Activate message preview in Gmail

Google’s email service offers a way of quickly viewing messages without having to open them. This is practical after being away on holidays for a few weeks and you haven’t had time to check your inbox. To benefit from this you need to firstly activate it, as the service is currently only experimental.

From the Gmail interface, click on the cog wheel to the top right and select "Email Settings" from the menu that appears.

From here, select the "Labs" sub-section and move through the functions until you find the one titled "Quick message view". Select "Activate" by clicking on the radio button next to is, before scrolling to the bottom of the page to confirm the changes.

You now simply need to click on the message with the right mouse button to view it, then deciding whether you want to open the message, mark it as read or delete it.