This option is only available in the "Classic" version of Outlook, not the "New" version.

If you receive many emails, you might not want to waste time clicking and opening every single one. Instead, you might like to simply read a quick snippet of the text to get the gist of each email more conveniently.

Message previews in Outlook help with that, and if you're on the "Classic" variant of Outlook for desktop or on the web, you can configure message previews to be bigger or smaller, as required. This guide shows how it's done.

First, make sure you're using the "Classic" version of Outlook, as this is the only one that supports the feature to control the length of message previews, for now. On the "New" version, the feature has been removed. Once you're in the right version, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open Outlook and head to the "View" tab.

Step 2. Look for the button labeled "Message Preview" and click on it. You'll see a drop-down menu appear with four options: "Off," "1 Line," "2 Lines," and "3 Lines." Select whichever you want to set the length of your message previews in Outlook.

If you're on the "New" version instead of "Classic," you won't be able to set message previews in Outlook to different numbers of lines. However, you will still have a certain level of control over the previews - you can turn them on or off.

Step 1. Open Outlook and click on the "View" tab.

Step 2. Click on "View Settings" and scroll down the list until you see the part labeled "Message preview text." You can then toggle the message previews in Outlook on or off by clicking in the appropriate circles.

Extending your message previews in Outlook to include two or three lines of text has several advantages. First, and most obvious, it lets you simply scan through your inbox and get an idea of what each message is about without having to open it. This is ideal if you've got a jam-packed inbox and many incoming emails on a regular basis.

It's also handy if anyone contacting you has alerts that let them know when you've opened and read their message. If you don't want to trigger those alerts, you can set the message previews in Outlook to three lines and read the start of the message without the sender knowing.

However, there are a couple of downsides, too. The most blatant one is that having longer message previews in Outlook can make your inbox look a little cluttered. The longer message previews take up more room, which pushes older messages further down the page so you'll have to scroll down more to see all your latest messages. This is only a minor inconvenience but still worth noting.