Mac Mail View Options in 2026: List Preview and Layout

To change how many lines of each email show in the Apple Mail inbox on a Mac, open Mail > Settings, go to the Viewing tab and pick a number from the List Preview menu. The layout itself lives in the View menu: Use Column Layout turns the list into a table, and Show Side Preview or Show Bottom Preview moves the reading pane (Apple's Mail User Guide).

The inbox you stare at all day was set up by someone else. Apple's defaults are reasonable, but they're tuned for nobody in particular: two lines of preview when you may want none, a reading pane on the right when your screen is wide enough for a table, and AI summaries in place of the sender's own words. Below is every setting that changes how the Mail list and reading pane look on macOS, what each one is good for, and a couple of setups to copy. Menu names follow macOS 27; on older versions Settings is called Preferences.

Mac Mail view options at a glance

Mail splits its view options between two places: the View menu in the menu bar for the layout, and Mail > Settings > Viewing for what each row shows. The table below maps each change to where it lives, based on Apple's Viewing settings page and column layout guide.

How to change the list preview in Mac Mail

List Preview sets how many lines of each email Mail shows under the sender and subject in the message list. Apple describes it as choosing "the number of lines of the message to show in the message list" on its Viewing settings page.

1. With Mail in front, pick Settings from the Mail menu.
2. Click the Viewing tab.
3. Click the List Preview menu and pick a number of lines, or None.
4. Close the settings window. The message list updates straight away.

According to iDownloadBlog, the menu runs from None to 5 Lines, and the default is 2 lines. More lines means you can often answer the question "do I need to open this?" without clicking, but every extra line pushes messages off the screen. Fewer lines shows more of the inbox at once, which suits a fast pass to archive and delete.

After a few days away, I set List Preview to None so the inbox turns into a tight list of senders and subjects. That's all I need to clear the obvious newsletters and notifications. Once the pile is down to real conversations, I put it back to two lines and read properly.

Which preview length to choose

One trade worth knowing: preview length and font size compete for the same space. If you've made the list text bigger in Fonts & Colors, a shorter preview keeps more emails visible. For the font side, see how to make Mac Mail's text bigger.

When List Preview seems to do nothing

List Preview has no effect in column layout, because each email there is a single row in a table. iDownloadBlog notes that Mail ignores the preview length in that classic, table-style view. If you changed the setting and nothing moved, check the View menu: if Use Column Layout has a checkmark, choose it again to switch back to the standard list.

The other common cause is summaries. When Summarize Message Previews is on, Mail shows an Apple Intelligence summary under unread emails instead of their opening lines, so the text you see isn't the email's own words (more on that below).

How to turn off email summaries in the Mac Mail list

To see the first lines of each email instead of an AI summary, untick Summarize Message Previews in the Viewing pane of Mail's settings. Apple's guide to reading emails says a short summary appears under each unread email by default when Apple Intelligence is on, and that turning it off shows the first lines of the most recent message instead.

Summaries are an Apple Intelligence feature, and Apple says Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 is not available in all languages or regions (Apple). If your Mac doesn't use Apple Intelligence, your list already shows each email's opening lines and there's nothing to switch off.

I leave summaries on for most mail. On a client thread, though, I still open the email before replying, because a summary decides what matters and the client may have put the real request in the last sentence.

How to switch Mac Mail to column layout

Column layout turns the Mail message list into a table with a header row, one column per detail such as sender or subject. Choose View > Use Column Layout to switch; a checkmark shows it's active, per Apple's column layout guide.

1. In Mail, choose View > Use Column Layout.
2. Choose View > Show Side Preview or View > Show Bottom Preview to put the reading pane next to or under the table.
3. Control-click any column header and choose a column to show or hide it.
4. Drag a column header left or right to change the order.

Apple notes that the Conversation, Status and Subject columns always show and can't be hidden, and that Top Hits don't appear in search results while column layout is on (Apple). To go back to the standard list, choose View > Use Column Layout again to remove the checkmark.

Column layout is also where sorting by clicking a header lives. The guide to sorting emails in Mac Mail covers sorting by sender, size and date, in either layout.

