Although in this blog I have written a lot of articles dedicated to Google Mail and its important and powerful features, I, at least to this day, do not use Gmail.com as a page to read my email. Instead, I use the new Yahoo Mail because I like the way it can create aliases, I like that you can use any email address, even if not Yahoo, and above all I like that when I click on the messages, they open in preview (which happens also on Outlook.com).
Finally , Google Mail now allows you to view messages in a preview pane so that you can read them without covering the list of emails. Google announced yesterday in a Gmail Blog post the availability of the preview pane in Gmail (finally).
The preview of the emails in Gmail must be activated manually by clicking the gear wheel at the top right to then enter the settings . Then go to the Advanced tab and then activate the Preview Pane option.
The layout of Gmail doesn't automatically change after the preview pane has been enabled. Simply a button is added which, if pressed, allows you to switch from the full page message display to that of a page divided in two, on the one hand the list of mails, on the other the preview of the selected message. The button is called Activate / deactivate split panel and it is near the settings wheel. Then press the down arrow to choose the type of layout: if divided horizontally, convenient for wide screens, if divided vertically or without preview pane .
If you have a wide monitor it would be better to display it with a preview on the right with Gmail which is divided into three columns, one with the list of emails, one with the selected message and one with the details of the contacts involved. With smaller and narrower screens the readable preview below is better. The column or row with the body of the selected mail can be resized by pressing the mouse on the border in the center of the page, on the partition between the inbox and the preview pane. By pressing the button in the preview pane at the top right you can quickly switch from normal view to the list with the preview panel.
The preview pane can also be used to respond quickly to selected emails because all commands are available in the menu bar.
Furthermore, once the preview pane is activated, you can go to Settings> General to choose how long after having previewed a received email it must be marked as read ; you can choose between Immediately, 1 second, 3 seconds, 20 seconds or never.
Surely this news could convince me to use GMail as the main online mail client (as seen you can use Gmail with any Email address) even if Yahoo mail continues to appreciate the division into tabs.
