Outlook 2007 reading pane gone blank

I had the same problem (Reading Pane menu was grey)and I have changed the outcmd.dat into outcmd.datold in :\Documents and Settings\MYNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
It's now ok.
I couldn't find the other file
Thanks for the post

I, too, am having the Reading Pane problems. I checked with the Dell tech
support and they suggested I use a script called SCANPST and scan this file:
C:\Users\MYNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ou tlook.pst. It works most of
the time, but not always. I have to remember to turn off the outlook process
in task manager. Sure is frustrating! I also run the Office Diagnostics and
am told they have a possible solution, but then the MS page is "gone." I will
try the trick of re-naming those two files, which by the way, are only found
on my VISTA machine using advanced search options.

"Scotch" wrote:

Hello again folks... unfortunately I'm back.

The gremlins have returned, and now plague me again on most, but not all, of
the times I open Outlook - so as I feared the extensive troubleshooting steps
I described above on 1st April did not, after all, get rid of them. It's
getting me down. The problem is obviously nothing to do with the Office 2003
components. I promise I wasn't doing a deliberate April Fool on all of you
who may have read the thread and then tried a fix based on what I wrote!

I've read some of the other helpful suggestions made by others here, but:

- In Manage Com add-ins, I don't seem to have one called simply 'MS Outlook
Add-In' (Gustavo's suggestion)
- I don't have any third-party security software (virus and firewall are
provided by MS Live OneCare), and I would say my laptop as a whole is fairly
'clean' of too much other software (other than Lenovo software tools
specificlally for this machine)
- I don't have Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional Plug-in
- My initials are already enabled in my other Office 2007 programmes (Word,
Excel etc).

Given the very careful troubleshooting steps I've gone through, and the
large number of other people reporting similar problems, the strong inference
has surely got to be that we have a programming bug here and that we need
some comment and help from MS.

One thing we know is that for many users the trouble seemed to start in
March and has been associated with one or other of the updates around that
time.

Another thing clear from my own experience is that on my laptop the problem
is very probably associated with Business Contact Manager in some way. I'd
be interested whether others agree - has everyone with the problem also got
BCM? My reasoning is that I cleaned up my computer and got everything
working very well, then the Outlook problems only began again after I
re-installed BCM.

As reported in my previous 1st April post, everything seemed to work fine
for a few days. One thing I did notice is that, after starting Outlook on
about 3rd April, a box popped up saying 'Starting SQL Server Database...', or
some such, with a blue bar showing that this was loading. I believe this is
something to do with BCM? Though I'm not quite sure if I need it on a
single-user laptop? Anyhow, it was after that point that the problems began
again. Can someone tell me if it may be something to do with that component?

If I open Vista's Performance & Reliability Monitor tool, and go into the
System Stability Chart, it tells me that I had a gradually improving
stability index for a few days, and then from 3rd April it fell again each
day, because of an 'Application Failure', details of which are that
Outlook.exe 'stopped working'.

Please could some wizard give us the magic potion, so we can all go quietly...

Cheers

"Scotch" wrote:

The reading pane has recently stopped working and is just grey.

If I restart the computer, it may work briefly, then after a while stop and
go blank again.

Any suggestions please?

Am running Vista for Business. I recently successfully restored the
computer to an earlier backup following a crash, and also recently installed
Business Contact Manager for Outlook - could the reading pane problem be
anything to do with either of these events?

Apologies if I've missed an easy fix elsewhere in the forum, but I couldn't
see anything on a quick look.

If an expert has come across this problem before and knows the fast
solution, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Hello, I'm back again.

This thread seems to have had lots of readers and commenters since I started
it, so I hope my experiences have been helpful to others.

Since my last post in April I have kept MS Update for Outlook KB946983
uninstalled, as this was definitely the fix which worked for me. A quick
search of the Internet will show that I definitely wasn't the only person for
whom that update caused bugs.

Just to report that MS recently issued another Outlook update, KB952142,
which among other things is, according to the accompanying technical
information, supposed to revise/replace KB946983. However for me it causes
exactly the same problems as the earlier one, so I'm also keeping this new
one uninstalled - and once again the bugs have gone away. Another quick web
search also shows others experiencing problems of various kinds with this
update, as well as the earlier one.

Has anyone else out there found the same problems and experiences? The more
people who post here to say yes, perhaps the more likely it will be that we
might receive some official comment, and/or a fix.

Scotch

I have also been experiencing the blank pane recently. I thought it might be my new iPhone and syncing it with iTunes. But based on this thread, it must just be Outlook and Microsoft. Do I understand that none of the fixes that Microsoft issued worked? Of course, if I reboot, it works fine for a while. Please keep us posted.
--
Robert F Dennis

On Aug 5, 7:02*am, Robert Dennis wrote:
I have also been experiencing the blankpanerecently. *I thought it might be my new iPhone and syncing it with iTunes. *But based on this thread, it must just be Outlook and Microsoft. *Do I understand that none of the fixes that Microsoft issued worked? *Of course, if I reboot, it works fine for a while. *Please keep us posted.
--
Robert F Dennis

Disabling the "business contact manager" seems to work 100% of the
time, as does uninstalling the update referenced earlier in the thread
-- of course it's not a fix as it is disabling something that should
work but doesn't.

I am having the problem and DO NOT have Business Contact Mgr. activated.
--
Robert F Dennis

I just created a distribution list and the blank preview pane bug started.
Everything worked fine before the creation of the distribution list.