Side preview or bottom preview

The side preview puts the email you're reading to the right of the table; the bottom preview puts it underneath. Side works on a wide display, where a table with five or six columns still leaves room for the email. Bottom works when you want the full width for extra columns, and don't mind a shorter reading pane.

On the external display at my desk I use column layout with the preview at the bottom, so the columns get the whole width of the screen. On the laptop alone I switch back to the standard layout, which fits a narrow screen much better.

Getting the old classic layout back

Mail no longer has a "classic layout" checkbox in its settings. The closest match is View > Use Column Layout with the preview moved below the list, which a Community Specialist suggested on Apple's support forum in 2019, after the checkbox disappeared. Several people replying there pointed out it isn't identical to the old view, so treat it as the nearest option rather than a perfect copy.

What else changes the look of the message list

A few smaller View menu options and Viewing settings change what each row in the Mac Mail list shows. None of them moves or deletes mail; they only change the display.

Show contact photos

Choose View > Show Contact Photo to show the sender's picture next to each email. Apple's contact photo page says the pictures come from the Contacts app, appear only for people saved there, and are visible only to you; they aren't sent with your messages.

I keep contact photos on. In a long list, a face I recognize catches my eye faster than a name, which helps when I'm scanning for one person's reply.

Show or hide Mail categories

Categories split the Mac Mail inbox into four tabs above the list: Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions. For one combined inbox again, open the View menu and deselect Show Mail Categories, as Apple's categories guide explains. To see everything for a moment without switching categories off, click the tab you're already in. Apple notes that categories are limited to some regions.

Group conversations or show every email

View > Organize by Conversation bundles replies in the same thread into one row, and a checkmark shows it's on (Apple). Turn it off and every email gets its own row. When conversations are off, Highlight messages with color when not grouped in Viewing settings colors the emails that belong to one thread so you can still pick them out (Apple).

Bold for unread mail

Display unread messages with bold font in Mail > Settings > Viewing makes unread emails bold. Apple's Viewing page describes it as a column layout option, so it matters most if you use the table view, where there's less else to tell read and unread apart.

List font and size

The size of sender names, subjects and preview lines comes from Message list font in Mail > Settings > Fonts & Colors, which Apple says sets "the font and font size for viewing the list of messages" (Apple). Click Select next to it and choose a size.

How to give the message list more room

The quickest way to widen the Mac Mail list is to hide the sidebar with Control-Command-S, a shortcut on Apple's Mail keyboard shortcuts page. Press it again to bring the sidebar back. You can also drag the divider between the list and the reading pane to give either one more space.

If the sidebar has turned into a long column of mailboxes you never click, tidying it may help more than hiding it; the guide to customizing the Mac Mail sidebar and favorites shows how. The buttons above the list are a separate setting, covered in the guide to customizing the Apple Mail toolbar.

Two Mac Mail setups worth copying

These are starting points, not Apple recommendations. Pick the one closest to how you work and adjust from there.

For a laptop and a busy inbox:

• Standard layout (Use Column Layout off), so the list and the email sit side by side.
• List Preview at 1 line, with the Message list font one size up.
• Show Contact Photo on, to spot people quickly.
• Sidebar hidden with Control-Command-S when you're working through the list.

For a large external display:

• Use Column Layout on, with Show Bottom Preview.
• The columns you actually read turned on from the header's Control-click menu, and the rest turned off.
• Display unread messages with bold font on.
• Organize by Conversation off, with Highlight messages with color when not grouped on, if you prefer one row per email.

Troubleshooting Mac Mail view settings

• List Preview changed but nothing happened: turn off View > Use Column Layout; column layout doesn't show preview lines.
• The preview shows a summary, not the email: deselect Summarize Message Previews in Mail > Settings > Viewing.
• No Show Side Preview option: the standard layout always shows the email beside the list; Apple documents the side and bottom choice as part of column layout, so turn on View > Use Column Layout first.
• Contact photos are blank for some people: Apple only shows pictures saved in Contacts, so add a photo to that person's contact card.
• Half the inbox seems missing: you may be looking at one category tab; click it to see all mail, or turn off Show Mail Categories.
• Can't find Settings: on an older macOS release the same panes sit under Mail > Preferences.