Tip 923: How to Open Outlook's Email Properties Dialog

An administrator wanted to know how to open the Email Properties dialog:

In outlook 2007 I double clicked the email address once Outlook had underlined it in the To field, then the email properties box opens and I could change the email type to Internet Type. But in outlook 2010 that feature is not there.

It's there, its just harder to find in Outlook 2010 and above and works best in Outlook 2016 if you set the TurnOffHoverFunctionality registry key to turn off the Hovercard (otherwise, you need right-click before the hovercard comes up, difficult but not impossible).

If you are looking for the full Internet Headers, you need the messages properties dialog.

To get to the property dialog you are looking for, hover over (or click on) the address and the new contact card will display. Click on the icon that resembles a page then choose Outlook Properties at the bottom.

Outlook's new Contact card, which comes up when you hover over any email in the reading pane, open message, or in the address field of a reply or forward.

To see email address properties, you need to expand the button and select Outlook Properties:

If it's a one-off address (no contact exists), you should get the simple Email Properties dialog where you can change the address type.

If Outlook Properties opens a contact form, you will need to repeat the steps above on the email address in the contact.

Turn off the Hovercard

To turn off the Hovercard you need to set the TurnOffHoverFunctionality registry key. While you only need to turn off the hovercard to solve this issue, you can restore Outlook's ability to create a new contact directly using the Contact form, not the new Contact card.

For ready-to-use registry files, see Use Outlook's Contacts, not Contact Cards.

Outlook 2016

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\common\contactcard
DWORD: TurnOnLegacyGALDialog
Value: 1 (enable)
DWORD: TurnOffHoverFunctionality
Value: 1 (turn off)

Outlook 2013

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\common\contactcard
DWORD: TurnOnLegacyGALDialog
Value: 1 (enable)
DWORD: TurnOffHoverFunctionality
Value: 1 (turn off)

Published October 20, 2011. Last updated on July 12, 2016.

Related posts:

Tip 832: View the Properties dialog If you use Outlook on Windows 7 and open email attachments, you have probably seen the dialog that asks if you want to open or savTip 717: Windows7 & Outlook’s Open Save dialog If you check the box to always open an attachment in the Open or Save dialog and later decide to change the behavior, you need toTip 274: Change attachment Open or Save dialog options A popular request is the ability to open Outlook Express  &  Live Mail’s *.eml files in Outlook.  If you have OTip 772: Open *.eml in Outlook