’s how.

Turn Off the Chime

If you don’t want an auditory alert every time,

you receive a message (which can be especially jarring if you’re using headphones) you can tell Outlook not to play a noise at all. Go to File > Options > Mail and scroll down to the “Message arrival” section.

The setting you’re looking for is “Play a sound”.

Switch this off, then click “OK.” Outlook will no longer play a sound when a message arrives.

Change the Chime to Something Else

If you still want an auditory alert, but you want something other than the standard sound, open Control Panel (click Start and type “Control Panel”) and then click the “Sound” option.

In the Sound window that opens, switch to the “Sounds” tab, scroll down a bit in the “Program Events” box, and select the “New Mail Notification” option.

By default, Windows uses the built-in “Windows Notify Email.wav” sound file. Open the drop-down menu to select a different installed sound, or click “Browse” to choose a sound file of your own.

The sound will have to be a WAV file, so if you’ve got a different file type, you want to use you’ll have to convert it (we’re big fans of Audacity or VLC for audio work, but use your tool of choice). When you’re done, click “OK” to exit save your change and exit the Sounds window. Restart Outlook and your new sound will be played when a message arrives.

the standard (non-Outlook) mail client that’s bundled with Windows 10. The chime is turned on by default in Outlook,

but you can turn it off or change it to play something else. Here’s how.

Turn Off the Chime

If you don’t want an auditory alert every time, you receive a message (which can be especially jarring if you’re using headphones) you can tell Outlook not to play a noise at all.

Go to File > Options > Mail and scroll down to the “Message arrival” section. The setting you’re looking for is “Play a sound”.

Switch this off, then click “OK.” Outlook will no longer play a sound when a message arrives.

Change the Chime to Something Else

If you still want an auditory alert, but you want something other than the standard sound,

open Control Panel (click Start and type “Control Panel”) and then click the “Sound” option.

In the Sound window that opens, switch to the “Sounds” tab, scroll down a bit in the “Program Events” box, and select the “New Mail Notification” option.

By default, Windows uses the built-in “Windows Notify Email.wav” sound file. Open the drop-down menu to select a different installed sound, or click “Browse” to choose a sound file of your own.

The sound will have to be a WAV file, so if you’ve got a different file type, you want to use you’ll have to convert it (we’re big fans of Audacity or VLC for audio work, but use your tool of choice). When you’re done, click “OK” to exit save your change and exit the Sounds window. Restart Outlook and your new sound will be played when a message arrives.

you manage the reminder alert in Outlook,

where you can change the chime to something else or turn it off altogether. Here’s how to get that done.

Turn Off the Chime

If you don’t want an auditory alert every time a reminder pops up (which can be especially jarring if you’re working with headphones on), then you can tell Outlook not to play a noise at all when a reminder is due. Go to File > Options > Advanced and scroll down to the “Reminders” section. The setting you’re looking for is “Play Reminder Sound.”

Switch this off and then click “OK.” Outlook will no longer play a sound when a reminder pops up.

Change the Chime to Something Else

If you still want an auditory alert, but you want something other than the standard “reminder.wav” chime, leave the “Play Reminder Sound” option switched on and click the “Browse” button next to it.

You can then select any WAV file on your system to use for your reminder alert. When you’re done click “OK” to exit. You shouldn’t need to restart Outlook, and your new sound will be played when a reminder pops up.

If you’ve got a different file type you want to use, you’ll have to convert it (we’re big fans of Audacity and VLC for audio work, but use your tool of choice). If you want one of the other Windows sounds that you can access through Control Panel > Sound, you’ll find them at C:\Windows\media.

Microsoft promises increased transparency and better communication, but talk is cheap.

Has Anything Changed?

There’s only one lasting change to Windows 10’s development process we know about, and that was made on October 9. The Feedback Hub now lets Windows Insiders rate the “severity” of issues they’re reporting. This should help the Windows team catch serious file-deletion bugs instead of overlooking them.

Microsoft has not announced any concrete changes in the last month. With the re-release of the October 2018 Update, Microsoft has slowed down after it got burned:

While the April Update had the fastest Windows 10 update rollout velocity, we are taking a more measured approach with the October Update, slowing our rollout to more carefully study device health data.

Better yet, Windows Update will not install the October 2018 Update just because you clicked “Check for Updates.” (You can still download the Update Assistant tool if you want to update right now.)

But Microsoft has not said whether this is a lasting change. Next time around, Microsoft could quickly release the update to people who click “Check for Updates” again.

Microsoft Promises “Transparency”

Microsoft published a lengthy blog post about how it ensures Windows 10 quality. Most of that post is describing all the work Microsoft was already doing to test Windows 10. Microsoft claims it’s doing a great job with “Windows as a service” and says “customer incidents” are down with every update.

