The Gmail application offers a feature called the “Reading pane” which makes checking and reading email messages simple and fast. Once this feature is enabled, the Gmail screen is divided into two halves. One half displays your email message list, and the other half shows the content of any message when clicked – without the need to click on each message to view its content and then go back to view other messages. You can also choose the position of the additional pane resulting from activating this feature, whether it is below or next to the email. However, this feature is not automatically enabled, so we will explain how to activate it in this article.
Previously, this option was called the Preview pane and could be activated through advanced options in the settings menu. However, Google recently moved this feature from advanced settings to quick settings. To easily enable this feature, go to Gmail, but note that this feature is only available for the web version of the Gmail application, so you can only enable it from the web. After accessing Gmail, go to the settings menu.
After accessing the settings menu by clicking on the settings menu icon as shown in the image above, scroll down to find the “Reading pane” feature. Under the Reading pane option, you can find two choices: left or below the email.
If you select the left email option, the screen will be divided into two vertical halves, and the content of any message will be displayed when it is clicked, next to the email message list.
Similarly, when selecting the below email option, the screen will be divided horizontally, and the message content will be displayed directly below the email.
If this option is not available in the quick settings menu, you can access it by viewing all settings, then go to the Inbox section, scroll down to find the Reading pane option, then activate the Reading pane option and save the changes.
Once this feature is enabled, a new button will appear at the top of the application window, through which you can activate this feature and choose between horizontal or vertical screen splitting modes, or disable the feature completely.
You can now easily switch between your messages and view the content of each message separately, whether you prefer the horizontal or vertical split, both options are available for you to switch between.
