Outlook and its' Preview Pane

[SnapperOne]

View/Layout...."show preview pane"

Tool/Options/Read...."automatically download messages when viewing in the Preview Pane"

What's the difference between these two control functions; 1) in general; and, 2)specifically regarding virus security?

[Fingers]

"Show preview pane" opens Outlook Express with a seperate pane that allows you to view the message body in the same Outlook window without opening another window to view the message body.

"Automatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane" does exactly what it says, it automatically starts to download the message body as soon as you highlight the subject.

As far as I know, there's no harm in downloading the message bodies automatically, as long as the attachments don't open automatically.