I recently changed from using Outlook Express to Outlook 2003 for email. When using Outlook Express I could read and highlight messages in the list of emails without reading the message. This allowed me to delete messages without opening the message. However, in Outlook whenever I select a message the message content is displayed in the right-hand pane of the Outlook window. How can I disable this in Outlook? The computer is running Windows XP Professional with Office 2003.

The pane which displays the message when selected is called the ‘Preview Pane’ or ‘Reading Pane’. This can be disabled in Outlook 2003 by going to the ‘View’ menu > ‘Reading Pane’ > ‘Off’. The reading pane will disappear. To read a message you will need to double-click on the message in the list.