Change Automatic “Read” Status for Previewed Emails in Outlook 2013

By default, when you preview emails in Outlook, they quickly change to “read” status. If you are using default settings in Outlook 2013, this means the email line will go from bold to not bold. But because simply previewing emails quickly can set them to “unread”, you might overlook it later.

Here’s a quick tip to change the number of seconds you can preview an email before it’s marked as “Read”!
 

  1. Go to File > Options > Mail.
  2. Click on the Reading Pane button.
     
    – Change Automatic "Read" Status for Previewed Emails in Outlook 2013
     
  3. Check the “Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading pane” checkbox.
     
    – Change Automatic "Read" Status for Previewed Emails in Outlook 2013
     
  4. Then, increase the number of second you want to preview the email in the Reading Pane before it’s marked as “Read”. 15-30 seconds might be best.
  5. Click OK.

After this, when you preview emails in the Reading Pane, only those that you preview for longer than your set time will be marked automatically as “Read”. You can come back later and not miss any that you just glanced at.