[Tip] How to Enable or Disable “Preview Pane” in Gmail

If you have an email ID on Outlook (also known as Hotmail, Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Account, etc), you might be very well aware of the “Preview Pane” feature which shows the full email message at the right-side or at the bottom of the window when you select an email message.

The “Preview Pane” feature is also present in all popular desktop email client software such as Windows Live Mail Desktop, Mozilla Thunderbird, Opera Mail, etc.

Preview Pane is a very useful feature of email services and programs which allows users to read the full email message side by side with email messages list without leaving the Inbox page and without any need of opening a new web page.

But if we talk about the popular Gmail service, it doesn’t feature any Preview Pane. It just shows the email messages list and when you click on an email to read it, it opens the email message in the same pane and you lose access to the messages list. Now to read another email message, you need to go back to email messages list and click on the other email message. If you need to read lots of email messages, it might become very irritating to select one message, read it and then go back and again select another message.

Did you know Gmail also provides Preview Pane feature but it’s not enabled by default? Yes, you read it right.

Google added the “Preview Pane” functionality to Gmail long time back in 2011 (read here) and interested Gmail users were needed to manually enable it using “Google Labs” page in Gmail settings.

Now in new Gmail interface (UI), the Google Labs page has been removed and users who want to activate Preview Pane feature, are unable to find it using previous method.

Today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to enable and use Preview Pane feature in Gmail service. If you already enabled Preview Pane in Gmail in past and suddenly Preview Pane in Gmail not working, this tutorial will help you in fixing it.

Also there might be some people who already have Preview Pane enabled but they don’t like it and want to disable or remove Preview Pane in Gmail, this tutorial will also help you in disabling Preview Pane in Gmail.

Let’s start the tutorial:

How to Enable or Disable Preview Pane in Gmail:

1. Open Gmail and sign into your email account.

2. Now click on the cogwheel “Settings” icon present on the top-right corner and select “Settings” option from the menu.

3. It’ll open Gmail settings page. Click on “Advanced” tab.

4. Now look for “Preview Pane” option. Its description shows “Enable the ability to toggle on/off the ability to view your messages side by side with the message list”.

To Enable Preview Pane in Gmail:

Select the “Enable” radio button given next to “Preview Pane” option.

To Disable Preview Pane in Gmail:

Select the “Disable” radio button given next to “Preview Pane” option.

5. Click on “Save Changes” button to apply the changes.

Your web browser will reload Gmail page and you’ll get “Preview Pane” enabled or disabled as per your selected option.

How to Use and Customize Preview Pane in Gmail:

Once you enable Preview Pane in Gmail, you can customize it using following steps:

1. You’ll see a new button near Gmail Settings button which can be used to toggle preview pane on and off. Its description shows “Toggle split pane mode“.

Click on it once and it’ll remove Preview Pane. Again click on the button and it’ll add the Preview Pane.

2. You can also change position or placement of Preview Pane. The Preview Pane can be shown vertically or horizontally.

Click on the small arrow given on “Toggle split pane mode” button and you’ll see following 3 options:

• No Split
• Vertical Split
• Horizontal Split

“No Split” option will remove Preview Pane. “Vertical Split” option shows Preview Pane vertically on right-side of screen. “Horizontal Split” option shows the Preview Pane horizontally at the bottom of the window.

3. When you set Preview Pane vertically, you can show email messages list in “2-line vertical view” similar to Outlook.

Move your mouse cursor on the separator which separates email messages list and Preview Pane and then click and hold on the separator and move it a little towards left and the email messages list will start showing in Outlook style 2-line vertical view in which email subject/title and sender name are shown in 2 separate lines.

So you just need to decrease size of email messages list pane or increase size of Preview Pane and you’ll enjoy “2-line vertical view” in email messages list just like Microsoft Outlook.

Also Check:

[Tip] Enable Unread Email Message Count Icon in Gmail