Change Outlook "Mark As Read" Behavior
Solution 1:
It took me a few minutes to figure it out in Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2016 - once you get to the Reading Pane options, it's the same as squillman's answer.
Go to File → Options → Advanced.
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In the Outlook panes section, click Reading Pane...
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Check Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane and set an interval in seconds before it kicks in.
Note: In Outlook 2016, the same dialog is also available in the ribbon under View → Reading Pane → Options....
Solution 2:
For Outlook 2007:
- Go to Tools | Options and click the Other tab
- Click the Reading Pane... button under Outlook Panes
- Put a check the Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane and set an interval in seconds before it kicks in.
It's the same for Outlook 2003, except that in step 2 the section on the Other tab is called "Reading Pane" instead of "Outlook Panes".
Solution 3:
In Outlook for Mac (OS X) version 15 (2016)
Select Menu Bar -> Outlook -> Preferences -> Reading -> select Mark mail as read when viewed in the reading pane
Solution 4:
In MS Outlook Web App for Office 365:
- Settings | Mail | Mark as read
- Mark displayed items as read as soon as they are selected
- Save
This behavior is similar to the one described by @Keyslinger and @Paul in comments above. Added as an answer to OP for those who were searching for the help with the Outlook web application, as I was.
Solution 5:
In Outlook 2016 (I assume it is the same for earlier versions), un-checking both "Mark item" options will leave the message as unread until you manually mark it as read or take some other kind of action. This is useful if you want to keep messages unread until you reply.
I wanted to be able to set up individual mail folders with different reading pane options and could never figure it out. In the end, it's really just as easy to set up a shortcut key in Quick Steps to mark something as "read" and configure your reading pane options as shown. This gives you more control IMO.