OutLook 2013 reading Pane (pain) ... screen realestate issue , SEE EDITs

Is outlook 2013 restricted to showing an AVATAR or Picture placeholder and font size 57 for the sender address? I see some info about the embedded and redundant quick butons reply and forward. But this MEGA who its from concept when there is no picture is annoying.

Please let there be a solution to screen real-estate extravaganza

Can I show a simple line with sender and date and size ? Or something a few million pxs smaller?

I dont like to whinge to much. I generally like the new tools and you get used to the look. but extreme wastage is a shame.

Looks like similar posts. But I dont see an answer anywhere Reduce visual redundancies in Outlook 2013? after upgrade to outlook 2013 Contacts have the default picture in reading pane

And since the solution seemed it might lie with the "people" settings I tried this, which removed the picture but did little to fix the real-estate problem

Which now looks like this

EDIT: (after using for 4 months, and connecting to FB and LinkedIn, the benefits outway the negatives). And i now regularly, Always look at the people Pane.

Solution 1:

It looks like the most recent MS Office update (version 15.0.4551.1011) adds an option that allows for the message header in the reading pane to be collapsed. It re-sizes the header from this:

To this:

Once toggled, it should remain collapsed while switching among messages. Go to the File tab -> Office Account to check your version and update.

Solution 2:

I too found this huge personal image extremely annoying. I was able to solve the problem by changing the following setting:

File > Options > People > Show user photographs when available (requires restarting Outlook)

Once I unchecked that box and restarted, the personal image disappeared.

TH