Message selection, preview pane, ergonomic opportunity missed: tragic

R

rasqual

In OL 2007, selection of multiple messages (as with Ctrl+click with
the mouse, or Ctrl+space with the keyboard) does not change which
message appears in the preview pane. Only the first message selected
is previewed.

This is an unfortunate failure to sieze an ergonomic opportunity.

Frequently, actions which might be performed against messages are
based on a quick survey of their contents -- something a preview pane
allows for swimmingly. But sometimes the actions themselves require
more than a single click or keystroke, and if the same action is
likely to be necessary for multiple items, multiselection will save a
lot of time.

But these can't be combined in the current environment. One cannot
navigate the message list AND examine message context while also
selecting. Only the original selected message continues to show its
contents in the preview pane.

IMO, this makes no sense at all. If I'm moving on to select further
messages, it's evident that I already know what the contents of that
first message look like. Why would I continue to need to see it? I'm
obviously wanting to see subsequently selected messages -- or better
still, messages that merely have the focus in the message list (not
necessarily needing to have them actually selected to see their
contents in the preview pane).

And while I'm at it, I sure would like to see keywords for Outlook
items -- in columns I can just type in. Categories don't cut it.

2 cents.
 

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