Hello,

I use Outlook 2007 on a Dell D830 laptop. I have Microsoft Office 2007 Small
Business Edition.

I have two issues:
1. The Reading Pane option is greyed out. It remains greyed out if I restart
my computer, and Office Diagnostics did not detect any problems.
2. Outlook randomly crashes, asks me to send an error report to Microsoft
and gives me the option to restart. This happens about 3 times a day with no
known reason.

I do have Adobe Acrobat 8 on my laptop but I have not conciously loaded any
Adobe plug-ins into Outlook.
In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a large-file-attachment
plug-in (from www.yousendit.com) installed into Outlook but the program has
worked fine before and after this was installed.

Thank you,
Doug

If you start Outlook in Safe Mode (start->run->outlook.exe /safe) can you enable the reading pane? If yes, then try disabling all add-ins and enable them one by one (restarting Outlook each time) until you find the culprit.

It may also be a damaged view - you can try starting Outlook one time with the /cleanviews switch.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, kerswelld asked:

| Hello,
|
| I use Outlook 2007 on a Dell D830 laptop. I have Microsoft Office
| 2007 Small Business Edition.
|
| I have two issues:
| 1. The Reading Pane option is greyed out. It remains greyed out if I
| restart my computer, and Office Diagnostics did not detect any
| problems.
| 2. Outlook randomly crashes, asks me to send an error report to
| Microsoft and gives me the option to restart. This happens about 3
| times a day with no known reason.
|
| I do have Adobe Acrobat 8 on my laptop but I have not conciously
| loaded any Adobe plug-ins into Outlook.
| In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a large-file-attachment
| plug-in (from www.yousendit.com) installed into Outlook but the
| program has worked fine before and after this was installed.
|
| Thank you,
| Doug

Milly,

Thank you so much for your help!

I started Outlook in safe mode and was able to turn on the Reading Pane.
Then I closed Outlook and restarted it and the Reading Pane came back
straight away, and I didn't need to disable any add-ins!

Incidentally, my shortcut to start Outlook seems to be "outlook.exe
/recycle". Could you explain what the word "recycle" does here, and is there
any need for it?

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

Doug

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:

> If you start Outlook in Safe Mode (start->run->outlook.exe /safe) can you enable the reading pane? If yes, then try disabling all add-ins and enable them one by one (restarting Outlook each time) until you find the culprit.
>
> It may also be a damaged view - you can try starting Outlook one time with the /cleanviews switch.
>
> --�
> Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
>
> Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
> unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
> reading.
>
> After furious head scratching, kerswelld asked:
>
> | Hello,
> |
> | I use Outlook 2007 on a Dell D830 laptop. I have Microsoft Office
> | 2007 Small Business Edition.
> |
> | I have two issues:
> | 1. The Reading Pane option is greyed out. It remains greyed out if I
> | restart my computer, and Office Diagnostics did not detect any
> | problems.
> | 2. Outlook randomly crashes, asks me to send an error report to
> | Microsoft and gives me the option to restart. This happens about 3
> | times a day with no known reason.
> |
> | I do have Adobe Acrobat 8 on my laptop but I have not conciously
> | loaded any Adobe plug-ins into Outlook.
> | In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a large-file-attachment
> | plug-in (from www.yousendit.com) installed into Outlook but the
> | program has worked fine before and after this was installed.
> |
> | Thank you,
> | Doug
>

That means if you click the Shortcut again, it will use a currently
opened instance of Outlook (recycle) instead of opening another instance.

kerswelld wrote:
> Milly,
>
> Thank you so much for your help!
>
> I started Outlook in safe mode and was able to turn on the Reading Pane.
> Then I closed Outlook and restarted it and the Reading Pane came back
> straight away, and I didn't need to disable any add-ins!
>
> Incidentally, my shortcut to start Outlook seems to be "outlook.exe
> /recycle". Could you explain what the word "recycle" does here, and is there
> any need for it?
>
> Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.
>
> Doug
>
> "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
>
>
>>If you start Outlook in Safe Mode (start->run->outlook.exe /safe) can you enable the reading pane? If yes, then try disabling all add-ins and enable them one by one (restarting Outlook each time) until you find the culprit.
>>
>>It may also be a damaged view - you can try starting Outlook one time with the /cleanviews switch.
>>
>>--�
>>Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
>>
>>Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
>>unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
>>reading.
>>
>>After furious head scratching, kerswelld asked:
>>
>>| Hello,
>>|
>>| I use Outlook 2007 on a Dell D830 laptop. I have Microsoft Office
>>| 2007 Small Business Edition.
>>|
>>| I have two issues:
>>| 1. The Reading Pane option is greyed out. It remains greyed out if I
>>| restart my computer, and Office Diagnostics did not detect any
>>| problems.
>>| 2. Outlook randomly crashes, asks me to send an error report to
>>| Microsoft and gives me the option to restart. This happens about 3
>>| times a day with no known reason.
>>|
>>| I do have Adobe Acrobat 8 on my laptop but I have not conciously
>>| loaded any Adobe plug-ins into Outlook.
>>| In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a large-file-attachment
>>| plug-in (from www.yousendit.com) installed into Outlook but the
>>| program has worked fine before and after this was installed.
>>|
>>| Thank you,
>>| Doug
>>

Thanks Bob! Much appreciated.

