[referee07]

In Outlook 2010, all of a sudden when I open an e-mail message, the File tab opens instead of he Message tab. This just started, and I would like to go back to the Message tab opening when I open an e-mail in Outlook. Thanks in advance to any and all replies.

Referee07

[referee07]

Found the answer at http://blog.chron.com/helpline/2012/...pen-an-email/:

Q. I must have done something to make the default tab “File” instead of “Message” when I click on an email in Microsoft Outlook 2010. Can you help me reset the default tab to “Message?”

A. With the introduction of Office 2007 and carrying on in to Office 2010, Microsoft introduced what is known as the “Ribbon” to Microsoft Office.

The Ribbon is designed to give you quicker access to the various features of the Office application you are using by grouping them together in an easy to understand and easy to access format.

For all of its usefulness, some users of the Microsoft Office suite may find The Ribbon intrusive and bothersome so Microsoft gave us the ability to minimize The Ribbon and display only the menu tabs. When you do this it hides all of text that is contained in The Ribbon and forces you to access all of the options from the various tab menu items.

The drawback to minimizing the Ribbon is that each time you open an email message in Outlook it will default to the File tab and you won’t have the options you expect like Reply or Forward until you click on the Message tab.

So if you want to avoid that one extra click you will need to open a message and then maximize the Ribbon. Once you do this it will cause Outlook to default back to the Message tab when you open up an email message.