Do you ever feel annoyed that Outlook doesn’t mark messages as read as soon as you click and view them in the Reading Pane? Here we show you how to make Outlook mark them as read as soon as they’re opened.
By default, Outlook will not mark a message as read until you select another message. This can be annoying, because if you read a message and then immediately delete the message, it shows up as an unread message in your Deleted Items folder.
Let’s change this to make Outlook mark messages as read as soon as we view them in the Reading Pane. Open Outlook and click the “File” tab.
On the backstage screen, click “Options” in the list of items on the left.
On the Options dialog box, click on “Mail” in the list of items on the left.
In the Outlook panes section, click the “Reading Pane” button.
Check the “Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane” box to make Outlook mark your messages as read when you view them in the Reading Pane. By default, Outlook will only mark a message read after you’ve been reading it for 5 seconds, though you can change this. We entered 0 (zero) in the “Wait X seconds before marking item as read” box so our messages would be marked as read as soon as we select them.
Note that the “Mark item as read when selection changes” box is automatically unchecked when you check the “Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane” box. Only one of those two check boxes can be selected at once. Click “OK” to accept your changes and close the dialog box.
Click “OK” on the Options dialog box. Now your messages will be marked as read as soon as you select them in the reading pane, or soon after, depending on how many seconds you told Outlook to wait before marking the item as read.
Outlook is a great email client, but like most programs, it has its quirks. This quick tip can help you get rid of one of Outlook’s annoying features, and make it work like you want it to. You can also disable the Reading Pane if you don’t want messages automatically opened when you select them.