Microsoft also says that “critical to any discussion of Windows quality is the sheer scale of the Windows ecosystem.” In other words, this is all very complicated and difficult work!

It seems Microsoft is trying to deflect criticisms by pointing out it often does a good job. For example, Microsoft points out that it issues thousands of driver updates a month through Windows Update. That’s great, but it’s still a problem when Microsoft releases a buggy driver that breaks your PC’s sound.

The blog post doesn’t really have any concrete details about what Microsoft is changing going forward. Microsoft is just promising transparency:

Our focus until now has been almost exclusively on detecting and fixing issues quickly, and we will increase our focus on transparency and communication. We believe in transparency as a principle and we will continue to invest in clear and regular communications with our customers when there are issues.

It’s very easy for a company to promise “increased focus on transparency and communication.” Companies do it all the time in response to public relations problems. But that doesn’t mean Microsoft will actually follow through.

Worse yet, Microsoft has not promised to change Windows 10’s development process in any way. Here’s what the blog post says:

As part of our commitment to being more transparent about our approach to quality, this blog will be the first in a series of more in-depth explanations of the work we do to deliver quality in our Windows releases.

In other words, Microsoft is going to be transparent by telling us about all the good work it’s already been doing.

What Microsoft Needs to Do

This isn’t what Windows users want. We want Microsoft to understand that the Windows development process is broken. Bugs keep popping up—deleted files, PCs suddenly being deactivated, driver updates breaking hardware, file associations broken. These big twice-yearly updates seem like they’re just making things worse.

Windows users shouldn’t dread installing an update because it might delete their files. In the long history of Windows,

this has never happened before. How could a Windows engineer write the code telling Windows 10 to delete a folder without checking if it was empty?

How was this code never tested at Microsoft before it made its way out to real users? And why didn’t Microsoft see the warnings from the Insiders who had their files deleted?

We want Microsoft to understand the problem,

take it seriously, and make some real changes. But Microsoft seems disconnected from users. Microsoft is saying it already does a lot of work to ensure Windows 10’s quality, as if Windows users would be happier if only we knew about all Microsoft’s hard work.

No. We’d be happier if Microsoft would stop breaking things.

Clicking the AutoArchive button causes a process to swing through all of the folders in Outlook and apply any AutoArchive rules you’ve set up (don’t worry,

the default AutoArchive rule is to do nothing,

so you can’t do any harm by clicking the button).

But if you want to move your older items to an archive where they’re out of the way, AutoArchive is how you automate the process.

Let’s go through setting it up and running it.

How to Turn On AutoArchive

First, you need to turn on AutoArchive and choose its settings. Go to File > Options > Advanced and then click the “AutoArchive Settings” button.

As long as the “Run AutoArchive every” option is switched off (which is the default), AutoArchive will never run.

Once you turn the “Run AutoArchive every” option on, all of the options are now available.

Unlike Folder Cleanup, which has one window of settings in File Options and then allows you to run those settings against any folder you like as a manual task,

the AutoArchive settings shown here are the default settings. Each folder that has AutoArchive switched on can use these default settings,

or you can use different settings for different folders if you want. We’ll go through how to do that later on, but for now, let’s look at the default settings.

How To Set Up AutoArchive

The first thing to notice is that once AutoArchive is turned on, it will run every 14 days. You can change that using the Up and Down arrows or by typing a number in,

and you can select any value from 1 to 60 days. You can type in any two-digit number, but if it’s more than 60,

Outlook will display an error message when you click “OK,” and you’ll have to change the value before you can save.

The next option—“Prompt before AutoArchive runs”—gives you the choice of having Outlook show you a prompt before the AutoArchive happens.

This prompt lets you review the settings or cancel this run of the AutoArchive if you want.

The rest of the settings relate to what items will be archived, and what happens during the archive process.

The first option here—“Delete expired items (email folder only)”—relates to emails which have had an expiry date added to them. This won’t affect tasks or events, even if you turn AutoArchive on for those folders.

The rest of the settings apply to all items, not just email. This means calendar events, tasks, notes, and journal entries.

Assuming you leave “Archive or delete old items” switched on, the default settings are for Outlook to move items older than 6 months to a new,

separate .pst file named Archive (by default), and make this visible in the navigation pane in Outlook so you can access the archived items whenever you want.

You can change the “Clean out items older than” value to anything from 1 day to 60 months,

pick a different .pst file to archive the items in,

or choose to “Permanently delete old items.”

Be warned that this deletion bypasses the Deleted Items folder, and your items will be deleted from Outlook entirely. You may still be able to access it on your mail server,

depending on your settings, but you shouldn’t rely on this. Only choose this option if you want to delete the items forever.

When you click “OK,” AutoArchive will be turned on. It will run in line with the “Run AutoArchive every” value you’ve chosen (every 14 days by default), starting today.

