Reading Emails - Opera's Email Functions

Most of the time when I write about Opera (www.opera.com), I mention it as a web broswser. Actually, Opera has a lot of other capabilities, including functioning as an email program, a Usenet newsreader and more.

Reader Rakesh (Ricky) Tewary wrote me to ask for help with a problem he's been trying to solve with the email functions of Opera:

Hello ,

I have been a subscriber to your newsletter for more than a few years now because your labour of love is a wonderful source of help and information to newbies like me. I didnot know which address to use to ask you for help and I hope the address I am using is the correct one!

1)My Opera browser's preview pane has disappeared and I desperately want it back. I looked in the Help section and also asked on 3 different lists/groups but to no avail. Fervently hoping you can help me get back my preview pane.

2)Also, how do I import back my current Opera's profile (which I have on a DVD) to a new installation of Opera?

Many thanks in advance.

Warm regards,
Ricky.
First, I needed clarification to idenfify exactly what he was trying to see and what he as seeing. Ricky responded:

On the extreme left of the Opera page is a column showing (from top to bottom) the Bookmarks, Mail, Contacts, Widgets, Notes, Transfers, History and Links.

You can turn that on and off by
View > Toolbars > Panels


Next column shows the All Messages, Active Contacts, Active threads, Labels, Attachments, Mailing Lists and Newsfeeds.

That list changes depending on which functions you've configured.


To the right of that is a single panel/pane which shows 'all' my incoming unread mail. Previously, there were two panels - the top one would show all the mail but unopened/unread (not showing the contents) and the bottom one showing the contents of the mail I had selected (clicked on).

This bottom panel (which I am referring to as 'Preview Pane' due to my lack of computer knowledge!) is the one which I am trying to get back but donot know how. Hope I have been able to make things clearer this time. Sorry for my low level of computerese.
It looks like this:
and you want it to look like this:

The difference between the two is that the preview window actually exists, but it's top margin has been dragged down to its minimum position, so the preview window appears hidden.

Just hover over the light-gray line shown by the red arrow below. That's the top line of the preview pane. Your mouse pointer will turn into a double-headed arrow (vertical). Hold down the left mouse button and stretch the top fo the preview pane back to the height you want.

Tech Tip
This is the solution for a typical problem that can happen with email programs and newsreader programs — and just about any other kind of program that gives you multiple different views of the data within one Windows window.

Ricky wrote back to say that

1)My problem is that in my Opera here, the "light-gray line shown by the red arrow below" is a *single line* (as shown in my attachment Clip1.bmp3.bmp) whereas the light-gray line shown in your attachment is a double line. When my mouse pointer turns into a double-headed arrow, as soon as I drag it upwards it immediately reverts back to being the normal mouse pointer (arrow-head). That is why this method is not working for me.

2)If in case you advise me to uninstall this Opera and install a fresh version, I do not understand how to re-import my Mail and Contacts into the newly installed Opera. In response to my first mail wherein I had said that I have the Opera Profile saved on a DVD, you had advised me to 'File Import'. When I go there and click on Import mail, it leads me to the New Account Wizard which offers the following choices - Import from Opera 5/6, Import from Netscape 6/7, Import from OE, Import generic mbox file and Import from Thunderbird. Where do I click to get back my mail into the new Opera if my present Opera has been uninstalled?

There's another solution that you should consider any time you have a problem with something displaying when it should not, or not displaying when it should. You should check out the View options in the program.


In the case of Opera, there are two View menus - one on the menu bar (which is where we typically expect it to be) and one immediately above the list of emails. Strangely, these two View menus are different.

On the one right above the list of emails, click View > Display > "List and message below"

You've got it set on "List only" right now.

On the second question, assuming he backed up Opera's profile directory C:\Documents and Settings\[yourUserID]\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile then he would just need to copy them over the folder he just installed.