For anyone else who is interested, I found this page which provides an
explanation of all of the Command-line switches (i.e. startup parameters /
options / modes) available for Outlook 2007:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ou...185891033.aspx

Cheers,
Doug

"Bob I" wrote:

> That means if you click the Shortcut again, it will use a currently
> opened instance of Outlook (recycle) instead of opening another instance.
>
> kerswelld wrote:
> > Milly,
> >
> > Thank you so much for your help!
> >
> > I started Outlook in safe mode and was able to turn on the Reading Pane.
> > Then I closed Outlook and restarted it and the Reading Pane came back
> > straight away, and I didn't need to disable any add-ins!
> >
> > Incidentally, my shortcut to start Outlook seems to be "outlook.exe
> > /recycle". Could you explain what the word "recycle" does here, and is there
> > any need for it?
> >
> > Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.
> >
> > Doug
> >
> > "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
> >
> >
> >>If you start Outlook in Safe Mode (start->run->outlook.exe /safe) can you enable the reading pane? If yes, then try disabling all add-ins and enable them one by one (restarting Outlook each time) until you find the culprit.
> >>
> >>It may also be a damaged view - you can try starting Outlook one time with the /cleanviews switch.
> >>
> >>--�
> >>Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
> >>
> >>Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
> >>unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
> >>reading.
> >>
> >>After furious head scratching, kerswelld asked:
> >>
> >>| Hello,
> >>|
> >>| I use Outlook 2007 on a Dell D830 laptop. I have Microsoft Office
> >>| 2007 Small Business Edition.
> >>|
> >>| I have two issues:
> >>| 1. The Reading Pane option is greyed out. It remains greyed out if I
> >>| restart my computer, and Office Diagnostics did not detect any
> >>| problems.
> >>| 2. Outlook randomly crashes, asks me to send an error report to
> >>| Microsoft and gives me the option to restart. This happens about 3
> >>| times a day with no known reason.
> >>|
> >>| I do have Adobe Acrobat 8 on my laptop but I have not conciously
> >>| loaded any Adobe plug-ins into Outlook.
> >>| In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a large-file-attachment
> >>| plug-in (from www.yousendit.com) installed into Outlook but the
> >>| program has worked fine before and after this was installed.
> >>|
> >>| Thank you,
> >>| Doug
> >>
>
>

Most welcome, and thank you for posting back with the additional
information.

kerswelld wrote:
> Thanks Bob! Much appreciated.
>
> For anyone else who is interested, I found this page which provides an
> explanation of all of the Command-line switches (i.e. startup parameters /
> options / modes) available for Outlook 2007:
>
> http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ou...185891033.aspx
>
> Cheers,
> Doug
>
> "Bob I" wrote:
>
>
>>That means if you click the Shortcut again, it will use a currently
>>opened instance of Outlook (recycle) instead of opening another instance.
>>
>>kerswelld wrote:
>>
>>>Milly,
>>>
>>>Thank you so much for your help!
>>>
>>>I started Outlook in safe mode and was able to turn on the Reading Pane.
>>>Then I closed Outlook and restarted it and the Reading Pane came back
>>>straight away, and I didn't need to disable any add-ins!
>>>
>>>Incidentally, my shortcut to start Outlook seems to be "outlook.exe
>>>/recycle". Could you explain what the word "recycle" does here, and isthere
>>>any need for it?
>>>
>>>Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.
>>>
>>>Doug
>>>
>>>"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>If you start Outlook in Safe Mode (start->run->outlook.exe /safe) canyou enable the reading pane? If yes, then try disabling all add-ins andenable them one by one (restarting Outlook each time) until you find theculprit.
>>>>
>>>>It may also be a damaged view - you can try starting Outlook one timewith the /cleanviews switch.
>>>>
>>>>--�
>>>>Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
>>>>
>>>>Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
>>>>unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
>>>>reading.
>>>>
>>>>After furious head scratching, kerswelld asked:
>>>>
>>>>| Hello,
>>>>|
>>>>| I use Outlook 2007 on a Dell D830 laptop. I have Microsoft Office
>>>>| 2007 Small Business Edition.
>>>>|
>>>>| I have two issues:
>>>>| 1. The Reading Pane option is greyed out. It remains greyed out if I
>>>>| restart my computer, and Office Diagnostics did not detect any
>>>>| problems.
>>>>| 2. Outlook randomly crashes, asks me to send an error report to
>>>>| Microsoft and gives me the option to restart. This happens about 3
>>>>| times a day with no known reason.
>>>>|
>>>>| I do have Adobe Acrobat 8 on my laptop but I have not conciously
>>>>| loaded any Adobe plug-ins into Outlook.
>>>>| In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a large-file-attachment
>>>>| plug-in (from www.yousendit.com) installed into Outlook but the
>>>>| program has worked fine before and after this was installed.
>>>>|
>>>>| Thank you,
>>>>| Doug
>>>>
>>
>>

Starting Outlook in safe mode (outlook.exe /safe) and then restarting it in full mode fixed the issue. Thank you for posting the fix!

This seems to be a random problem that occurs every few weeks on my system. Don't know the root cause, but the fix is quick, so thanks again.