Message Previews
Eudora Tip #176/23-Apr-2003

A friend recently complained about the pornographic pictures she receives from spammers. I advised deleting the messages but part of her complaint was that these pictures are just immediately in front of her eyes as soon as the mail arrives.

A little puzzled I suggested she shouldn’t open the messages and she said she didn’t.

Once I looked at her computer I could see the two problems which led to this unfortunate circumstance.

1. My friend hadn’t switched off the automatic downloading of HTML images. You can check Eudora Tip #147/28-Aug-2002 to see how to handle this.
2. My friend was using Eudora’s Message Previews which makes the contents of a message available at the bottom of the Mailbox window.

My friend said she wasn’t “opening” the messages because she didn’t double-click and open the message into a separate window. She was however “opening” the messages by dint of viewing them in the Preview Pane.

I don’t use Preview Panes and so had forgotten they exist.

To control message previews in an ad hoc way look for the disclosure triangle at the bottom left of a mailbox window. Click it once so it points downward and the preview pane will open up. Click it again and the pane will close again.

To change the size of the preview area use the double-ended arrow at the right hand end of the horizontal scrollbar. Drag that arrow up or down to enlarge or reduce the preview area.