Disable 'Reading Pane' For Outlook Search

Please don't repeat yourself, Eleni, and I won't have to repeat myself, either.

No, this stays open, and public, until there is a fix / work-around.

Sorry, but (ITIL head) like you say, that is a work around, and is just as many clicks as turning off the 'Reading Pane' ... so it's functionally not really ... great ... y'know?

But thank you for the reply!

Dear Eliot Cole (Influential Software),

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. It will be a pleasure working with you,

I understand your frustration with the Reading Pane in Outlook. Unfortunately, there is no option to disable the Reading Pane permanently for the search results. You have to manually turn it off every time you perform a search. This is a known issue that many Outlook users have complained about.

One possible workaround is to create a custom view for the search results that has the Reading Pane turned off. You can do this by following these steps:

• Perform a search in Outlook and select any message in the search results.
• On the View tab, in the Current View group, click Change View, and then click Manage Views.
• In the Manage All Views dialog box, click New.
• In the Create a New View dialog box, type a name for the view, such as No Reading Pane, and then click OK.
• In the Advanced View Settings dialog box, click Other Settings.
• In the Other Settings dialog box, under Reading Pane, select Off, and then click OK twice.
• In the Manage All Views dialog box, click Apply View.

Now, whenever you perform a search in Outlook, you can switch to the No Reading Pane view by clicking Change View on the View tab and selecting it from the list. This will hide the Reading Pane for the search results only, and you can switch back to your normal view when you are done with the search.

Please also share with me any kind of Errors, that you might see.

We look forward to hearing from you; Please understand that our initial reply may not always immediately resolve the issue. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Thank you for your cooperation

To notify us and have us get back to you, simply reply to this post.

Thank you,

Microsoft Community

Dear Eliot Cole (Influential Software),

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. It will be a pleasure working with you,

I understand your frustration with the Reading Pane in Outlook. Unfortunately, there is no option to disable the Reading Pane permanently for the search results. You have to manually turn it off every time you perform a search. This is a known issue that many Outlook users have complained about.

One possible workaround is to create a custom view for the search results that has the Reading Pane turned off. You can do this by following these steps:

• Perform a search in Outlook and select any message in the search results.
• On the View tab, in the Current View group, click Change View, and then click Manage Views.
• In the Manage All Views dialog box, click New.
• In the Create a New View dialog box, type a name for the view, such as No Reading Pane, and then click OK.
• In the Advanced View Settings dialog box, click Other Settings.
• In the Other Settings dialog box, under Reading Pane, select Off, and then click OK twice.
• In the Manage All Views dialog box, click Apply View.

Now, whenever you perform a search in Outlook, you can switch to the No Reading Pane view by clicking Change View on the View tab and selecting it from the list. This will hide the Reading Pane for the search results only, and you can switch back to your normal view when you are done with the search.

Please also share with me any kind of Errors, that you might see.

We look forward to hearing from you; Please understand that our initial reply may not always immediately resolve the issue. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Thank you for your cooperation

To notify us and have us get back to you, simply reply to this post.

Thank you,

Microsoft Community

I just ran across this article and like the submitter, wanted to be able to turn off the Reading Pane view for the Search folder permanently. I find my self doing searches many times throughout the day and have to manually change the view every time is very, very annoying!

But I decided to give this workaround from Eleni a try, hoping it would ease the annoyance a little at least, until a more permanent solution is provided by Microsoft.

So far - I am very satisfied with this suggestion! It appears to be much more than a workaround!. Since creating the No Reading Pane view, all subsequent search results show up without the reading pane! I have exited Outlook and restarted it, just to see if continued to work, and so far, so good!

I have yet to reboot the PC and it is still Day 1, and either of those things may yet cause the Search folder Reading Pane to come back. Even so - if I have to select the No Reading Pane view once and it lasts for a day or so, that is much better than having to manually reset the view every time I search!

Thank you Eleni!

No, I feel like the community won't just fob me off so much ... I'll keep this open, thanks.

Dear Eliot Cole (Influential Software),

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. It will be a pleasure working with you,

I understand your frustration with the Reading Pane in Outlook. Unfortunately, there is no option to disable the Reading Pane permanently for the search results. You have to manually turn it off every time you perform a search. This is a known issue that many Outlook users have complained about.

One possible workaround is to create a custom view for the search results that has the Reading Pane turned off. You can do this by following these steps:

• Perform a search in Outlook and select any message in the search results.
• On the View tab, in the Current View group, click Change View, and then click Manage Views.
• In the Manage All Views dialog box, click New.
• In the Create a New View dialog box, type a name for the view, such as No Reading Pane, and then click OK.
• In the Advanced View Settings dialog box, click Other Settings.
• In the Other Settings dialog box, under Reading Pane, select Off, and then click OK twice.
• In the Manage All Views dialog box, click Apply View.

Now, whenever you perform a search in Outlook, you can switch to the No Reading Pane view by clicking Change View on the View tab and selecting it from the list. This will hide the Reading Pane for the search results only, and you can switch back to your normal view when you are done with the search.

Please also share with me any kind of Errors, that you might see.

We look forward to hearing from you; Please understand that our initial reply may not always immediately resolve the issue. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Thank you for your cooperation

To notify us and have us get back to you, simply reply to this post.

Thank you,

Microsoft Community