![Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]](http://www.outlook-tips.net/images/2014/MVP_BlueOnly.png)
I receive a lot of complaints about the change in the unread message preview option introduced in Outlook 2013. In Outlook 2010 and older, you could show a 3 line preview of Unread messages and no preview for read messages. In Outlook 2013, this was changed to an option of 1, 2 or 3 lines but applies to all messages, read or unread and not everyone likes this change.
I spent a half hour this morning looking for a fix or some clever workaround to the useless preview of unread messages with no luck.
3-line preview in Outlook 2013. (In Compact view it looks cluttered and busy.)
3 line preview for Unread messages in Outlook 2010:
One option is to use the Unread view. Look for All Unread at the top of the message list; click Unread to switch to seeing only unread messages and All to see all messages. Yes, I know it's not the same, but it can reduce some of the clutter when you use the 3 line preview.
One client added the 1 and 3 line commands to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) so he could quickly switch between views. He has the QAT below the ribbon and the 1 and 3 line commands are right above the message list, which makes them easy to use.
To add the buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar
- Open File, Options and choose Quick Access Toolbar.
- In Choose commands from, select All Commands.
- Click in the command list and type S to jump down the list.
- Look for Show [count] Lines of Preview commands.
- Select the commands you want on the QAT and click Add ».
- To show no lines, add Turn off AutoPreview to the QAT.
More Information
Vote for the suggestion to bring back AutoPreview for Unread messages at Outlook Uservoice:
Bring back the "Show AutoPreview only for unread messages" feature
Published June 10, 2016. Last updated on June 10, 2016.