So once you turn it on you should expect it to run quite quickly. In our tests, it took less than ten minutes between switching it on and receiving the prompt telling us AutoArchive was going to run.

AutoArchive only runs by default on a few folders, so if you want it to run on specific folders—or you want to customize how it runs on different folders—keep reading.

How to Turn On and Customize AutoArchive for Different Folders

When you turn AutoArchive on, it only runs by default against the following folders:

• Sent Items
• Deleted Items
• Calender
• Tasks

If you want it to run on any other folder, you’ll need to turn it on for each folder (or turn it off on any of those four folders against which you don’t want it to run). Do this by right-clicking the folder in the Navigation pane and clicking “Properties.”

You can also access folder properties by selecting Folder > Folder Properties in the ribbon. (For folders like Calendar and Tasks that don’t show up in the Navigation pane, this is the only way to access the folder properties.) There’s also the option to go straight to the AutoArchive Settings, which saves you a step once you’re inside the Folder Properties.

In the Folder Properties window, click the AutoArchive tab to access the settings for that folder.

For most folders, the “Do not archive items in this folder” setting will be on by default. This means that when the AutoArchive process runs, the folder will be ignored and no items in it will be archived. If you want the folder to be included, switch on the “Archive items in this folder using the default settings” option.

Alternatively, if you want the AutoArchive settings for this folder to be different from the defaults, switch on “Archive this folder using these settings” and amend the settings to your preference.

If at any point you want to return all folders to use the default settings, you can go back to File > Options > Advanced > AutoArchive Settings and click the “Apply these settings to all folders now” button. That will change all folders that have the “Archive this folder using these settings” switched on to have “Archive items in this folder using the default settings” switched on instead.

Once you’ve got the AutoArchive default settings, and the settings per folder, set up the way you want, you can leave the process to quietly work in the background, freeing up space for you and keeping your folders from getting too bloated.

Outlook has a little-known feature that lets you edit the subject line of emails you’ve received, making this annoyance a thing of the past.

The ability to edit subject lines is part of the folder view settings. To access these, head to View > View Settings.

This opens up the Advanced View Settings window.

You can also access this panel by right-clicking on the header in a folder and then clicking the “View Settings” command.

In the Advanced View Settings window, click the “Other Settings” button.

In the Other Settings window, enable the “Allow In-Cell Editing” option.

Click “OK” and then click “OK” again to get back to your folder.

Now if you click on the Subject of an email, you can edit it and then hit Return to save your changes. You won’t be able to edit fields like From, To, or Received (these are parts of the email header) but you’ll never again be faced with a multitude of blank subject lines in your archive.

To turn this ability off, simply go back to Advanced View Settings > Other Settings and turn off the “Allow in-cell editing” option.

Let’s take a look at it.

To start, we’ll open up the Advanced View Settings window. Switch to the “View” tab on the Ribbon and click the “View Settings” button.

You can also get there by right-clicking a column header and selecting the “View Settings” command from the context menu.

The Advanced View Settings window lets you customize the folder view. Click the “Format Columns” button.

The Format Columns window displays all of the columns that you can edit in the currently-selected view.

The columns shown here are all of the ones in the default “compact” folder view. The Mention column is missing because that one has specific formatting you can’t change.

But that’s uncommon;

you can format most columns here.

The type of formatting you can do is determined by the column. The Importance column only lets you choose between using a bitmap

(an image file that shows an up or down arrow for High and Low importance respectively) and text (the written name of the importance: High, Normal, Low).

The Subject column, on the other hand, lets you edit all of the options (although the only option for Format is “Text,” so not much to change there).

As you can see from the options, you can’t change the fonts because this would clash with conditional formatting, but you can change the display format, the visible name of the column, the width, and the alignment. We’re going to change the Label to “Reason for mail” and the alignment to “Right.”

After clicking “OK” a couple of times to exit out of those windows, we can see the column changes immediately in our folder.

One of the more useful change is to the “Received” column.  By default, it shows when the received date for messages in a rather unwieldy combination of “day” + “date” + “time,” which isn’t very viewer friendly.  With column formatting, you can change this.

Go to

View Settings > Advanced View Settings > Format Columns and select the “Received” field.  The default Format is “Best Fit,” but if you hit the drop-down menu, you’ll see a lot of other options.

We’re going to change to the top option to remove the “day” part of the format.

When “OK” out of the open windows, the column has changed, and it’s much easier to read.

You can choose whatever format works best for you, so if you’re the kind of person who keeps their messages under control, you might want to do without the year.  If you’ve reallygot control of your mail, you can just show the time the message arrived, but we’re not ready to do without the day and month yet.

You can change any column that appears in the Format Columns panel, and if you apply the folder view to any other folder, the changes to column formatting you’ve made also transfer over.