Hope I'm understanding you. You have selected a folder to see list of emails in Thread Pane/Message List. You delete the one at the bottom and then the next email which is now at the bottom is auto selected and it's contents automatically appear in the Message Pane. That is because the list got shuffled and as the last position had focus, it still has focus and therefore it is open and displaying whatever is int he last position in list. How to stop it opening so you just see the list : One quick method is to disable the Message Pane whilst you are running though the list and deleting emails, then enable it again when you want to select and read an email using the Message Pane. The '''F8''' key is the quick enable/disable of Message Pane.